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

his study explores the role of crowdsourcing platforms as multivocal inscriptions, that is, collaboration-enabling artifacts that can be compatible with the practices, logics and skills of different categories of actors. The case of a crowdsourcing intermediary in the fields of industrial design, craftsmanship and interior design confirms the importance of an intermediary organization that manages the platform and bridges the crowdsourcers, on the one side, and crowdsourcees, on the other side. In addition, this study leverages the case study to inductively develop a model of multivocality in crowdsourcing platforms. Ac- cording to this model, a two-level multivocality (operational and strategic) is needed to address the fragilities of crowdsourcing; operational multivocality con- creately enables collaborative interactions, whilst strategic multivocality aims to link the different goals and preoccupations of crowdsourcers, on the one side, and crowdsourcees, on the other side. This study contributes to the exploration of the complex dynamics that shape cooperation in crowdsourcing activity systems.