Digital Work and High-Tech Wanderers: Three Theoretical Framings and a Research Agenda for Digital Nomadism

Abstract

This paper presents a literature review and conceptual development of digital nomadism. Digital nomadism is characterised by mobile workers indefinitely travelling between different locations while continually fulfilling their work obligations. The emerging literature on digital nomadism is fragmented and primarily focused on digital nomads' lifestyles. There is comparatively less focus on theoretically framing digital nomadism into broader narratives in human history. In order to gain a holistic understanding, this paper reviews the limited literature on digital nomadism and expands to other relevant literatures on economy (e.g. traditional boundaries in business), culture (e.g. lifehacking), and technology (e.g. telework and digital communication). These three theoretical framings of digital nomadism enable this paper to identify the current state of knowledge relevant to digital nomadism and develop a research agenda.

In search of a digital nomad: defining the phenomenon

“…This turns remote work into a lifestyle: "Digital nomads are teleworkers who […] choose to work from everywhere, living a life of ongoing interleaved work and travel" (Wang et al 2018, 2, 9). The authors emphasize that it is not just a new lifestyle, but a new way of performing and organizing work (Wang et al 2018). As a lifestyle, digital nomadism is defined as "the ability for individuals to work remotely from their laptop and use their freedom from an office to travel the world" (Thompson 2019, 27).…”

“…Some authors define frequently traveled young adults as digital nomads (Richards 2015), workers or settlers of tech hubs (McElroy 2019), others use more general categories, like global nomads, that include digital nomads among others (Kannisto 2014). Digital nomads are viewed as the intersection of travel, leisure and work, and have also been referred to as mobile workers (Orel 2019), teleworkers, a hybrid of a traveling businessperson and a backpacker (Wang et al 2018), and independent or remote workers (State of Independence in America 2018).…”

“…Empirical evidence shows that digital nomads largely rely on the sharing economy, in accommodation sector in particular. Most of the accommodation is booked through the AirBnB.com platform (Kong et al 2019;Thompson 2018;Wang et al 2018). The use of the platform is often two-sided, as a small proportion of digital nomads who own properties also rent them out.…”

“…In search of a digital nomad: defining the phenomenon Empirically, existing studies on digital nomads have focused on various facets of the phenomenon, positioning digital nomadism as a product of changing working cultures and other societal changes, as well as diversifying travel patterns (Müller 2016;Nash et al 2018;Reichenberger 2018;Thompson 2018Thompson , 2019Wang et al 2018). These studies show a twofold approach to digital nomadism that is strongly influenced by a particular research discipline that the authors represent.…”

“…Contemporary studies offer little conceptual framing of digital nomadism, which can be explained by the novelty of the phenomenon. Digital nomadism has been approached as a form of creative tourism (Putra and Agirachman 2016) and a type of leisure activity (Reichenberger 2018), as a novel type of location independent workforce (Orel 2019;Wang et al 2018), and as a new economic activity and a cultural phenomenon (Wang et al 2018) (cf. Sect.…”