IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/worbus/v60y2025i2s1090951624000919.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Overcoming legitimacy challenges of novel HRM practices during internationalization: The case of two food-delivery platforms

Author

Listed:
  • Veen, Alex
  • Meijerink, Jeroen
  • Barratt, Tom
  • Keegan, Anne
  • Goods, Caleb

Abstract

Food-delivery platforms seemingly confound the organizational logic that firms, upon internationalization, must gain legitimacy. We contribute to the literature on HRM in multinational enterprises by studying how Deliveroo and Uber Eats expanded into Australia and the Netherlands. Using an organizational legitimacy lens, we trace how these platforms navigate the legitimacy challenges arising from their business models based on ‘HRM without employment’. Our longitudinal time-sensitive qualitative case study design reveals how the platforms dynamically reconfigure their HRM activities and shadowbox with regulators. Rather than pursuing outright legitimacy, they seek to ‘buy time’, to establish local footprints, and, where possible, institutionally innovate.

Suggested Citation

  • Veen, Alex & Meijerink, Jeroen & Barratt, Tom & Keegan, Anne & Goods, Caleb, 2025. "Overcoming legitimacy challenges of novel HRM practices during internationalization: The case of two food-delivery platforms," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 60(2).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:worbus:v:60:y:2025:i:2:s1090951624000919
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jwb.2024.101611
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090951624000919
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jwb.2024.101611?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.

    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:worbus:v:60:y:2025:i:2:s1090951624000919. 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: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/620401/description#description .

    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.