Paper with Kai Ye “The Impact of Problem Specification Structuredness on Crowdsourcing Contexts“ has been accepted at the Journal of Management Information Systems.

Abstract: This study explores the impacts of the structure of problem specifications in crowdsourcing contests. We theorize that the structure affects seekers’ difficulty in initiating contests, influencing the number of contests they launch. It also shapes solvers’ participation and idea generation, affecting the number of solvers and the number of high-quality ideas in contests. Using a natural experiment in which a platform increased the structuredness of problem specifications for certain contests, we find that this change led to more contests being launched by seekers. However, even with an increase in contests, individual solvers participated in fewer contests, and those contests attracted fewer solvers. Additionally, although more structured problem specifications helped individual solvers generate more high-quality submissions, there were fewer such submissions in contests. Therefore, more structured problem specifications can be a double-edged sword, making the process easier for seekers but discouraging solver participation and hindering seekers’ ability to source exceptional ideas.

Keywords: Crowdsourcing, contests, problem specification, natural experiment, seekers, solvers, idea quality

The accepted manuscript is available at https://www.tatkoon.com/koh/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Problem-Specification-Structuredness-JMIS-202607.pdf