Antecedents of Engagement in Community-Based Crowdsourcing

Abstract

Organizations are increasingly pursuing crowdsourcing initiatives to gain an understanding of community issues. A critical success factor for community crowdsourcing is to attract online volunteer crowdsourcing users and engage their interest besides extrinsic motivators like monetary rewards. Our study examines determinants of participant engagement in online crowdsourcing communities, specifically motivation to contribute, personal interest in topic, and goal clarity. The results provide strong support for (a) the positive relationship between an individual’s motivation to contribute towards a task and their engagement towards that task; (b) the positive relationship of a person’s interest in the topic and their motivation to contribute; and (c) the partial mediating role of motivation to contribute. No significant effect was found for the hypothesis that clearer goals resulted in higher engagement since they led to a higher motivation to contribute when there was an inherent personal interest towards the topic.