Introducing Contests to a Social Community: The Effects of Contest Participation on a User-Generated Content Platform

32 Pages Posted: 9 May 2022

See all articles by Jörg Claussen

Jörg Claussen

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) - Faculty of Business Administration (Munich School of Management); Copenhagen Business School - Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics

Maria Halbinger

City University of New York (CUNY) - Narendra Paul Loomba Department of Management

Lior Zalmanson

Coller School of Management -Tel Aviv University

Date Written: April 2022

Abstract

Contests represent a core element in firms’ online platform operations for problem-solving and innovation. Yet, the effects of contests, when introduced to an established community of users, are unclear. Traditionally, firms have pursued firm-led contests as open approaches to innovation, separate from the operations of managing the user community. In this study, we combine two different data sources stemming from the 3D printing platform Thingiverse, which allows us to compare a) regular content creation activities shared with the existing platform community with b) content creation activities explicitly pertaining to the contests launched in the existing platform community. Our empirical analyses show that contests increase community reaction as humans are drawn to contests and as contests incentivize increasing efforts. Second, in response to ambiguous findings in prior studies as to whether competition is beneficial or detrimental to creative outcomes, we find a negative effect on future content creation. Supplementary analyses show that contest-induced pressure of social comparison among contributors creates negative incentives for future content generation if contest contributors do not achieve relatively high levels of community reaction. Third, our results show that contestants develop more exploratory outcomes both immediately and in the long run, suggesting that contests may redirect participants’ attention to venture into new, more unfamiliar domains when problem-solving. Our study provides relevant insights pertaining to the operations management of digital platforms. It highlights important implications on the role of technologies in facilitating social interactions between and among users and the firm more broadly.

Keywords: contests, user generated content, platforms

Suggested Citation

Claussen, Jörg and Halbinger, Maria and Zalmanson, Lior, Introducing Contests to a Social Community: The Effects of Contest Participation on a User-Generated Content Platform (April 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4091331 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4091331

Jörg Claussen (Contact Author)

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) - Faculty of Business Administration (Munich School of Management) ( email )

Kaulbachstr. 45
Munich, DE 80539
Germany

Copenhagen Business School - Department of Innovation and Organizational Economics ( email )

Kilevej 14A
Frederiksberg, 2000
Denmark

Maria Halbinger

City University of New York (CUNY) - Narendra Paul Loomba Department of Management

NY
United States

Lior Zalmanson

Coller School of Management -Tel Aviv University ( email )

Ramat Aviv
Tel-Aviv, 6997801
Israel

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