Overcoming legitimacy challenges of novel HRM practices during internationalization: The case of two food-delivery platforms

Abstract

Food-delivery platforms seemingly confound the organizational logic that firms, upon internationalization, must gain legitimacy. We contribute to the literature on HRM in multinational enterprises by studying how Deliveroo and Uber Eats expanded into Australia and the Netherlands. Using an organizational legitimacy lens, we trace how these platforms navigate the legitimacy challenges arising from their business models based on ‘HRM without employment’. Our longitudinal time-sensitive qualitative case study design reveals how the platforms dynamically reconfigure their HRM activities and shadowbox with regulators. Rather than pursuing outright legitimacy, they seek to ‘buy time’, to establish local footprints, and, where possible, institutionally innovate.