Member participation in the decision-making of platform cooperatives

Project info

Project name
9.6 Gigs of their own: Can Platform Cooperatives of Gig Workers Become Resilient?
Work package
  • Work
Sustainability threat
  • Feedback Cycles
Challenge
  • Reconciling stakeholder interests

Study info

Related studies according to this researcher
Member commitment to platform cooperatives
Description of Study
Platform cooperatives that are owned and governed by gig workers themselves have recently gained traction to improve these workers’ influence on organisational decision-making. Traditionally, worker cooperatives strive for alternative organising based on the ideal of workplace democracy, but are often faced with unequal participation by members in decision-making processes. To test for participation inequalities, this study used survey data (n = 418) from a network of four platform worker cooperatives in Italy. The results show that members with lower affective commitment towards their cooperative and less social capital among other members are less likely to participate, but that there is no effect of cooperative size and human capital.
Study research question
What explains the participation of worker-members in the decision-making of platform cooperatives?
Collection provenance
  • Collected during project
Collection methods
  • Questionaire
Personal data
Yes
External Source
Source description
File formats
  • Stata
Data types
  • Structured
Languages
  • English
Coverage start
Coverage end
Spatial coverage
Italy
Collection period start
01/01/2021
Collection period end
31/03/2021

Variables

Unit
Unit description
Sample size
Sampling method
Individuals
Worker cooperative members
418
Organization-based sample (four cooperatives)
Hypothesis
Theory
The larger a worker cooperative is, the less likely its members will participate in decision-making.
Collective action theory, cooperative literature
The higher a member’s affective commitment is towards their worker cooperative, the more likely they will participate in decision-making.
Collective action theory, cooperative literature
The more a member possesses social capital among other members of their worker cooperative, the more likely they will participate in decision-making.
Collective action theory, cooperative literature
The more a member possesses human capital (a: education level, b: membership length, c: digital skills), the more likely they will participate in decision-making.
Collective action theory, cooperative literature
Variable type
Variable name
Variable description
Dependent variable
Member participation
De Facto Participation Power scale (Weber et al., 2009)
Discipline-specific operationalizations
Conflict of interest

Data packages

Member survey of platform cooperatives

Data package DOI
https://doi.org/10.25397/eur.22717270.v1
Description
Behaviour and attitudes of gig workers as cooperative members
Accessibility
Open Access
Repository
EUR data repository
User license
CC-BY 4.0
Retention period
10

Publications

Silicon law of oligarchy: patterns of member participation in the decision-making of platform cooperatives

https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwad058
Socio-Economic Review

Documents

Filename
Description
Date

Ethics

Ethical assessment
Yes
Ethical committee
RSM IRB-NE