Action-oriented Narratives. How Innovation Emerges from Crowd Discussions

Crowds are increasingly invited to tackle complex innovation problems. However, our understanding of how crowds solve these problems has limited our ability to utilize them effectively. In this article, we examine how a crowd tasked with finding ways to preserve New Zealand’s native flora and fauna achieves solutions to this complex innovation problem through discussion. Our analysis reveals that discussions leading to innovative solutions differ from those leading to non-innovative solutions: innovation-yielding discussions (1) mobilize more Resources than Constraints, (2) converge on a single Goal, and (3) specify few (often one) responsible Subject(s); vis-à-vis, discussions leading to non-innovative solutions often surfaced multiple goals—thereby sustaining multiple problem framings—while subjects remained vague, implicit, or multiplied, and constraints frequently outnumbered resources. Moreover, we show how the specific weavings of these discursive elements support the crowd’s navigation of the complex innovation problem. Three discursive maneuvers – subject-goal anchoring, repurposing distant knowledge, and layering resources – are fundamental navigational tools used by the crowd to form what we call ‘action-oriented narratives:’ simple, dynamic, and evolving linguistic structures that enable collective problem exploration while giving room for localized improvisation. We contribute to the literature on problem solving by showing how specific linguistic activities alter individuals’ capacity to contribute to and solve complex problems. We also contribute to the literature on linguistic structures supporting innovation by showing that the types of discussions that support innovation depend on the openness of the setting.