Finding the Path to Success: An Examination of Expertise, Exploration and Exploitation, and Creativity Performance in a Crowdsourcing Platform

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Abstract

Employing the collective knowledge of online crowds to generate innovation has recently gained significant attention from researchers. By studying Stitchly, a company that crowdsources the process for producing t-shirts and other graphic designs through a continued competition on its website, this article explores how design expertise influences creativity performance through exploration and exploitation activities by designers on the site. Utilizing content analysis and multilevel mixed-effects modeling, results from a longitudinal sample of 42 successful designers indicate that higher levels of design expertise is related to lesser amounts of exploration and greater amounts of exploitation. In addition, both exploration and exploitation yield designers to create successfully voted and printed designs. Theoretical and practical implications for crowdsourcing are discussed.

Authors

• Yu Xu, U of Southern California

• Yao Sun, U of Southern California - Annenberg School for Communication

• Ignacio Cruz, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, U of Southern California