Explaining workers' continuous participation in micro-task crowdsourcing platforms

Abstract

The small payments offered in micro-task crowdsourcing markets appear unreasonable compared with remunerations for regular work in the traditional workplace. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of micro-tasks are completed each day, and frequently by highly educated individuals. To explain this perplexing anomaly, three studies are conducted to investigate workers’ participation in micro-task crowdsourcing platforms. These three studies revolve around the same research topic, proceeding from a qualitative study on a phenomenal exploration to two quantitative studies on theory testing. Each piece takes a different perspective to fully explain workers’ acceptance of the low pay rate on micro-task crowdsourcing platforms. The first study inquires about workers’ perceived benefits of participation in Amazon's Mechanical Turk (AMT), a premier micro-task crowdsourcing platform. 525 workers from the US and India responded to an open-ended question asking their perceived benefits in an online survey. A thematic analysis of responses reveals a variety of benefits: monetary compensation, self-improvement, time management, emotional rewards, and benefits related to the characteristics of micro-tasking. Workers compartmentalize the money earned from micro-task into different non-fungible mental accounts for different purposes. The results suggest that workers recognize a diverse portfolio of benefits derived from participation in micro-task crowdsourcing platforms. Given the importance of temporal benefit that is disclosed in the first study but was neglected in prior research on micro-task crowdsourcing, the second study primarily focuses on the effect of time structure on workers’ continuous participation in micro-task crowdsourcing platforms. Drawing upon the theory of the allocation of time and previous research on time management, relative advantage of micro-tasking over alternative activities, actual earning from completing micro-tasks, and time structuring through completing micro-tasks are proposed as antecedents of workers’ continuance intention in micro-task crowdsourcing platforms. Through an online survey on AMT, the second study confirms the significant effects of relative advantage and time structure, but not of actual earning, on intent to continue. The findings indicate that IT-enabled time structuring allows individuals to fill idle time with low pay tasks, making them the best alternative for otherwise “wasted” time. The study also suggests that task providers should design and organize crowdwork in a fine-grained manner. To delineate a more comprehensive picture for workers’ continuous participation in micro-task crowdsourcing platforms, the third study proposes a workers’ perceived value model consisting of economic value, perceived playfulness, attainment value, and temporal values based on the subjective task value theory. Except for economic value, sub-dimensions of the other three multidimensional value components are identified to enrich the connotation of non-monetary benefits. Regarding the economic value, the money earned from micro-task crowdsourcing is separated into essential income for subsistence and extra money for non-essentials according to the proposition of mental accounting. The proposed value model is tested through another online survey on AMT. Among the four dimensions of workers’ perceived value of participation in micro-task crowdsourcing platforms, attainment value and temporal value have significant effects on workers’ intent to continue participation, whereas economic value and perceived playfulness have significant effects on workers’ intent to increase participation. Furthermore, the extent to which workers mentally account the money earned from micro-task crowdsourcing platforms as essential income weakens the effect of economic value on workers’ intent to continue participation. The three studies contribute to the existing research on micro-task crowdsourcing by revealing a portfolio of intangible value (i.e., perceived playfulness, attainment value, and temporal value) associated with monetary compensation to justify workers’ acceptance of the low pay rate on micro-task crowdsourcing platforms. People’s subjective framing and perception of money in online labor markets also affect their evaluation of the economic value related to online financial activities. More importantly, structuring and maximizing the value of time through completing micro-tasks online, as both a motivator and an outcome of participation in micro-task crowdsourcing platforms, bear the temporal value of participation in micro-task crowdsourcing platforms.

Date of Award	2 Oct 2015
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Christian WAGNER (Supervisor)