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Besides the categorization of scenarios given above, the literature analysis and syn- thesis (4) focuses on elements and instruments of ECPs. The literature usually de- scribes four core elements of ECPs, which are discussed in Chapter1and Chapter2. These four elements include the two types of actors (worker and requester), the tasks

that the actors request or work on, and the contribution (results) of solved tasks. These elements are described in detail in the following sections.

3.2.3.1 Actors on ECPs

Among the actors, it is distinguished between those who can provide tasks (requester) and those who perform them (worker) [66, 67, 165]. In some constellations, both characteristics are assigned to all actors, which means that there are no differences between the actors. Besides these main actors, there can be others, such as a platform administrator or actors who can make evaluations [166,167,171].

The characteristics of the actors can be assigned to individual users via roles, which leads to the fact that a user can also have several roles. In the literature [10, 36, 65, 78, 139, 161] the workers are advised to maintain a detailed profile of their skills and knowledge in order to simplify the assignment of tasks. The profile of a worker should be used to record not only their skills but also their experience level and, if necessary, their validation by the already performed tasks. At the same time, atten- tion should also be paid to the availability of workers, as it is pointless to propose a task to a worker who is currently unavailable [10,159]. For the requester, no detailed profile is required. However, it can be interesting for a worker to retrieve informa- tion about the requester before accepting a task. This could include the rejection frequency of tasks in the past by a requester.

3.2.3.2 Elements of Tasks on ECPs

A task should contain as much information as possible about the activities to be performed, and its design can depend on the scenario that is to be outsourced. In idea management, it is less necessary to have particular skills to perform a task, as in software development. All tasks have in common: a name, a brief description of the task, the client, a start and an end date [9,10,36]. All other attributes are optional. A selection of the identified attributes and a short description are given below.

• Incentive type and amount: It is necessary to provide remunerations depending on the effort and depending on the kind of incentive that motivates the workers, to encourage them for engagement on the platform. [36,67,161].

• Task type: Many workers but also recommender systems rely on given catego- rizations to support task assignment. Therefore, a task should be related to at least one task type. [10,65,78,139,159].

• Duration of execution: An estimated execution duration should be specified for the task, to represent the scope of the task for the worker. There are tasks for which the duration of execution can be precisely defined (e.g., viewing a video), whereas for most tasks the duration of execution is only an estimated value of the requester. The duration can also be to check for the availability of a worker for a taask [10,65].

• Complexity: The complexity of the task can be estimated in order to prevent an inexperienced worker from selecting a task too complex [9,65,139,159,161].

• Information on subtasks: If a task consists of smaller subtasks or is itself a subtask, this information should be provided to everyone involved [10,65].

• Task assignment strategy: Different task assignment strategies may be appropri- ate, depending on the given task scenario [156,161]. Task assignment strategies will be subject of further elaboration in later sections.

• Confidentiality and visibility: enterprise crowdsourcing is particularly suitable for tasks that cannot be published due to their confidentiality requirements. It has to be ensured that only workers with an adequate confidentiality clearing can view corresponding information [36,65,159].

• Restrictions: There can exist further restrictions that exclude specific workers from certain tasks [139,152].

• Necessary skills and knowledge: These are probably one of the most important attributes of a task. Especially with increasing complexity of the tasks, these attributes become relevant to assign tasks properly. Knowledge and skills en- able the worker to perform a task but can also be acquired and expanded by performing tasks [10,36,65,78,139,161].

• Resources: The resources made available to the worker play a role in the com- pletion of a task. These may include for example technical devices or software licenses [63,152].

3.2.3.3 Contribution of Tasks on ECPs

The last core element is the contribution of the crowdsourcing process, which is handed back to the requester after the execution of a task. Such results can be of very different nature and strongly depend on the given scenario. In software development, it could be a part of code, whereas in idea management it can be a prototype or a description of a new product [40,158]. The expected format of the results should be defined in the task description, i.e., in the acceptance criteria.

It is argued within the literature whether the provided incentive for a task is part of the task results. Usually, the argumentation is, that the incentive for a task plays its most important role as motivator before a worker accepts the task. Therefore, the resulting incentive is mostly defined before execution and is not regarded as a result of the crowdsourcing process.