A Process Perspective on Emerging Value in Tournament-based and Collaborative Crowdsourcing

Abstract

Value, in crowdsourcing, is attributed to outcomes such as reducing costs, improving quality through broad participation, generating alternate solutions with increased creativity, and enabling the employment of specialists on an ad-hoc basis. These benefits of crowdsourcing typically reflect the focal firm’s perspective and are perceived at a single point in time, either prior to initiating the project or post-hoc. In this study we take a longitudinal and stakeholder-centered approach to examine the process of value (co-)creation through interactions between firm and crowd. We offer a process perspective on emerging value and distinguish between value for firm and value for crowd. In doing so, we address an observed gap in the literature which lacks an overarching understanding of crowdsourcing value creation process.