One for All? Managing External and Internal Crowds through a Single Platform - A Case Study

Whereas crowdsourcing as a topic has often been addressed in recent literature, web-based crowdworking platforms that manage the interface between crowdsourcers and crowdworkers have not received much attention so far. Furthermore, most of these platforms focus on either the management of external or internal crowds; platforms that handle both groups are rare. This paper investigates such a provider: the German company Across Systems. It uses a hybrid model, offering an individual “mini crowdworking platform” that enables the simultaneous government of external and internal crowds as well as a more traditional marketplace crowdworking platform (crossMarket) where supply and demand meet. Using a single-case study approach, the main contribution of this paper is to shed light on a model that has the potential to change the current crowdworking platform market. We show that managing both external and internal crowds on one platform can increase the acceptance, quality and speed of task completion.