 The Wisdom of e-crowds: Can Masses Create Value?Wieczerzycki Marcin ()
International Journal of Management and Economics, 2016, vol. 51, issue 1, 47-62 Abstract: With the rising popularity of the Internet, interactions between companies and their consumers have become more common and meaningful. Researchers often tend to apply the metaphor of community to these on-line networks of B2C relationships. However, this term implies durability and a long-term orientation. It does not cover more incidental, short-lived groups of consumers, who therefore should not be treated as communities. The purpose of this paper is to explore the ability of these short-term, collective consumer phenomena (addressed as e-crowds within the scope of this paper) to create value. Based on a critical literature analysis that considers works from several different fields of knowledge (including management, economics, psychology and media studies) and empirical examples, we argue that while lacking a complex internal organization, e-crowds are capable of creating use, exchange and sign value when certain conditions are met. However, they are equally likely to perform value-destroying activities, which present real risks for companies that interact with e-crowds. Keywords: crowdsourcing; value creation; crowd; e-crowd; public; consumer behavior (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:ijomae:v:51:y:2016:i:1:p:47-62:n:5 Access Statistics for this article International Journal of Management and Economics is currently edited by Mariusz Próchniak More articles in International Journal of Management and Economics from Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.