183: Enhancing the Credibility of MTurk in Management Research: A Guide for Authors and Reviewers (11755)

Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is a pivotal online platform for research in management and related fields. Yet, the validity of findings derived from MTurk data remains a concern. This Professional Development Workshop (PDW) is designed to impart essential guidelines for creating, executing, and documenting studies utilizing MTurk. Suitable for both prospective MTurk researchers and evaluators of MTurk-based scholarly work (such as journal reviewers and editors), our workshop is anchored in an extensive analysis of 146 scholarly sources. We offer a comprehensive overview of MTurk's practical and logistical advantages and an in-depth discussion of 10 critical aspects of MTurk research, including their associated threats (e.g., participant inattention and misrepresentation, vulnerability to web robots, non-naiveté, perceived researcher unfairness) to internal, external, construct, and statistical conclusion validity. Our PDW will also present 10 best-practice recommendations (e.g., setting MTurker screening criteria, defining compensation policies, deciding on participant remuneration) for addressing these challenges across the stages of research design, execution, and result dissemination. Furthermore, our session will provide a forum for attendees to engage in discussions about specific MTurk research queries or dilemmas. Concluding with a practical demonstration, we will show how to effectively implement these best practices in an MTurk study, thereby mitigating the validity concerns inherent in this method of data collection. This PDW will rely, in part, on our highly attended RMD PDW on MTurk that we conducted at previous AOM meetings.