How Platform Economic Dependence Leads to Long Working Time: The Role of Work Pressure and Platform HRM Practices

Drawing upon the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this paper discusses the effect of platform economic dependence on working time and the mediating role of work pressure, as well as the boundary role of platform human resource management practices, with a survey of 9576 takeaway riders. The results suggest that the greater the economic dependence of takeaway riders on the platform organization, the longer they work; work pressure plays a mediating role between platform economic dependence and working time; the amount of platform rewards has no effect on the positive relationship between platform economic dependence and working time, whereas the difficulty of obtaining platform rewards strengthens the positive relationship between platform economic dependence and working time. This paper contributes to the literature on gig work by providing a micro-individual perspective and to the literature on COR theory by enriching the studies of resource caravan passageways.