Duality of Work in Sharing Economy Platforms

Digitalization is enabling new and novel forms of work. One such emerging form of work manifests itself in the rise of sharing economy. In this study, we explore the duality, i.e. the positive and negative outcomes, of work enabled by a sharing economy platform, Uber. We identify a set of positive and negative outcomes the workers attribute to their work for the sharing economy platform as well as characteristics of the digital platform enabling these outcomes. Furthermore, by drawing on theory of work relations, we theorize how the dimensions (temporal, physical, and administrative) of work relations manifest themselves in work done for a sharing economy platform. We found that freedom that consists of control of time, source of income, and self-employment represents the positive side of work. Price reduction, one-sided termination of contract, and lack of control reflect the power disparity between workers and the platform. We further identified three mechanisms in the digital platform that enable the duality, namely resource connecting, data control, and work distribution. Our findings imply that the data control mechanism is a key contributor to power disparity experienced by Uber drivers.