Skip to main content

BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Sociol.
Sec. Work, Employment and Organizations
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1454305
This article is part of the Research Topic Digital Transformations and the Changing Nature of Work View all 6 articles

Digital business, work and consumption in a service relation: case study of a delivery platform company

Provisionally accepted
Sofia Alexandra Cruz Sofia Alexandra Cruz 1*Catarina Sales Oliveira Catarina Sales Oliveira 2
  • 1 Faculty of Economics, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
  • 2 Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The platform economy has contributed to new ways of organising business, work, and consumption. To understand the shape and scope of these changes, it is crucial to pay simultaneous attention to these three domains. The new ways of organising, dividing and coordinating work are interlinked with specific ways of consuming services made available by digital platforms. This brief research report analyses a case study of a delivery platform company with a specific business model marked by strong territorial roots and promoting relational proximity between the platform, workers, and clients. It proposes an approach to the service relation between the platform, workers, and clients allowing to explore institutional, intersubjective and spatial-temporal dimensions that shape it. Intersubjective, because they point to particular modes of communication and involvement between the parties. Institutional, as the platform reflects the organisational environments within which it operates. Spatio-temporal, as this service relation promotes flexible spatial and temporal arrangement that articulates various urban actors.

    Keywords: Platform economy, Delivery platform, Business, Work, consumption, Service relation

    Received: 24 Jun 2024; Accepted: 29 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Cruz and Oliveira. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Sofia Alexandra Cruz, Faculty of Economics, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.