Reputation and trust on online labour markets: the reputation economy of Elance

Alessandro Gandini, null; Ivana Pais, null; Davide Beraldo, null

doi:10.13169/workorgalaboglob.10.1.0027

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Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Volume 10, Issue 1

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Article: found

Is Open Access

Reputation and trust on online labour markets: the reputation economy of Elance

research-article

Author(s): Alessandro Gandini , Ivana Pais , Davide Beraldo

Publication date (Print): Spring 2016

Journal: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

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Abstract

This article examines profile data about 9,593 freelancers from 121 countries active in the Design and Multimedia section of Elance, a major online labour market existing up until 2015. Using statistical analysis, the article evidences that the earnings a contractor obtains from working through Elance positively correlates with higher reputation scores and suggests that the conception of trust among actors operating on an online labour market resembles that which characterises e-commerce platforms like eBay or Amazon, where trust relations among ‘strangers’ are guaranteed by an algorithmic-based third party that translates feedbacks and rankings into a numerical reputation proxy.

Content

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169

Journal ID (publisher-id): workorgalaboglob

Title: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 1745641X

ISSN (Electronic): 17456428

Publication date (Print): Spring 2016

Volume: 10

Issue: 1

Pages: 27-43

Article

Publisher ID: workorgalaboglob.10.1.0027

DOI: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.10.1.0027

SO-VID: 59c19b84-44b9-46ac-b885-5806672e3d25

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All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

History

ScienceOpen disciplines: Sociology,Labor law,Political science,Labor & Demographic economics,Political economics

References

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Arvidsson, A. & N. Peitersen (2013) The Ethical Economy: Rebuilding Value after the Crisis , New York: Columbia University Press.
Atkinson, W. & K. Randle (2014) ‘“Sorry mate, you're finishing tonight”: A historical perspective on employment flexibility in the UK film industry’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation , 8 (1):49–68.
Barrera, D. & G.G. van de Bunt (2009) ‘Learning to trust: Networks effects through time’, European Sociological Review , 25 (6):709–21.
Bolton, G.E., E. Katok & A. Ockenfels (2004) ‘How effective are electronic reputation mechanisms? An experimental investigation’, Management Science , 50 (11):1587–1602.
Bolton, G.E., C. Loebbecke & A. Ockenfels (2007) ‘How social reputation networks interact with competition in anonymous online trading: An experimental study’, CESifo Working Paper 2270. Accessed November, 4, 2013 from http://www.ifo.de/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/1187082.PDF.
Bourdieu, P. (1986) ‘The forms of capital’ in J.G. Richardson (ed.) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education , Westport, CT: Greenwood Press:241–58.
Caraway, B. (2010) ‘Online labour markets: An inquiry into oDesk providers’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation , 4 (2):111–125.
Coleman J.S. (1988) ‘Social capital in the creation of human capital’, American Journal of Sociology , 94 (5):95–120.
Daltayanni, M., L. de Alfaro & P. Papadimitriou (2015) ‘WorkerRank: Using employer implicit judgements to infer worker reputation’ in Proceedings of the Eighth ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining , New York, NY: ACM:263–72.
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Freidson, E. (1960) ‘Client control and medical practice’, American Journal of Sociology , 65:374–82.
Gandini, A. (2015) ‘Digital work: Self-branding and social capital in the freelance knowledge economy’, Marketing Theory , 16:123–41.
Gandini, A. (2016) The Reputation Economy: Understanding Knowledge Work in a Digital Society , Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Granovetter, M. (1973) ‘The strength of weak ties’, American Journal of Sociology , 78 (6):1360–80.
Granovetter, M. (1985) ‘Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness’, American Journal of Sociology , 91 (3):481–510.
Hearn, A. (2010) ‘Structuring feeling: Web 2.0, online ranking and rating, and the digital “reputation” economy’, Ephemera , 10:421–38.
Holts, K. (2013) ‘Towards a taxonomy of virtual work’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation , 7 (1):31–50.
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Horton, J.J. & J.M. Golden (2015) ‘Reputation inflation: Evidence from an online labor market’. Accessed January, 4, 2016 from http://john-joseph-horton.com/papers/private_feedback.pdf.
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Lin, N. (2002) Social Capital: A Theory of Social Structure and Action , New York: Cambridge University Press.
Luhmann, N. (2000) ‘Familiarity, confidence, trust: Problems and alternatives’ in D. Gambetta (ed.) Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations , Oxford: Basil Blackwell:94–107.
Merton, R.K. (1968) ‘The Matthew effect in science’, Science , 159:56–63.
Messias, J., L. Schmidt, R. Oliveira & F. Benevenuto (2013) ‘You followed my bot! Transforming robots into influential users in Twitter’, First Monday , 18 (7). doi:10.5210/fm.v18i7.4217.
Putnam, R. (2001) ‘Social capital: Measurement and consequences’, Canadian Journal of Policy Research , 2 (1):41–51.
Ranci, C. (ed.). (2012) Partite Iva. Il lavoro autonomo nella crisi italiana , Bologna: Il Mulino.
Randle, K, C. Forson & M. Calveley (2015) ‘Towards a Bourdieusian analysis of the social composition of the UK film and television workforce’, Work, Employment and Society , 29:590–606.
Rifkin, J. (2014) The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism , Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Rooks, G., F. Tazelaar & C. Snjiders (2011) ‘Gossip and reputation in business networks’, European Sociological Review , 27 (1):90–106.
Scott, S.V. & G. Walsham (2005) ‘Reconceptualizing and managing reputation risk in the knowledge economy: Toward reputable action’, Organization Science , 16 (3):308–22.
Witt, M. & G. Redding (2013) ‘Asian business systems: Institutional comparison, clusters and implications for varieties of capitalism and business systems theory’, Socio-Economic Review , 11 (2):265–300.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Agrawal, A., J. Horton, N. Lacetera & E. Lyons (2013) ‘Digitization and the contract labor market: A research agenda’ in A. Goldfarb, S.M. Greenstein & C.E. Tucker (eds) Economic Analysis of the Digital Economy , Chicago: University of Chicago Press:219–56.

[2] Arvidsson, A. & N. Peitersen (2013) The Ethical Economy: Rebuilding Value after the Crisis , New York: Columbia University Press.

[3] Atkinson, W. & K. Randle (2014) ‘“Sorry mate, you're finishing tonight”: A historical perspective on employment flexibility in the UK film industry’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation , 8 (1):49–68.

[4] Barrera, D. & G.G. van de Bunt (2009) ‘Learning to trust: Networks effects through time’, European Sociological Review , 25 (6):709–21.

[5] Bolton, G.E., E. Katok & A. Ockenfels (2004) ‘How effective are electronic reputation mechanisms? An experimental investigation’, Management Science , 50 (11):1587–1602.

[6] Bolton, G.E., C. Loebbecke & A. Ockenfels (2007) ‘How social reputation networks interact with competition in anonymous online trading: An experimental study’, CESifo Working Paper 2270. Accessed November, 4, 2013 from http://www.ifo.de/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/1187082.PDF.

[7] Bourdieu, P. (1986) ‘The forms of capital’ in J.G. Richardson (ed.) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education , Westport, CT: Greenwood Press:241–58.

[8] Caraway, B. (2010) ‘Online labour markets: An inquiry into oDesk providers’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation , 4 (2):111–125.

[9] Coleman J.S. (1988) ‘Social capital in the creation of human capital’, American Journal of Sociology , 94 (5):95–120.

[10] Daltayanni, M., L. de Alfaro & P. Papadimitriou (2015) ‘WorkerRank: Using employer implicit judgements to infer worker reputation’ in Proceedings of the Eighth ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining , New York, NY: ACM:263–72.

[11] Diekmann, A., B. Jann, W. Przepiorka & S. Wehrli (2014) ‘Reputation formation and the evolution of cooperation in anonymous online markets’, American Sociological Review , 79 (1):65–85.

[12] The Economist (2015) ‘Workers on Tap’. Accessed January, 4, 2016 from http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21637393-rise-demand-economy-poses-difficult-questions-workers-companies-and.

[13] European Employment Observatory Review (2010) ‘Self-employment in Europe’. Accessed October, 30, 2013 from http://osha.europa.eu/en/publications/literature_reviews/self-employed.

[14] Francesconi, A. & C. Dossena (2012) ‘E-marketplaces for professional e-services: Trust, reputation and performance’ in M. De Marco, D. Te'eni, V. Albano & S. Za (eds) Information Systems: Crossroads for Organization, Management, Accounting and Engineering , Berlin: Physica-Verlag HD:43–50.

[15] Freidson, E. (1960) ‘Client control and medical practice’, American Journal of Sociology , 65:374–82.

[16] Gandini, A. (2015) ‘Digital work: Self-branding and social capital in the freelance knowledge economy’, Marketing Theory , 16:123–41.

[17] Gandini, A. (2016) The Reputation Economy: Understanding Knowledge Work in a Digital Society , Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

[18] Granovetter, M. (1973) ‘The strength of weak ties’, American Journal of Sociology , 78 (6):1360–80.

[19] Granovetter, M. (1985) ‘Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness’, American Journal of Sociology , 91 (3):481–510.

[20] Hearn, A. (2010) ‘Structuring feeling: Web 2.0, online ranking and rating, and the digital “reputation” economy’, Ephemera , 10:421–38.

[21] Holts, K. (2013) ‘Towards a taxonomy of virtual work’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation , 7 (1):31–50.

[22] Horton, J.J. (2010) ‘Online labor markets’, Working paper, Harvard University. Accessed October, 24, 2015 from http://john-joseph-horton.com/papers/online_labor_markets.pdf.

[23] Horton, J.J. & J.M. Golden (2015) ‘Reputation inflation: Evidence from an online labor market’. Accessed January, 4, 2016 from http://john-joseph-horton.com/papers/private_feedback.pdf.

[24] Huws, U. (2013) ‘Working online, living offline: Labour in the Internet Age’, Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation , 7 (1):1–11.

[25] Huws, U. (2014) Labor in the Global Digital Economy: The Cybertariat Comes of Age , New York: Monthly Review Press.

[26] Kilduff, M. & D. Krackhardt (1994) ‘Bringing the individual back in: A structural analysis of the internal market for reputation in organizations’, Academy of Management Journal , 37:87–108.

[27] Kokkodis, M. & P. Ipeirotis (2015) ‘Reputation transferability in online labor markets’, Management Science . [online] 1–20. doi:10.1287/mnsc.2015.2217.

[28] Lehdonvirta, V. & E. Castronova (2014) Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis , Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

[29] Lehdonvirta, V., H. Barnard, M. Graham & I. Hjorth (2014) ‘Online labour markets – Leveling the playing field for international service markets’, Paper presented at IPP2014: Crowdsourcing for Politics and Policy , Oxford, UK, September, 25–26, 2014. Accessed February, 24, 2015 from http://ipp.oii.ox.ac.uk/2014/.

[30] Leung, M.D. (2014) ‘Dilettante or renaissance person? How the order of job experiences affects hiring in an external labor market’, American Sociological Review , 79 (1):136–58.

[31] Lin, N. (1999) ‘Building a network theory of social capital’, Connections , 22 (1):28–51.

[32] Lin, N. (2002) Social Capital: A Theory of Social Structure and Action , New York: Cambridge University Press.

[33] Luhmann, N. (2000) ‘Familiarity, confidence, trust: Problems and alternatives’ in D. Gambetta (ed.) Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations , Oxford: Basil Blackwell:94–107.

[34] Merton, R.K. (1968) ‘The Matthew effect in science’, Science , 159:56–63.

[35] Messias, J., L. Schmidt, R. Oliveira & F. Benevenuto (2013) ‘You followed my bot! Transforming robots into influential users in Twitter’, First Monday , 18 (7). doi:10.5210/fm.v18i7.4217.

[36] Putnam, R. (2001) ‘Social capital: Measurement and consequences’, Canadian Journal of Policy Research , 2 (1):41–51.

[37] Ranci, C. (ed.). (2012) Partite Iva. Il lavoro autonomo nella crisi italiana , Bologna: Il Mulino.

[38] Randle, K, C. Forson & M. Calveley (2015) ‘Towards a Bourdieusian analysis of the social composition of the UK film and television workforce’, Work, Employment and Society , 29:590–606.

[39] Rifkin, J. (2014) The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism , Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

[40] Rooks, G., F. Tazelaar & C. Snjiders (2011) ‘Gossip and reputation in business networks’, European Sociological Review , 27 (1):90–106.

[41] Scott, S.V. & G. Walsham (2005) ‘Reconceptualizing and managing reputation risk in the knowledge economy: Toward reputable action’, Organization Science , 16 (3):308–22.

[42] Witt, M. & G. Redding (2013) ‘Asian business systems: Institutional comparison, clusters and implications for varieties of capitalism and business systems theory’, Socio-Economic Review , 11 (2):265–300.