Crowdsourcing-based problem solving: The role and effects of collaboration among contestants (Crowd-sourcing)

Abstract:

The crowdsourcing of solutions to innovation-related problems has lately received considerable attention in practice and a growing interest in academia. It typically occurs through innovation tournaments, where a hosting organization broadcasts a problem in the form of an open call and rewards the contestant(s) with the best solution(s), i.e., the winner(s). Viewing crowdsourcing as a tournament is a useful abstraction, however, this conceptualization fails to consider that practical approaches increasingly integrate features such as the ability to vote or comment on others’ contributions. Allowing for collaboration fundamentally changes the nature of the tournament. Hence, this project investigates the role and effects of collaboration among contestants. By conducting a set of experimental studies we specifically seek to identify causal relationships related to how, why and under which conditions collaboration among contestants affects problem-solving success in crowdsourcing.