IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ininma/v49y2019icp452-460.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digital platforms and the changing nature of physical work: Insights from ride-hailing

Author

Listed:
  • Mäntymäki, Matti
  • Baiyere, Abayomi
  • Islam, A.K.M Najmul

Abstract

The rise of digital platforms has enabled new forms of work, but the nature of these new forms, particularly the role of the digital platform in shaping work relations, is not well understood. This study explores how the presence of the digital platform manifests itself in workers’ perceptions of their work in the context of ride-hailing. We draw on the literature on work relations and theorize how the dimensions of work relations manifest themselves in work done for a digital platform. We employ the Gioia method to analyze 39 interviews conducted with Uber and Lyft drivers, and we identify six key mechanisms of platform-enabled work, namely self-employment, time management, income, information control, pricing, and rating. Our results illustrate that from workers’ perspective, flexibility in work relationships is a key positive element of platform-enabled work. The stark power disparity between workers and the platform is, in turn, a major source of discontent among workers. As a result, we put forward two key dimensions of work relations in the context of platform-enabled work: digital temporality and algorithmic administrativity. The study furthers understanding of the implications from the platform economy and sharing economy on work relations.

Suggested Citation

  • Mäntymäki, Matti & Baiyere, Abayomi & Islam, A.K.M Najmul, 2019. "Digital platforms and the changing nature of physical work: Insights from ride-hailing," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 452-460.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ininma:v:49:y:2019:i:c:p:452-460
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.08.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401219305109
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.08.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zamani, Efpraxia D. & Spanaki, Konstantina, 2023. "Affective temporal experiences and new work modalities: The role of Information and Communication Technologies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    2. Hannan Amoozad Mahdiraji & Fatemeh Yaftiyan & Aliasghar Abbasi-Kamardi & Vahid Jafari-Sadeghi & Jean-Michel Sahut & Leo-Paul Dana, 2023. "A synthesis of boundary conditions with adopting digital platforms in SMEs: an intuitionistic multi-layer decision-making framework," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 1723-1751, October.
    3. Da, Yuwen & Gou, Qinglong & Liang, Chao, 2023. "Will self-gifting of streamers hurt unions? Analyzing the union’s compensation mechanism for a live streaming supply chain," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    4. Paula McDonald & Penny Williams & Robyn Mayes & Maria Khan, 2024. "Income generation on care work digital labour platforms," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 62(2), pages 358-380, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ininma:v:49:y:2019:i:c:p:452-460. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-information-management .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.