Issues in Digital Nomad-Corporate Work: an Institutional Theory Perspective

Digital nomads are individuals who use information and communication technologies (ICT) to work from remote locations while travelling for lifestyle reasons. A new type of digital nomad-corporate work relation emerges from the increasing number of digital nomads contracted to conduct work for corporations. However, the institutional logics – the socially-constructed patterns, beliefs, values and rules that provide meaning to traditional corporates and the often-millennial digital nomads – are substantially different between digital nomadism and corporate environments. The purpose of this paper is to understand what different institutional logics exist, which issues between digital nomads and corporates result from those differences, and how they are mitigated. These questions are answered based on an empirical study of digital nomads and corporate workers informed by institutional theory. The analysis of empirical findings allows us to propose a framework that explains how these conflicting institutional logics lead to issues and outlines mitigation methods employed to address them. The paper informs current and future digital nomads and corporate work relations by providing a better understanding of issues that occur and mitigation methods they may employ to resolve them.