Continuance intention in crowdsourcing processes

With the growing popularity of Crowdsourcing (CS), companies are developing different strategies to tap into the creativity of the crowd. Some of these strategies imply the long-term involvement of communities of external individuals. Since participation in CS is voluntary, it is important to understand the determinants of participation. Several studies exist that investigated the motivations of participants in CS initiatives. These studies, however, did not make distinction between people who participate only once and people who after the first experience intend to participate again. This research attempts to explore the determinants of repeated participation, critical for the success of long-term CS strategies. We investigate the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations on the intention continue for participants in CS initiatives. To address this objective, a survey involving individuals, who have participated at least once in CS initiatives, has been conducted. Hierarchical regression analysis has been used to test the hypotheses. The findings demonstrate that intrinsic motivations impact on the intention to continue for participants in CS initiatives. The impact of extrinsic motivations (i.e. monetary rewards and reputation) was found to be not significant. As a consequence, companies willing to adopt long-term CS strategies need to leverage intrinsic motivations in order to involve communities of external individuals in their innovation processes.