Smarter Crowdwork by Applying Smart Contracts? European Conference on Information Systems

Crowdworking is characterized by flexibly engaging a workforce that is recruited for only one task. After the task is completed, the crowdworker and the company do not collaborate anymore. To identify the best-suited crowdwoker for a certain task, crowd working platform providers offer different tools to match both parties. Matching a crowdworker with the required skills for a task is an important factor to complete a crowdworking campaign successfully. As of today, the principal agent theorem and high transaction costs decrease the effectiveness of such campaigns due to information asymmetries between crodworkers and crowdsourcers. Based on a qualitative approach, we structurally develop a currently existing crowdworking campaign process. We then theoretically analyze how smart contracts can support and simplify the identified process while reducing the challenges of transaction cost economics and the principal agent theorem.