Exploring Tasks Formulation In Crowdsourcing Design Contests

There is an increasing interest in online crowdsourcing contests as a new source of innovation, however research has still a limited knowledge on how firms engage the best solution providers in a global community. We argue... [ view full abstract ]

There is an increasing interest in online crowdsourcing contests as a new source of innovation, however research has still a limited knowledge on how firms engage the best solution providers in a global community. We argue that, besides prizes and other type of incentives, the way the problem is formulated matters in the designers’ choice about which contests to invest in. We depart from traditional approaches based on motivation theories and draw on matching theory to investigate how firms effectively engage the best designers. We empirically investigate a set of contests launched by 17 firms through an Italian design crowdsourcing platform. We analyze in depth the structure and the narrative of each brief, identifying four framing dimensions: technology, user experience, corporate identity, and creativity. We also analyze the different combination patterns of the four dimensions along the two axis of compatibility and complementarity with a firm knowledge base. We show which patterns have a positive impact on contest performance. We contribute to crowdsourcing and open innovation literature providing original and exploratory evidence on the role played by the task formulation in stimulating the designers to invest their efforts and resources to generate ideas that are both creative and aligned with firm’s requirements.