Rags to Riches - How signaling behaviour causes a power shift in crowdsourcing markets
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2016
Author(s)
Research Team
CCC, Crowdsourcing, IWI6
Abstract
Crowdsourcing has emerged as new form of digital work organization. This novel socio-technical ar-rangement changes the organization of work as well as its general nature. In this paper, we focus on the crowdworkers – a perspective that has been largely neglected by crowdsourcing research. We re-port results from crowdworker-interviews on two different platforms. Our research shows that quality signals of crowdworkers increase the bargaining power towards their principals, i.e. the crowdsourcers. As a result, the crowdworkers can reach a turning point of critical bargaining power at which the distribution of power shifts in their favor. We contribute to the literature by unraveling signaling behavior as mechanism influencing bargaining power and thus success in crowdsourcing. Beyond, we develop a theoretical model that indicates a shift in bargaining power over time and im-proves our understanding of crowdsourcing as novel way of organizing digital work. For practice, our results provide guidelines for crowdworkers how to improve their position in bargaining in relation to the crowdsourcer.
Language
English
Keywords
crowdsourcing
crowdworker
bargaining power
signaling
quality signals
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
SoM - Business Innovation
Book title
Information systems as a global gateway : 24th European Conference on Information Systems
Publisher
Boğaziçi University
Publisher place
Istanbul
Event Title
24th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) 2016
Event Location
Istanbul, Turkey
Event Date
12.-15.06.2016
Official URL
Division(s)
Eprints ID
248500
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
open.access
Name
JML_560.pdf
Size
562.29 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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