DIGITALISATION AND PLATFORM ECONOMY - DISRUPTION IN SERVICE SECTOR

Digitalisation and the platform economy have changed business and consumption patterns. Similarly, ways of working have also changed and become polarised as a result of automation, robots, e -commerce and blockchains bringing new innovations to the markets and changing earnings logic. Lower and middle-class jobs decrease or disappear, and high skilled roles increase. The new digital innovations and the progressive expansion of large platforms, such as Airbnb and Uber, have also placed pressure on the development of legislation, globally. The purpose of this study is to describe how digitalisation and the platform economy affect the service sector in general and how this disruption has implications for service sector companies, blue-collar workers and consumers. This research is based on qualitative content analysis. According to the results, digitalisation and the platform economy have both positive and negative effects. For example, these phenomena are expanding business markets and increasing the choice of consumers and the freedom of employees. On the other hand, the insecurity of employees and competition between local and global companies may increase uncontrollably. (C) 2019 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.ukPeer reviewe