Two's company, platforms make a crowd: Talent identification in tripartite work arrangements in the gig economy

Abstract

The gig economy provides a novel setting that challenges many established ways of working. This paper unpacks the nature of talent identification in the gig economy through the role of three central actors; the online labor platform firm, the requester/customer and the gig worker. Talent identification in this context is especially novel as it emerges from tripartite relationships among independent economic actors, in contrast to traditional settings where talent identification is studied from a dyadic perspective (i.e., talented workers and the organization). We decipher the heterogeneity across online labor platforms and their gig workforces through the practice of talent identification. We provide an agenda to guide future research on the inclusive versus exclusive nature of talent identification in the gig economy as well as on online labor platforms as independent, yet powerful players who identify talents themselves alongside shaping talent identification processes between workers and hiring organizations. Accordingly, this paper extends the parameters of talent identification scholarship along with providing a different lens by which we examine work in the gig context.