Crowdworking Platforms in Germany: Business Insights from a Study & Implications for Society
Jahrestagung des Verbands der Hochschullehrer für Betriebswirtschaft (VHB), Frankfurt am Main, Germany, (2020)Abstract
The competitiveness of organizations and whole economies depends on how successfully they are able to cope with the digital transformation and new technological trends. In the area of digital work, crowdworking platforms emerged as intermediaries that support a new form of service delivery and work organization. Despite their increasing importance, there is only few data about key characteristics of such platforms such as number of employees or revenues. Furthermore, extant data often focusses only on a few platforms, mostly from the US. Based on results from a study about the 32 crowdworking platforms that have their headquarters or a physical location in Germany, we provide data that for the first time allows to draw conclusions for the “total population” of crowdworking platforms in a defined larger region (Germany as Europe’s largest and the world fourth largest economy). These results are valuable for various stakeholders from economy and politics, allowing them to make economic or political decisions on a more informed basis. Furthermore, we develop an evaluation framework that depicts the implications for these groups along the dimensions costs, flexibility, “humanity”, quality, and time: Crowdworking platforms on the one hand provide several opportunities: Individuals gain more flexibility, groups can benefit from additional contributors, organizations have the potential to process work faster and cheaper. On the other hand, this novel form of work organization also includes potential threats for all groups: Low payments and ‘tayloristic’ work, insufficient quality or irritation of internal employees. Based on 12 interviews with company representatives and crowdworkers, we evaluate implications of this novel form of work organization for society.