1 - 10 of 26
-
PublicationHow to Manage Crowdsourcing Platforms EffectivelyCrowdsourced tasks are very diverse – and so are platform types. They fall into four categories, each demanding different governance mechanisms. The main goal of microtasking crowdsourcing platforms is the scalable and time-efficient batch processing of highly repetitive tasks. Crowdsourcing platforms for information pooling aggregate contributions such as votes, opinions, assessments and forecasts through approaches such as averaging, summation, or visualization. Broadcast search platforms collect contributions to solve tasks in order to gain alternative insights and solutions from people outside the organization, and are particularly suited for solving challenging technical, analytical, scientific, or creative problems. Open collaboration platforms invite contributors to team up to jointly solve complex problems in cases where solutions require the integration of distributed knowledge and the skills of many contributors. Companies establishing crowdsourcing platforms of any type should continuously monitor and adjust their governance mechanisms. Quality and quantity of contributions, project runtime, or the effort for conducting the crowdsourcing project may be good starting points.Type:Journal:Volume:Issue:
-
PublicationHow to Manage Crowdsourcing Platforms Effectively?(Sage Publishing, 2018-02-01)
Scopus© Citations 94 -
PublicationIT-enabled Product Innovation: Customer Motivation for Participating in Virtual Idea Communities(Inderscience Enterprises, 2015)Virtual idea communities (VICs) such as Dell's 'Ideastorm' are very popular in practice. In VICs, customers of firms can submit ideas to support product innovation. This customer-based ideation is not new. Customers have been brought together in lead-user-workshops or focus-groups since the 1980s to support product innovation. However, VICs represents a new form of IT-mediated ideation with customers. While extant research has provided insights into customers' motives for participating in traditional ideation, we know little about the motivations that drive customer participation in this new form of IT-enabled ideation. Based on a survey of customer motivations for participation, we found evidence for motives that arise directly due to the VIC's IT-ability to support visualisation of customer ideas, to give feedback on ideas, and to support customers' social interactions. As a result, VICs are perceived as a way to demonstrate personal capabilities, for getting recognition, and for facilitating social interaction.Type:Journal:Volume:Issue:
Scopus© Citations 26 -
PublicationManaging crowdsourced software testing: a case study based insight on the challenges of a crowdsourcing intermediary(Springer Verlag, 2014-04-01)Crowdsourcing has gained much attention in practice over the last years. Numerous companies have drawn on this concept for performing different tasks and value creation activities. Nevertheless, despite its popularity, there is still comparatively little well-founded knowledge on crowdsourcing, particularly with regard to crowdsourcing intermediaries. Crowdsourcing intermediaries play a key role in crowdsourcing initiatives as they assure the connection between the crowdsourcing companies and the crowd. However, the issue of how crowdsourcing intermediaries manage crowdsourcing initiatives and the associated challenges has not been addresses by research yet. We address these issues by conducting a case study with a German start-up crowdsourcing intermediary called testCloud that offers software testing services for companies intending to partly or fully outsource their testing activities to a certain crowd. The case study shows that testCloud faces three main challenges, these are: managing the process, managing the crowd and managing the technology. For each dimension, we outline mechanisms that testCloud applies for facing the challenges associated with crowdsourcing projects.Type:Journal:Volume:Issue:
Scopus© Citations 96 -
PublicationLeveraging Crowdsourcing: Activation-Supporting Components for IT-Based Ideas Competition(Sharpe, 2009-06-01)Ideas competitions appear to be a promising tool for crowdsourcing and open innovation processes, especially for business-to-business software companies. Active participation of potential lead users is the key to success. Yet a look at existing ideas competitions in the software field leads to the conclusion that many information technology (IT)-based ideas competitions fail to meet requirements upon which active participation is established. The paper describes how activation-enabling functionalities can be systematically designed and implemented in an IT-based ideas competition for enterprise resource planning software. We proceeded to evaluate the outcomes of these design measures and found that participation can be supported using a two-step model. The components of the model support incentives and motives of users. Incentives and motives of the users then support the process of activation and consequently participation throughout the ideas competition. This contributes to the successful implementation and maintenance of the ideas competition, thereby providing support for the development of promising innovative ideas. The paper concludes with a discussion of further activation-supporting components yet to be implemented and points to rich possibilities for future research in these areas.Type:Journal:Volume:Issue:
Scopus© Citations 624 -
PublicationPyramiding 2.0: Exaptation of the Pyramiding Approach to Recruit New Idea Contributors for a Virtual Ideas Competition(Association for Information Sytems, 2014-12-15)When searching for user innovations, the identification of so called ‘technology lead users' is one of the most important tasks. However, scientific literature indicates that the present measures to search and to recruit new members imply high spreading losses. As a con-sequence we develop the "Pyramiding 2.0" approach. Building on existing literature we develop a theory-motivated approach for systematically recruiting participants for a crowdsourcing environment with the help of a virtual social network. This paper describes our reasons for using the pyramiding approach and elaborates on the supposed benefits that an adaption of the pyramiding search within an online setting implies. Our findings confirm the assumption that the pyramiding 2.0 approach can be successfully applied to recruit new idea contributors for a virtual ideas competition. Moreover, our results show that pyramiding can be applied within a virtual social network, thereby expanding existing literature within the field of pyramiding.
-
PublicationIs all that Glitters Gold? Exploring The Effects of Perceived Risk on Backing Behavior in Reward-based Crowdfunding(Association for Information Sytems, 2014-12-15)Crowdfunding is gaining much attention in theory and practice. Various platforms have emerged, offering different stakeholders the possibility to raise money from an undefined group of online users. Despite the growing interest, there appears to be little understanding of what drives backers to revoke pledged funds. In this research-in- progress paper, we address this issue by drawing on perceived risk theory. Perceived risk is widely recognized as the main source of negative influence on consumers' purchasing behavior in e-commerce. Therefore, we aim at developing a theory ingrained research model that helps to analyze and understand the impact of perceived risks on backers' funding on revocation behavior in reward-based crowdfunding. Doing so, our research contributes to the body of risk theory by applying it into a new context. It helps crowdfunding intermediaries and individuals to understand potentially occurring risks, and provides them with actionable advice on how to handle them.
-
-
PublicationPatients as Innovators : The Development of Innovative Ideas with the Ideenschmiede(Universität Leipzig, 2013-02-27)Online Communities for Patients (POC) are very interactive sites where patients communicate with one another about diseases, therapies and how to deal with diseases and about personal experiences they have had. They also develop and share innovative ideas that make their everyday life easier. However, this happens mostly in an unsystematic and uncontrolled manner, as IT-supported interaction and communication tools in POC do not typically meet the specific requirements of ideation. For this ideation process, we developed a module called Ideenschmiede, which extends POC to support the collaborative and systematic idea development. The evaluation of the published ideas shows that the concept of the Ideenschmiede leads to ideas with an above-average quality level, indicating that collaborative ideation may also work in the healthcare context.
-
