Managing Supply in the On-Demand Economy: Flexible Workers, Full-Time Employees, or Both?
研究企业如何最优配置灵活员工与全职员工，以平衡运营成本、需求波动和供给不确定性，同时保证服务质量，对零工经济中的用工策略有启示。
The rise of the blended workforce, which is identified as one of the top current workplace trends, is prompting firms to reevaluate their staffing strategies. A blended workforce melds as a deliberate business strategy flexible workers (for example, independent contractors or freelancers) with full-time employees. Because flexible workers are free to determine their own work schedules, the supply (total number of workers) is uncertain. In “Managing Supply in the On-Demand Economy: Flexible Workers, Full-Time Employees, or Both?,” Dong and Ibrahim examine the optimal staffing strategy for flexible workers and full-time employees to effectively balance operating costs, time variability in customer demands, and supply-side uncertainty while not compromising on the quality of service offered to customers. This work gleans insights on the appropriateness of alternative workforce models, which are especially relevant for the gig economy.