A Conceptual Framework for Investigating Organizational Control and Resistance in Crowd-Based Platforms

This paper presents a research agenda for crowd behavior research by drawing from the organizational control literature. It addresses the need for research into the organizational and social structures that guide user behavior and contributions in crowd-based platforms. Crowd behavior is situated within a conceptual framework of organizational control. This framework helps scholars more fully articulate the full range of control mechanisms operating in crowd-based platforms, contextualizes these mechanisms into the context of crowd-based platforms, challenges existing rational assumptions about incentive systems, and clarifies theoretical constructs of organizational control to foster stronger integration between information systems research and organizational and management science.