Fast-tracking Research Methodology Immersion for Students: Experiences from a Project on Fairwork in the Gig Economy

Q3 Business, Management and Accounting

Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods Pub Date : 2021-12-03 DOI:10.34190/ejbrm.19.2.2511

Marita Turpin, J. Van Belle

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Abstract

This paper showcases an innovative student research project in a South African taught Masters programme, where students learnt to apply a sound research methodology in the real world, and align their work with a global research project. The Fairwork (https://fair.work) project assesses the extent to which gig work platforms in a number of countries conform to ‘fair work’ principles for their workers. The Fairwork project has a clearly defined and rigorous research methodology used by senior academics around the world to rate labour-broking platforms such as those in e-hailing (Bolt, Uber) or delivery services (UberEats) to rate their adoption of fair work principles for their workers. The University of Pretoria adopted this research methodology in the context of a student-based group project in a taught 2020 “Digital Economy” Masters programme. Student groups used the same methodology and interviewed South African platform workers to score seven different platforms. The key motivations and intended benefits were that the research methodology was already tried and tested, students should able to apply the skills taught in an earlier (theoretical) research methods course, subject specific knowledge around the gig economy had to be researched and was internalized, each group had the freedom to select its own platform, results could be validated against publicly available ratings, students engaged themselves in real world empirical research, and their research outputs had a real world relevance. In addition, this project turned out to work well under Covid19 partial lockdown circumstances. The student submissions exceeded the expectations of everyone involved, and some groups produced research results which matched the level of highly experienced researchers. This project also provides a strong contribution to the academic community, not only because it provides a validation benchmark and alternative research approach to the Fairwork project, but also because this project is easily portable to similar courses in other country contexts.

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快速跟踪研究方法——学生沉浸式学习——来自Gig经济中公平工作项目的经验

本文展示了南非硕士课程中的一个创新学生研究项目，学生们在该项目中学会了在现实世界中应用合理的研究方法，并将他们的工作与全球研究项目相结合。Fairwork(https://fair.work)该项目评估了一些国家的零工平台在多大程度上符合工人的“公平工作”原则。公平工作项目有一个明确而严格的研究方法，世界各地的高级学者都使用该方法来对电子叫车（Bolt、优步）或快递服务（UberEats）等劳动经纪平台进行评级，以评估其对员工公平工作原则的采用情况。比勒陀利亚大学在2020年“数字经济”硕士课程中，在一个以学生为基础的小组项目中采用了这一研究方法。学生小组使用了同样的方法，并采访了南非平台工作人员，为七个不同的平台打分。关键的动机和预期的好处是，研究方法已经过尝试和测试，学生应该能够应用早期（理论）研究方法课程中教授的技能，必须研究并内化零工经济的特定学科知识，每个群体都可以自由选择自己的平台，结果可以根据公开的评分进行验证，学生们参与了现实世界的实证研究，他们的研究成果与现实世界有相关性。此外，该项目在2019冠状病毒病部分封锁的情况下运行良好。学生提交的材料超出了所有参与者的预期，一些小组的研究结果与经验丰富的研究人员的水平相匹配。该项目还为学术界做出了巨大贡献，不仅因为它为公平工作项目提供了验证基准和替代研究方法，还因为该项目很容易移植到其他国家的类似课程中。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods Business, Management and Accounting-Business and International Management

CiteScore

1.40

自引率

0.00%

发文量

审稿时长

26 weeks

期刊介绍： The Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods (EJBRM) provides perspectives on topics relevant to research methods applied in the field of business and management. Through its publication the journal contributes to the development of theory and practice. The journal accepts academically robust papers that contribute to the area of research methods applied in business and management research. Papers submitted to the journal are double-blind reviewed by members of the reviewer committee or other suitably qualified readers. The Editor reserves the right to reject papers that, in the view of the editorial board, are either of insufficient quality, or are not relevant enough to the subject area. The editor is happy to discuss contributions before submission. The journal publishes work in the categories described below. Research Papers: These may be qualitative or quantitative, empirical or theoretical in nature and can discuss completed research findings or work in progress. Case Studies: Case studies are welcomed illustrating business and management research methods in practise. View Points: View points are less academically rigorous articles usually in areas of controversy which will fuel some interesting debate. Conference Reports and Book Reviews: Anyone who attends a conference or reads a book that they feel contributes to the area of Business Research Methods is encouraged to submit a review for publication.