Classroom Companion: Business

 
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Answers
1. Anyone who participates in the development of the product may be an owner 
of it. In some cases, the product is marketed and maintained by a group of 
volunteers (e.g., Linux, Gutenberg Project). In many cases, no one owns the 
product.
2. In most cases, CBPP does not generate revenues since the product is offered for 
free. In some cases, the project may receive donations (e.g., Wikipedia) or gen-
erate revenues from ads, complementary services (e.g., consultancy services or 
seminars), or services built on the CBPP service.
3. Challenges are:
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Coordinating the work
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Scheduling and planning tasks
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Attracting the right workforce and expertise
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Quality management
4. Crowdsourcing may produce better results, more innovative solutions, and bet-
ter quality.
References
Bell, L. (2013, June 20). Microsoft offers a $100,000 bug bounty for cracking Windows 8.1. The 
Enquirer.
Benkler, Y. (2002). Coase’s Penguin or Linux and the Nature of the Firm. The Yale Law Journal, 
112(3).
Brook, Y.. (2007, August 20). The morality of moneylending: A short history. The Objective Standard.
Drake, D. (2017, December 6). 2000 Global Crowdfunding Sites to Choose from by 2016. The 
Huffington Post.
Hellmann, T., Mospitan, I., & Vulkan, N. (2019, September). Be careful what you ask for: Fundraising 
srategies inequity crowdfunding. NBER Working Paper No. w26275
Jackson, D. (2017, July 7). The Netflix prize: How a $1 million contest changed binge-watching for-
ever. Thrillist.
Rooney, K. (2018, May 31). A blockchain start-up just raised $4 billion without a live product. 
CNBC.
Roth, J.D. (2012, November 16). Taking a peek at peer-to-peer lending. Time.
Further Reading
Benkler, Y. (2006). The wealth of networks: How social production transforms markets and freedom. 
Yale University Press.
Jemielniak, D., & Przegaliska, A. (2020). Collaborative society. MIT Press.