Stakeholder Interactions and the Gig Economy: Exploring Enablers and Challenges

The proliferation of digital gig platforms is revolutionizing the traditional employment landscape. Scientific studies present contrasting views concerning the underlying attributes driving or impeding its growth and rarely examine these dynamics from the stakeholders’ perspectives. This research endeavours to explore a comprehensive list of the attributes driving growth as well as the obstacles impeding the advancement of the gig economy from the stakeholders’ perspectives. This qualitative study explores the gig economy in the lower-middle income country context using focus group discussions (FGDs). Two FGDs were conducted to explore stakeholders’ perspectives on enablers and challenges of the gig economy growth. The attributes are summarized using the content analysis technique, and results are validated through an extensive literature review. The unique contribution of this article lies in a symbiotic relationship among workers, customers and platforms, with the state acting as the catalyst that either accelerates or impedes the progress of the gig economy. The research has implications for stakeholders in understanding the dynamics of various attributes of the gig economy.