Monetary Incentivization of Crowds by Platforms

The platform industry is currently on the rise, and with so many platforms, acquiring users and getting them to engage can be challenging. To address this, many platforms are relying on crowdfunding, network effects and incentives, including monetary incentives. But what techniques are platforms using to monetarily incentivize their crowd? Although the study of platform dynamics has been on the rise, including research on crowdsourcing, network effects and incentivization, there is no present research being done on the methods being implemented by platforms to use monetary incentives on their crowd. This paper uses an inductive empirical method based on grounded theory, with data gathered from 15 different platforms that are known to be using a monetary incentivization method, to analyze and categorize the different strategies used by platforms and their marketing objectives. This paper presents useful information to assist managers to make the right decisions regarding monetary incentives and for fostering the potential of their crowd.