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Virtual Mobility and the Lonely Cloud: Theorizing the Mobility†Isolation Paradox for Self†Employed Knowledge†Workers in the Online Home†Based Business Context

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  • Elizabeth Daniel
  • MariaLaura Di Domenico
  • Daniel Nunan

Abstract

We advance both mobility and paradox theorizing by advocating the new concepts of ‘mobility†isolation paradox’ and ‘paradoxical imagination’. These emerged from examining the nuanced, multifaceted conceptualizations of the mobility†isolation tensions facing home†based, self†employed, online knowledge†workers. We thereby enhance current conceptual understandings of mobility, isolation and paradox by analyzing knowledge†workers’ interrelated, multidimensional experiences within restrictive home†based working contexts. We compare the dearth of research and theorizing about these autonomous online knowledge†workers with that available about other types of knowledge†workers, such as online home†based employees, and the more physically/corporeally mobile self†employed. This research into an increasingly prevalent knowledge†worker genre addresses these knowledge gaps by analyzing home†based knowledge†workers’ views, and tensions from paradoxical pressures to be corporeally mobile and less isolated. Despite enjoying career, mental and virtual mobility through internet†connectedness, they were found to seek face†to†face social and/or professional interactions, their isolation engendering loneliness, despite their solitude paradoxically often fostering creativity and innovation.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth Daniel & MariaLaura Di Domenico & Daniel Nunan, 2018. "Virtual Mobility and the Lonely Cloud: Theorizing the Mobility†Isolation Paradox for Self†Employed Knowledge†Workers in the Online Home†Based Business Context," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 174-203, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:55:y:2018:i:1:p:174-203
    DOI: 10.1111/joms.12321
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    Cited by:

    1. Laura Parte & Teresa Herrador-Alcaide, 2021. "Teaching Disruption by COVID-19: Burnout, Isolation, and Sense of Belonging in Accounting Tutors in E-Learning and B-Learning," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-22, September.
    2. Giedo Jansen & Alex Lehr, 2022. "On the outside looking in? A micro-level analysis of insiders’ and outsiders’ trade union membership," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 43(1), pages 221-251, February.
    3. Cristina López-Duarte & Jane F. Maley & Marta M. Vidal-Suárez, 2021. "Main challenges to international student mobility in the European arena," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(11), pages 8957-8980, November.
    4. Harms, P.D. & White, Joshua V. & Fezzey, Tyler N.A., 2024. "Dark clouds on the horizon: Dark personality traits and the frontiers of the entrepreneurial economy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    5. Jing A. Zhang & Tao Bai & Ryan W. Tang & Fiona Edgar & Steven Grover & Guoquan Chen, 2022. "The Development of Individual Ambidexterity Across Institutional Environments: Symmetric and Configurational Analyses," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 62(4), pages 517-540, August.

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