“We’re not uber:” control, autonomy, and entrepreneurship in the gig economy

An investigation of psychological well-being among platform riders in mainland China

OBJECTIVES

This study examined the relationships between work stressors (i.e., precarious work conditions, customer incivility, fast work pace, and job insecurity) and their relations with job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion among platform drivers in mainland China. In addition, we tested whether psychological capital (PsyCap) moderated the hypothesized relationships.

METHODS

2539 platform drivers (Men = 2244; Women = 295, Mean age = 28.18, SD = 6.38) in Mainland China were recruited.

RESULTS

Work stressors were positively related to emotional exhaustion but negatively associated with job satisfaction. Regarding the hypothesized moderating effect, PsyCap moderated the association between precarious work conditions and fast work pace in predicting job satisfaction. Furthermore, PsyCap also interacted with precarious work conditions, job insecurity, and customer incivility in predicting emotional exhaustion.

CONCLUSION

The occupational well-being of platform drivers was significantly related to their working conditions. PsyCap is a salient factor that alleviates the negative work stressors that affect these outcomes.

Kicking off a Gig Work Career: Unfolding a Career Learning Cycle of Gig Workers

We observe gig workers' retrospective sense-making of their career development, from creating an account on online labor platforms to managing gigs successfully. Our data reveals that gig workers advance through three career stages in their initial career learning cycle. We identify each stage as characterized by stage-specific emotions and that they react with specific behaviors to gig work challenges. Gig work challenges that occur in the platform environment are namely the newbie challenge, the positioning and relational challenge, and the balancing challenge, which workers need to overcome in order to transition to the next stage. In line with contemporary career and protean career theory on career learning cycles, gig workers need to build a set of specialized skills and meta-competencies to successfully navigate their careers. As an outcome of the here-described career learning cycle, gig workers develop an entrepreneurial identity aspiration, as they are empowered and can use the platform as a playground or stepping stone for entrepreneurial activities. Our paper, thus, develops an understanding of gig workers' initial career learning cycle by examining the factors that enable gig workers to kick off a career and allow them to thrive and advance on the platforms professionally.

How Algorithmic Management Influences Gig Workers' Job Crafting

Algorithmic management, as a digital management tool in the gig economy, has become a hotspot of concern at the intersection of theory and practice. However, there is a lack of research on the mechanisms and boundary conditions through which algorithmic management affects gig workers' job crafting. Based on the social information processing theory, this study constructed a dual-mediation model of how algorithmic management influences gig workers' job crafting through gameful experience and perceived job autonomy. Data from 687 valid samples were collected through a two-stage survey and statistically analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results demonstrate that algorithmic management increases gig workers' promotion-focused job crafting behaviors (increasing job resources and challenging job demands) by stimulating their gameful experiences and increases gig workers' prevention-focused job crafting behaviors (decreasing hindering job demands) by inhibiting their perceived job autonomy. In addition, the higher-order personality trait core self-evaluation moderates the relationship between algorithmic management and gameful experience and perceived job autonomy, as well as the indirect effects of algorithmic management on job crafting through gameful experiences and perceived job autonomy. This study advances empirical research on algorithmic management in the field of the gig economy and human resource management practices. Crucially, it provides practical insights for optimizing algorithmic systems in platform companies, potentially enhancing their efficiency and economic benefits.

Algorithmic management, preferences for autonomy/security and gig-workers' wellbeing: A matter of fit?

The objective of this study was to understand how gig-workers interpret the effects of their laboral activity on their wellbeing. We developed a grounded theory based on interviews with 57 Brazilian gig-workers. The results show that (1) workers and gig-work organizations have preferences for work relationships with more autonomy or security; (2) when there is a congruence of preferences, the worker experiences greater wellbeing, and when the preferences diverge, there are episodes of preference violations that, when repeated, reduce worker wellbeing; and (3) however, not everything is a matter of fit: when both individuals and organizations have the same preference (for example, for more autonomy and less security), worker wellbeing may be vulnerable to abuse, for example, in terms of an unsustainable workload. Our study draws attention to an integrated discussion of the benefits and harms of algorithmic management, which allows overcoming a polarized view in which it would be seen only as beneficial or harmful to workers.

Toward a sustainable career perspective on contingent work: a critical review and a research agenda

Purpose

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.

Design/methodology/approach

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.

Findings

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.

Originality/value

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.

How has the effect of brand personality on customer-based brand equity changed over time? Longitudinal evidence from a panel data set spanning 18 years

Using a panel data set (n = 49,626), this research tests opposing hypotheses about the influence of brand personality dimensions (BPDs) on customer-based brand equity (CBBE) and the evolution of this influence over an 18-year period. The results show that, on average, the BPDs of excitement, competence, and sincerity have more positive effects on CBBE than sophistication and ruggedness. Furthermore, the effects of sincerity, sophistication, and ruggedness on CBBE have declined over time while the effects of excitement and competence have grown more positive: A 1% change in excitement is associated with a .45% change in CBBE in 2001 and a .71% change in 2018 (a 58% increase), while a 1% change in competence is associated with a .42% change in CBBE in 2001 and a .60% change in 2018 (a 43% increase). How these effects vary between countries, industry sectors, and brand types is also explored.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11747-022-00895-2.

The Journey of Business Opportunity Evaluation: When and Why Does Opportunity Novelty Promote Vs. Inhibit Opportunity Adoption?

As a typical characteristic of entrepreneurial opportunities, novelty is essential for firms to establish and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage under the current complex and dynamic business environment. However, why is it that some entrepreneurs adopt novel opportunities but others do not. Little is known about the precise nature of cognitive evaluation for opportunity novelty. Drawing upon information processing theory and construal level theory (CLT), we propose that the effects of opportunity novelty on adoption decisions depend on entrepreneurs' construal level through which information is processed. We design an experiment and find partial support for our hypotheses. Results indicate that entrepreneurs using a low-level construal perceive more risk for opportunity novelty, which in turn decreases the possibility of opportunity adoption. Meanwhile, opportunity novelty also positively influences entrepreneurs' creativity perception, which in turn increases the possibility of opportunity adoption. But construal level does not play any role in this evaluation path. Taken together, the findings improve our understanding of “how entrepreneurs evaluate an opportunity based on its objective characteristics” by providing empirical insights into the cognitive information processing process from opportunity novelty to adoption. Additionally, we discuss implications for entrepreneurial practice and future research.

Preparing managers for a reconfigured world: management education's new gig

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the lack of a clear theoretical framework in management education programs to allow students to understand the world in which gig workers operate. The article asserts the need for practical guidance for pedagogy to prepare students to manage in the gig economy.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper provides a rationale for the assertion that, beyond training students to create their own work configurations in the new world of work, management education should acquaint students with the specific challenges faced by managers responsible for a spectrum of workers in various work configurations. This paper explicates gig work configurations and offers theoretical and practical issues related to worker and manager identity to be considered in the development of an educational framework.

Findings

Management curricula over time have successfully augmented several competencies to the manager identity. Bolstering the competency of simultaneously managing employees working in multiple employment arrangements is the next natural progression of management education.

Practical implications

Particular challenges for prospective “gig managers” may relate to the management of somewhat elusive processes that enhance their own and their workers' organizational identity and related outcomes.

Originality/value

The authors invoke the literature of holding environments for identity development, along with the distinctness and inclusion facets of Kegan's theory of the evolution of consciousness and tenets of institutional theory, in a call for the examination of methods that may help aspirant managers recognize distinction and inclusion needs in others and cultivate tools to assist in their workers' need fulfillment.

Cognitive Bias, Entrepreneurial Emotion, and Entrepreneurship Intention

Although numerous studies have explored the factors influencing entrepreneurial activity, there is a lack of a theoretical basis for linking these factors to entrepreneurship behavioral intention. The current study uses the theory of self-regulating attitude to construct a theoretical model of examining the relationship among cognitive bias, entrepreneurial emotion, and entrepreneurship intention. A total of 312 valid samples were collected from college students at a Chinese university. The bootstrapping method was used to test the multi-mediation hypotheses. Our research found that positive entrepreneurial emotion plays a mediating role in the relationship between optimism and entrepreneurship intention, whereas negative entrepreneurial emotion plays a mediating role in the relationship between overconfidence and entrepreneurship intention. These findings underline the importance of a correct understanding of cognitive bias and entrepreneurial emotion in the process of entrepreneurship.