  Existing literature predominantly focuses on how freelancers individually
complete tasks and projects. Our study examines freelancers' willingness to
work collaboratively. We report results from a survey of 122 freelancers on a
leading online labor market platform (Upwork) and examine freelancers'
preferences for collaboration and explore several antecedents of cooperative
behaviors. We then test if actual cooperative behavior matches with
freelancers' stated preferences through an incentivized social dilemma
experiment. We find that respondents cooperate at a higher rate (85%) than
reported in previous comparable studies (between 50-75%). This high rate of
cooperation may be explained by an ingroup bias. Using a sequential mediation
model we demonstrate the importance of a sense of shared expectations and
accountability for cooperation. We contribute to a better understanding of the
potential for collaborative work on online labor market platforms by assessing
if and what social factors and collective culture exist among freelancers. We
discuss the implications of our results for platform designers by highlighting
the importance of platform features that promote shared expectations and
improve accountability. Overall, contrary to existing literature and
predictions, our results suggest that freelancers in our sample display traits
that are more consistent with belonging to a coherent group with a shared
collective culture, rather than being anonymous actors in a transaction-based
market.
