Modelling Work Effort of Workers in the Crowdsourcing Intermediary Market

Abstract

This study examines crowdsourcing task characteristics (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, feedback, and task clarity) and the online work situation factor; that is, the trust in evaluations on work effort in the crowdsourcing intermediary market. An e-questionnaire was released as a crowdsourcing task on the Time Fortune website in China; data from 231 valid questionnaires were analyzed using SmartPLS 3 software. Results show that under the conditions of this study, crowdsourcing workers’ internal motivation has a significant positive relationship with their effort. Task autonomy and feedback have significant and positive relationship with internal motivation. Skill variety, task significance, task clarity, and task identity have no significant correlation with internal motivation. However, task clarity has a significant and positive relationship with work effort. The study also finds that the effect of workers’ trust in the task requester on work effort is mediated by internal motivation.