Follow the leader (or not): the influence of superstars on crowd size in crowdsourcing contests

IF 7.1 2区管理学 Q1 MANAGEMENT International Journal of Operations & Production Management Pub Date : 2024-02-22 DOI:10.1108/ijopm-03-2023-0219

Zhongzhi Liu, Fujun Lai, Qiaoyi Yin

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Abstract

Purpose

As the application of crowdsourcing contests grows, leveraging the participation of superstars (i.e. solvers who have outstanding performance records in a crowdsourcing platform) becomes an emergent approach for managers to solve crowdsourced problems. Although much is known about superstars’ performance implications, it remains unclear whether and how their participation affects the size of a contest crowd for a crowdsourcing contest. Based on social contagion theory, this paper aims to examine the impact of superstars’ participation on the crowd size and studies how this impact varies across solvers with different heterogeneity in terms of skills, exposure and cultural proximity with superstars in crowdsourcing contests.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses secondary data from one crowdsourcing platform that includes 6,587 innovation contests to examine superstars’ main and contextual effects on the crowd size of a contest.

Findings

Our results reveal that superstars’ participation positively affects the crowd size of a contest in general. This finding suggests that social contagion is a fundamental mechanism underlying crowd formation in crowdsourcing contests. Our results also indicate that in contests that involve multiple superstars, superstars’ effect on crowd size becomes negative when we simultaneously consider other solvers’ heterogeneity in terms of skills, exposure and cultural background, and this negative effect will be intensified by increases in the skill gap, extent of exposure and cultural proximity between superstars and other solvers in the same contest.

Originality/value

Our research enhances the understanding of the influence of superstars and the mechanism underlying the emergence of contest crowds in crowdsourcing contests and contributes knowledge to better understand social contagion in a competitive setting. The results are meaningful for sourcing managers and platform supervisors to design contests and supervise crowd size in crowdsourcing contests.

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追随领导者（或不追随领导者）：超级明星对众包竞赛中人群规模的影响

目的随着众包竞赛应用的增长，利用超级明星（即在众包平台上有突出表现记录的解题者）的参与成为管理者解决众包问题的一种新兴方法。尽管人们对超级明星的绩效影响了解甚多，但他们的参与是否会影响众包竞赛的竞赛人群规模，以及他们的参与如何影响竞赛人群规模，目前仍不清楚。基于社会传染理论，本文旨在考察超级明星的参与对人群规模的影响，并研究这种影响在众包竞赛中与超级明星在技能、接触和文化亲近程度等方面具有不同异质性的解题者之间是如何变化的。设计/方法/途径本文利用一个众包平台的二手数据（包括 6,587 个创新竞赛）来研究超级明星对竞赛人群规模的主要影响和背景影响。这一结果表明，社会传染是众包竞赛中人群形成的基本机制。我们的研究结果还表明，在有多个超级明星参与的竞赛中，如果我们同时考虑到其他解题者在技能、接触面和文化背景方面的异质性，超级明星对人群规模的影响就会变成负效应，而且这种负效应会随着超级明星与同一竞赛中其他解题者之间的技能差距、接触面和文化接近程度的增加而加剧。原创性/价值我们的研究加深了人们对众包竞赛中超级明星的影响和竞赛人群出现的内在机制的理解，并为更好地理解竞争环境中的社会传染贡献了知识。研究结果对众包管理者和平台监督者设计竞赛和监督众包竞赛中的人群规模很有意义。

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来源期刊

International Journal of Operations & Production Management MANAGEMENT-

CiteScore

13.30

自引率

17.20%

发文量

期刊介绍： The mission of the International Journal of Operations & Production Management (IJOPM) is to publish cutting-edge, innovative research with the potential to significantly advance the field of Operations and Supply Chain Management, both in theory and practice. Drawing on experiences from manufacturing and service sectors, in both private and public contexts, the journal has earned widespread respect in this complex and increasingly vital area of business management. Methodologically, IJOPM encompasses a broad spectrum of empirically-based inquiry using suitable research frameworks, as long as they offer generic insights of substantial value to operations and supply chain management. While the journal does not categorically exclude specific empirical methodologies, it does not accept purely mathematical modeling pieces. Regardless of the chosen mode of inquiry or methods employed, the key criteria are appropriateness of methodology, clarity in the study's execution, and rigor in the application of methods. It's important to note that any contribution should explicitly contribute to theory. The journal actively encourages the use of mixed methods where appropriate and valuable for generating research insights.