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This study aims at investigating creative labor and its production process in late capitalism. With technological convergence and digitalization, there emerged an information society and information economy. In the processes and procedures of this era, conditions and climate of working areas and labor processes directly based on innovation and creativity have undergone radical transformations. Also, it has become indispensable to scrutinize the concepts such as immaterial labor, autonomy, and subjectivity. So, this study focuses on Turkish freelance illustrators to highlight their production, autonomy, and value in transformed time and space. It aims to establish a better understanding of the Turkish freelancer illustrators’ valorization of labor and economic insecurity in the digital era of creative industries by using the techniques of open-ended questions and online semi-structured interviews with 12 freelance illustrators. Therefore, this study traces the question of how the working processes and work ethos of digital career fields in the creative industry are evaluated from the perspective of illustrators. It cannot be overlooked that this new working ethos allows them to work as self-employed, offering through non-contractual relationships, and non-standard contracts with the clients which give them more flexibility and autonomy as an artist to plan their own creative production processes. It is also clear that illustrators who adapted themselves to produce in a transformed time–space are aware of the difficulty in measuring and valorizing the value of the creative and emotional labor they put to work. In such a case, it can be said that illustrators, who see themselves as both an employer and employee at the same time, position themselves beyond the distinctions of blue collar and gray collar and blur the boundaries in organizational hierarchies.

While digital labour platforms are being increasingly studied across the Global South, the existing literature does not conceptualise the theoretical link between such platforms and socio-economic development. This paper theorises such a link drawing on the notion of institutional voids defined, as in Khanna and Palepu (2010), as “the absence of intermediaries to efficiently connect buyers and sellers” in an economy. We frame digital labour platforms as means to fill institutional voids, seeking to create “development” in the form of earning opportunities in contexts of deprivation.

We draw on an interpretive case study of an online work training project in a deprived region of Pakistan, where members of marginalised communities were trained to become freelancers for global digital labour platforms. We use the notion of market-enabling institutions aimed at filling institutional voids as a lens to study the project's declared goals, examining the extent to which these were met in practice for the workers who participated in the training.

Our analysis reveals three types of market-enabling institutions–credibility enhancers, aggregators and distributors, and transaction facilitators–through which digital labour platforms seek to fill institutional voids. However, workers' narratives reveal that institutional voids are only partially filled by these platforms, and their perpetuation results in diverse forms of power asymmetries leveraged by clients and owners of the platforms. We also observe the formation of solidarity networks among workers, networks that are intra-familial and societal rather than characterised by formal unionisation.

The paper offers a novel perspective to theorise the link between digital labour and socio-economic development. Applying such a perspective in a Global South context, it also finds the limits of the digital platforms' institutional void-filling potential, highlighting the emergence of power asymmetries and the emerging formation of worker solidarity networks.

Describes the work of the Society of Freelance Editors and Proofreaders founded in 1988 in response to the marked growth of editorial freelancers. Notes that there are no national statistics on how many freelance editors are used by publishers but considers that over half of the detailed editorial work may be done by freelancers. Concludes that the Society plans to play a positive role by ensuring that the professionalism of editors and proofreaders is maintained in the changing face of the publishing industry.

Why building out a fleet of freelance talent could be the reason some companies survive to see 2021, while their competitors do not.

Authors drew upon their experience as cofounders of 10x Management and their experience in the talent management field.

If you are not so sure if freelance talent could be game changing for your company, consider that experimentation is a key element of staying nimble. Companies tend to layoff staff, pause raises and scale back the office lease as initial reactions to reduce costs and stay lean. But the ones that do it the best go the extra mile. It is not just about cutting costs – rather, it is about doubling down on new (and old) ways to achieve peak performance in the face of uncertainty. Using freelancers can do just that.

There are five number of ways in which freelance workers benefit a company, including speed, adaptability, cost, low commitment and remote expertise.

The findings will help companies stay nimble in the midst of crises such as the current pandemic.

This work examines the intersection between traditional human resource management and the novel employment arrangements of the expanding gig economy. While there is a substantial multidisciplinary literature on the digital platform labor phenomenon, it has been largely centered on the experiences of gig workers. As digital labor platforms continue to grow and specialize, more managers, executives, and human resource practitioners will need to make decisions about whether and how to utilize gig workers. Here the authors explore and interrogate the unique features of human resource management (HRM) activities in the context of digital labor platforms. The authors discuss challenges and opportunities regarding (1) HRM in organizations that outsource labor needs to external labor platforms, (2) HRM functions within digital labor platform firms, and (3) HRM policies and practices for organizations that develop their own spin-off digital labor platform. To foster a more nuanced understanding of work in the gig economy, the authors identify common themes across these contexts, highlight knowledge gaps, offer recommendations for future research, and outline pathways for collecting empirical data on HRM in the gig economy.

The purpose of this paper is to compare online labor platforms (OLPs) such as Upwork, Fiverr, YoungOnes and Temper with traditional temp agencies. At a first glance, OLPs and temp agencies strongly resemble each other while they aim to meet the need for short-term labor of organizations. The authors ask the question how these labor market intermediaries differ on issues such as information technology usage, ways how labor supply and demand are matched and working conditions (e.g. status, pay and social security of workers).

Next to a review of the academic literature, the authors conducted interviews with representatives of six OLPs and temp agencies in the Netherlands as well as a legal specialist in Dutch labor law.

The authors found that OLPs and temp agencies differ on several issues. First, although OLPs rely on online marketplaces for matching labor supply and demand, temp agencies generally rely on human matchmakers. Second, although OLPs enable workers and client organizations to initiate transactions themselves, temp agencies employ representatives that do the matching for workers and clients. Third, and as a result, OLPs afford client organizations to almost instantly hire workers on-demand, whereas the flexibility and speed that temp agencies can offer depend on availability and processing capacity of human matchmakers.

According to the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to compare OLPs and temp agencies and, in doing so, offers academics and practitioners an analytical framework to compare different types of labor market intermediaries.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The sequential mediation from PCO to job search strategies through two of the career competencies (autonomous motivation to freelance and career related skills) and JSSE is supported. The mediating role of professional networks is not supported. 10;

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of online freelance stock analysts in correcting mispricing of hard-to-value firms during sentiment-driven market periods.

The sample covers 23,758 Seeking Alpha articles obtained for the period between January 2005 and September 2011. The authors use OLS regressions to test the stock market reaction around Seeking Alpha analysts’ reports. The information in online analysts’ reports is measured by the tone of stock articles posted in SeekingAlpha.com (SA).

The analysis reveals that the degree of negative tone of their stock articles is related to three-day stock returns around the article posting dates. It further reveals that the relation between these returns and prevailing market sentiment depends on firm-specific susceptibility to the market sentiment. The three-day stock returns are higher during low market sentiment periods for firms that are more susceptible to the market sentiment, hence, harder to value. The tone of the stock articles during low sentiment periods also predicts the news in the forthcoming earnings.

The findings help stock investors identify value-relevant information provided by online freelance stock analysts, particularly for hard-to-value stocks and during the low market sentiment period.

This study utilizes a unique dataset obtained from SA. This is the first paper to examine whether online analysts help investors correct potential undervaluation of hard-to-value firms during the low market sentiment period.

This chapter will introduce the concept of the gig economy. It begins with a brief discussion of technological changes and their impact on the workforce and labour market, demonstrating how the trend shifts towards the gig economy. It then examines the trends that are influencing this transformation and discusses various perspectives and the attractiveness of the gig economy for workers and businesses. This chapter will also discuss the gig economy, platform economy, digital platform, and gig worker categories. It concludes with a brief discussion of some of the opportunities, issues, and challenges associated with the gig economy.