Abstract

Despite the gig economy drawing significant criticism in the Global North for promoting insecure work, it is widely perceived in the Global South as a practical solution to mitigate high unemployment and poverty by providing income. Although the gig economy has been credited with bringing numerous benefits to countries around the world, its benefits have not been realised in developing countries due to various barriers to entry. The situation underscores the need for the study to unpack the critical barriers to entry into the gig economy in Southern Africa. The study used a systematic literature review to comprehensively examine literature from Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar published from 2013 to 2023 on the challenges and barriers to entry into the gig economy in Southern Africa. The comprehensive literature review integrates the burgeoning literature in reports and articles. The study found that the critical impediments to entry into the gig economy in Southern African Development Community countries include access to devices and the Internet, unreliable electricity supply, high crime rates, education and training, capital and operational costs, competition, and undefined laws and regulations. The barriers to entry into the gig economy in Southern Africa have a stronger adverse effect on cloud work than on location-based platform work.

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