The advent of the digital economy led to the emergence of new business models hitherto unthinkable of. For instance, the rise of Wikipedia creatively destructed the encyclopedia industry as one knew it. In fact, the decline of Encyclopedia Brittanica had begun earlier through the arrival of Encarta and it being complement to PC, but the rise of Wikipedia hastened the same. The rise of open source software is another example of what Benkler would term as the commons based peer production. Companies from Goldcorp to Local Motors as documented by Tapscott and Williams have demonstrated the arrival of new business models predicated on sharing or collaboration with little explicit monetary benefits. There are a number of discussion forums or bulletin boards or even platforms like Quora or Yahoo Answers where information is exchanged without any monetary consideration. To a substantial and critical section of the digital economy, the social production or the non-monetary production has been the critical factor for success. It would be prudent to examine the motivators of the participants in the commons based peer production. Contrary to the monetary economy, in this context, many an occasion, there is very little reward apart from self-satisfaction or may be an urge to signal to others one’s own knowledge.
Many theories can be advanced to highlight the motivations behind people contributing to non-monetary social production or the commons based peer production. It might be a simple case of reciprocal altruism something borrowed from evolutionary biology. This can perhaps explain significantly the discussions in the user generated forums, user reviews of products services and places, or maybe platforms like Quora. There is of course the McClelland theory of motivation which emphasizes on the need for achievement or affiliation. There is some sense of achievement in having answered some questions thus popularity in Quora or other discussion forums, maybe an achievement in editing and adding new information on Wikipedia, a sense of creative achievement in developing a new video or podcast on YouTube or iTunes or similar other platform. Through an interaction and thus the output through creation of information might be a way to fulfil the human need for affiliation, something visible in Facebook or Twitter.
There is no doubt that people would respond to incentives. Thus the contests like something organized by Goldcorp or NASA Mars-Mapper or even on Kaggle or Innocentive could spur the people into taking part. The incentive need not be monetary but could also reflect the non-monetary elements like recognition etc. There is an element of an application of cognitive surplus into something productive. In the past, the leisure was often associated with passive activity like being couch potato or engaged in spending time in pubs or pub games. The cognitive surplus that remained unharnessed is sought to be used constructively towards creation of something productive in leisure. The leisure itself is a product of what has been termed a backward bending labour supply curve. In the trade-off between leisure and work, people might tend to use leisure to engage in activities that appeal to them or are passionate about. Implied is something they were not able to fulfil in their work time is sought to be fulfilled in pursuit of leisure. In this context, it would be interesting to examine the application of Herzberg’s two factor model into an external environment rather than a mere application of the same within the firm.
As the Coasian firm breaks down, the Herzberg’s applications too would expand into new territories. If something was applicable within the firm, it might find relevance or application outside its traditional boundaries. There is perhaps a case for societal distribution of motivation resulting in creative production thus economic surplus. Herzberg positioned his theory decomposing motivation as an outcome of two factors one the hygiene factors and the second motivating factors. The hygiene factors are ones wherein the employee or the individual is either dissatisfied or not dissatisfied. Absence of these factors lead to dissatisfaction whereas the presence leads to elimination of dissatisfaction. Working conditions, pay, status, company policies, fringe benefits might all be the hygiene factors but the real ones that increase the motivation are what he called the motivating factors ranging from a scale of satisfaction to non-satisfaction. The recognition within the organization, the sense of achievement, the status one has within the organization, the responsibilities assigned to the employees or perhaps even the meaningfulness of work all contribute in significant ways to motivation. Herzberg applied it within the firm. He was working in an era where the Coasian firm dominated the scene as did the Porter value chain.
With the increasing dismantling of Porter Value chain, and the blurring of boundaries of Coasian firm, the motivating and the hygiene factors too would undergo a transformation. In the absence of satisfaction, the employees, the employees might seek to find satisfaction elsewhere. The hygiene conditions might be absent within the organization, yet given the constraints within the organization, the employees might seek to find these in external environments. This is where the cognitive surplus actually comes into picture. The sense of recognition or achievement that leads to satisfaction or avoids non-satisfaction finds itself in the exteriors of the societal organization. Somebody contributing to Wikipedia for instance might find these available there rather than something within the organization. Work might happen to earn daily bread but absent from it could be the meaningfulness. There are countless people who are at job for the sake of bread and butter and not for any meaningful joy. Herzberg might have underplayed this, but the pursuit of meaningfulness in work would lead the employees to seek comfort elsewhere. They might find this comfort in Quora or on YouTube or perhaps on Coursera as they seek to follow their passion. The contests on Innocentive might actually be the incentives that spur the Herzberg’s motivating factors rather than mere interaction between the supply (solution providers ) and the demand (solution seekers).
As one glances at the commons based peer production, it is perhaps the externalization of the Herzberg motivating factors as well as his hygienic factors that have led to the development and flourishing of the commons based peer production. The boundaries to seek refuge as fulfilment of factors is something porous and constantly expanding. Therefore, the sense of satisfaction to contribute to the shared economy without any monetary gains is something that can be explained with.
Thoughts on Theory and Practice 