Introduction
Entrepreneurs are always looking for innovative business models they can use to run their businesses effectively. For instance, a model used by many entrepreneurs is crowdsourcing, which harnesses social media’s advantages to create a profitable business. Groups of users working towards a business goal are governed by specific management system schemes such as copyright protection and compensations. This way social media, with the help of human intelligence, can provide information that will guide organizations toward achieving a pre-acknowledged business goal. This paper will provide vital information on how the crowdsourcing model’s conceptual framework can be built and run to benefit both small and large businesses. Further, variations in the model stipulated by system managerial control, the extent of collaboration, and intelligence tasks will be analyzed. The research was based on evaluating several websites regarding the type of product being outsourced, a role carried out by online users, types of collaborations, and managerial control system use.
Assessment
The first model to be analyzed is the intermediary model, which relies on crowdsourcing information technology. Web users find lists of jobs posted by employers and are compensated for their services through monetary value when they perform specific tasks. An excellent example of an organization that uses this model is Amazon’s mTurk, it uses online users as innovators, researchers, and developers for their organization (Saxton et al., 2013). Levels of collaboration by users are low to medium, but their compensation is usually high.
The citizen media production model focuses on using the crowd as media content creators instead of being inactive consumers of information produced by media organizations only. The citizens participate actively in the production process, for example, by writing news. Citizen content providers are compensated and earn monetary value for the content that they have contributed (Saxton et al., 2013). The organization ensures that the content providers adhere to copyright claims, quality control, and intellectual property utilization.
The collaborative software development model is a type of crowdsourcing method in which a software developing company acquires software tools for their online community. These tools are used to develop business ideas or products. Cambrianhouse uses these criteria to develop products and ideas, the best goods are upvoted by other members (Saxton et al., 2013). Later, the company implements these projects, and all those involved in creating the program are compensated. Another model which involves crowdfunding is the digital goods sales model, which allows users to sell their products on a platform, including companies such as Shutterstock and istockphoto. Approved members post photos on these platforms and are later rewarded according to the number of downloads (Saxton et al., 2013). Members have to go through screening to ensure that they provide quality products. The company ensures that intellectual property issues and copyright claims are appropriately addressed.
The product design model allows the community to develop designs for their products. Zazzle, Threadless, and Fluevog manufacturing companies employ online users to develop brand sand designs for products like t-shirts, shoes, mugs, and calendars, among other things. Good designs are voted for by members of the platform who comment on different products. Best products are produced in bulk, and the designers are compensated with monetary rewards. Those who promote the selected products are paid for the content they market on various websites.
Peer to peer social financing model uses crowdsourcing to connect individuals with different needs. Kiva.org is a perfect example that uses this approach since its interface is designed such that the online web community acts as both the lenders and borrowers of loans. Its main advantage is that it provides its services to a wide range of physically dispersed users (Saxton et al., 2013). The consumer report theory employs online reviewers to survey different kinds of purchases rather than using radio or television commercials. Reviewers are paid based on how well they describe the product on platforms such as Epinions.com, which allocates users’ payments based on the reviews’ quality (Saxton et al., 2013). In that case, the company pays less for mediocre reviews while it rewards the best articles. Therefore, the web community plays the consumer reporters’ role, a much more effective technique than TVs and radio commercials.
The knowledge base building model uses virtual human intelligence to acquire information about different topics. An example is wikis, which use the internet to establish articles for their websites. Online users are given the ability to ascertain the quality of the information (Saxton et al., 2013). Quality control is facilitated by how other members of the platform asses the presented data. Monetary rewards are issued by the company based on the relevance of provided information. Other platforms that use this model of crowdsourcing include Emporis.com
Critical Thinking
For the proper enactment of crowdsourcing, entrepreneurs have to change both business and data systems. Incorporating information technology into a company can lead to losses, especially if the transformation is lopsided. Business processes that are mainly run by silo criteria can be substituted by crowdsourcing (Ghezzi et al., 2018). This way, problems like inadequate facts, misplaced priorities, and decision-making issues can be eradicated. To quickly transform business procedures without causing managerial problems, a workflow should be created to identify and name specific processes (Saxton et al., 2013). A diagram of the tasks should be produced before a list of steps is drawn from the start point to the endpoint. This will facilitate a visual presentation of a properly working business model.
Information technology can be incorporated into a business to provide better profitable management systems. By so doing, new types of work are created. As of 2019, 11.5 million people were employed in IT-related jobs, according to the Bureau of labor statistics (Saxton et al., 2013). The evolution of commercial systems from traditional working methods has been facilitated by IT flexibility of information technology enabling new ways for people to connect and develop better products and services, as shown by crowdsourcing.
With IT employees can work away from the office, and virtual meetings can be arranged, in case the person wants to discuss issues about their business. IT continues to grow in popularity due to its ability to unite specialists and stakeholders from different countries and backgrounds. Many organizations take pride in integrating IT into their management systems (Goodman & Paolacci, 2017). However, those resisting come up with reasons such as IT will not change the system quo or denying. Further, the social media community keeps growing, which is why different management systems should embrace crowdsourcing. Those using crowdsourcing enjoy several advantages, including efficiently achieving laid down business goals. Moreover, it provides different mechanisms that ensure that proper procedures are followed by the online community before products and services are transferred to the consumer.
Reference
Ghezzi, A., Gabelloni, D., Martini, A., & Natalicchio, A. (2018). Crowdsourcing: a review and suggestions for future research. International Journal of Management Reviews, 20(2), 343-363. Web.
Goodman, J. K., & Paolacci, G. (2017). Crowdsourcing consumer research. Journal of Consumer Research, 44(1), 196-210. Web.
Saxton, G. D., Oh, O., & Kishore, R. (2013). Rules of crowdsourcing: Models, issues, and systems of control. Information Systems Management, 30(1), 2-20. Web.