Integrated and Transactional Platforms: Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding Platforms

Introduction

The term “crowdsourcing” was introduced by Howe (2006) and defined as “the act of a company or institution taking a function once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undefined (and generally large) network of people in the form of an open call. This can take the form of peer-production (when the job is performed collaboratively), but is also often undertaken by sole individuals. The crucial prerequisite is the use of the open call format and the large network of potential laborers.”

Estellés-Arolas, E. and González-Ladrón-de-Guevara (2012) found more than 40 definitions of crowdsourcing in the extant literature. Based on those findings, they have created a comprehensive definition for crowdsourcing: “Crowdsourcing is a type of participative online activity in which an individual, an institution, a non-profit organization or company proposes to a group of individuals of varying knowledge, heterogeneity and number, via a flexible open call, the voluntary undertaking of a task. The undertaking of the task, of variable complexity and modularity, and in which the crowd should participate bringing their work, money, knowledge and/or experience, always entails mutual benefit. The user will receive the satisfaction of a given type of need, be it economic, social recognition, self- esteem or the development of individual skills, while the crowdsourcer will obtain and utilize to their advantage what the user has brought to the venture, whose form will depend on the type of activity undertaken.”

Brabham (2008, 2013) defined “crowdsourcing” as an “online, distributed problem-solving and production model.” Brabham defined the following 4 key ingredients of crowdsourcing:

• 1.

  An organization that has a task it needs to be performed,

• 2.

  A community (crowd) that is willing to perform the task voluntarily,

• 3.

  An online environment that allows the work to take place and the community to interact with the organization, and

• 4.

  Mutual benefit for the organization and the community.

What is more, crowdsourced labor is truly motivated to make a contribution only if they see their efforts make a real difference and the game is worth playing. That is why crowdsourcing is about networking and tapping the right crowd (Belleflamme et al., 2014).

Nakatsu, Grossman and Iacovou (2014) define crowdsourcing as a four-step process in which:

• 1.

  A requestor (either an individual or organization) identifies a specific task to be performed or problem to be solved;

• 2.

  The requestor broadcasts the task or problem online;

• 3.

  The crowd performs the task or solves the problem;

• 4.

  Depending on the nature of the task, the requestor either

  • a.

    Sifts through the solutions and selects the best solution (selective crowdsourcing), or

  • b.

    Aggregates/synthesizes the crowd’s submissions in a meaningful way (integrative crowdsourcing).”

It is helpful to look at the levels of crowdsourcing classification (see Figure 1) to determine what is included in crowdsourcing approaches.

Figure 1.

Classification of crowdsourcing approaches (2 levels)