GIG economy and sustainable development: bibliometric analysis and identification of future research directions

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this article is to identify the most common fields of study undertaken by researchers in scientific papers covering simultaneously the gig economy and sustainable development. Design/methodology/approach: The research study used a structured literature review method. The structured bibliometric query Q1 allowed for the exploration of the Scopus database. As a result, 48 scientific studies from the period 2017-2023 were selected for analysis, which simultaneously addressed the issues of the gig economy and sustainable development. Findings: The analyses carried out showed that the issue of sustainable development is addressed in the context of the gig economy. This is a relatively new research area, as shown, for example, by the generated database of studies used for the bibliometric analyses conducted. The issues of sharing economy and decent work are important areas addressed in the context of the gig economy. It was noticed that there was a lack of author keywords covering 'green' issues. Research limitations/implications: Research results based on other databases (e.g. Web of Science) may lead to different results. It should be noted that the different bibliometric databases do not overlap, which is related to the indexing of scientific journals or publications in the databases. Nonetheless, a universal query was used in the study, which can be used in the various bibliometric databases once it has been adapted to their respective query form. In addition, the various databases are constantly being supplemented with new scientific papers, which also depends on the publishing process. Hence, the content of the Q1 query can in future be used for comparison purposes with the results obtained, or to compare different bibliometric databases with each other. Originality/value: In the discussion that followed, attention was drawn to the issues of green jobs and green self-employment. In the authors' opinion, such research directions, although not yet visible in the authors' keywords, will be developed soon in the context of studies covering the issues of the gig economy and sustainable development considering the green transformation of the economy taking place. This article is addressed to all those who are interested in the issues of the gig economy and sustainable development. Keywords: gig economy, green jobs, green labor market, green self-employment, sustainable development. Category of the paper: Literature review.