Conceptual Foundations of Crowdsourcing: A Review of IS Research

Crowd sourcing is a collaboration model enabled by people-centric web technologies to solve individual, organizational, and societal problems using a dynamically formed crowd of people who respond to an open call for participation. We report on a literature survey of crowd sourcing research, focusing on top journals and conferences in the Information Systems (IS) field. To our knowledge, ours is the first effort of this type in the IS discipline. Contributions include providing a synopsis of crowd sourcing research to date, a common definition for crowd sourcing, and a conceptual model for guiding future studies of crowd sourcing. We show how existing IS literature applies to the elements of that conceptual model: Problem, People (Problem Owner, Individual, and Crowd), Governance, Process, Technology, and Outcome. We close with suggestions for future research.

[1]  Aniket Kittur,et al.  CrowdForge: crowdsourcing complex work , 2011, UIST.

[2]  Jie Ren.  Exploring the Process of Web-based Crowdsourcing Innovation , 2011, AMCIS.

[3]  Kalle Lyytinen,et al.  Research Commentary - Digital Infrastructures: The Missing IS Research Agenda , 2010, Inf. Syst. Res..

[4]  Brian S. Butler,et al.  Research Note - The Impact of Community Commitment on Participation in Online Communities , 2011, Inf. Syst. Res..

[5]  Volker Wulf,et al.  IT to support knowledge sharing in communities, towards a social capital analysis , 2006, J. Inf. Technol..

[6]  Florian Michahelles,et al.  AIS Electronic Library (AISeL) Crowdsourcing for “Kiosk of the Future” – A Retail Store Case Study , 2017 .

[7]  Anindya Ghose,et al.  Learning-by-Doing and Project Choice: a Dynamic Structural Model of Crowdsourcing , 2010, ICIS.

[8]  Henrik Ickler,et al.  Design of new business models for service integrators by creating information-driven value webs based on customers collective intelligence , 2009 .

[9]  Daniel J. Veit,et al.  More than fun and money. Worker Motivation in Crowdsourcing - A Study on Mechanical Turk , 2011, AMCIS.

[10]  Katja Thoring,et al.  Crowdsourcing with Semantic Differentials: A Game to Investigate the Meaning of Form , 2010, AMCIS.

[11]  Mark H. Hansen,et al.  Participatory Sensing: A Citizen-Powered Approach to Illuminating the Patterns that Shape our World , 2009 .

[12]  Licia Capra,et al.  Quality control for real-time ubiquitous crowdsourcing , 2011, UbiCrowd '11.

[13]  John M. Carroll,et al.  Designing for e-science: Requirements gathering for collaboration in CiteSeer , 2009, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[14]  Kathrin M. Möslein,et al.  Supporting Research Collaboration - On the Needs of Virtual Research Teams , 2009, Wirtschaftsinformatik.

[15]  Ann Majchrzak,et al.  Research Commentary-Vigilant Interaction in Knowledge Collaboration: Challenges of Online User Participation Under Ambivalence , 2010, Inf. Syst. Res..

[16]  Marcos R. S. Borges,et al.  Taking advantage of collective knowledge in emergency response systems , 2012, J. Netw. Comput. Appl..

[17]  Eoin Whelan,et al.  Exploring knowledge exchange in electronic networks of practice , 2007, J. Inf. Technol..

[18]  Björn Hartmann,et al.  Collaboratively crowdsourcing workflows with turkomatic , 2012, CSCW.

[19]  Bill C. Hardgrave,et al.  Forums for information systems scholars: III , 2001, Inf. Manag..

[20]  Sharon Swee-Lin Tan,et al.  Contribution Behaviors in Distributed Environments , 2008, MIS Q..

[21]  Youngjin Yoo,et al.  Computing in Everyday Life: A Call for Research on Experiential Computing , 2010, MIS Q..

[22]  Deana D. Pennington,et al.  Bridging the Disciplinary Divide: Co-Creating Research Ideas in eScience Teams , 2011, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

[23]  Jeffrey V. Nickerson,et al.  Generating Creative Ideas Through Crowds: An Experimental Study of Combination , 2011, ICIS.

[24]  Kieran Conboy,et al.  A Framework for Investigating Open Innovation Processes in ISD , 2011, ICIS.

[25]  Jan Marco Leimeister,et al.  Leveraging Crowdsourcing: Activation-Supporting Components for IT-Based Ideas Competition , 2009, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[26]  Kevin Crowston,et al.  Goals and Tasks: Two Typologies of Citizen Science Projects , 2012, 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[27]  I. C. Meijer.  The wisdom of crowds , 2010 .

[28]  Neil Savage,et al.  Gaining wisdom from crowds , 2012, Commun. ACM.

[29]  Jan Marco Leimeister,et al.  Leveraging crowdsourcing – activationsupporting components for IT-based idea competitions , 2009 .

[30]  Jie Ren,et al.  Who's more creative, experts or the crowd? , 2011, AMCIS.

[31]  Kwong-Sak Leung,et al.  A Survey of Crowdsourcing Systems , 2011, 2011 IEEE Third Int'l Conference on Privacy, Security, Risk and Trust and 2011 IEEE Third Int'l Conference on Social Computing.

[32]  Michel Avital,et al.  Generative Collectives , 2010, ICIS.

[33]  Ines Mergel.  Crowdsourced Ideas Make Participating in Government Cool Again , 2011 .

[34]  Ted S. Sindlinger,et al.  Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business , 2010 .

[35]  Mark Klein,et al.  Can We Exploit Collective Intelligence for Collaborative Deliberation? The Case of the Climate Change Collaboratorium , 2007 .

[36]  Eric Horvitz,et al.  Crowdsourcing General Computation , 2011 .

[37]  Jeff Howe,et al.  Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business , 2008, Human Resource Management International Digest.

[38]  Jan Marco Leimeister,et al.  Idea Evaluation Mechanisms for Collective Intelligence in Open Innovation Communities: Do Traders Outperform Raters? , 2011, ICIS.

[39]  Radhika Jain.  Investigation of Governance Mechanisms for Crowdsourcing Initiatives , 2010, AMCIS.

[40]  Henrik Ickler,et al.  Design of New Business Models for Service Integrators by Creating Information-Driven Value Webs Based on Customers' Collective Intelligence , 2009, 2009 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[41]  Michael Vitale,et al.  The Wisdom of Crowds , 2015, Cell.

[42]  Lee Sproull,et al.  The Role of Feedback in Managing the Internet-Based Volunteer Work Force , 2008, Inf. Syst. Res..

[43]  Karl Reiner Lang,et al.  Digital Consumer Networks and Producer-Consumer Collaboration: Innovation and Product Development in the Video Game Industry , 2007, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[44]  Wendy A. Warr,et al.  Social software: fun and games, or business tools? , 2008, J. Inf. Sci..

[45]  David Hachen,et al.  Citizen Engineering: Methods for "Crowdsourcing" Highly Trustworthy Results , 2012, 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[46]  Robert Forsythe,et al.  Anatomy of an Experimental Political Stock Market , 1992 .

[47]  Jan Marco Leimeister,et al.  Rating Scales for Collective Intelligence in Innovation Communities: Why Quick and Easy Decision Making Does Not Get it Right , 2010, ICIS.

[48]  Huaping Chen,et al.  The Wisdom of Reluctant Crowds , 2010, 2010 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[49]  Rowena Cullen,et al.  Who's Contributing: Do Personality Traits Influence the Level and Type of Participation in Online Communities , 2011, 2011 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[50]  Peter A. Gloor,et al.  The New Principles of a Swarm Business , 2007 .

[51]  Yoris A. Au,et al.  Assessing Researcher Publication Productivity in the Leading Information Systems Journals: A 2005-2009 Update , 2011, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[52]  Richard T. Watson,et al.  Analyzing the Past to Prepare for the Future: Writing a Literature Review , 2002, MIS Q..

[53]  Taewoo Nam,et al.  The Wisdom of Crowds in Government 2.0: Information Paradigm Evolution toward Wiki-Government , 2010, AMCIS.

[54]  Rudy Hirschheim,et al.  Online Sourcing: Investigations from Service Clients' Perspective , 2011, AMCIS.

[55]  Joseph G. Davis,et al.  Web 3.0 and Crowdservicing , 2011, AMCIS.

[56]  Daren C. Brabham.  Crowdsourcing the Public Participation Process for Planning Projects , 2009 .

[57]  Christian Wagner,et al.  Innovating Collaborative Content Creation: The Role of Altruism and Wiki Technology , 2007, 2007 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'07).

[58]  Shirley Gregor,et al.  The Nature of Theory in Information Systems , 2006, MIS Q..

[59]  Arun Sundararajan,et al.  Optimal Design of Crowdsourcing Contests , 2009, ICIS.

[60]  Johann Füller,et al.  Consumer Empowerment Through Internet-Based Co-creation , 2009, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[61]  Caroline Haythornthwaite,et al.  Crowds and Communities: Light and Heavyweight Models of Peer Production , 2009, 2009 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[62]  Johan Bollen,et al.  Smartocracy: Social Networks for Collective Decision Making , 2007, 2007 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'07).

[63]  Martin Schader,et al.  Managing the Crowd: Towards a Taxonomy of Crowdsourcing Processes , 2011, AMCIS.

[64]  Jeffrey V. Nickerson,et al.  Matching Mechanisms to Situations Through the Wisdom of the Crowd , 2009, ICIS.

[65]  Jeffrey V. Nickerson,et al.  Evaluating Design Solutions Using Crowds , 2011, AMCIS.

[66]  Kevin Crowston,et al.  From Conservation to Crowdsourcing: A Typology of Citizen Science , 2011, 2011 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[67]  E. Bonabeau.  Decisions 2.0: the power of collective intelligence , 2009 .

[68]  Frank DiGiammarino,et al.  Virtual Networks: An Opportunity for Government: The Increasing Power of Computing Is Enabling a New Generation of Web-Based Applications-Web 2.0-To Harness Collective Intelligence in the Public Sector , 2008 .

[69]  K. Lyytinen,et al.  Digital Infrastructures : The Missing IS Research Agenda , 2010 .

[70]  Irma Borst.  Understanding Crowdsourcing: Effects of motivation and rewards on participation and performance in voluntary online activities , 2010 .

[71]  Lars Witell,et al.  Collaboration with Customers - Understanding the Effect of Customer-Company Interaction in New Product Development , 2011, 2011 44th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.