Crowdsourcing in business and management disciplines: an integrative literature review

The objective of this study is to review crowdsourcing literature of the business and management disciplines and to know its relation with the open innovation concept. A systematic literature review is used in this study. Studies on crowdsourcing are published mostly in recent years, 2011-2013. Studies are highly dispersed, published in a very wide range of journals and are mostly based on a single case as data source. Content analysis of the findings of articles are performed to synthesize the findings in the extant literature. Most of the qualitative articles used single case method and most of the quantitative studies relied on online survey over a single crowdsourcing platform. Studies and scholars in the literature are from a limited number of countries. Although crowdsourcing as a concept overlaps with the open innovation concept, by no means, it can be considered a concept under the broad umbrella of open innovation concept. Based on identified gaps, future research avenues are presented

Ontological and linguistic Metamodelling revisited: A language use approach

Context: Although metamodelling is generally accepted as important for our understanding of software and systems development, arguments about the validity and utility of ontological versus linguistic metamodelling continue. Objective: The paper examines the traditional, metamodel-focused construction of modelling languages in the context of language use, and particularly speech act theory. These concepts are then applied to the problems introduced by the ''Orthogonal Classification Architecture'' that is often called the ontological/linguistic paradox. The aim of the paper is to show how it is possible to overcome these problems. Method: The paper adopts a conceptual-Analytical approach by revisiting the published arguments and developing an alternative metamodelling architecture based on language use. Results: The analysis shows that when we apply a language use perspective of meaning to traditional modelling concepts, a number of incongruities and misconceptions in the traditional approaches are revealed -issues that are not evident in previous work based primarily on set theory. Clearly differentiating between the extensional and intensional aspects of class concepts (as sets) and also between objects (in the social world) and things (in the physical world) allows for a deeper understanding to be gained of the relationship between the ontological and linguistic views promulgated in the modelling world. Conclusions: We propose that a viewpoint that integrates language use ideas into traditional modelling (and metamodelling) is vital, and stress that meaning is not inherent in the physical world; meaning, and thus socially valid objects, are constructed by use of language, which may or may not establish a one-to-one correspondence relationship between objects and physical things. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

On the need for identity in ontology-based conceptual modelling

Conceptual modelling is often argued to be a core technique in information systems development. An important aspect of conceptual modelling is the ontological and philosophical questions of how to conceive of object existence and identity. Despite significant interest in the topic, formal agreement on how object identity should be represented in modelling languages remains an open question. In the literature, the predominant view is that an object, or entity, is a modelling construct used to represent things. Contrary to this view, we draw on theories of language use and social ontology to understand object identity based on the notion that identity cannot be limited to the identity of physical things. The emphasis is on how language is used to create conceptual entities in a way that maintains fidelity to physical reality and ensures reliable identification of entities across domains. The theoretical implications of this work are primarily the new perspective of conceptual modelling that social ontology affords and the formal introduction and ontological grounding of institutional entities, which have so far been treated rather incidentally. Practical implications include a better foundation for designing and selecting identifiers and classe

On Buyer Selection of Service Providers in Online Outsourcing Platforms for IT Services

The Internet has presumably created a level playing field that allows any service provider across the globe to compete for contracts on online outsourcing platforms for information technology IT services. In this paper, we empirically examine a how country language, time zone, cultural differences and the country's IT development affect buyers' selection of service providers in online outsourcing platforms; and b how the reputation of service providers moderates the proposed effects of country differences and the country's IT development. We integrated a unique data set formed by a sample of 11,541 software development projects from an online outsourcing platform matched with archival sources on the language, time zone, culture, and IT development of countries. Since price is typically endogenous in any supply demand system, we used the exogenous variation of the normalized exchange rate of the currency among countries, as a "cost-shifter" type instrumental variable IV for econometric identification. Our panel data analyses results both with and without IV show that buyers are negatively affected by country differences in terms of language, time zone, and culture, and prefer service providers from countries with higher IT development. Notably, the reputation of service providers attenuates the negative effects of language and cultural but not time zone differences, while it substitutes the positive effect of the country's IT development. We discuss the study's theoretical and managerial implications for understanding the global dynamics of online outsourcing platforms and better designing these platforms. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2017.0709