Definition of Crowdfunding in the Context of the Case Study

Intellectual capital is critical to a specific business. In the likewise way, it is also very important for pharmaceutical companies. Intellectual capital may include but is not limited to like patents, best practices and trademarks. A curing formulation is considered as successful when it effectively passes through the research and development (R&D) process and also clears the trial-and-error process. Afterwards, an approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is required before the cure is actually made available to the common public (Jorde et al., 2014). The study is in a context of the decision made by GlaxoSmithKline to make its intellectual capital on 13, 500 compounds available to the public. The decision is bit shocking to the world considering the fact that pharmaceutical companies guard their formulation of chemical compound from others. Other firms using the leaked chemical compounds can even make billions of dollars of revenues (Griffith, Miller & O’Connell, 2014). The main purpose of this study is to analyse the approach of GlaxoSmithKline and also understanding how social media platforms & information systems could contribute to such initiatives.

Crowdfunding from scholarly views can be defined as a process through which founders of for-profit, cultural ventures, and artistic put their efforts in attracting minimum contribution from a large number of individual. Attraction is constructed with the help of internet and other advanced technologies like the social media platforms (Mollick, 2014). According to Hui, Greenberg & Gerber (2014), crowdfunding provides a good opportunity for entrepreneurs in regards to launching of ventures without much relying on the traditional mechanism of funding. In the opinion of Mollick & Robb (2016), crowdfunding democratise the commercialisation of innovation. It means that innovation can be attained by a collective effort of the mass population.

The definition of crowdfunding in the context of the given case study is very much the similar as defined by (Mollick & Robb, 2016). Crowdfunding in regards to the given case study is a mean to attract a mass population and take a part in the commercialisation of innovation. The bases of innovation is being laid by the case study company GlaxoSmithKline as it has made 13, 500 compounds available to the public. The reason for switching to the process as communicated by the case company was its incapability to conduct a successful research in finding the cure for malaria. The term incapability may not be appropriately true because GlaxoSmithKline has probably moved to the decision due to the fact that cure to malaria will not yield billions of dollars. Hence, it is of no mean for them to invest so much in investigating the chemical compound appropriate to the cure of malaria (Liu & Jiang, 2016).         

Analysis of Glaxo’s Approach to Finding a Cure for Malaria

The approach selected by Glaxo is bit confusing from several perspectives. From the ethical perspective, such decision should never be made. This can be understood from the theory of intellectual property. Theory of intellectual property is further divided into several schools of beliefs like Natural Right theory: Labour Theory (Locke’s Theory), Utilitarian Theory and Personality Theory (Drahos, 2016). Locke’s theory states that a person has all the right to keep its property secured as these are just the creation of their mind. This need also be done because they own creation of effort that they put on something. According to the Personality Theory, a person must own their creation or the intellectual property, so that, they grow bigger in confidence. The Utilitarian beliefs in this regard can be summed up as owning the intellectual property for the betterment of national’s economy and society (Moore, 2017).

From business perspective also the move looks confusing. Companies try to protect their intellectual property or their self-creation just to enhance their competency. In the ever-increasing market competition for distinguished reasons, it is never advisable to share or allow an illegal publishing of the intellectual property at the public domain (Paik & Zhu, 2016). Aldi for an example is giving tough fight to Woolworths and Coles in the Australia market. The business model that the company uses has no answers from other firms in terms of cheapest and high quality valuable products (Heraldsun.com.au, 2018). Competency of one firm is justified only when it has some unique set of strategies as in the case of Aldi.  

Intellectual capital (IC) indeed offers a trusted resource to sustainable competitive advantage which facilitates the technological improvement and the economic growth. Intellectual capital gives birth to entrepreneurship and hence, an innovative ventures (Dumay, 2014). Glaxo being such a reputed organisation, the decision to publicize its intellectual capital on a large number of compounds does not appear a justified move. However, they are pretty sure of what they have decided. For them, cure to malaria will not be profitable. They will be investing in a project which will end up fetching no big profits to the company. They have this perception that cure to malaria is required to those countries which do not spend much on being protected from the ailment. Hence, they might not experience the billions of dollars of revenue.  

It is indeed very difficult to say anything about the intention that the company has with the decision. They might be establishing their stand as an ethical firm because it is a step to improve the society that suffers from Malaria. However, this can also be just a marketing stunt which they are representing as their image of being careful towards the poor countries having negligence to malaria. The theoretical perspectives in regards to ethical and business as highlighted earlier in this section just show that the move is not understandable (Dumay, 2016).  

Potential Role of Social Media Tools in Supporting the Initiative

The initiative taken by Glaxo to publicise its intellectual capital on 13, 500 compounds is a big move. The purpose which were being attached to it does very well speak of the works and strategies required to make it actually happen. Such process needs a crowdfunding, so that, sufficient fund could be generated to conduct effective research works. However, crowdfunding is generated with the help of useful resources like internet, social media platforms and others. Social media platforms may be an effective move in this regard as the number of internet users are increasing with the passage of times (Salahuddin & Alam, 2015). Users in specific the Millennials are more active with social activities on the various social media platforms. Few of such social media platforms include Facebook, Twitter, WeChat and Instagram.

GlaxoSmithKline has decided to utilise crowdfunding to support the initiative. Social media sites are a good way to effectively launch and support the crowdfunding. There are a few social media sites as already mentioned like Facebook, WeChat, Twitter and Instagram. All the suggested list of social media sites may not be effectively useful in this regard. It is important that Glaxo has a good track of its social media followers (Dessart, Veloutsou & Morgan-Thomas, 2015). It is advisable to go with sites where the case study company has the most followers. It is also important to know the platform which had remained a common point of intersection for publishing their prospects. It is also necessary to know the kind of people that influence the community of Glaxo. Finally, it is also necessary to pick up the platform that the employer is most comfortable with (Dessart, Veloutsou & Morgan-Thomas, 2015).  

In general, Facebook and Twitter are the best platforms to reach to the wider audience and attain a higher interactivity. Instagram is increasingly becoming popular. LinkedIn is very appropriate for professional audience. However, the case company must check its feasibility and select the platforms accordingly. The next step will be to form a unique Hashtag Campaign and publish all the posts under the same page (Xiang et al., 2017). This is advisable because people will find all the post at just one place and will easily understand the latest happenings in regards to crowdfunding campaign. People already in the page needs to be encouraged to use the Hashtag, so that, a track of what all the people say can be maintained. This is also helpful to draw in new people. 

Potential Role of Information Systems in Facilitating the Research

Leveraging the community is another god way to crowdfunding. The followers help to reach new list of followers, drive contributions and generate social proof. In this context, it is advisable to enhance the reach with another page for the campaign on Facebook. A campaign-specific Facebook page is a good platform to host the true believers. Lots of stories or the happenings can be shared on the page. People belonging to the same community will then be able to post any comment or share something. Hence, the case study company may then be able to track the progress (Saxton & Wang, 2014). Engaging with the audience is another mean of supporting the crowdfunding. The case study company can go with push-pull techniques while creating their Facebook posts. Every post needs to be given ample of thought process to it, so that, it looks engaging to the audience. The page needs to be updated on a regular basis, so that, fans are keep informed. Post such as the campaign reaching a milestone needs to be updated regularly (Saxton & Wang, 2014).

There needs to be a good mixing of contents. For a crowdfunding campaign, the contents need to be both informative and sales oriented. It is also advisable to post an image of the related campaign. If it is related to a disease as in the given case then it is advisable to post the relevant images. The informative contents will help case study Company keep their followers engaged to it (Sarker et al., 2015). Approximately, a few portion of the post must necessarily be based upon sales features to make the followers feel valued to participate in the crowdfunding. The contents or the performance of the campaign must be analysed on a weekly basis to check whether any amendments are required. This is also necessary to understand whether the campaign is influential (Sarker et al., 2015).    

An information system is the organised systems to collect, analyse, monitor and use it to the cause. There are ample of information systems like data warehouses, enterprise systems, enterprise resource planning, search engines, expert systems, global information systems, geographic information system and office automation (Mittelstädt et al., 2015). The different types of information systems may be applied to the different cases to get the desired and expected result. However, crowdfunding in case of the case study company may not need the entire kind of information systems. For crowdfunding, it is better to stick with “Management Information Systems (MIS)”. MIS can assist in various works like arranging the variety of tasks sequentially, maintaining the secrecy of data and producing a transparent data set for customers (Arvidsson, Holmström & Lyytinen, 2014). Posts, comments and updates can be kept secured from misuse from an unauthorised access. The arrangement of data in sequential order will effectively reduce the time-span needed to look for certain contents. The transparency of data presented to the followers will help them grow with trust on crowdfunding and the employer (Arvidsson, Holmström & Lyytinen, 2014).     

Conclusion

Conclusion: 

Therefore, the announcement to publicise the intellectual property is a hard to analyse step by GlaxoSmithKline. It can be confirmed whether the move is just to prove their stand for being ethical or they have just used another form of marketing. They have shown their deep concerns to poor countries that suffer mostly from malaria. The initiative can be effectively launched through the various social media platforms like Facebook, WeChat, Twitter and Instagram. The performance can further be supported through an effective use of Management Information Systems (MIS). MIS can really help in data transparency, sequential arrangement of data and data secrecy. 

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