Crowdsourcing platforms as multivocal inscriptions? How open innovation intermediaries (could) address tensions between co-creation actors

This study explores the role of crowdsourcing platforms as multivocal inscriptions,that is, collaboration-enabling artifacts that can be compatible with the practices, logic,and skills of different categories of actors. The case of a crowdsourcing intermediaryin the fields of industrial design, craftsmanship and interior designconfirms the importance of an intermediary organization that manages the platform and bridges people, “crowdsourcers” and “crowdsourcees”, on the other side. In addition, this study leverages the case study to inductively develop a model of multivocality in crowdsourcing plat-forms.According to this model, a two-level multivocality (operational and stra-tegic) is needed to address the fragilities of crowdsourcing; operational multivo-cality concretely enables collaborative interactions, whilst strategic multivocality aims to link the different goalsand preoccupations ofthe two cath.This study contributes to the exploration of the complex dynamics that shape cooperation in crowdsourcing activity systems