At the center of Gu‘s recent research is Kaggle.com, a crowdsourcing
site that challenges IT experts around the world to vie for the best
predictive analytics solution to big, knotty questions. Among the big-
name users of the site you‘ll find NASA, which used Kaggle to
improve the accuracy of imaging dark matter. Allstate Insurance
turned to this resource to reduce customer churn and improve
estimates on claims costs. Ford sought early detection of driver
drowsiness. And, an unnamed, $100plus billion oil and
gas company tapped the Kaggle community to better predict oil
reserves.
What makes research teams successful on Kaggle? Gu crunched some
data
himself to find out. Specifically, he examined the win ratio of
competing teams, as well as the characteristics of the team members
and their communication exchanges. ―There are two general types of
capabilities involved,‖ Gu explains. ―One is technical capability, or
how well people know data mining. The other is social capability.‖
Gu examined the interaction of the two to determine the combination
of capabilities likely to be most successful in tackling a contest.
―What we found in the teams that were most successful is that the
team leaders have high social capabilities and others on the team have
high technical capabilities,‖ he says. ―The leader needs social
capabilities to coordinate and solicit knowledge out of highly
technical team members.‖
This finding indicates firms might want to look for similar team
dynamics, he adds. ―When crowdsourcing within a firm, you must
match people with good social capabilities and good technical
capabilities. In a competitive environment, this becomes even more
crucial.‖
Knowledge management: Breaking the internal barriers
Group dynamics also come into play when using social media for
company
knowledge sharing, according to research conducted by Gu. He
teamed with two other scholars to explore what made enterprise social
network useful — or not useful — for a large oil and gas firm with
some 200 communities sharing information online. Gu says this firm
has invested heavily in knowledge sharing. It has staff devoted to the