Why Incorporating a Platform-Intermediary can Increase Crowdsourcees’ Engagement

Abstract

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Behind the Crowdsourcing Platform: Assessing Volunteer Recruitment and Engagement Instruments

“…Yet, a sense of pride can also emerge among volunteers in smaller organizations with less crowdsourcing projects and might hence be less visible in our analysis. Therefore, another explanation could be that positive experiences of volunteers resulted in feelings of attachment or loyalty toward the nonprofit organization or crowdsourcer (Troll et al, 2019), leading to recurring volunteering. More research is needed to understand the role of organizational reputation, the quality of volunteers’ prior experience, their interest in a topic and preference for a task on their decision to contribute to a new project from the same organization.…”

“…Based on our research, project managers should add their projects to crowdsourcing platforms with similar projects to ensure easy recruiting of experienced volunteers and use their often limited resources for other important project management tasks (Harp et al, 2017; Troll et al, 2019). In this sense, both platforms and individual project managers should pay attention to such veteran volunteers, and—given the limited importance of material rewards—understand their motivations to continue contributing.…”

“…In terms of engagement, communication through chats and discussion forums and the use of rewards to express recognition are important means to engage volunteers, but little empirical evidence is offered (Phillips & Phillips, 2010;Troll et al, 2019;West & Pateman, 2016). In the literature of online communities, response rates and delays have been considered as reasons for individuals being less active, but with limited evidence (Sun et al, 2014;Wise et al, 2006).…”

“…Although organizational reputation influences volunteers' decision to join a project (Faletehan et al, 2021), we do not consider it an engagement instrument but rather a characteristic of the crowdsourcer as it is built over time and not easily changed for a specific project. The nature of the task is crucial for motivating and engaging participants (Troll et al, 2019), but once a project has started, a task is not likely to be changed as it is a defining feature of a crowdsourcing project. For instance, the classification of galaxies (Cox et al, 2018) or the transcription of 17th-century premarriage acts (De Moor et al, 2019) are tasks that define their corresponding volunteering initiatives.…”

“…This may explain why the motivations to start and continue participating in crowdsourcing can differ (Cox et al, 2018;Rotman et al, 2014). That is, engagement arises as a positive affective-cognitive state of mind when volunteers evaluate their crowdsourcing experience, and it is fundamental for their sustained participation in current or future initiatives (Troll et al, 2019). Therefore, it is vital to understand the effectiveness of engagement instruments in crowdsourcing projects.…”

Behind the Crowdsourcing Platform: Assessing Volunteer Recruitment and Engagement Instruments

“…Yet, a sense of pride can also emerge among volunteers in smaller organizations with less crowdsourcing projects and might hence be less visible in our analysis. Therefore, another explanation could be that positive experiences of volunteers resulted in feelings of attachment or loyalty toward the nonprofit organization or crowdsourcer (Troll et al, 2019), leading to recurring volunteering. More research is needed to understand the role of organizational reputation, the quality of volunteers’ prior experience, their interest in a topic and preference for a task on their decision to contribute to a new project from the same organization.…”

“…Based on our research, project managers should add their projects to crowdsourcing platforms with similar projects to ensure easy recruiting of experienced volunteers and use their often limited resources for other important project management tasks (Harp et al, 2017; Troll et al, 2019). In this sense, both platforms and individual project managers should pay attention to such veteran volunteers, and—given the limited importance of material rewards—understand their motivations to continue contributing.…”

“…In terms of engagement, communication through chats and discussion forums and the use of rewards to express recognition are important means to engage volunteers, but little empirical evidence is offered (Phillips & Phillips, 2010;Troll et al, 2019;West & Pateman, 2016). In the literature of online communities, response rates and delays have been considered as reasons for individuals being less active, but with limited evidence (Sun et al, 2014;Wise et al, 2006).…”

“…Although organizational reputation influences volunteers' decision to join a project (Faletehan et al, 2021), we do not consider it an engagement instrument but rather a characteristic of the crowdsourcer as it is built over time and not easily changed for a specific project. The nature of the task is crucial for motivating and engaging participants (Troll et al, 2019), but once a project has started, a task is not likely to be changed as it is a defining feature of a crowdsourcing project. For instance, the classification of galaxies (Cox et al, 2018) or the transcription of 17th-century premarriage acts (De Moor et al, 2019) are tasks that define their corresponding volunteering initiatives.…”

“…This may explain why the motivations to start and continue participating in crowdsourcing can differ (Cox et al, 2018;Rotman et al, 2014). That is, engagement arises as a positive affective-cognitive state of mind when volunteers evaluate their crowdsourcing experience, and it is fundamental for their sustained participation in current or future initiatives (Troll et al, 2019). Therefore, it is vital to understand the effectiveness of engagement instruments in crowdsourcing projects.…”

Behind the Crowdsourcing Platform: Assessing Volunteer Recruitment and Engagement Instruments

“…Yet, a sense of pride can also emerge among volunteers in smaller organizations with less crowdsourcing projects and might hence be less visible in our analysis. Therefore, another explanation could be that positive experiences of volunteers resulted in feelings of attachment or loyalty toward the nonprofit organization or crowdsourcer (Troll et al, 2019), leading to recurring volunteering. More research is needed to understand the role of organizational reputation, the quality of volunteers’ prior experience, their interest in a topic and preference for a task on their decision to contribute to a new project from the same organization.…”

“…Based on our research, project managers should add their projects to crowdsourcing platforms with similar projects to ensure easy recruiting of experienced volunteers and use their often limited resources for other important project management tasks (Harp et al, 2017; Troll et al, 2019). In this sense, both platforms and individual project managers should pay attention to such veteran volunteers, and—given the limited importance of material rewards—understand their motivations to continue contributing.…”

“…In terms of engagement, communication through chats and discussion forums and the use of rewards to express recognition are important means to engage volunteers, but little empirical evidence is offered (Phillips & Phillips, 2010;Troll et al, 2019;West & Pateman, 2016). In the literature of online communities, response rates and delays have been considered as reasons for individuals being less active, but with limited evidence (Sun et al, 2014;Wise et al, 2006).…”

“…Although organizational reputation influences volunteers' decision to join a project (Faletehan et al, 2021), we do not consider it an engagement instrument but rather a characteristic of the crowdsourcer as it is built over time and not easily changed for a specific project. The nature of the task is crucial for motivating and engaging participants (Troll et al, 2019), but once a project has started, a task is not likely to be changed as it is a defining feature of a crowdsourcing project. For instance, the classification of galaxies (Cox et al, 2018) or the transcription of 17th-century premarriage acts (De Moor et al, 2019) are tasks that define their corresponding volunteering initiatives.…”

“…This may explain why the motivations to start and continue participating in crowdsourcing can differ (Cox et al, 2018;Rotman et al, 2014). That is, engagement arises as a positive affective-cognitive state of mind when volunteers evaluate their crowdsourcing experience, and it is fundamental for their sustained participation in current or future initiatives (Troll et al, 2019). Therefore, it is vital to understand the effectiveness of engagement instruments in crowdsourcing projects.…”

Behind the Crowdsourcing Platform: Assessing Volunteer Recruitment and Engagement Instruments

“…Yet, a sense of pride can also emerge among volunteers in smaller organizations with less crowdsourcing projects and might hence be less visible in our analysis. Therefore, another explanation could be that positive experiences of volunteers resulted in feelings of attachment or loyalty toward the nonprofit organization or crowdsourcer (Troll et al, 2019), leading to recurring volunteering. More research is needed to understand the role of organizational reputation, the quality of volunteers’ prior experience, their interest in a topic and preference for a task on their decision to contribute to a new project from the same organization.…”

“…Based on our research, project managers should add their projects to crowdsourcing platforms with similar projects to ensure easy recruiting of experienced volunteers and use their often limited resources for other important project management tasks (Harp et al, 2017; Troll et al, 2019). In this sense, both platforms and individual project managers should pay attention to such veteran volunteers, and—given the limited importance of material rewards—understand their motivations to continue contributing.…”

“…In terms of engagement, communication through chats and discussion forums and the use of rewards to express recognition are important means to engage volunteers, but little empirical evidence is offered (Phillips & Phillips, 2010;Troll et al, 2019;West & Pateman, 2016). In the literature of online communities, response rates and delays have been considered as reasons for individuals being less active, but with limited evidence (Sun et al, 2014;Wise et al, 2006).…”

“…Although organizational reputation influences volunteers' decision to join a project (Faletehan et al, 2021), we do not consider it an engagement instrument but rather a characteristic of the crowdsourcer as it is built over time and not easily changed for a specific project. The nature of the task is crucial for motivating and engaging participants (Troll et al, 2019), but once a project has started, a task is not likely to be changed as it is a defining feature of a crowdsourcing project. For instance, the classification of galaxies (Cox et al, 2018) or the transcription of 17th-century premarriage acts (De Moor et al, 2019) are tasks that define their corresponding volunteering initiatives.…”

“…This may explain why the motivations to start and continue participating in crowdsourcing can differ (Cox et al, 2018;Rotman et al, 2014). That is, engagement arises as a positive affective-cognitive state of mind when volunteers evaluate their crowdsourcing experience, and it is fundamental for their sustained participation in current or future initiatives (Troll et al, 2019). Therefore, it is vital to understand the effectiveness of engagement instruments in crowdsourcing projects.…”