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Does hype create irreversibilities? Affective circulation and market investments in digital health
Author(s)
Date Issued
2017
Date Available
2018-01-31T02:00:16Z
Abstract
This paper draws from two conceptual lenses - the sociology of expectations and market studies - to investigate the relationship between technology hype and market investments: which promises and expectations surround hype and how they come together to shape actors' investments in an emerging market. We address this question through analysing a contemporary hype in a technology marketing context: digital healthcare. Our aim is to trace: how market actors create, support and evaluate a market hype; how hype and market investments are related, and whether hype contributes to irreversibilities in shaping emerging market forms and categories. Our study indicates that hypes contribute tangibly to producing the market, not least by channelling financial, symbolic and material market investments. Further, by highlighting how socio-economic, technological and policy promises become affectively loaded through circulation, we add a novel dimension to existing insights into the socio-cognitive construction of markets. We caution technology marketers, policy makers and investors against blindly following technology hype, especially when it encourages companies to engage in market investment that is unhinged from broader systems and societal, ethical or economic concerns.
Sponsorship
European Commission Horizon 2020
University College Dublin
Other Sponsorship
Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant
Type of Material
Journal Article
Publisher
Sage Publications
Journal
Marketing Theory
Volume
17
Issue
4
Language
English
Status of Item
Peer reviewed
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
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Mkt_Theory_Hype_Geiger_and_Gross_final_accepted_version.docx
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233.44 KB
Format
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