Abstract

In the recent years, numerous attempts have been made to successfully incorporate crowdsourcing into organizational workflow. With crowdsourcing, the lines between producers and consumers have become blurred as consumers actively participate in the value creation process by volunteering their skills for the producer’s benefit. While the popularity of this phenomenon increases, guidelines for building a successful crowdsourcing program have yet to be developed. The goal of this thesis is to uncover motivations of those who participate in crowdsourcing and provide recommendations for managers to better implement crowdsourcing projects.
This research builds upon the virtual community literature as well as prosumption. Additionally, the group membership theory is used to explain the interactions between crowdsourcing participants. By conducting in-depth interviews supplemented with netnography, participants in crowdsourcing were clustered into a four-fold typology. Motivations between groups differ. Members of first group, communals, incorporate the crowdsourcing community’s group based identity into their social self. Furthermore, they develop cultural and social capital through prosumption. Members of the second group, utilizers, hone their skills through participation, thus creating cultural capital. Members of the third group, aspirers, do not create content, but rather participate in the selection of content. They aspire to be perceived as a “stereotypical” member of the first two groups. The final group, lurkers, is composed of individuals who participate in crowdsourcing solely by browsing. The thesis is concluded with recommendations and guidelines for managers.