Working for one penny: Understanding why people would like to participate in online tasks with low payment

The development of Internet technology has facilitated the emergence of online marketplace for various kinds of tasks (e.g., Amazon’s Mechanical Turk in USA and Taskcn.com in China). Although the payment is relatively low, numerous people participate in the tasks in these online marketplaces. Drawing upon shopping value literature, we develop a research model by considering various value perceptions so as to better understand this interesting phenomenon. Specifically, it is proposed that hedonic value and utilitarian value (including benefit–cost ratio and net benefit) influence satisfaction and continuance intention. A field survey with 205 participants in an online working website in China was carried out to examine the proposed research model and hypotheses. The key findings are: (1) benefit–cost ratio significantly influences satisfaction, while net benefit does not; (2) there is a significant substitutive effect or negative interaction effect between benefit–cost ratio and net benefit; (3) hedonic value directly influences continuance intention, as well indirectly influences continuance intention via satisfaction. Implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.