Capturing Value from Crowdsourcing

EXTENDED ABSTRACT FOR OUI 2016 CONFERENCE Anecdotal and empirical accounts of crowds delivering high-value solutions to problems are now legendary (e.g., Brabham, 2010; Jeppesen & Lakhani, 2010; Marjanovic et al, 2012). These... [ view full abstract ]

EXTENDED ABSTRACT FOR OUI 2016 CONFERENCE

Anecdotal and empirical accounts of crowds delivering high-value solutions to problems are now legendary (e.g., Brabham, 2010; Jeppesen & Lakhani, 2010; Marjanovic et al, 2012). These high-value solutions are tantamount to value created during crowdsourcing. (Value is created when the benefits offered to customers exceed the cost of offering the benefits (Lepak, Smith & Taylor, 2007).) Understandably, a lot of crowdsourcing research has paid little attention to value capture, choosing instead to focus attention on when, how, and why crowds can deliver such high-value solutions—can create superior value. (Value is captured when the price paid by customers exceeds the cost of offering the benefits (Lepak, Smith & Taylor, 2007). For those management scholars who see strategy research as rooted in understanding performance differences and, therefore, as being about value creation and capture, the lack of attention to value capture is troubling (e.g., Bloodgood, 2013).

My focus in this paper is on how seekers capture the value created through crowdsourcing. In particular, I present a framework for exploring those characteristics of a seeker and its environment that enable it to capture the value created by crowds of solvers. I draw on the resource-based view of the firm (RBV) (e.g., Barney, 1991), product market-position (PMP) view (Porter, 1980, 1996), and management of technology literature (e.g., Teece, 1986, 2006) to derive the relevant constructs and the causal logic that links them.

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