Effect of crowdsourcing work characteristics on perceived work effort in competitive crowdsourcing markets

Purpose This study explored whether crowdsourcing work characteristics are associated with perceived work effort in competitive crowdsourcing markets. The study also investigated the important contextual variables and internal mechanisms related to perceived work effort. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire was posted as a crowdsourcing task on China's Time Fortune website. Data from 231 valid questionnaires were analyzed using SmartPLS 3. Findings Crowdsourcing workers' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations were significantly and positively correlated with their perceived work effort. Task autonomy and feedback were significantly and positively correlated with intrinsic motivation. Skill variety, task significance, task identity, and task clarity had no significant correlations with intrinsic motivation. However, task clarity was significantly and positively correlated with perceived work effort. Moreover, the relationship between workers' trust in task requesters and perceived work effort was fully mediated by intrinsic motivation. Originality/value This study extended the job characteristic model into the virtual competitive crowdsourcing market. The authors verified the relationship between task clarity/trust in task requesters and workers' motivation and perceived work effort.