Topic: Threads of Success: New Empirical Generalizations from a Large Crowdsourcing Dataset.

Speaker: Prof. XIAO Ping, National University of Singapore

Host: Prof. HUANG Zhongsheng

Tim: 15:00-16:30 December 26th, 2016 (Monday)

Venue: Room 1002

Abstract: In this study, we study a pioneering crowdsourcing website, Threadless.com, which sources designs from a community of amateurs and independent professionals, solicits feedback from the community on the submitted designs, and then retails selected designs. Our study examines a carefully collected, novel, large scale dataset of over 150 million ratings, relating to over 150,000 designs on Threadless, submitted by over 40,000 designers. We focus on two questions. First, what is the conventional wisdom relating to crowdsourcing success—what factors influence the selection of designs by Threadless? Second, does the conventional wisdom stand up to scrutiny—can these factors be predictably and systematically linked to commercial success? The data suggests a substantive difference between the selection criteria of Threadless and the findings from our empirical analysis. We conclude by discussing the implications of our research for designers and firms seeking to ride the crowdsourcing tide.