The motivation to work in an online platform economy money-view or self-view?

With the emergence of high technologies, there is a constant need for facilitating the changes in our lives. Among them, the online platform economy has been growing remarkably for a decade. This paradigm created a new labor market suggested several alternative work arrangements because it mediated works that are very attractive to those who want to use their free time to make money. In the nearly two years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in China, online platform workers also experienced changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those who advocate for online work claim that it provides career opportunities by providing resources like greater work autonomy and a high potential for work–nonwork integration, resulting in more boundaryless, individualized, and whole life careers. All these factors led us to consider how we work, what we value in our workplace, and what motivates us. Among them, motivation is one of the key roles of management because it leads to and sustains behavior. However, prior studies have focused on the theoretical description of platform work motivation, and little is known about motivation causality from a behavioral perspective. This study aims to identify what leads people to become involved in online platform work. In detail. this research examined survey results related to what makes workers dominant in the platform labor market and attempted to explain all the previous phenomena based on the background of self-determination theory.