The Role of Gig Economy in Supporting SME Internationalisation

Abstract

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs)Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) playGig economy a majorInternationalisation role in most economies, particularly in emerging countries where SMEs contribute up to 60% of total employment and up to 40% of GDP. One of the consequences of this has been the growing internationalisation of SMEs. However, small firms are characterised by a lack of resources in key areas such as financial, managerial, and social capital. So SMEs may not have the prerequisite managerial resources to internationalise, nor the luxury of unlimited time in which to acquire such resources. This requires that SMEs need to access resources swiftly through collaboration with other entities. ``Gig economyGig economy'' could play a role which is providing solution to the SMEs. The gig economyGig economy is comprised of a set of freelance individuals who typically offer their services for a short period of time. With the dawn of knowledge economy, the popularity of on-demand short-term jobs is increasing. Such decision is not risk-free as the notion of power, and dependency plays a critical role in the company--supplier relationship. Using the four theoretical lenses---agency theory, resource-based view (RBV), resource dependency theory and transaction cost theory---this paper tries to evaluate the impact of gig economyGig economy on SME's ability to access resources effectively.