Abstract
There is growing interest in the potential of Internet-enabled crowdsourcing platforms to leverage distributed collective intelligence for innovation purposes. Central to the promise of such platforms is the broad participation of self-selecting innovators. However, the factors affecting solver engagement with specific challenges remains only partially understood. This paper presents a study of the engagement of 15 contestants with 5 different challenges on InnoCentive. The results reveal the effects of a solver's attitude, their assessment of risk, expected value, challenge characteristics, coping mechanisms and the characteristics of the intermediaries' website on a solver's engagement with specific challenges. The analysis reveals that the decision making of solvers can be characterized as an 'attitude vs. risk' calculus rather than a 'cost vs. benefit' calculus. Given these results, the paper concludes by discussing our conceptualization of the solver as a "Speculative Freelancer," which we posit represents a unique emergent form of knowledge work.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | 35th International Conference on Information Systems "Building a Better World Through Information Systems", ICIS 2014 |
| Publisher | Association for Information Systems |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781634396943 |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |
| Event | 35th International Conference on Information Systems: Building a Better World Through Information Systems, ICIS 2014 - Auckland, New Zealand Duration: 14 Dec 2014 → 17 Dec 2014 |
Conference
| Conference | 35th International Conference on Information Systems: Building a Better World Through Information Systems, ICIS 2014 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | New Zealand |
| City | Auckland |
| Period | 14/12/14 → 17/12/14 |
Keywords
- Contest
- Motivation
- Open innovation
- Risk
- Speculative Freelancer
- User involvement
- Work practices
