Abstract
Drawing on a unique dataset of 9685 Internet freelancers, we shed light on the entrepreneurial potential of the Russian-language online labour market, where more than half of freelancers exhibit entrepreneurial orientations. Our findings reveal heterogeneity of Internet freelancers in relation to entrepreneurship documenting strong differences amongst groups of actual entrepreneurs, potential entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs in terms of socio-demographics, professional characteristics, work behaviour and wellbeing. The fact that by most indicators potential entrepreneurs who plan to start a business typically take an intermediate position between non-entrepreneurs and actual entrepreneurs signals the feasibility of entrepreneurial intentions. Researching the entrepreneurial potential of Internet freelancers contributes to better understanding of how solo self-employment may give rise to new businesses in knowledge-intensive and creative industries which are crucial for modernising transition economies.
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Notes
- 1.
Although freelancers represent an undefined population and no reliable information about the size and social-demographic structure of this group is available, we can compare the professional structure of freelancers reported on the FL.ru immediately prior to the data collection with that of this sample. Our analyses showed we do not have sample bias in this respect: the professional characteristics of the final sample closely resembled the characteristics of the overall population of FL.ru.
- 2.
For more detailed survey methodology, see Shevchuk and Strebkov (2015).
- 3.
For clearer results, we excluded from the regression analysis persons who were extremely rare in the sample: people going to withdraw from business for genuine freelancing (0.5%) or for an employee career (0.4%).
- 4.
Freelancers and entrepreneurs’ work values were analysed elsewhere (Shevchuk and Strebkov 2016).
- 5.
In 2013, the average exchange rate was about 31.84 rubles for USD 1.
- 6.
Using a simpler dichotomous variable in the regression (the presence or absence of higher education) supports our suggestion that not only educational mismatch but also university education in general increases the odds of being potential entrepreneurs than being non-entrepreneurs or actual entrepreneurs.
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Support from the Basic Research Program of the National Research University Higher School of Economics is gratefully acknowledged.
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Shevchuk, A., Strebkov, D. (2017). Entrepreneurial Potential in the Digital Freelance Economy: Evidence from the Russian-Language Internet. In: Sauka, A., Chepurenko, A. (eds) Entrepreneurship in Transition Economies. Societies and Political Orders in Transition. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57342-7_22
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