Management of Extreme Situations

21The Crowd and the Expansion of Knowledge

21.1. Introduction

The framework of this chapter is the question of expanding knowledge in a business environment under extreme stress. In this context, companies are subject to a double uncertainty. The first identified case is a classic problem-solving issue, but whose solutions are unknown for the company, but also by the members of its ecosystem. The second case is that companies, in order to stand out from the competition, will seek to bring about the emergence of disruptive ecosystems. These two cases are exploration problems in the sense of March (1991), but to differentiate themselves from their competitors, some companies will try to find new and original resources. In an open innovation context, one such solution is the use of crowds (Pénin et al. (2013).

The crowd is not spontaneously associated with the idea of knowledge expansion. The crowd is rarely likened to an expert. On the contrary, the crowd is in common opinion associated with a mass phenomenon that dehumanizes individuals and leads to irrational behavior. Nietzsche, among others, criticized the gregarious instincts of humanity. These gregarious behaviors are also generally denounced by authors in economics and management. First, we will look at the negative approaches of the crowd. In seeking to understand the mechanisms that lead to this dark vision, we will try to show that these approaches have real limits, and we will present the conditions for a new approach ...