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In this paper, the authors explore the relationship that slack resources and technology-mediated human capital investments can have on individuals’ entrepreneurial intentions. Focusing on human capital investments that individuals make through education and work, the authors analyze the relationship among formal online learning opportunities, informal skill development in the gig economy and entrepreneurial intentions.

Leveraging a novel dataset that merges administrative tax data with a survey of over 8,528 low- and moderate income (LMI) households, this study uses machine learning and propensity score weighting to examine the likelihood that individuals who make these technology-mediated human capital investments will have increased odds of entrepreneurial intentions when compared to similar individuals who do not make these investments.

The authors find that both partaking in online learning and working in the gig economy are significantly associated with increased odds of entrepreneurial intentions. Furthermore, through a variety of robustness and mechanism checks, the authors find that technology-mediation is an important factor in these relationships and that informal skill development and career preparation is one way in which gig employment influences entrepreneurial intentions.

As the study’s data come from a cross-sectional survey, the authors cannot make causal inferences about the relationship between online learning, gig employment and entrepreneurial intentions. Thus, future research should explore sources of longitudinal data.

This study has practical implication for individuals and policymakers that seek to increase entrepreneurship among LMI households.

Despite a wealth of research on the relationships among slack resources, technology and innovation at the firm level, there is little of this research at the individual level – especially among LMI individuals. The authors begin to fill this important gap.

The unique employment status of gig workers as independent contractors and their impact on consumers provide an important opportunity for the current research to understand gig workers' perceptions of their employment and how that affects job performance outcomes. These gig workers serve as the frontline service providers for platforms like Airbnb hosts, Lyft drivers and Wag walkers performing customer-facing services. However, their status as gig workers, not traditional employees, presents challenges to platforms. The purpose of this research is to gain insights into the profiles of gig workers, examine the challenges platforms have in retaining high-performing workers and provide a research agenda on this important group of frontline service providers.

Incorporating variables deemed important in examining self-determination theory, a large-scale data collection via an online survey was administered, yielding 447 completed surveys. A two-step cluster analysis procedure was conducted to categorize sample respondents into four distinct groups.

Four groups emerged from the cluster analysis, labeled “Ambivalent Outsider,” “Competent Cog,” “Independent Insider” and “Committed Comrade.” The results suggest that there are significant differences across all variables and groups based on gig worker responses and self-reported customer satisfaction scores. The gig worker profiles developed are then utilized to formulate research propositions that are the basis for the research agenda presented.

The goal of many collaborative consumption platforms may be to hire Independent Insiders or Committed Comrades; however, that is difficult to attain with every hire. Thus, the segmentation results provide insights for companies seeking to hire, retain, and successfully motivate their workforce.

Given the freedom and flexibility afforded to gig workers, and the importance they have on the service experience for customers, understanding their own perceptions of employment and performance is critical to ensuring a positive experience for all parties. Research on collaborative consumption has largely focused on consumers or the management of freelance workers with only tangential applicability to gig work. This paper offers a comprehensive research agenda for gig worker management based on the typology of gig workers created.

Although it is transforming the meaning of employment for many people, little is known about the implications of the gig economy for human resource management (HRM) theory and practice. The purpose of this paper is to conceptually explore the notion of HRM in the gig economy, where intermediary platform firms design and implement HRM activities while simultaneously trying to avoid the establishment of employment relationships with gig workers.

To conceptualize HRM in the gig economy, the authors offer a novel ecosystem perspective to develop propositions on the role and implementation of HRM activities in the gig economy.

The authors show that HRM activities in the gig economy are designed to govern platform ecosystems by aligning the multilateral exchanges of three key gig economy actors: gig workers, requesters and intermediary platform firms, for ensuring value co-creation. The authors argue that the implementation of HRM activities in the gig economy is contingent on the involvement and activities of these gig economy actors. This means that they are not mere recipients of HRM but also actively engaged in, and needed for, the execution of HRM activities.

The study contributes to research by proposing a theoretical framework for studying the design of HRM activities, and their implementation, in the gig economy. From this framework, the authors derive directions for future research on HRM in the gig economy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the food delivery sector to boom as people continue to rely on services provided by online catering platforms (OCPs). However, because of the nature of sharing economy employment, gig workers’ contributions went largely ignored until intervention from institutional governance. This study aims to explore the impacts of labor market transformation after the Chinese Government issued guidance to promote gig workers’ welfare as a focal case.

Focus groups and the Delphi technique were used to explore associated impacts on OCPs and gig workers based on governance theory.

Results show that institutional governance negatively affected OCPs’ operating cost structure but sustained gig workers’ welfare. The dual effects of market mechanism and institutional governance in the sharing economy are needed to be balanced for labor market transformation.

Long-term equilibrium can be fulfilled, given the growing food-related demand for the market mechanism. Social reciprocity is expected to be realized through institutional governance for gig workers’ welfare.

This study suggests that moving from market governance to stakeholder governance, as mediated by state governance, could transform gig workers’ labor structure in the gig economy. This study presents an integrated governance theory to enhance the epistemology of institutional governance.

This article seeks to answer the question: how should we conceptualise the “gig economy”? In doing so the authors shall explore if gig economy work should be understood as a novel concept that stands alone, a concept that is a subtype, or whether it may in fact be conceptually redundant.

The authors conduct a thematic analysis of interview data drawn from 27 interviews with policymakers, trade union officials, key figures within labour organisations and gig economy workers.

The authors reveal how, from the perspective of key stakeholders, the concept of the gig economy exhibits a lack of “differentiation” from the long-established concept of precarious work of which it is best understood as a subtype.

The empirical findings from the authors’ study should be regarded as limited in terms of being situated in the specific employment context of the UK. Nevertheless, the implications of the study have a broader reach. The authors seek to provoke debate and discussion among scholars across disciplines and contexts working in the areas of precarious work and the gig economy. The authors’ analysis will be of interest to scholars who are concerned with how they conceptualise “new” forms of work.

The analysis offers a novel intervention by revealing how key stakeholders perceive the gig economy through a prism of continuity rather than change and connect it with broader processes of precarity.

As conventional practices of working continue to be modified in the gig economy, more theoretical work examining the experiences of gig workers is needed. Relying on person-based fit and levels of analysis literature, this paper proposes an adaptation to the traditional Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) framework to the gig economy.

Drawing on the ASA framework, this conceptual paper explores how gig workers join, leave and could be retained by gig employers.

The authors recognize an intermediary “organizing” phase within the ASA framework for gig workers. Using examples of appwork and crowdwork, the authors show that workers tend to self-organize through third-party websites to help gig work become economically sustainable, avoid being exploited and enhance gig workers' sense of community and identity.

The practical implications of this research lie in gig employers understanding how workers experience gig employment and in helping employers be successful in attracting, selecting and retaining quality workers and thereby lowering permanent attrition.

The authors propose a novel adaptation to the conventional ASA framework to include organizing as a phase in gig worker employment. This research defines gig attraction and attrition at the individual-level, selection at the individual- and task-levels based in person-job (PJ)-fit and the various aspects of gig organizing as encompassing fit with one's job, organization, and environmental (i.e., PJ-, PO-, PE-fit) at the individual-, task-, and network-levels.

A quarterly series of gig economy activity in the regions of the UK is constructed. Patterns of regional linkages are identified and the implications of spatial patterns for policymakers, businesses, workers and institutions are highlighted.

The Labour Force Survey data on main job self-employment in key gig economy sectors are used to construct the series. These are then analysed using vector autoregression techniques to identify patterns in the data and provide provisional forecasts.

The incidence of gig economy activity is greatest in the London region, characterised by high population density and a concentration of service sectors in which gig economy work, particularly of a highly skilled nature, takes place. Growth of gig economy activity in other regions has been more modest. In London, the percentage of workers in the gig economy is expected to rise to around 6.5 per cent over the next few years, while in other regions, the percentage is expected to settle at between 3 and 4.5 per cent.

These are the first regional estimates to be provided of the extent of gig economy activity. This is important in the context of discussions about the future of work, not least because regional disparities imply the need for policies addressing insecurity to have a spatial dimension.

The emergence of dark kitchens in the restaurant industry is a contemporary phenomenon, arising most recently in the context of the so-called gig economy. This new business model flourished during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on a global scale. Despite dark kitchens' popularity, considerable negative publicity exists in the news related to poor working conditions. To highlight this new phenomenon, this paper explores the existing literature on worker exploitation in dark kitchens in the context of the gig economy.

A systematic literature review of hospitality and tourism databases generated 1,430 articles, of which 18 met the authors' inclusion criteria for the final analysis, and 1,030 anecdotal sources, of which 47 were included. Thematic analysis was used to identify the key themes and summarise the findings to be used for further studies.

The popularity of dark kitchens as a business model is premised on the fact that dark kitchens' dramatically reduces the operational cost and increases productivity. On the other hand, the working conditions and contractual agreements of the gig workers in dark kitchens raise several questions from operational, legal and ethical perspective. These poor working conditions create the conditions for worker exploitation and further damage the sector's image.

This study advocates that companies and managers are responsible for implementing and monitoring fair working conditions in dark kitchens. The existence of poor working conditions increases employee turnover and, overall, affects the industry's reputation.

This explorative study provides insights into the working conditions and contractual agreements in dark kitchens. Currently, there is no other study (empirical or conceptual) to shed light on the working practices. The authors hope this study will trigger further discussion and empirical research in this field.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a synthesis of the contingent work field and to advocate a sustainable career perspective on contingent work.

Adopting a broader review approach allowed to synthesize the contingent work literature across contingent work types (temporary agency work, gig work and freelance work) and develop a sustainable career perspective on contingent work. The authors searched for empirical, conceptual and review articles published from 2008 to December 2021. In total, the authors included 208 articles.

The authors advocate a sustainable career perspective that allows for organizing and synthesizing the fragmented contingent work literature. Adopting a sustainable career perspective enables to study contingent work from a dynamic perspective transcending one single organization.

The field is suffering from fragmentation and most importantly from an oversight of how contingent work experiences play a role in a persons’ career. This paper addresses this problem by adopting a sustainable career perspective on contingent work.

Given the illegal nature of the gig economy in some cities, this study aims to draw on protection motivation theory to examine the formation of Uber drivers’ self-protective behaviour against legal risks.

In-depth interviews with 10 Uber drivers in Hong Kong were conducted to yield eight maladaptive perceptions, which were then validated using online surveys completed by 232 Uber drivers. These results were then used to examine a mechanism through which threat appraisal, coping appraisal and maladaptive perceptions influence drivers’ unwillingness to work and weekly working hours.

Eight maladaptive perceptions were found to empirically fit a bidimensional conceptualization of cognitive and affective components that significantly reduce workers’ unwillingness to work illegally in the gig economy. The effects on Uber drivers’ unwillingness to work and weekly working hours varied across threat appraisal, coping appraisal and maladaptive perceptions.

Platform companies should find the results insightful because they demonstrate ways of negotiating with governments about its legality of the gig economy. The findings can also assist governments with policy development to make sense of illegal gig work or to legalize the gig economy.

This study complements the overoptimistic discussion of the gig economy to investigate why people engage in illegal work in this context. Protection motivation theory is applied to a new domain to explore gig workers’ maladaptive perceptions of illegal working.