Entrepreneurship Discourse as a Cultural Tool to Gain Legitimacy: The Case of Uber and Ola in India

Microtargeting control: Explicating algorithmic control and nudges in platform‐mediated cab driving in India

“…By 2018, the Indian taxi industry became a duopoly mostly with both companies having a pan‐India presence. Uber and Ola expanded rapidly by providing better service, undercutting fares, incentivising new drivers, and actively deploying an ‘entrepreneurship discourse’ to entice new drivers and to secure the support of financial institutions to provide easy cab loans to drivers (Mishra and Bathini, 2020; Shalini and Bathini, 2019). Furthermore, in later phases, the companies expanded via their fleets of vehicles, which they leased out to new drivers.…”

Actions in phygital space: Work solidarity and collective action among app‐based cab drivers in India

“…Beyond such spontaneously evolved collective actions, there were more coordinated collective actions, particularly related to the asymmetries in information and the calculative ability to use that information, which severely undermines gig workers' agency (Shapiro, 2020; Shalini & Bathini, 2019, 2021). The phygital space and the sense of collective encouraged drivers to share and discuss their ride, fare and incentive details to make sense of company rules and collectively create workarounds to outsmart them.…”

“…Platform-mediated cab driving in India Ola and Uber, the two major app-based cab companies in India, dominate the cab driving industry in the country. These companies refer to drivers as 'entrepreneurs' or 'driver-partners' who are expected to make capital investments in the means of production, cabs in this case, and consider themselves as individual business units (see Mishra & Bathini, 2020;Shalini & Bathini, 2019). In the beginning, these companies promised incomes that were unusually high for cab drivers to attract them.…”