{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,2]],"date-time":"2026-07-02T02:31:49Z","timestamp":1782959509784,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)","issue":"2","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Information Systems Research"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,6]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Crowdsourcing platforms provide venues for firms looking for solutions (seekers) to interact with individuals who can provide solutions (solvers). As crowdsourcing contest platforms have grown in popularity, with numerous tasks being posted on a daily basis, a concern that has emerged is that many similar tasks compete for solver attention, with some tasks failing to attract sufficient solver participation. To alleviate this concern, in addition to regular task listings, many crowdsourcing platforms offer sponsorship programs under which seekers pay an extra fee for highlighting their tasks to draw solvers\u2019 attention. We examine the effect of sponsorship on solver participation using a unique data set collected from a leading crowdsourcing platform. In contrast to platforms\u2019 claims about the effect of sponsorship on participation, we find that sponsorship does not always boost participation in crowdsourcing contests; sponsorship increases the number of participants only when the task\u2019s prize amount is already high. Furthermore, even when the number of participants increases, the increase comes primarily from low-ability solvers. We also find that when sponsorship increases the total number of submissions, it does so only by increasing the number of participants; sponsorship does not increase the number of submissions that individual solvers submit after joining a task. More granular analyses reveal an effect of anticipated increased competition caused by sponsorship on high-ability solvers that is not observed on those of low ability, explaining the difference in their participation decisions when facing sponsored tasks. We also find that the effect of sponsorship weakens over the duration of a task for high-ability solvers and is also weaker for solvers with more experience on the platform.<\/jats:p>\n                  <jats:p>History: Yong Tan, Senior Editor; Wenjing Duan, Associate Editor.<\/jats:p>\n                  <jats:p>Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1287\/isre.2021.0246 .<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1287\/isre.2021.0246","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,22]],"date-time":"2025-08-22T16:48:07Z","timestamp":1755881287000},"page":"693-715","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Sponsored Tasks and Solver Participation in Crowdsourcing Contests"],"prefix":"10.1287","volume":"37","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8635-8075","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jiahui","family":"Mo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3045-1024","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sumit","family":"Sarkar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Naveen Jindal School of Management, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas 75080"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5907-2680","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jianqing","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Naveen Jindal School of Management, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas 75080"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"109","reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/270983"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Araujo RM (2013) 99designs: An analysis of creative competition in crowdsourced design.\n                      Proc. First AAAI Conf. Human Comput. Crowdsourcing\n                      (AAAI Press, Washington, DC), 17\u201324.","DOI":"10.1609\/hcomp.v1i1.13081"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1037\/0022-3514.51.6.1173"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3982\/ECTA12423"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2753\/MIS0742-1222280307"},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/poms.12552"},{"key":"B8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.1110.1322"},{"key":"B10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/poms.13340"},{"key":"B11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chilton LB, Horton JJ, Miller RC, Azenkot S (2010) Task search in a human computation market.\n                      Proc. 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Systems\n                      (Association for Computing Machinery, New York), 317\u2013324.","DOI":"10.1145\/365024.365124"},{"key":"B22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.25300\/MISQ\/2019\/13649"},{"key":"B23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/msom.2020.0873"},{"key":"B24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/isre.2020.0982"},{"key":"B19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/isre.2018.0810"},{"key":"B20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/isre.2021.1054"},{"key":"B21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/msom.2020.0935"},{"key":"B25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1509\/jmkg.71.4.140"},{"key":"B26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.2013.1845"},{"key":"B27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.25300\/MISQ\/2021\/14639"},{"key":"B28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1257\/aer.91.3.542"},{"key":"B29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/biomet\/70.1.41"},{"key":"B30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/isre.2019.0874"},{"key":"B31","unstructured":"Tan CH, Teo HH, Lee SY, Hui KL (2002) Effects of visual cues on buyer information acquisition: An empirical investigation at Yahoo! auction: What attracts auction buyers.\n                      Proc. Pacific Asia Conf. Inform. Systems (PACIS 2002) (Tokyo, Japan),\n                      18."},{"key":"B32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.1080.0884"},{"key":"B34","volume-title":"Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach,","author":"Woolridge JM","year":"2013","edition":"5"},{"key":"B36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Yang J, Adamic LA, Ackerman MS (2008) Crowdsourcing and knowledge sharing: Strategic user behavior on Taskcn.\n                      Proc. 9th ACM Conf. Electronic Commerce\n                      (Association for Computing Machinery, New York), 246\u2013255.","DOI":"10.1145\/1386790.1386829"}],"container-title":["Information Systems Research"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/pubsonline.informs.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1287\/isre.2021.0246","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,26]],"date-time":"2026-06-26T07:26:04Z","timestamp":1782458764000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/pubsonline.informs.org\/doi\/10.1287\/isre.2021.0246"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,6]]},"references-count":31,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,6]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1287\/isre.2021.0246"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1287\/isre.2021.0246","relation":{},"ISSN":["1047-7047","1526-5536"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1047-7047","type":"print"},{"value":"1526-5536","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,6]]}}}