Presentation for our paper in the ABEAI 2013 Conference (Applied Business and Entrepreneurship Association International (ABEAI), Hawaii 14-20.11.2013) This paper examines the principles of managing groups of digital workers, known as crowds. So far empirical work on managing crowds (i.e. crowdsourcing practices) has been scarce. We present a case study in which a mobile application was utilized to gather qualitative research data. The learning from the process is reported in regards to guidance, incentives, quality and outcomes. Managing crowds is a complex process and requires managers to update their thinking and know-how. Our paper offers practical guidance based on first-hand experience.

1. MANAGING THE CROWD
A STUDY ON VIDEOGRAPHY APPLICATION
Lauri Pitkänen & Joni Salminen
ABAEI, 18.11.2013

2. Howe 2006

3. Belk 2005
Kozinets & Belk 2006
Rokka 2010
Hietanen 2012

4. 1) Defines the method of managing
crowds
2) Defines how it could be applied
3) How the application of the
method could be evaluated
à supports the development of crowd management
in theoretical and practical level

5. GUIDANCE
REPRESENTATION
/
OUTCOME
INCENTIVES
QUALITY
Design and communication
Model for videographic crowdsourcing (Pitkänen & Salminen 2012)

6. GUIDANCE
INCENTIVES
REPRESENTATION
QUALITY
Design and communication
Guidance – Quality: How the researcher guides, interacts and
communicates with the crowd affects the quality of material produced.

7. GUIDANCE
INCENTIVES
REPRESENTATION
QUALITY
Design and communication
Guidance – Representation: How the researcher guides, interacts
and communicates with the crowd frames the possible research
outcomes, or representations.

8. GUIDANCE
INCENTIVES
REPRESENTATION
QUALITY
Design and communication
Guidance – Incentives: How the researcher guides, interacts and
communicates with the crowd may in some cases act as an incentive
to participate per se.

9. GUIDANCE
INCENTIVES
REPRESENTATION
QUALITY
Design and communication
Quality – Guidance: The quality of material collected affects how the
researcher is evaluating and improving future guidance.

10. GUIDANCE
INCENTIVES
REPRESENTATION
QUALITY
Design and communication
Quality – Representation: The quality of the material collected
frames the possible representations that the researcher can create.

11. GUIDANCE
INCENTIVES
REPRESENTATION
QUALITY
Design and communication
Quality – Incentives: The quality of material collected affects how
the researcher is evaluating and improving future incentives.

12. GUIDANCE
INCENTIVES
REPRESENTATION
QUALITY
Design and communication
Incentives – Guidance: Instead of removing the need for guidance,
incentives may even increase it if the number of participants
increases (in complex tasks).

13. GUIDANCE
INCENTIVES
REPRESENTATION
QUALITY
Design and communication
Incentives – Quality: Incentives may have a positive effect on
quality, although this cannot be interpreted as a rule due to fuzziness
of personal (hidden) motives.

14. GUIDANCE
INCENTIVES
REPRESENTATION
QUALITY
Design and communication
Representation – Guidance: When creating the representation, the
researcher strives to hold consistency with the guidance given to
participants.

15. GUIDANCE
INCENTIVES
REPRESENTATION
QUALITY
Design and communication
Representation – Quality: When creating the representation, the
researcher is considering different criteria for judging quality.

16. 1. Posted info about the research to different Facebook groups
2. Asked people to join research by downloading our specific app
3. Sent a research task to people who
downloaded the app
“Please show through video what kind of situation you
are in and verbally tell why you want to play the game
in this specific place at this moment.
…
explore situations in which consumers might want to
play mobile multiplayer games.”
4. Received videos from crowds

17. GUIDANCE
• Theory
– Tradeoff between too much and too little –
what is the optimal amount of guidance?
– Agency problems – how much monitoring is
needed?
• Practice
– Need to be concise and unambiguous when
giving instructions
– Need to reserve time for two-way
communication

18. QUALITY
• Theory
– How to distinguish between low-quality and
high-quality crowd members?
– What are the methods for assessing quality in
different contexts?
• Practice
– Set your own quality criteria and tolerance
level before engaging the crowd
– Remember the association with guidance and
incentives

19. INCENTIVES
• Theory
– To which extent do crowd members follow
economic rationality?
– What is the cost structure of managing crowds?
– How can the firm create and/or influence nonmonetary incentives?
– Pricing strategies for crowd labor
• Practice
– Understand what drives “your crowd”
– Start low and increase rewards if you have time;
start high if you’re in a hurry to get things done

20. OUTCOME
• Theory
– What are the types of outcomes firms pursue
when engaging the crowd?
– How satisfied are they with the outcomes?
• Practice
– Connect the outcome to your firm’s processes
– Consider chaining crowd contributions in a
meaningful way – use intervention if needed

21. SUMMARY
1. Model for crowdsourcing and crowd management
2. Applied in the focal study: Producing videographic
research data
3. Evaluated the application of model
à Development of crowd management in theoretical
and practical level