Crowdsourcing Contests: Understanding the Effect of Environment and Organization Specific Factors on Sustained Participation

Abstract

Crowdsourcing has increasingly become a recognized problem-solving mechanism for organizations by outsourcing the problem to an undefined crowd of people. The success of crowdsourcing depends on the sustained participation and quality-submissions of the individuals. Yet, little is known about the environment-specific and organization-specific factors that influence individuals’ continued participation in these contests. We address this research gap, by conducting an empirical study using data from an online crowdsourcing contest platform, Kaggle, which delivers data science and machine learning solutions to its clients. The findings show the statistically significant effects of structural capital, familiarity with organization, and experience with the organization on individuals’ sustained participation in crowdsourcing contests. This research contributes to the literature by identifying the environment-specific and organization-specific factors that influence individuals’ sustained participation in crowdsourcing contests. Moreover, this study offers guidance to organizations that host a crowdsourcing platform to design, implement, and operate successful crowdsourcing contest platforms.