The Ethical, Societal, and Global Implications of Crowdsourcing Research

Shuili Du (), Mayowa T. Babalola (), Premilla D’Cruz (), Edina Dóci (), Lucia Garcia-Lorenzo (), Louise Hassan (), Gazi Islam (), Alexander Newman (), Ernesto Noronha () and Suzanne Gils ()
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Shuili Du: University of New Hampshire
Mayowa T. Babalola: University of Western Australia
Premilla D’Cruz: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
Edina Dóci: Université catholique de Louvain
Lucia Garcia-Lorenzo: London School of Economics
Louise Hassan: University of Birmingham
Gazi Islam: Grenoble Ecole de Management and IREGE
Alexander Newman: The University of Melbourne
Ernesto Noronha: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
Suzanne Gils: BI Norwegian Business School

Journal of Business Ethics, 2024, vol. 193, issue 1, No 1, 16 pages

Abstract: Abstract Online crowdsourcing platforms have rapidly become a popular source of data collection. Despite the various advantages these platforms offer, there are substantial concerns regarding not only data validity issues, but also the ethical, societal, and global ramifications arising from the prevalent use of online crowdsourcing platforms. This paper seeks to expand the dialogue by examining both the “internal” aspects of crowdsourcing research practices, such as data quality issues, reporting transparency, and fair compensation, and the “external” aspects, in terms of how the widespread use of crowdsourcing data collection shapes the nature of scientific communities and our society in general. Online participants in research studies are informal workers who provide labor in exchange for remuneration. The paper thus highlights the need for researchers to consider the markedly different political, economic, and socio-cultural characteristics of the Global North and the Global South when undertaking crowdsourcing research involving an international sample; such consideration is crucial for both increasing research validity and mitigating societal inequities. We encourage researchers to scrutinize the value systems underlying this popular data collection research method and its associated ethical, societal, and global ramifications, as well as provide a set of recommendations regarding the use of crowdsourcing platforms.

Keywords: Crowdsourcing research; Online labor; Ethics of methods; Data validity; Transparency; Global South (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-023-05604-9

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