How Task Description Transforms Clients' Expectation-Disconfirmation in Crowdsourcing

The rapid growth of crowdsourcing platforms grants clients unprecedented opportunities to procure services digitally. Clients typically solicit solutions by preparing a task description that outlines their requirements for desired products and participating vendors. Vendors then respond with bidding proposals that elaborate on their qualifications and work plans. Subsequently, clients select the preferred proposal and the selected vendor delivers the product. In the crowdsourcing context, task description has been identified as an essential feature. Prior research has concentrated on the effect of description clarity and description richness, yet inconsistent findings have been found. Moreover, scarce literature has examined the mechanism underlying how clients should formulate task descriptions to improve the bidding process and obtain satisfactory outcomes. To fill in these gaps, we drew on expectation-disconfirmation theory (EDT) to advance a multi-stage model: Specifically, task description, convergence of vendors' proposals, selected proposal, and clients' follow-up evaluation of final work were conceptualized as explicit expectations, process-based performance, outcome-based disconfirmation, and client satisfaction. Results demonstrated an inverted U-shaped effect of description clarity on process-based performance, with reward budget acted as a moderator. Process-based performance imposed a negative effect on outcome-based disconfirmation, which was in turn positively related to client satisfaction. It is a significant finding since we contextualize the EDT to envision a more complete crowdsourcing process. Additionally, this study reconciles the mixed conclusions by revealing the curvilinear effect of description clarity on process-based performance as well as the moderating role of reward budget.