Crowdsourcing and small business challenges: how to leverage crowdsourcing benefits in the information and communications technology industry

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make significant contributions to economic growth; however, they face multiple challenges that inhibit their success. It is argued in this paper that crowdsourcing could be leveraged to alleviate many of their challenges particularly in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry. Our findings show that Canadian SMEs are using crowdsourcing less than their American counterparts. However, Canadian SMEs have a more optimistic outlook towards crowdsourcing impacts. Additionally, ten categories of Canadian SME challenges were identified through a review of literature. Finally, a compelling argument for leveraging crowdsourcing to address eight of these challenge categories is made, relying on existing literature and case studies of SME's utilisation of crowdsourcing. SME owners could leverage the findings from this paper to improve their chance of survival. Policy makers could also see benefits in guiding the design of new policies aimed at supporting small businesses.