(Partial) Exit and Voice in the Gig Economy: Evidence from the Digital Water Cooler

Carlson, Natalie; Yeaton, Matthew; Meier, Stephan

doi:10.5465/ambpp.2019.18685abstract

Cited by 2 publications

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“…I complemented my interview data with archival data from UberPeople.Net. Collecting data from online forums is an increasingly common method for researching gig workers as it provides researchers with the ability to examine how workers naturally discuss the phenomenon of interest (Carlson et al, 2019). I chose UberPeople.Net because it is one of the largest public driver communities and previous researchers have found it a useful research site to complement interview data (Möhlmann & Zalmanson, 2017).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visible hands: How gig companies shape workers' exposure to market risk

Maffie

2023

Industrial Relations

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How do gig platforms prevent workers from defecting to a competitor? Drawing on 40 original interviews and survey data from 210 ride‐hail drivers, the author finds that platform companies calibrate workers' exposure to market risk using gamified reward systems. These rewards protect compliant workers from changes in market conditions, raising the costs of accepting work from a competitor. Yet those who do not comply are “pushed” to the periphery, increasing their market risk. This article illustrates how platform companies can use their “visible hands” to harness and control market forces, shaping worker behavior within and across platforms.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visible hands: How gig companies shape workers' exposure to market risk

Maffie

2023

Industrial Relations

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“…Given the rising importance of online driver groups in shaping how these workers understand their work (Maffie, 2020b; Rosenblat, 2018), I gathered data from Uberpeople.net in order to observe how ride‐hail drivers interacted with each other in digital spaces. I selected this research site because it has been used by other researchers examining the dynamics of ride‐hail drivers (Cameron, 2021; Carlson et al., 2019; Rahman, 2021). I gathered data from this site using existing best practices for studying digital worker communities.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Becoming a pirate: Independence as an alternative to exit in the gig economy

Maffie

2022

Brit J Industrial Rel

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How and why do platform workers ‘quit’? Drawing on original qualitative data from 84 ride‐hail drivers, the author finds that platform companies use information asymmetries to downplay the true cost of working a ‘gig’. Once workers realize these costs, some exit, yet others cannot because they have come to rely on their ride‐hail income to meet their short‐term needs, a phenomenon the author refers to as ‘acquired dependence’. In response, the author finds these workers begin their own ‘pirate’ (illegal) taxi operations to decrease their dependence on platform companies. These findings are then used to develop an original survey instrument that tests if drivers’ ‘acquired dependence’ is associated with ‘pirate’ taxi operations. Using survey data from 330 ride‐hail drivers, the author finds evidence that drivers with greater acquired dependence are more likely to develop off‐app ‘pirate’ taxi operations. In doing so, this article develops both a new category of conflict and response for marketized employment relationships.

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(Partial) Exit and Voice in the Gig Economy: Evidence from the Digital Water Cooler

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Visible hands: How gig companies shape workers' exposure to market risk

Visible hands: How gig companies shape workers' exposure to market risk

Becoming a pirate: Independence as an alternative to exit in the gig economy

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