Idea Work Beyond Organizational Boundaries: Framing and Reframing Projects on a Crowdfunding Platform

Abstract – The process of generating creative outcomes inherently involves tensions, such as the need to simultaneously pursue novelty and usefulness. Idea work serves as a process theory that focuses on managing tensions to achieve creative outcomes. To navigate these tensions and reach creative outcomes, idea work involves a collective process of receiving diverse feedback and iterating revisions. Studies indicate that exploring activities beyond organizational boundaries is crucial for idea work, as they are less constrained by existing routines and structures. Recently, online platforms have been gaining attention as spaces that facilitate interactions among actors across boundaries. In online platforms, the pivotal factor for achieving creative outcomes lies in framing/reframing, effectively communicating ideas to the targeted consumers in a manner they perceive as creative. This leads to the question: How do actors involved in crowdfunding interact and undertake creative revisions through the (re)framing of projects? To answer this, we analyzed a reward-based crowdfunding platform in Japan. We conducted semi-structured interviews involving a total of 36 participants, including project founders and platform operator employees. Our analysis reveals three approaches to reframing projects by founders and curators, aligning with different project stages: reconnecting, refocusing, and reflecting. These approaches shed light on crowdfunding as a space that mediates project founders, curators, and backers to (re)frame projects through their interaction. They also explore how this interaction helps sustain tensions between novelty and usefulness, as well as between commercial viability and social impact, in the creative process of crowdfunding.