Digitization is fundamentally changing the ways and forms in which people work. Internet platforms that offer crowdsourcing or services of the so-called sharing economy are rapidly gaining importance and are already considered by some to be a new elite of the digital economy. We understand crowd-based platform organizations as a new form of organization that mobilizes crowds to integrate them into operational value chains, offering a wide range of services: from simple routine work (e.g.: Mechanical Turk, Clickworker), to solidly crafted creative work (e.g.: 99designs, Upwork), to highly complex innovative solutions (e.g.: Innocentive, Jovoto) and services based on the commercial use of "private investment goods" (e.g.: Uber, Airbnb). This increase in typically "free" work, i.e. work not secured by an employment contract, implies an increasing flexibilization and de-limitation of work, outside the boundaries of workplace organization. This leads back to very fundamental questions of organization theory:

What crowd-based organizational forms and business models exist?
On what mechanisms and basic principles is the performance of the platforms based?
How does the value chain linking client, platform and crowd work?
What are the social effects and side effects of crowdsourcing and sharing economy platforms (e.g. on labor markets, globalization, changing roles of consumers and producers, etc.)?
What regulatory measures and precautions are needed to ensure that crowd-based platforms generate broad social benefits?
What are the consequences of "platform capitalism" for employees and managers as well as for the co-determination and regulation of work?

Publications:

Schüßler E., Pernicka S.:
Zwischen Disruption und Integration: Governance von digitalen Plattformen im Personentransportsektor aus feldtheoretischer Perspektive, in KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, 2022

Gegenhuber T., Schüßler E., Reischauer G., Thäter L.:
Building collective institutional infrastructures for decent platform work: The development of a crowdwork agreement in Germany, in Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 79, Seite(n) 43-68, 2022

Thäter L., Gegenhuber T., Schüßler E., Ellmer M.:
How do workers gain voice on digital work platforms? Hotspots and blind spots in research on platform worker voice, in Adrian Wilkinson, Tony Dundon, Paula K. Mowbray, Sarah Brooks: Missing Voice? Worker Voice and Social Dialogue in the Platform Economy, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, Seite(n) 71-107, 2022

Aulenbacher B., Friedl W., Langthaler E., Maric S., Meyer U., Pillinger A., Raible S., Schüßler E.:
Die digitale Transformation von Arbeit. Narrative, Praxis und Gestaltungsoptionen. Paper für Momentum Kongress, 2022

Schüßler E., Attwood-Charles W., Kirchner S., Schor J.:
Between mutuality, autonomy and domination: Rethinking digital platforms as contested relational structures, in Socio-Economic Review, Vol. 19, Nr. 4, Oxford University Press, Seite(n) 1217–1243, 2021

Schüßler E., Attwood-Charles W., Kirchner S., Schor J.:
Understanding the Platform Economy, Serie Socio-Economic Review, 2021

Gegenhuber T., Ellmer M., Schüßler E.: 
Microphones, not megaphones: Functional crowdworker voice regimes on digital work platforms, in Human Relations, 2020

Kirchner S., Schüßler E.: 
The organization of digital marketplaces: Unmasking the role of internet platforms in the sharing economy, in Cambridge University Press: Organization outside Organizations. The Abundance of Partial Organization in Social Life, Seite(n) 131-154, 2019

Kirchner S., Schüßler E.: 
Regulating the sharing economy: A field perspective, in Mair, Johanna; Maurer, Indre; Oberg, Achim, in Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 2019

Gegenhuber T., Hinings B., Greenwood R.: 
Digital innovation and transformation: An institutional perspective, in Information & Organization, Vol. 28, Nr. 1, Seiten: 52-6, 2018

Gegenhuber T., Naderer S.: 
When the petting zoo spawns into monsters: open dialogue and a venture’s legitimacy quest in crowdfunding, in Innovation: Organization and Management, 2018

Reischauer G., Mair J.: 
Platform Organizing in the New Digital Economy: Revisiting Online Communities and Strategic Responses., opens an external URL in a new window in Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 57: 113-135, 2018

Reischauer G., Mair J.:
How Organizations Strategically Govern Online Communities: Lessons from the Sharing Economy., opens an external URL in a new window in Academy of Management Discoveries, 4(3): 220-247, 2018

Bauer R., Gegenhuber T.: 
Crowdsourcing: Intermediäre und die Rationalisierung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, in Aulenbacher, Dammayr, Dörre, Menz, Riegraf und Wolf: Leistung und Gerechtigkeit: Das umstrittene Versprechen des Kapitalismus, Beltz Verlag, Weinheim Basel, 2017

Schmidthuber L., Hilgers D., Gegenhuber T., Etzelstorfer S.: 
The Emergence of Local Open Government: Determinants of Citizen Participation in Online Service Reporting, in Government Information Quarterly, Vol. 34, Nr. 3, Seite(n) 457-469, 2017

Gegenhuber T., Dobusch L.: 
Making an Impression Through Openness: How Open Strategy-Making Practices Change in the Evolution of New Ventures, in Long Range Planning, Elsevier, 2016

Bauer R., Gegenhuber T.: 
Crowdsourcing: Intermediäre und die Rationalisierung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, in Aulenbacher, Dammayr, Dörre, Menz, Riegraf und Wolf: Leistung und Gerechtigkeit: Das umstrittene Versprechen des Kapitalismus, Beltz Verlag, Weinheim Basel, 2017

Hartl B., Hofmann E., Kirchler E.: Do we need rules for 'what's mine is yours'? Governance in collaborative consumption communities. In: Journal of Business Research, opens an external URL in a new window, Vol. 69, Nr. 8, Seiten: 2756-2763, 2016

Bauer R., Gegenhuber T.: 
Crowdsourcing: Global Search and the Twisted Roles of Consumers and Producers, in Organization, Vol. 22, Nr. 5, Sage Publications, Seite(n) 629, 2015

Mangematin V., Sapsed J., Schüßler E.: 
Disassembly and reassembly: An introduction to the Special Issue on digital technology and creative industries, in Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Vol. 83, Seite(n) 1-9, 2014

Mangematin V., Sapsed J., Schüßler E.: 
Disassembly and reassembly: An introduction to the Special Issue on digital technology and creative industries, in Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Vol. 83, Seite(n) 1-9, 2014

Gegenhuber T.: 
Crowdsourcing: Aggregation and Selection Mechanisms and the Impact of Peer Contributions on Contests, Serie Schriftenreihe der Johannes Kepler Universität, Reihe B, Nr. 150, Trauner Verlag, Linz, 2013