“逃离工厂”的骑手会有更强的平台留任意愿吗?——基于烙印理论的解释

Will the“Runaway from Factory”Riders Have Stronger Desire to Stay on the Food-Delivery Platform?Explanation based on Imprinting Theory

现有关于雇员留任意愿的研究大多强调员工现职工作及所在组织的影响力,对零工经济从业者如何稳定留任的解释并不充分。考虑到我国劳动力产业间转移的背景和零工从业者留任对平台及劳动者的积极作用,从从业者前职工作类型的个体属性视角分析其平台留任意愿具有现实意义。本文从烙印理论视角出发,利用8232份外卖骑手调查数据,构建Logit回归模型分析发现,前职工作为工厂工人的骑手表现出更高的平台留任意愿。进一步采用KHB方法分析这一影响的作用机制发现,就业能力水平的能力烙印和工作自由偏好的认知烙印构成了双中介机制,前者贡献度为79.40%,后者贡献度为20.60%。同时研究结果还表明这一影响存在代际差异,与上一代骑手相比,新生代骑手的平台留任意愿受前职工厂工作经历的影响较小。研究发现拓展了零工从业者问题研究的范围,为劳动者留任问题提供了零工经济时代的经验证据,也为学界关于零工经济与制造业发展关系的讨论提供了一个微观层面的解释。在实证分析基础上,研究从平台管理和政府治理两个角度提出了保障劳动者职业发展权益,引导零工经济健康发展的管理与政策启示。

The boom of the gig economy has brought a surge in employment and aroused academic interest in this new employment group.However,the existing studies have mainly focused on the protection issue of the rights of gig workers,and only recently have scholars emphasized the need to examine the retention of gig workers.A review of the literature shows that most existing studies on employee retention intention focus on job and organizational factors,emphasizing the influence of the workplace where the employee is currently employed,and do not provide sufficient explanations for the retention of gig workers.Considering the realistic background of inter-industrial transfer of labor in China and the value of gig workers’retention to the platform and workers,it is relevant to analyze the platform retention intention from the perspective of individual attributes of gig workers’former work experience.From an imprinting theory perspective,the study used 8,232 food delivery riders survey data and constructed logit regression models to find that riders who were former factory workers showed higher retention intentions.Further analysis of the mechanism of action of this effect using the KHB method found that the ability imprint of employability level and the cognitive imprint of job freedom preference produced a double mediating effect,with the former contributing 79.40%and the latter contributing 20.60%.The study also points out that there are generational differences in this effect,with the new generation of riders’willingness to stay on the platform being less influenced by their former workplace experience than the previous generation of riders.That is,the generational effect may have dissipated this factory imprint to some extent.The study further verified the robustness of the above findings through robustness tests.The study has four possible marginal contributions.Firstly,the study breaks through the existing literature’s single perspective of focusing mainly on the labor rights of gig workers and broadens the scope of research on gig workers’issues.Secondly,the analysis of factors influencing riders’retention intentions in the mobile work environment complements the lack of literature on the research topic of gig workers’retention and responds to scholars’research calls to provide empirical evidence in new-age disorganized contexts.Thirdly,it introduces the imprinting theory into the study of the career decision problem of gig workers,responding to the previous suggestion of expanding the type of objects explained by the theory.Fourthly,it provides a micro perspective interpretation of the academic concern that the development of the gig economy may bring structural risks to the manufacturing industry.Meanwhile,based on the above findings,this study also puts forward suggestions for balancing the protection of gig workers’rights and the development of platform enterprises.From the platform enterprises’perspective,on the one hand,it is necessary to pay attention to and cultivate the riders transformed from factory workers and make full use of the positive factory imprinting of these riders to influence and drive the team’s ability improvement and retention;on the other hand,more sustainable workers stabilization strategies should be considered:including signing labor contracts,assuming social insurance obligations,establishing multiple incentive mechanisms,such as forming labor unions,conducting collective bargaining with workers,establishing daily communication channels,helping riders in difficulty,etc.From the government’s perspective,on the one hand,the government should respect the long-term development wishes of workers and improve the corresponding system,such as facilitating the cooperation mechanism between the platform enterprise and vocational and technical schools,promoting the introduction and application of national skill standards and levels for new occupations,and exploring the provision of career development blueprints for gig workers;on the other hand,on the basis of the current policy,we should refine the implementation of the protection program for the rights of gig workers and urge platform enterprises to improve specific protection measures.