Conference Agenda

In Industry 4.0, digital transformation (DT) and societal developments have changed telework over the last 50 years into what is now referred to as working from home (WFH) (López-Igual and Rodríguez-Modroño, 2020). Our research focuses on WFH behaviours and communication technology adoption of micro (less than 10 employees) and small (10-49 employees) enterprises (MSE) as they significantly contribute to the economy. In Switzerland, MSEs, including the self-employed, encompass 98.2% of all companies (FSO, 2020), and worldwide, MSEs account for around 70% of employment (ILO, 2020). Recent research suggests that the DT of work was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., Nagel, 2020). Our study examines the question: How does DT impact WFH behaviour relating to communication technology adoption after the first, second and third COVID-19 lockdowns in Switzerland?

Surveying 503 MSE Managing Directors (MD) during the first (2020), 506 MDs after the second (2021), and 504 MDs after the third (2022) lockdown in Switzerland, we investigated WFH arrangements related to technology adoption. Results highlight that technological ‘pioneers’, which lead the technology adoption, implement WFH arrangements to a higher degree than ‘early followers’ and ‘late followers’. Also, MSEs of technology-savvy industries, such as Financials & Services, predict that the highest proportion of their staff will be working remotely. Based on the MDs’ long-term perspectives, it can be assumed that the DT of work, fast-tracked by the pandemic, may lead to structural changes related to technology adoption. In the short term, however, the 2022 survey showed that after lifting all COVID-19 restrictions, employees were frequently returning to their employers’ premises. Nevertheless, adopting and upgrading communication technology has impacted collaboration at work. Online conferencing tools such as Teams and Zoom became established, in addition to other online affordances such as e-commerce, (internal) social media, or collaboration platforms.

Our investigation has led us to make two main recommendations as WFH becomes more prevalent. First, human resources departments, in line with their firm’s technology roadmap, and policymakers need to accelerate the development of remote work policies. Our study discusses such approaches to policy adjustment for MSEs. Second, leaders and employees across the global value chains need digital skills to effectively collaborate in digital settings – and senior management to develop digital strategies. In turn, digital skills development and online collaborations in workplace settings contribute to increasing trust in organisations (Wuersch et al., 2022). Consequently, working in trustful environments helps improve employee engagement and work quality.

The labour market ecosystem in emerging economies is multifaceted and riddled with informality, persistent levels of youth unemployment and growing evidence of skills mismatch despite the proliferation of digital innovation that enhance information exchanges. This paper studies a research question of how does strategic orchestration of digital innovation influence information asymmetries in informal labour markets. This is investigated as a concept for defining business model, processes, and capabilities of a labour market intermediary whose main function is to provide a robust, secure yet open platform for reciprocal interaction and information exchange amongst key players. Due to the socio-economic relationships rife in any information exchanges, this paper adopted a strategic orchestration worldview that strikes a balance between the Resource-Based View and Social Exchange Theory constructs. Consequently, the research suggests a conceptual precision of combining socio-economic ingredients and boundary conditions that are critical for control and governance of Labour Market Information (LMI) exchange relationships.

Since the study of labour markets and information exchanges therein is interdisciplinary and consists of a cocktail of perspectives and concepts ranging from social to economic theories, a mixed-method approach and a qualitative case study of the Kenya’s Labour market information system (KLMIS) was employed. The interdisciplinary approach permitted the construction of comprehensive standpoint by considering varying Information Systems (IS) epistemological assumptions and orientations which recognises societal idiosyncrasies and the economics of labour in information exchanges. This was further measured and validated through an inquiry of an existing LMI system in Kenya, a system that serves as a node for labour market information exchanges.

The paper contributes to literature by extending strategic orchestration theory through a unique empirical test by integrating resource-based theory and social exchange theory in explaining LMI sharing relationships. It also establishes tangible and intangible resources which, when combined through an intermediary, they create capabilities that need to be strategically orchestrated to achieve a near LMI equilibrium. Hence, a fundamental basis for LMI intermediaries in emerging economies is suggested by providing a framework of how to control and govern the design, development, deployment and management of digital products and services on an ongoing basis which in turn aid in narrowing the LMI asymmetries. The paper concludes that societal challenges such as unemployment in developing countries are predominantly social in nature. Policies must recognise drivers of social behaviours and therefore combine and orchestrate them with economic and technological pluralities at their disposal for lasting solutions.

The informal sector in the Indian economy has remained large despite periods of high economic growth. However, between 2000 and 2015, the share of the informal sector in total manufacturing employment and output has declined whereas that of the formal sector has increased. Is this a sign of greater formalization of the economy?

The informal sector debates of 1970s-80s, triggered by the ILO missions (particularly the Kenya mission of 1972), had given rise to two broad views in understanding the relationship between the informal and formal sectors of an economy. While some considered it a feature of pre-capitalist economies having a benign relationship with the capitalist-core, the ‘structuralists’ viewed the informal sector as being subordinated to and exploited by the formal capitalist core (Sathuraman,1976;Tokman,1978;De Soto,1989; Moser,1978;Castells and Portes,1989;Chen, 2005). It is therefore, widely established in the literature that formal sector growth can have two opposing impacts on informality – either modernising informal sector enterprises or sustaining the persistence of informality and both forces appear to be present in the Indian case (Moreno-Monroy et al,2012;Katjuria,2010;Marjit,2009;Bhattacharya & Kesar,2018;Sadhu & Chakrabarti,2021;Basole et al, 2014).

In this backdrop, this paper attempts to understand three inter-related questions associated with the current trends. Between 2000 and 2015, in which industries in each Indian state has the informal sector grown with the formal sector and in which has it not? For industry groups where the informal sector has contracted with formal sector expansion, is it the result of structural transformation of workers and enterprises from informal to formal sector? Can subcontracting linkages explain why in some industries formal and informal sectors have grown together whereas in others they have not?

Using enterprise level data from the Annual Survey of Industries and the National Sample Survey of Unincorporated Enterprises, this paper shows that contracting informal sector and expanding formal sector between 2000-2015, is not associated with greater formalization of informal enterprises but with a transformation of the workforce from informal to formal. This not only reinforces the subsistence nature of the informal manufacturing sector in India but also demonstrations that creating good quality jobs in the formal sector is crucial for reducing informality. The results also show that informal sector contraction in some industries and expansion in others associated with growth in its formal sector counterpart can be explained by strengthening of empowering linkages between formal and informal sectors in one and weakening of it in the other.