Based on an analysis of brands with intense ethnic digital self-presentation, this qualitative study introduces a notion of brand identity work. Four contributions are made: theorising brand identity work as a process of identity construction that involves brand building and brand presentation; unpacking tensions between brand building and brand presentation specific to ethnic marketing; suggesting a dynamic view of authenticity, and uncovering presentation strategies that address these conflicts. We find that behind the tensions between brand-building and brand presentation stands brands’ concern about authenticity. Depending on the type of authenticity tensions, brands decide whether to include celebrities in their presentation.
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The sociomaterial lens within IS research holds that agency should not be considered as a property solely of humans, or of technology, but instead arises from an emergent interaction between the two. This, emergent, account of agency deepens our understanding of unfolding IS practice, but its largely cognitive orientation remains naïve towards affectively-sensed motivations that also form part of this interaction. By implication, a sociomaterial perspective lacking an affective dimension offers an incomplete conceptualisation of information systems. In response, an affectively-informed negative ontology encourages IS researchers to extend their focus beyond the visible, to encompass how actors' receptiveness towards material objects (discourses, technologies) is shaped by deep, affectively-derived motivations of which they are not focally aware, but which nonetheless acquire agency in contributing to a sociomaterial outcome. A central argument, and illustrative empirical vignette, demonstrate how the concepts of sociomateriality, affect, and negative ontology combine to offer researchers an enhanced understanding of relational agency. A discussion follows, exploring some initial ontological, epistemological and methodological implications of an affectively-informed negative ontology for IS research.
PIGNOT Edouard - EMLV |
- Research
- Information Systems, Organizational Theory