Vulnerability and adaptive resilience in global platform work: Cross-cultural insights from tutors across emerging and developed economies

Abstract

This study explores how professional language tutors working on a global digital platform navigate the challenges of platform work across culturally and economically diverse contexts. Drawing on grounded theory and interviews with tutors from emerging and developed economies, we develop a process model of how individuals respond to platform vulnerability, build adaptive resilience, and sustain professional identity in the absence of formal organizational structures. The findings reveal that tutors construct resilience through emotional regulation, cultural mediation, and relational engagement, enabling them to manage systemic demands and craft meaningful roles within algorithmically governed environments. We show that while core practices are shared, the meaning, motivation, and consequences of these strategies vary significantly across contexts. Tutors in emerging economies emphasize economic continuity and social positioning, while those in developed economies focus on autonomy and intrinsic purpose. This study contributes to cross-cultural management by theorizing how resilience and identity are enacted through culturally situated practices, and by illuminating the contextual conditions that shape agency in global platform work.