Professions and Expertise: How Machine Learning and Blockchain are Redesigning the Landscape of Professional Knowledge and Organisation

Flood, John; Robb, Lachlan

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3228950

Cited by 16 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In fact, on-demand legal services are already available on freelancer platforms, such as Upwork (Kässi and Lehdonvirta 2018), despite a smaller scale than designated legal platforms in China. Other technologydriven evolutions of legal services include legal help websites (Susskind and Susskind 2015) and recent adoption of artificial intelligence in legal work (Flood and Robb 2019;Thomson Reuters et al 2019). Aside from new technologies, market forces are also pushing legal services to be increasingly task based and sourced in alternative ways (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uberizing the Legal Profession? Lawyer Autonomy and Status in the Digital Legal Market

Yao

2019

Brit J Industrial Rel

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The online gig economy has disrupted many occupations in the past decade, but only more recently has it had an impact on professional fields. The recency of this trend indicates a need for understanding the impact of the online gig economy on professional workers. Using interview data from lawyers who work on one of China's most successful online legal service platforms, this study finds that supplementary income and flexibility are the two major motives for lawyers to work online. Nevertheless, when working online, lawyers face lower intraprofessional status and lower professional autonomy. Despite its growth, the digital legal market is imposing a minimal threat to the traditional legal market due to the lack of interference in labour supply and demand between these two markets.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uberizing the Legal Profession? Lawyer Autonomy and Status in the Digital Legal Market

Yao

2019

Brit J Industrial Rel

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Furthermore, the types of strategic responses and the underlying mechanisms identified are likely to be important in other sectors, too. Examples may include the restaurant sector where restaurants are facing the expansion of meal delivery platforms, or the legal services sector where firms are competing with platforms offering standardized services and new forms of expertise (Christin, 2017; Flood and Robb, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coping with digital market re-organization: How the hotel industry strategically responds to digital platform power

Balsiger

Jammet

Cianferoni³

et al. 2022

Competition & Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

How do organizations in a sector where powerful platforms have emerged cope with the new constraints and opportunities that platforms induce? A growing number of studies highlight the power of digital platforms to re-organize markets and thereby create new forms of dependence. But there are also indications that organizations are capable of countering platform power especially by demanding their regulation. This paper expands this view to investigate also strategies at the organizational level. It draws on the algorithmic game studies of strategic responses to environmental changes to study how organizations strategically respond to the rise of digital platforms. To show organizations’ capacities to cope with the new digital market environment, we use a qualitative case study of the Swiss hotel sector and its reactions to so-called online travel agencies, based on interviews with hotel managers and professional representatives. We distinguish between three types of hotels—small family-run, luxury, and chain hotels, and identify three types of strategic responses: bypassing, optimizing, and mitigating. Contrary to a platform power perspective, we find some evidence for organizations’ capacity to keep platforms at bay, by limiting dependence through mitigation, and platforms’ reach through bypassing. Hotels also learn to “play the algorithmic game” and take advantage of platforms’ technological affordances, but such strategies seem to accommodate platform power rather than countering it. Finally, we find that hotels with fewer resources (small family-run hotels) are less equipped to counter platform power, suggesting that platforms risk fostering existing hierarchies and segmentation in markets.

show abstract

“…There remains a lacuna in the sociology of the professions (Susskind and Susskind, 2015). Given the influx of programmed services from retail checkouts (Litfin and Wolfram, 2010) to automated tellers (Mahmood and Shaikh, 2013), households (Soraa et al, 2021) and professional knowledge-based service options (Susskind and Susskind, 2015) in the fields of law (Flood and Robb, 2018), architecture (Clayton et al, 2002) and accounting (Hyvonen et al, 2006) little is known about the characteristics of automated professional advice. The dislocation and disruption of programmed machine-based knowledge are prominent when the focus is upon unskilled employees (Mfanafuthi et al, 2019) but not in the programming of (artificial intelligence) AI-managed, algorithmically based professionals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given the influx of programmed services from retail checkouts (Litfin and Wolfram, 2010) to automated tellers (Mahmood and Shaikh, 2013), households (Soraa et al. , 2021) and professional knowledge-based service options (Susskind and Susskind, 2015) in the fields of law (Flood and Robb, 2018), architecture (Clayton et al. , 2002) and accounting (Hyvonen et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robo-Advice (RA): implications for the sociology of the professions

Wexler

Oberlander

2021

IJSSP

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeThis conceptual paper explores the implications for the sociology of the professions of robo-advice (RA) provided by robo-advisors (RAs) as an early example of successfully programmed algorithmic knowledge managed by artificial intelligence (AI).Design/methodology/approach The authors examine the drivers of RAs, their success, characteristics, and establish RA as an early precursor of commercialized, programmed professional advice with implications for developments in the sociology of the professions.FindingsWithin the lens of the sociology of the professions, the success of RAs suggests that the diffusion of this innovation depends on three factors: the programmed flows of automated professional knowledge are minimally disruptive, they are less costly, and attract attention because of the “on-trend” nature of algorithmic authority guided by AI. The on-trend nature of algorithmic governance and its increasing public acceptance points toward an algorithmic paradox. The contradictions arise in the gap between RA marketed to the public and as a set of professional practices.Practical implicationsThe incursion of RA-like disembodied advice into other professions is predicted given the emergence of tech-savvy clients, the tie between RA and updatable flows of big data, and an increasing shift to the “maker” or “do-it-yourself” movements.Originality/valueUsing the success of RAs in the financial industry, the authors predict that an AI-managed platform, despite the algorithmic paradox, is an avenue for growth with implications for researchers in the sociology of the professions.

show abstract

Professions and Expertise: How Machine Learning and Blockchain are Redesigning the Landscape of Professional Knowledge and Organisation

Cited by 16 publications

References 15 publications

Uberizing the Legal Profession? Lawyer Autonomy and Status in the Digital Legal Market

Uberizing the Legal Profession? Lawyer Autonomy and Status in the Digital Legal Market

Coping with digital market re-organization: How the hotel industry strategically responds to digital platform power

Robo-Advice (RA): implications for the sociology of the professions

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About