Understanding Volunteer Crowdsourcing from a Multiplex Perspective

Abstract

Our study delves into the understudied realm of volunteer crowdsourcing activities. Analyzing 827,260 volunteers’ participation in 183,445 projects initiated by 74,556 nonprofit organizations over nine years, the study unlocks insights into volunteers’ collaboration relationships and their behaviors, vital for increasing nonpaid labor supply and enhancing platform performance. We introduce a multiplex perspective to reveal how multilayer network dynamics offer enabling and constraining effects on volunteers’ continued participation, engagement, and interorganization movement. Practically, our findings equip crowdsourcing platforms with strategies to refine decision making and bolster volunteer engagement. By integrating novel network features such as tie multiplexity and relational pluralism, platforms can predict user actions more precisely. This fosters recommendation systems that not only elevate volunteer commitment but also facilitate productive interorganization transitions. At the macro level, tie multiplexity may lead to the “rich-get-richer” effect, enlarging the development inequality between large and small/new nonprofit organizations, whereas promoting relational pluralism is a potential remedy. For policymakers, our study offers a blueprint for nurturing volunteer networks and collaboration across organizations. Using a multiplex approach, they can adeptly manage the unpaid labor sector and invigorate nonprofit organizations. Our insights go beyond crowdsourcing as they could be applied to any digital context with multilayer networks, promising more tailored strategies to engage and mobilize users.