Managing digital crowds for generativity: The role of scalability and forking

In this article, we provide a conceptual foundation for analyzing crowd forms of organizing in digital environments. In particular, we define and identify digital crowd forms of organizing and their antecedent production mechanisms for generativity (the ability to produce unprompted innovation) outcomes. We propose that crowds are composed of loosely coupled members who contribute to the emergence of norms toward a system-level goal. The forms of organizing, as illustrated by three archetypes—crowdsourcing, online communities, and Distributed Autonomous Organizations—achieve different degrees of generativity through two main production mechanisms: scalability and forking. We conclude with speculations on the role of AI agents in crowd innovation and propose future research on crowd forms of organizing and generativity.