Multi-tiered crowdsourcing and organizational embeddedness: a study of prosumer organization and authorial audience labor on online literature platforms

Abstract This study examines the interactions among online literature platforms, online literature studios, and online literature writers by exploring the organizational dynamics of prosumers within the production processes of Chinese online literature platforms. In-depth interviews with 30 online literature writers, 6 editors, and 2 studio owners revealed that online literature studios are self-organizing labor collectives formed by writers based on shared economic interests. These studios seek market-driven benefits from the grassroots level in relation to the platforms. Considering the strong market orientation of online literature studios, platforms tend to both allow and regulate them. As a result, online literature studios have evolved into intermediary entities within the platforms’ literary production systems, serving as critical conduits for implementing platform algorithms. Writers become motivated to proactively join these studios in pursuit of economic stability. This evolution in labor choices among online literature writers reflects a transition from relational embedding to organizational embedding, signifying the emergence of a form of commercial solidarity initiated by workers from below. However, this also gives rise to structural tension stemming from labor differentiation.