Lecture title：Sponsored Tasks and Solver Participation in Crowdsourcing Questions

Time: 10:00-11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, December 28

Conference No.: # Tencent Conference: 229-899-373

Introduction to the report:

Crowdsourcing platforms provide venues for firms looking for solutions (seekers) to interact with individuals who can provide solutions (solvers). As crowdsourcing contest platforms have grown in popularity with numerous tasks being posted on a daily basis, a concern that has emerged is that many similar tasks compete for solver attention, with some tasks failing to attract sufficient solver participation. To alleviate such a concern, in addition to regular task listings, many crowdsourcing platforms offer sponsorship programs under which seekers pay an extra fee for highlighting their tasks to draw solvers’ attention. We examine the effect of sponsorship on solver participation using a unique data set collected from a leading crowdsourcing platform. In contrast to platforms’ claims about the effect of sponsorship on participation, we find that sponsorship does not always boost participation in crowdsourcing contests; sponsorship increases the number of participants only when the prize amount for a task is already high. Furthermore, even when the number of participants increases, the increase primarily comes from low-ability solvers. We also find that when sponsorship increases the total number of submissions, it does so only through increasing the number of participants; sponsorship does not increase the number of submissions individual solvers submit after joining a task. A more granular analysis reveals an effect of anticipated increased competition caused by sponsorship on high-ability solvers but not on those of low ability, explaining the difference in their participation decisions when facing sponsored tasks. We also find the effect of sponsorship weakens over the duration of a task for high-ability solvers and is also weaker for solvers with more experience on the platform.

Brief introduction of the reporter:

Jianqing Chen, professor of the Department of Information Systems, Naveen Jindal School of Business, University of Texas, Dallas, USA, received a bachelor's and master's degree from Tsinghua University, and a doctor's degree from the University of Texas, Austin. At present, Professor Chen Jianqing mainly focuses on the platform business model, social media and user-generated content, search advertising and economics in information systems. His research results have been published in international top academic journals such as Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly, Management Science, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, and Production and Operations Management. He is currently the deputy editor of Information Systems Research and the senior editor of Production and Operations Management.

(Undertaken by: Department of Management Engineering, Digital Economy Innovation Research Center of Yangtze River Delta Research Institute, Scientific Research and Academic Exchange Center)