# Research on Factors Affecting Solvers' Participation Time in Online Crowdsourcing Contests
## 3 Development of Hypotheses
Therefore, when the task duration exceeds a certain threshold, solvers will not invest too much time to complete the task. We believe that the task duration has an inverted U -shaped relationship with participation time, and Hypothesis 1b is proposed as follows:  
**Hypothesis 1b. **_Task duration has an inverted U-shaped effect on the solvers' participation time._  
Figure 1: Participation Time Research Model. Task description is the expression of the specific requirements of seekers for task solutions. Task descriptions help the solvers understand the task, analyze the task, and decide whether to participate in the task. [PERSON] et al. [7] found that a shorter task description will attract more solutions, especially for projects based on simple ideas that are more effective in obtaining solutions. The clearer the information conveyed by the task description, the higher the quality of the information, the more specific the requirements, and the more objective it is for the solver to assess whether he is competent for the task increases the willingness to participate. However, if the length of the description is too long, it may have the opposite effect, which makes solvers spend more energy and time cost to analyze the task and make judgments, which dampens their participation enthusiasm and is not conducive to the improvement of crowdsourcing contest performance [37]. A task attachment is a description provided by a seeker as an attachment when the task is described, usually a picture or a document. Task attachments help improve the readability of task descriptions and give solvers more specific task information. Therefore, solvers will be willing to invest more time and effort to complete the task. Based on this, we propose Hypothesis 2a and 2b, as follows:  
**Hypothesis 2a. **_The length of the task description has a negative impact on the solvers' participation time._  
**Hypothesis 2b. **_The attachment of the task description has a positive impact on the solvers' participation time._  
Numerous studies have shown that the more communication there is between seekers and solvers on the task, the more accurate the solvers' understanding of the task and the more motivated the solver is to participate in the task. [PERSON] et al. [24] studied the impact of corporate feedback behavior on crowdsourcing performance and found that increasing the number of communications and the communication speeds significantly increased the number of creative submissions. Communication and supplemental instructions during the task process establish communication channels between seekers and solvers so that solvers can receive intermediate comments from seekers and modify their solutions accordingly. [PERSON] et al. [27] found that the feedback of seekers in the course of the task process positively affected solvers' participation. Task communication can reduce the information asymmetry between seekers and solvers, thereby reducing the risk of solvers' effort in the wrong direction and reducing the cost of submissions expected by solvers. During the task process, seekers can supplement the released tasks and the supplementary explanation will enhance solvers' further understanding of the task, which is helpful for solvers to work in the right direction. Accordingly, we propose Hypothesis 3a and 3b, as follows:  
**Hypothesis 3a. **_Task communication in the task process has a positive impact on the solvers' participation time._  
**Hypothesis 3b. **_The supplementary notes in the task process have a positive impact on the solvers' participation time._  
Task density reflects the competition intensity of different tasks over a period of time. The more similar tasks, the fewer solvers will participate in the same task [29]. The greater the task density, the more tasks the solvers can choose to participate in, and the time spent on each task will be reduced. The market price reflects the average price of similar tasks on the platform during the same period.