Sticky market webs of connection – human and nonhuman market co-codification dynamics across social media

Abstract

Purpose Digital markets are increasingly constructed by an interplay between (non)human market actors, i.e. through algorithms, but, simultaneously, fragmented through platformization. This study aims to explore how interactional dynamics between (non)human market actors co-codify markets through expressive and networked content across social media platforms. Design/methodology/approach This study applies digital methods as cross-platform analysis to analyze two data sets retrieved from YouTube and Instagram using the keywords “sustainable fashion” and #sustainablefashion, respectively. Findings The study shows how interactional dynamics between (non)human market actors, co-codify markets across two social media platforms, i.e. YouTube and Instagram. The authors introduce the notion of sticky market webs of connection, illustrating how these dynamics foster cross-platform market codification through relations of exteriority. Research limitations/implications Research implications highlight the necessity to account for all involved entities, including digital infrastructure in digital markets and the methodological potential of cross-platform analyses. Practical implications Practical implications highlight considerations managers should take into account when designing market communication for digital markets composed of (non)human market actors. Social implications Social implications highlight the possible effects of (non)human market co-codification on markets and consumer culture, and corresponding countermeasures. Originality/value This study contributes to an increased understanding of digital market dynamics by illuminating interdependent market co-codification dynamics between (non)human market actors, and how these dynamics (de)territorialize digital market assemblages through relations of exteriority across platforms.

The platformization of consumer culture: A theoretical framework

“…Less attention, instead, has been paid to the platformization of culture intended in an anthropological sense (Geertz, 1973), that is, as a complex set of values, symbols, identities, discourses, and narratives emerging from the interactions between platforms’ technicalities and the everyday digital practices of platform users. Few scholars reflected on how platforms’ affordances shape and are shaped by users’ everyday cultural practices and imaginaries (Sörum and Fuentes, 2023; Van Es and Poell, 2020); far few addressed this issue in the realm of consumption, trying to explore and theorize the relations between platforms’ logics and consumers digital cultural production around brands, products, and services (e.g., Airoldi and Rokka, 2022; Caliandro and Anselmi, 2021; Schöps et al, 2020, 2022). To fill this gap, it is useful to turn to the consumer culture theory (CCT) tradition and see how it conceives cultural production as well as how it addresses it in relation to digital media (in general) and platforms (more specifically).…”

Memetic logics of participation: Fitness body culture on Instagram

“…Kozinets et al (2021) demonstrate that not merely policies and algorithms but also such affordances govern a platform’s digital infrastructure, pointing to the potential of platforms to control consumer empowerment. Algorithms and affordances mediate “the visibility of culture as curators and gatekeepers” (Schöps et al, 2022: 81), enabling and constraining consumers’ action—cultural production. However, such nonhuman platform actors also respond to usage histories of social actors, for example, accounts followed, posts liked, shared, commented, or saved, while aggregating data into content clusters that exhibit common visual and textual characteristics (Schöps et al, 2022).…”

“…Such participatory cultures invite consumers “to actively participate in the creation and circulation of new content” (Jenkins, 2006: 290) by producing and “[sharing] sophisticated cultural artifacts” (Manovich, 2017: 4). Affordances, for example, hashtags, provide action possibilities (Gibson, 1986) that play a central role in forming participatory cultures—enabling and constraining consumer actions (Kozinets et al, 2021; Schöps et al, 2022). The cultural production of participatory cultures forms networked publics which “are simultaneously (1) the space constructed through networked technologies and (2) the imagined collective that emerges as a result of the intersection of people, technology, and practice” (Boyd, 2011: 39).…”

Changes in market organisation due to exogenous shocks – the case of the transformation of the Swedish fashion industry caused by the COVID-19 pandemic

“…In retail research, non-human actors have mainly been studied in connection with digital aspects, e.g. electronic devices (Luoma-aho and Paloviita 2010), virtual agents (Oikarinen and Söderlund 2022), and algorithms (Schöps, Reinhardt, and Hemetsberger 2022). One of the few exceptions regarding how other non-humans are studied was offered by Contesse et al (2021), who provided an illustrative example of how a bug becomes part of a sustainable transition.…”

“…Nevertheless, Contesse et al (2021) conclude that relating to non-human actants, and knowledge of how to mobilise them, can assist in triggering sustainable transitions. Similarly, Schöps, Reinhardt, and Hemetsberger (2022) argue for the need to also include nonhuman market actors in studying markets of the future, also noticing that non-human actors are gaining increased academic interest. This study, in acknowledging that the coronavirus is a parasite that lives on another organism, where a host animal is required for it to spread (Tunon 2010), makes it clearer to see how the virus brought severe implications for people's social lives, too.…”