Is it more than allocating funds? Exploring the effect of enterprise crowdfunding on employee engagement

Enterprise crowdfunding (ECF) has evolved as a novel form to foster innovation and collaboration inside organizations. Research has so far focused on functional aspects related to the introduction of the crowdfunding mechanisms in enterprises (e.g., proposal characteristics or decision-making styles) leaving socio-economic effects on the organization and workforce unexplored. This work investigates the relationship between enterprise crowdfunding and the engagement of participating employees. By conducting an online survey with 321 employees of a multi-national manufacturing and electronics corporation, we find increased levels of employee engagement contingent upon participation in enterprise crowdfunding. These findings contribute to the understanding of effects related to the introduction of crowd-innovation platforms and enterprise social systems. From a practical perspective, they may foster the spread of enterprise crowdfunding as a tool being recognized to promote both, crowd-based innovation and employee engagement

NOT ALL TASKS ARE ALIKE: EXPLORING THE EFFECT OF TASK REPRESENTATION ON USER ENGAGEMENT IN CROWD-BASED IDEA EVALUATION

Crowdsourcing has experienced increasing popularity in recent years. While performance-based issues, such as the quantity or quality of output produced by the crowd, have been in the focus of research, users’ experience, which unfolds through interaction with the crowdsourcing platform and ultimately creates engagement, has been largely neglected. However, user engagement does not only determine the scope of effort users put into the crowdsourcing task, but is considered a determinant for future participation. This paper focusses on the role of task representation–manifested in mechanisms for crowd-based idea evaluation–as potential stimuli for user engagement. Therefore, we conduct a web-based experiment with 198 participants to investigate how different task representations translate into differences in users’ experience and their engagement. In particular, we analyze two distinctive task representations: sequential judgement tasks in form of multi-criteria rating scales and simultaneous choice tasks in the form of enterprise crowdfunding. We find differences in task representation to influence user engagement while mediated by a user’s perceived cognitive load. Moreover, our findings indicate that user engagement is determined by a user’s perceived meaningfulness of a task. These results enhance our understanding of user engagement in crowdsourcing and contribute to theory building in this emerging field

“May I Help You?”: Exploring the Effect of Individuals’ Self-Efficacy on the Use of Conversational Agents

Conversational agents (CAs) increasingly permeate our lives and offer us assistance for a myriad of tasks. Despite promising measurable benefits, CA use remains below expectations. To complement prior technology-focused research, this study takes a user-centric perspective and explores an individual’s characteristics and dispositions as a factor influencing CA use. In particular, we investigate how individuals’ self-efficacy, i.e., their belief in their own skills and abilities, affects their decision to seek assistance from a CA. We present the research model and study design for a laboratory experiment. In the experiment, participants complete two tasks embedded in realistic scenarios including websites with integrated CAs – that they might use for assistance. Initial results confirm the influence of individuals’ self-efficacy beliefs on their decision to use CAs. By taking a human-centric perspective and observing actual behavior, we expect to contribute to CA research by exploring a factor likely to drive CA use

UNDERSTANDING USER’S TRUST FORMATION ON MULTI-SIDED E-COMMERCE PLATFORMS

With the ever-growing popularity of online shopping, platform environments providing access to products by multiple sellers increasingly attract users. To reduce information asymmetry and enhance user trust, platform actors provide signals such as star reviews to demonstrate their trustworthiness. This work investigates the influence of trust signals from different sources (on the platform itself vs. on external third-party review sites) and for different targets (platform provider vs. seller) on users’ trust formation in multi-sided e-commerce platforms. We conduct a choice-based conjoint analysis based on data from 81 participants. Our results show that users weigh external signals stronger than internal ones when building trust. Also, trust signals for sellers have a higher impact on users’ trust than platform provider signals. Signal discrepancies between internal and external reviews are especially harmful to the platform provider. These insights extend prior knowledge on trust formation and its impacting factors on e-commerce platforms

An Affordance-Actualization Perspective on Smart Service Systems

Smart physical products increasingly shape a connected IoT world and serve as boundary objects for the formation of ‘smart service systems’. While these systems bear the potential to co-create value between partners in various industries, IS research still struggles to fully capture the phenomenon to support successful digital innovation in IoT settings. In our work, we analyze the phenomenon of smart service systems taking an affordance-actualization perspective. Based on a qualitative content analysis of a multi-case study, we identify elements and propositions to build mid-range theoretical knowledge for smart service systems. We suggest that providers and users of smart products not only realize their own affordances via their actions but might also affect the immediate concrete outcomes of partners. The developed theoretical framework and six distinct propositions should build the theoretical base for further research into the phenomenon in IS research