The heavy reliance of manufacturing firms in the south-eastern part of Nigeria on their team of experts in Research and Development (R & D), to come up with new ideas and innovation, and the neglect of the input of customers in this process necessitated this study to examine the nexus between crowdsourcing and firm performance in the plastic manufacturing sector in southeast Nigeria. The work was anchored on the Human Capital Theory. The study adopted a survey research design as the most suited for the work. Two states were selected judgmentally, because of the concentration of plastic manufacturing firms in those States. Eighteen plastic manufacturing firms were selected randomly, with a population strength of 328. The sample size was 176, arrived at using Krejcie and Morgan formula. Questionnaire was the instrument for data collection, and it was subjected to content validity and reliability tests using correlation method, which returned a coefficient of 0.879. The data collected were analyzed using regression analysis through the ordinary least square method, at a 5% level of significance. Findings revealed that a positive relationship exists between the variables (r = .973). A 95% change in new product development was accounted for by changes in open collaboration in the plastic manufacturing sector in Southeast Nigeria (R2 = .947, F = 2802.884, p-value < 0.05). The study, therefore, concluded that involving customers in the process of new product creation is key to its acceptability by the public. As a result, it was recommended that the managers and owners of plastic manufacturing companies need to find a way to get the customers involved in their idea generation and new product creation for a sustained creditable performance.
Keywords: Crowdsourcing, Firm Performance, Plastic Manufacturing Sector, Open Collaboration and New Product Development.
CROWDSOURCING: A STRATEGY FOR FIRM PERFORMANCE IN THE PLASTIC MANUFACTURING SECTOR IN SOUTHEAST NIGERIA