Labor market matching has significant economic and social impacts since a low matching efficiency/quality reduces aggregated gains in productivity and wages and may lead to unemployment and job vacancy. IT has played a crucial role in influencing labor markets matching by reducing search costs, lowering enter barriers, and promoting flexibility. In this dissertation, I explore one antecedent (i.e., digital labor markets) and two consequences of labor market matching (i.e., local employment and wage). The first essay examines the role of project descriptions (i.e., codifiability, flexibility, outcome standards) in influencing the matching efficiency in the digital labor markets. The results find that an appropriate project description could improve the matching efficiency by 15% between employers and service providers. The second essay studies the impact of an extension in the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program (STEM OPT), an immigration policy that matches local demand with global supply, on local labor markets. I found that the STEM OPT extension boosts employment for domestic IT professionals by promoting innovative and entrepreneurial activities. The third essay studies the impact of an emerging gig platform (i.e., TaskRabbit), a new matching mechanism, on the employment of workers in the housekeeping industry. The results suggest that the platform mostly impacted middle-level management (e.g., first-line supervisors), while the manual workers, such as cleaners and janitors, were not as affected. The contributions and implications of each essay are discussed. / Business Administration/Management Information Systems

There are four million voluntary attritions a month in the US. Many of these people choses to become freelance consultants (gig workers) working through digital gig platforms for better work-life balance. At the same time organizations requires a more flexible access to skills and competences to cope with an ever more dynamic business environment. This trend is also apparent in Europe. As people with the necessary skills and abilities is increasingly found on digital gig platforms, organizations must turn to these platforms to find needed competence. The act of hiring these digital gig workers through digital gig platforms are called crowdsourcing. The risks of crowdsourcing have mostly been studied from the perspective of gig workers and platform operator and there is a lack of understanding regarding the risk with crowdsourcing from the perspective of hiring organizations.       Our aim is to understand what risks organizations perceive with digital gig platforms and digital gig workers, and how organizations could mitigate the perceived risks by using a risk management framework. We conducted a qualitative case study around crowdsourcing as a process. Seven semi-structured interviews with mangers in organizations of various seize and industries were made. These interviews were supplemented with a document study of digital gig platform policies as these policies can reflect common concerns expressed by hiring organizations. Findings shows that there are several perceived organizational risks in crowdsourcing digital gig workers from digital gig platforms. The perceived risks can be categorized as HR, financial, market, operational, technological and supply chain types of risk. These types of risks can be either internal, external, or voluntary risks. The discussion revolves around where the different perceived organizational risks would fit within a risk management framework. The risks can be connected to all components of existing risk management frameworks. Our risk management model of crowdsourcing can be used as a heuristic tool for practitioners and contributes to theory by creating understanding of the risks with crowdsourcing from the perspective of organizations.

Purpose - The purpose of this study was to understand how platform providers can develop their offerings and gig platforms depending on the targeted professional freelancers, henceforth referred to just as freelancers. To fulfil the purpose, three research questions (RQ) were developed: RQ1. How do freelancers’ level of experience influence what is important for their work life? RQ2. How do freelancers’ level of experience influence what they want help with from a gig platform? RQ3. How can platform providers create a satisfying gig platform?  Method - A qualitative, explorative approach was used and both freelancers and platform providers in Sweden were interviewed. In total were 23 interviews conducted in three different phases and the data collected was then analysed through two thematic analysis. Findings - The finding showed that new and experienced freelancers found similar things as important for their work life; monetary compensation, freedom, feeling authentic, self-development, social connection, decreasing uncertainty, relationship with the requesting organization (RO), necessary competence and finding new gigs. Experienced freelancers also found it important to scale up their freelancing career. Even though both groups almost found the same categories of aspects important, but their view on them differed. Experienced freelancers had higher expectations and had already accomplished most of them, while the new ones wished to accomplish it in the future. The new freelancers therefore showed a greater interest in gig platforms and wanted more help from platform providers. What new and experienced freelancers wanted help with, and how platform providers can accomplish it, was illustrated and a framework for strategic aspects which platform providers should consider in order to create a satisfying gig platform was developed.  Theoretical and Practical Contribution - The study contributed to the previous literature by highlighting that different groups of freelancers, new and experienced ones, have different views and expectations on things they find important, as well as what they want help with. Additionally, guidance for platform providers on how to create a satisfying gig platform was provided. Limitation and Future Research - This study was limited to Sweden, and it could be of interest to investigate if there are similarities or differences among different countries. It could also be interesting to investigate if the gender of the freelancers’ niche influences their needs. / Syfte – Syftet med denna studie var att förstå hur plattformsägare kan utveckla sina erbjudanden och gigplattformar beroende på vilka professionella frilansare som de riktar sig till, hädanefter bara benämnda som frilansare. För att uppfylla syftet skapades tre forskningsfrågor (FF); FF1. Hur påverkar frilansares erfarenhet vad de tycker är viktigt för sitt arbetsliv? FF2. Hur påverkar frilansares erfarenhet vad de vill ha hjälp med från en gigplattform? FF3. Hur kan plattformsägare skapa en tillfredsställande gigplattform? Metod – Ett kvalitativt, utforskande tillvägagångssätt användes och både frilansare och plattformsägare i Sverige blev intervjuade. Totalt genomfördes 23 intervjuer genom tre olika faser och data analyserades sedan genom två tematiska analyser. Resultat – Resultatet visade att nya och erfarna frilansare tyckte att liknande saker var viktigt för deras arbetsliv; monetär kompensation, frihet, känna sig autentiska, kompetensutveckling, social samhörighet, minska osäkerhet, relationen till kunden, nödvändig kompetens och att hitta nya gigs. Erfarna frilansare tyckte också att det var viktigt att kunna skala upp sin frilansarkarriär. Trots att båda grupperna nästan tyckte att exakt samma kategorier av aspekter var viktiga skiljde sig deras syn på dessa. Erfarna frilansare hade högre förväntningar och hade redan åstadkommit många av dessa kategorier, medan de nya ville uppfylla dem i framtiden. De nya frilansarna visade därför ett större intresse för gigplattformar och ville ha mer hjälp från plattformsägarna. Vad nya och rutinerade frilansarna vill ha hjälp med och hur gigplattformar kan uppfylla detta illustrerades och ett ramverk för strategiska aspekter som är viktiga för plattformsägare att ta hänsyn till för att kunna skapa en tillfredsställande gigplattform utvecklades. Teoretisk och praktiskt bidrag – Studien bidrog till den tidigare forskningen genom att visa att olika grupper av frilansare, nya och erfarna, har olika syn och förväntningar på saker som de tycker är viktigt och även vad de vill ha hjälp med. Utöver detta har vägledning för hur plattformsägare kan skapa en tillfredsställande gigplattform tillhandahållits. Begränsningar och framtida forskning – Studien var begränsad till Sverige och det skulle därför kunna vara intressant att undersöka om det finns likheter eller skillnader mellan olika länder. Det skulle även vara intressant att undersöka om kön och området frilansarna är verksamma inom påverkar deras behov.