Revealing the Impact of the Crowdsourcing Experience on the Engagement Process

Abstract

A largely neglected aspect in crowdsourcing research is the “Crowdsourcing Experience”, which every crowdsourcee is necessarily exposed to throughout the IT-mediated crowdsourcing journey, potentially stimulating engagement. In the context of value co-creation participant’s engagement, defined as a psychological state that fosters directly and indirectly related value contributions, is argued to be a holistic measure for crowdsourcing success. Hence, this paper proposes a theoretical framework of the crowdsourcees’ engagement process and a novel approach for assessment. The recommended research design combines case study research with the sequential incident laddering technique to unravel an individual’s Crowdsourcing Experience and its impact on engagement. To the knowledge of the authors, the engagement process was not assessed in the field of crowdsourcing yet and no particular research approach exists. This research in progress offers IS-researchers and practitioners initial insights on IT-enabled engagement processes between individuals and entities to enhance knowledge on mutual value-creation.