Daniel Schlagwein

Crowdsourcing for a better world

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to better understand the relation between information technology (IT) affordances and donor motivations in charitable crowdfunding. Design/methodology/approach – This paper reports the findings from a comparative case study of two charitable crowdfunding campaigns. Findings – The affordances of crowdfunding platforms support types of donor motivation that are not supported effectively, or at all, in offline charity. Research limitations/implications – For future researchers, the paper provides a theoretical model of the relation between IT affordances and motivations in the context of charitable crowdfunding. Practical/implications – For practitioners in the charity space, the paper suggests why they may wish to consider the use of charitable crowdfunding and how they may go about its implementation. Originality/value – Based on field research at two charitable crowdfunding campaigns, the paper provides a new theoretical model.

How and why organisations use social media: five use types and their relation to absorptive capacity

In this paper, we examine the relation between social media use and the absorptive capacity of organisations. Over the past 10 years, many organisations have systematically adopted social media. Trade press and consulting companies often claim that the systematic use of social media increases the performance of organisations. However, such claims are typically neither empirically grounded nor theoretically examined. In this paper, based on key informant interviews at 20 organisations, we examine these claims empirically and theoretically. Firstly, we examine the ways in which social media are used by organisations. We identify five different social media use types that support different organisational purposes (broadcast, dialogue, collaboration, knowledge management and sociability). Secondly, we analyse how these five social media use types relate to organisations’ absorptive capacity. We find that particular social media use types (e.g., dialogue) support organisations’ absorptive capacity and, ultimately, their performance although others (e.g., sociability) do not.

Internal crowdsourcing: conceptual framework, structured review, and research agenda

The use of IT-enabled crowdsourcing with employees in enterprises has increased substantially in recent years. This phenomenon, which we refer to as ‘internal crowdsourcing’, is distinct both from external crowdsourcing with end users and from hierarchy-based work with employees. A literature stream has emerged that corresponds with the increased relevance of internal crowdsourcing in practice. The purpose of this review paper of internal crowdsourcing is to provide conceptual development, synthesise the literature, and provide a research agenda. In the review reported in this paper, we systematically analysed and critically reviewed the literature in this domain published thus far (74 papers). We found useful findings and insights into a new and relevant IT-enabled phenomenon. At the same time, we also found conflicting definitions and conceptualisation, as well as research efforts that are not well integrated. The paper supports future research on internal crowdsourcing by providing improved conceptualisation, consolidating insights, and identifying important areas for future research.

Open strategy: Literature review, re-analysis of cases and conceptualisation as a practice

Display Omitted Reviews the literature in regard to ontological/theoretical lenses on open strategy.Re-analyses seven well-documented open strategy cases.Conceptualises open strategy as an IT-enabled, transparent and inclusive practice.Proposes a research agenda for open strategy informed by practice theory. An increasing number of organisations (e.g., Daimler, IBM and Red Hat) have adopted what has been called open strategy: involving large groups of people in strategy making via information technology (IT). Our review of the recently emerged research stream on open strategy reveals inconsistencies in the use of explicit definitions and implicit conceptualisations of open strategy. To support future discourse and research, we develop a theoretically coherent and comprehensive conceptualisation of open strategy as a practice in this paper. This conceptualisation is based on a structured review of existing publications and re-analysis of well-documented open strategy cases. We use the strategy-as-practice lens and the concept of Idealtypus as theoretical foundations. The paper proposes a research agenda for open strategy.

“Openness” with and without Information Technology: a framework and a brief history

Over the past two decades, openness (e.g. ‘open’ innovation, ‘open’ education and ‘open’ strategy) has been of increasing interest for researchers and of increasing relevance to practitioners. Openness is often deeply embedded in information technology (IT) and can be both a driver for and a result of innovative IT. To clarify the concept of “openness”, we provide an overview of the scope of cross-disciplinary research on openness. Based on this overview, we develop a framework of openness, which proposes a higher-order concept of “openness” characterised by transparency, access, participation and democracy. The framework further distinguishes open resources, open processes and the effects of opening on particular domains. To provide the historical context and to appreciate the role of IT in openness, we discuss two historical examples of openness: the introduction of an open science model in academia (openness without IT) and the emergence of open source software development (openness with IT). We conclude by highlighting some concerns with and limitations of “openness”.

Social Media Around the GLOBE

Building on the GLOBE study of cultural values, this article explores the impact of societal culture on organizational social media use. The analysis reported in this article is based on data collected from the Fortune Global 500 organizations regarding their use of six different types of external social media. The results of the analysis indicate that societal culture has to be considered an important factor for organizational social media use.

Going it all alone in web entrepreneurship?: a comparison of single founders vs. co-founders

There is a considerable amount of entrepreneurial activity in the information technology (IT) industry, especially in the Web. Many claim that the founders are the single most critical factor in startup success. The entrepreneurial self-efficacy theory and the jack-of-all-trades theory suggest that founders with diverse skills and broad experience will be able to successfully create a business alone. Alternatively, social capital theory suggests that founders who have high social capital and who engage in social networking will be able to go alone. Others, however, claim that team building is crucial for startup success as to bringing complementary skills together. In this study, we investigate if having a diverse skill set, higher experience, or more social connections is indeed a determinant of single founders, while co-founders have more specialized (yet complementary) skills. Our results are derived from analysis of 91 Web startups and their 183 (co-) founders. Contradicting existing theory, we could not find determinants for starting a new business alone. However, we find that co-founders do indeed complement each others skills. Our results suggest that existing entrepreneurial theory needs to be expanded and revised to accommodate for the contradictions found and that future research is required in this area.

Organizational Social Media around the GLOBE

This exploratory empirical research looks at the impact of societal culture on organizational social media. Data from 500 organizations regarding their external use of social media has been collected and analyzed. The findings indicate that societal culture is indeed a determinator of organizational social media.

IT Affordances and Donor Motivations in Charitable Crowdfunding: The "Earthship Kapita" Case

Crowdfunding is an information technology (IT)-enabled, online model for raising funds for charity that can be used as an alternative to traditional, offline charity models (e.g., bake sales, doorknocking or society events). Over the past three years, more and more charity organizations have turned to crowdfunding in addition to, or instead of, traditional fundraising. Why is that? In this paper, we explore one case of charitable crowdfunding, the 2014 “Earthship Kapita” campaign, with particular attention to the critical role of IT. Building on the theory of IT affordances and motivation theory, we find that crowdfunding supports particular types of donor motivation (e.g., to be part of a community, to show one’s social engagement) that are not supported by traditional charity models. The analysis allows us to propose an initial model linking IT affordances and motivation in the context of charitable crowdfunding. The paper informs future research by theorizing the link between IT affordances and motivation. It informs practitioners in the charity space about why they should consider, and how they could implement, charitable crowdfunding.

Retraction notice to: Provider Feedback Information and Customer Choice Decisions on Crowdsourcing Marketplaces: Evidence from Two Discrete Choice Experiments [Decision Support Systems 82 (2016) 1-11]

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy). This article has been retracted at the request of the Editor-in-Chief following a dispute over authorship that the original listed authors were not able to resolve. The authorship of the paper was changed during the latter stages of review without notification to either the Editor-in-Chief or Elsevier.