Sustainability in the Gig Economy (eBook)

This book provides a comprehensive and contemporary source of reference for the gig economy for sustainable businesses with a focus on Industry 4.0. It covers the theoretical and practical implications of the rise of an alternative system in the era of technology-driven business entities; and explains the emergence of the gig economy as a crucial factor in devising approaches that will help in ensuring better decision making.

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, investors and corporations are attempting to overcome the turbulence in financial markets over the past few months. Governments and economists are scrambling to mitigate the impacts of lockdowns. Many businesses have transferred to a remote working system, and the critical challenge remains to make this form of work and business productive, efficient, and sustainable. Against this backdrop, the book provides an overview of the gig economy from varied perspective such as general business and economics; ethics, governance, and legal issues; diffusion of IT in the workplace; sustainability; future of workforce and workplaces during and post-pandemic scenarios. This edited volume also highlights several challenges and opportunities for managing the diverse workforce in the prevailing situation which has no precedence.

With its discussions on the impact of the gig economy on the business world, the book carries appeal for scholars in the business, human resource professionals, industry practitioners, corporates, and policy advocates interested in learning about evolution, automation, marketing, and sustainability in the gig economy.

Ashish Gupta is presently working as a Full-time Faculty in Marketing Area at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi, Under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Govt. of India, New Delhi. His research interests are in Marketing, Customer Relationship Management, Service Quality and Consumer Behaviour. He has over 10 years of teaching and research experience in the area of Marketing and Management. He has more than 40 research papers and book chapters to his credit published in international and national journals like American Business Review; Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services; Young consumers; Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics; Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice; International Journal of Customer Relationship Marketing and Management; International Journal of Electronic Customer Relationship Management; International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management and many others. He also presented more than 50 research papers at International and National conferences. He completed an International Faculty Development Program from Aston Business School, Aston University, Birmingham, UK in August 2019.

He conducted Management Development Program for Armed Forces Personnel sponsored by the Directorate General of Resettlement and Welfare, Ministry of Defence, Govt. of India and National Academy for Defence Production in the area of 'International Marketing'. He conducted a one-week MHRD-GIAN Program on 'Digital and Social Media Marketing in Emerging Markets' Sponsored by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (Govt. of India), New Delhi in 2016.

Tavishi Tewary is an Assistant Professor and Area Chair Department of Economics at Jaipuria Institute of Management, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. Her area of Interest covers International Trade Analysis; Sustainability; International Economics; Socio-Economic Development, Energy, Circular Economy, Industry 4.0. She has presented several research papers at international and national conferences on these topics. She has authored a book on circular economy with a publisher of international repute. She has also conducted FDPs on Data Analysis using SPSS, PLS-SEM, and EVIEWS. Also, she has experience in providing scientific leadership to high-profile strategic sustainability and conservation initiatives with several years of research experience.

Badri Narayanan Gopalakrishnan is an economist, affiliated with the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. He co-founded Infinite-Sum Modeling Inc., with offices in Canada, the USA, India, and China. He is also a non-resident senior fellow with European Centre for International Political Economy and a non-resident fellow with the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (formerly Brookings India) while serving on the board of many organizations such as the British American Business Council and startups. His broad expertise lies in the analysis of business strategy and public policy, employing a variety of quantitative models. Recently, apart from his almost two-decades-long of applied economic research experience in the trade, energy/environment, and development issues for several international and national organisations including the UN, World Bank, IMF, etc., he has been working on several other issues such as business economics of new technologies, including AI, blockchain, internet of things, cloud, 3-D printing, robotics, drones, etc., advising several start-ups in these sectors. He has written 100+ research papers and presented his work in 30 countries, with thousands of researchers citing his research.

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This book provides a comprehensive and contemporary source of reference for the gig economy for sustainable businesses with a focus on Industry 4.0. It covers the theoretical and practical implications of the rise of an alternative system in the era of technology-driven business entities; and explains the emergence of the gig economy as a crucial factor in devising approaches that will help in ensuring better decision making.As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, investors and corporations are attempting to overcome the turbulence in financial markets over the past few months. Governments and economists are scrambling to mitigate the impacts of lockdowns. Many businesses have transferred to a remote working system, and the critical challenge remains to make this form of work and business productive, efficient, and sustainable. Against this backdrop, the book provides an overview of the gig economy from varied perspective such as general business and economics; ethics, governance, and legal issues; diffusion of IT in the workplace; sustainability; future of workforce and workplaces during and post-pandemic scenarios. This edited volume also highlights several challenges and opportunities for managing the diverse workforce in the prevailing situation which has no precedence.With its discussions on the impact of the gig economy on the business world, the book carries appeal for scholars in the business, human resource professionals, industry practitioners, corporates, and policy advocates interested in learning about evolution, automation, marketing, and sustainability in the gig economy.