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

Abstract

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.

Socio‐technical issues in the platform‐mediated gig economy: A systematic literature review: An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) paper

“…According to Clarkson et al (2007), information asymmetry (B3) “exists when a party or parties possess greater informational awareness pertinent to effective participation in a given situation relative to other participating parties” (p. 828). In the context of the gig economy, the balance is typically tipped in favor of the platform, which, through algorithmic management (Chan, 2022; Maffie, 2023), maintains an asymmetric level of knowledge and computational capacities that gives it a distinct advantage over the gig worker (Heiland, 2021; Wiener et al, 2021). Asymmetric information, drawn from gig workers' social interactions with the platform and clients, is used to nudge their behavior in directions that benefit platform owners (Christiaens, 2022).…”

The global ‘hot shop’: COVID‐19 as a union organising catalyst

“…Following past survey research on platform workers (Maffie, 2022a , 2022b ; Parrott & Reich, 2020 ), I administered the survey over three time periods, spacing the surveys 4 weeks apart. In the first wave, I collected demographic information from workers, including their gender, race, number of children at home, educational level, previous experience with unions, and views on union instrumentality.…”

“…Third, I control for demographic characteristics that past research has found to correlate with individuals' views on unions (education, race, gender, age). Additionally, research suggests that ride‐hail drivers with less experience on the service are likely to overestimate their earnings, leading them to have higher work satisfaction than older gig workers (Maffie 2022a ). Accordingly, I controlled for the number of years an individual has worked ride‐hail.…”

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

“…It is challenging to gather survey data from platform workers because they lack a central gathering point (Parrott & Reich, 2020). Past researchers have confronted this challenge by recruiting participants from a variety of different sources (Griesbach et al, 2019; Sessions et al, 2021), including driver organizations, social media influencers, and Facebook (Maffie, Forthcoming‐b). Following this past work, I recruited 531 ride‐hail drivers three ways.…”