Managing Mobility: Platform Work Models, Organizational Identification, and Food Delivery Couriers' Exit Intentions
研究中国外卖平台，发现外包模式中职业导向的骑手虽将平台工作视为跳板、离职意向更高，但通过身份构建策略增强组织认同，从而抑制离职倾向，且效果因经济依赖程度而异。
Despite flexibility being central to the gig economy, platform businesses face challenges balancing operational needs with labor mobility. Through empirical analysis of China’s food delivery platforms, this study finds that professionally oriented couriers in the outsourced model, while viewing platform work as a steppingstone to formal employment and exhibiting higher exit intentions, simultaneously develop stronger organizational identification through identity-building strategies that produce a suppressing effect on turnover intentions. Analysis further reveals heterogeneous effects across economic dependency groups, with platform-dependent couriers more sensitive to work model influences. The theoretical contribution of this study lies in identifying organizational identification as the central mechanism through which platforms reconcile the tension between flexibility and stability. Through this mechanism, platforms achieve organizational management of labor mobility without altering the legal form of flexible employment. These findings provide new insights into labor relations transformation and management innovation in emerging economic forms.