Dr. Greetje “Gretta” Corporaal was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute where she also taught the course Digital Technology and Economic Organization. Corporaal is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the New Social Contract, a Teaching Affiliate at Said Business School, and co-host of the Talking About Organizations Podcast. She holds a PhD in Organization Sciences, an MSc (cum laude) in Social Research and PMC (cum laude) in Culture, Organization and Management from VU Amsterdam, and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Groningen, where she also studied Classical Violin and Modern Japan Studies. In 2014-2015 Corporaal was a visiting scholar at New York University, Stern School of Business.
A Sociologist of Work and Organizations, Corporaal’s research is positioned at the intersection of Management and Organization Studies, Information Systems Research, and Economic Sociology. She is interested in the development of AI, digital platform technologies and services, and how their usage shapes the future of work and organizing in society.
Corporaal was part of the ERC-funded project ‘iLabour: The construction of Labour Markets, Institutions and Movements on the Internet‘. This project examines online freelance work and online labour platforms. Her research focuses on the technology firms that develop these platforms and how these new private regulators create and manage their marketplaces. To this aim, Corporaal conducted a one-year ethnographic study inside one of the largest online labour platforms for knowledge work. She also studies firm adoption of platforms and how they are changing their organizational processes and practices internally to engage online freelancers as part of their external workforce.
Corporaal’s other research focuses on how globalization, digitization, and hyper-specialization are transforming work in the areas of technology, innovation, and strategy. To this aim, she conducted a 4-year multi-sited field study of cross-boundary collaboration among research scientists, engineers, and divisional managers within a Japanese multinational and its collaboration with an American engineering contractor.
Corporaal is an active member of the Academy of Management and the European Group of Organization Studies. She received various awards for her work, among which Best Reviewer Awards from the Academy of Management (2017), a Young Talent Award from the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds (2014) and the Wilhelmina Drucker Early Career Award from VU Amsterdam (2015). Her research has been covered in The Financial Times, Fortune Magazine, and Forbes Magazine.
Online freelancing and outsourcing of knowledge work in the digital platform economy; the development of AI, machine learning models, and algorithmic management processes; the emergence and transformation of fields, boundaries and practices; institutional processes; micro-processes of strategy-making; sociology of work and organizing; technology and management innovations and new value creation
The iLabour project is premised on the idea that a fundamental change is taking place in labour markets. It seeks to understand the social and policy implications of this momentous shift.
My current research on iLabour: the construction of labour markets on the Internet is funded by the European Research Council. I have given paid lectures on digital transformation and the future of work for Oxford Saïd Business School, various global consultancy firms, industry actors, and (semi-) governmental institutions. I am a Fellow of the World Economic Forum, supporting them in an unpaid advisory role related to the platform economy, platform labour markets, and the future of work and education. I am also a podcaster with the Talking About Organizations Podcast, which is on an unpaid voluntary basis. Prior to joining the OII, my PhD research on cross-boundary collaboration was funded by Teijin Limited, Yanmar Europe BV and the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds. I’ve received additional financial support from VU departmental research cluster on Organizational Networks and research grants and bursaries from the VU Graduate School of Social Sciences, the VU ‘werkgroep vrouwelijk talent’, and the Society of the Advancement of Management Studies.
With Dr Greetje (Gretta) Corporaal, and Professor Vili Lehdonvirta
This option course for the OII MSc in "Social Science of the Internet" will teach students how to apply basic social science theory towards analysing the impact of digital technologies on economic organization.
By Greetje F. Corporaal and Vili Lehdonvirta
‘Platform sourcing’ is increasingly used by multinational firms to bring in external help. This report sets out the benefits and challenges of the practice, before offering some suggestions for its future.
3 November 2024
New research from researchers at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Oxford Internet Institute highlights how marketplace structure influences the impartiality of dispute handling by labour market intermediaries.
20 November 2019
Three academics from the Oxford Internet Institute, have been invited to join the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Councils, providing thought leadership on key global challenges and the impact and governance of emerging technologies.
24 September 2018
26 September 2017
