Do monetary or nonmonetary incentives promote citizens' use of a government crowdsourcing: A case of the City of Omaha's 311‐type of crowdsourcing platform

Abstract

Increasing numbers of local governments have adopted crowdsourcing platforms to engage citizens in public service provisions. As citizen engagement plays a critical role in the success of government crowdsourcing, we focus on incentive strategies to facilitate it. While studies have considered monetary incentives the primary motivator traditionally, recent research has examined the potency of nonmonetary strategies that stimulate citizens' territorial or civic motivation. Linking the coproduction framework of incentives to expectancy theories as a theoretical framework, we compare the effects of those incentives with vignette experiments that include Omahahotline—a 311‐type of government crowdsourcing platform run by the City of Omaha. The results show that not just a material incentive but also a solidary incentive increases residents' willingness to participate in the platform effectively. By conducting experiments with Omaha residents, we offer implications for local governments to use effective incentive strategies to engage citizens in the government crowdsourcing platform.