An Empirical Study of Social Capital in Participation in Online Crowdsourcing

Abstract

Online crowdsourcing has become a new innovation business model through Internet . This paper studied the motives of the use of online crowdsourcing and the social capital in its community. The results indicates that learning, direct compensation, self-marketing and social motives are motives to activate the participation in outsourcing activities. Participation not only can increase company's innovation capability but also accumulate social capital of the crowdsoucing community formed by online participants.