Mapping and theorizing gig work and digital technology: A bibliometric and integrative review

Digital technologies have profoundly reshaped gig work as a core form of labor organization in the digital economy. While research on platform labor has grown rapidly, it remains fragmented across disciplines and lacks a systematic understanding of its intellectual structure, thematic development, and sociotechnical mechanisms. This study addresses this gap by conducting a bibliometric and integrative review of 751 articles (2018–2026) from Web of Science Core Collection, cross-checked with Scopus, using CiteSpace as the main analytical tool. The study examines publication trends, collaboration structures, keyword co-occurrence, and burst terms to trace the evolution of the field and identify its major research streams. The findings identify three evolutionary stages and six dominant themes: digital platforms as sociotechnical workplaces, algorithmic management, health and precarity, work experience, differentiated groups, and AI-driven governance. Beyond mapping, the study develops a mechanism-based sociotechnical framework that shows how digital technologies are embedded in platform infrastructures, reconfigure labor processes, generate differentiated worker outcomes, and give rise to governance responses under specific boundary conditions. This review contributes an integrated perspective to digital business research and highlights future directions for algorithmic fairness, labor well-being, and sustainable platform governance.