Developling a communication strategy to enter the mariculture market

The purpose of this master project is to develop a communication plan for a new Portuguese off-shore mariculture company called AtlanticPrime. The ever-rising demand for good quality protein requires finding new sustainable alternatives to meat production and intensive fishing. Overfishing is one of the greatest challenges of our times. It threatens the survival of various marine species, the balance of the ecosystems and the living conditions of entire communities who depend on fishing to make a living. Aquaculture is an industry that has been significantly growing in the last years. It has become a very competitive market that counts with multiple players from all parts of the world. The species produced and the methods used are extremely diverse. Being so recent, AtlanticPrime does not have a communication strategy yet. Moreover, considering that mariculture is not a commonly known subject, it is extremely important to invest in effective and innovative communication ideas that generate brand awareness and differentiate the company right from the beginning of its activity. AtlanticPrime’s proposed communication strategy integrates both traditional and digital tools and is meant to be implemented during the period of one year. Prior to the creation of this plan, it was made an extensive research of external and internal factors related to the company, using different sources of information. The recommended ideas are directed to other businesses (buyers), as well as to end-consumers, and follow the latest communication trendsO objectivo deste projecto é desenvolver um plano de comunicação para uma nova empresa portuguesa de Maricultura off-shore. A crescente procura de proteína de qualidade requer que encontremos alternativas sustentáveis à produção de gado e à pesca intensiva. A sobrepesca é um dos maiores desafios que enfrentamos na actualidade, uma vez que ameaça a sobrevivência de inúmeras espécies marinhas, o equilíbrio dos ecossistemas e a subsistência de várias comunidades que dependem da pesca tradicional como forma de sustento. A indústria da Aquacultura tem tido um crescimento significativo nos últimos anos. Tornou-se num mercado bastante competitivo que conta já com múltiplos concorrentes de diferentes partes do mundo. As espécies produzidas, bem como métodos de produção praticados são já bastante diversificados. Sendo uma empresa recente, a AtlanticPrime ainda não desenvolveu a sua estratégia de comunicação. Tendo em conta que o tema da maricultura é ainda desconhecido para grande parte dos consumidores, é extremamente importante investir em ideias de comunicação eficientes e inovadoras que criem brand awareness e ajudem a empresa a diferenciar-se desde a sua entrada no mercado. A estratégia de comunicação proposta para a AtlanticPrime integra ferramentas tradicionais e digitais e foi pensada para ter a duração de um ano. Antes da elaboração deste plano, foi feita uma extensa pesquisa de factores externos e internos da empresa, recorrendo a variadas fontes de informação. As ideias recomendadas estão direcionadas a outras empresas (compradoras), bem como a consumidores finais, seguindo as últimas tendências de comunicação

Digital work in the planetary market

Many of the world’s most valuable companies rely on planetary networks of digital work that underpin their products and services. This important book examines implications for both work and workers when jobs are commodified and traded beyond local labor markets. For instance, Amazon’s contractors in Costa Rica, India, and Romania are paid to structure, annotate, and organize conversations captured by ‘Alexa’ to train Amazon’s speech recognition systems. Findings show that despite its planetary connections, labor remains geographically “sticky” and embedded in distinct contexts. The research emphasizes the globe-spanning nature of contemporary networks without resorting to an understanding of “the global” as a place beyond space.Aujourd’hui, de nombreux emplois peuvent être exercés depuis n’importe où. La technologie numérique et la connectivité Internet généralisée permettent à presque n’importe qui, n’importe où, de se connecter à n’importe qui d’autre pour communiquer et interagir à l’échelle planétaire. Ce livre examine les conséquences, tant pour le travail que pour les travailleurs, de la marchandisation et de l’échange des emplois au-delà des marchés du travail locaux. Allant au-delà du discours habituel sur la mondialisation « le monde est plat », les contributeurs examinent à la fois la transformation du travail lui-même et les systèmes, réseaux et processus plus larges qui permettent le travail numérique dans un marché planétaire, en offrant des perspectives empiriques et théoriques. Les contributeurs - des universitaires et des experts de premier plan issus de diverses disciplines - abordent une variété de questions, notamment la modération du contenu, les véhicules autonomes et les assistants vocaux. Ils se penchent d’abord sur la nouvelle expérience du travail et constatent que, malgré ses connexions planétaires, le travail reste géographiquement collé et intégré dans des contextes distincts. Ils examinent ensuite comment les réseaux planétaires de travail peuvent être cartographiés et problématisés, ils discutent de la multiplicité productive et de l’interdisciplinarité de la réflexion sur le travail numérique et ses réseaux et, enfin, ils imaginent comment le travail planétaire pourrait être réglementé. Les directeurs Mark Graham est professeur de géographie de l’Internet à l’Oxford Internet Institute et chargé de cours à l’Alan Turing Institute. Il est l’éditeur du livre Digital Economies at Global Margins (MIT Press et CRDI, 2019). Fabian Ferrari est un candidat au doctorat à l’Oxford Internet Institute

Digital Platforms and Algorithmic Subjectivities

Algorithms are a form of productive power – so how may we conceptualise the newly merged terrains of social life, economy and self in a world of digital platforms? How do multiple self-quantifying practices interact with questions of class, race and gender? This edited collection considers algorithms at work – for what purposes encoded data about behaviour, attitudes, dispositions, relationships and preferences are deployed – and black box control, platform society theory and the formation of subjectivities. It details technological structures and lived experience of algorithms and the operation of platforms in areas such as crypto-finance, production, surveillance, welfare, activism in pandemic times. Finally, it asks if platform cooperativism, collaborative design and neomutualism offer new visions. Even as problems with labour and in society mount, subjectivities and counter subjectivities here produced appear as conscious participants of change and not so much the servants of algorithmic control and dominant platforms

The Role of Early Customers in the Venture Creation Process

While startups’ interactions with early potential customers may occur long before product creation, entrepreneurs often fail to recognize how these interactions impact startup development. My research proposes that early customers are central influences and develops a model of customer interactions. More specifically, my dissertation focuses on answering: When and how do startups interact with early customers during the venture creation process, and how do these interactions create path dependence for the type of organization being created? I undertook an inductive, qualitative process study of nine startups located in incubators and studied customer interactions in near-real-time. My findings show that types of customers and validation received are important during new venture creation. First, I introduce a model of self-reinforcing mechanisms - the customer interaction-validation-spiral - that occurs when startups receive customer feedback. Positive feedback is interpreted as justification to move forward in revising the business to meet initial customers’ needs and in seeking out additional validation. Over time, other options for startups are gradually eliminated, efficiencies gained, and resources allocated to create processes and infrastructure that propel startups down a given path. Second, this spiral is incorporated into a novel model of customer interactions during the new venture creation process that requires multiple levels of validation to be met. My contributions refresh existing theories of new venture creation and expand on customer-centric, practitioner-based lean startup concepts to demonstrate that customers not only provide validation on products and markets, but also on founders’ abilities to create fully functioning and productive organizations. Finally, I apply existing literature on path dependence to new venture creation and demonstrate that self-reinforcing mechanisms and multiple validation stages trigger a narrowing of options available to startups, making pivoting more challenging over time. The customer interaction-validation-spiral offers further insights into path dependence mechanisms, further opening the black box of organizational paths. The practical implications of this research help startups understand the importance of thoughtfulness in early customer selection. Despite a narrowing development path, there is the potential for entrepreneurs to continue to exhibit agency and reflexivity in startups’ path formation by regularly reflecting on the results of their actions

Digital Platforms and Algorithmic Subjectivities

Algorithms are a form of productive power – so how may we conceptualise the newly merged terrains of social life, economy and self in a world of digital platforms? How do multiple self-quantifying practices interact with questions of class, race and gender? This edited collection considers algorithms at work – for what purposes encoded data about behaviour, attitudes, dispositions, relationships and preferences are deployed – and black box control, platform society theory and the formation of subjectivities. It details technological structures and lived experience of algorithms and the operation of platforms in areas such as crypto-finance, production, surveillance, welfare, activism in pandemic times. Finally, it asks if platform cooperativism, collaborative design and neomutualism offer new visions. Even as problems with labour and in society mount, subjectivities and counter subjectivities here produced appear as conscious participants of change and not so much the servants of algorithmic control and dominant platforms

WORK 2019

This paper discusses, how the increase of digital interactions in modern organizations enables and challenges the use of observation as a research method within the qualitative research realm in management and organization (MO) studies. As e.g. Akemu and Abdelnour (2018) point out, interaction taking place over digital technologies and platforms is gradually merging with face-to-face interactions in a growing extent, permeating social life in ways that often escape ocular observation. In contemporary work, digital interaction takes place through various technological interfaces, such as computers, software platforms, documents, blogs, and so on. These digital artifacts (see e.g. Kallinikos et al, 2013) offer researchers the possibility to either follow ex post record of informants’ interactions, or engage in the process of interaction in real time. Moreover, digital technologies allow us to follow organizational interaction taking place in multiple sites simultaneously (Czarniawska 2008). However, despite of the changes in work and its contexts, many MO researchers seem to relay on traditional face-to-face observations with research designs involving one single location. In addition, in MO literature, so far, very little attention has been paid to methodological considerations of observational research, in order to support research practice to grasp the complexities fueled by virtuality and the use of technological advancements within modern work life.It can be stated, that irrespective of the context of study, there exist similar issues to be solved for observational research. Researchers need to reflect access, issues of trust and rapport with participants, the degree of involvement, or ways to specify the case or process being studied. Yet, as Garcia and her colleagues (2009) point out, a new set of skills is required to observe and interact with research participants in computer-mediated work communities. Observation focusing on mainly one physical setting and face-to-face interaction only, is becoming inadequate means to capture the richness of contemporary work. For example, the seemingly simple observation of people working on their computers or smart phones may lead to misleading conclusions, as some may be playing an online game, some chatting with a friend or trading shares, or some writing a novel. This challenges researchers’ ability to grasp and describe the quality of interaction taking place. Moreover, in order to observe online work, one cannot rely solely on the interpersonal skills of co-presence with the research participants. The issues of research ethics, such as the lack of physical presence and opportunities for anonymity for researcher, as well as the needs for participant privacy and confidentiality may differ from face-to-face contexts. Consequently, it is argued in this paper, that qualitative researchers applying observation within MO, need to adjust their research strategies and techniques to meet the characteristics of contemporary interaction within computer-mediated communication (see also e.g. Akemu & Abdelnour 2018).The paper builds on the findings of a narrative literature review (e.g. Bryman & Bell 2011), with the purpose of generating understanding of the topic base on the existing literature. We discuss the specific nature of the computer mediated communication, and the possibilities and challenges it poses for the observational researcher, either separately, or combined with other research approaches, such as ethnography. It is further argued, that observational research combined with virtuality of work, calls for and opens up new possibilities even to those MO researchers, who have previously mainly built on other methods, such as interviews or historical archival data. We conclude by discussing how the computer-mediated communication of modern workplaces not only has impact on observing online work, but simultaneously on interaction taking place offline.</div

The Dynamics of Influencer Marketing

YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Vimeo, Twitter, etc. have their own logics, dynamics and different audiences. This book analyses how the users of these social networks, especially those of YouTube and Instagram, become content prescribers, opinion leaders and, by extension, people of influence. What influence capacity do they have? Why are intimate or personal aspects shared with unknown people? Who are the big beneficiaries? How much is vanity and how much altruism? What business is behind these social networks? What dangers do they contain? What volume of business can we estimate they generate? How are they transforming cultural industries? What legislation is applied? How does the legislation affect these communications when they are sponsored? Is the privacy of users violated with the data obtained? Who is the owner of the content? Are they to blame for ""fake news""? In this changing, challenging and intriguing environment, The Dynamics of Influencer Marketing discusses all of these questions and more. Considering this complexity from different perspectives: technological, economic, sociological, psychological and legal, the book combines the visions of several experts from the academic world and provides a structured framework with a wide approach to understand the new era of influencing, including the dark sides of it. It will be of direct interest to marketing scholars and researchers while also relevant to many other areas affected by the phenomenon of social media influence

INNOVATIVE DIGITAL START-UPS AND THEIR VENTURE CREATION PROCESS WITH ENABLING DIGITAL PLATFORMS

Start-ups have gained media attention since Google, Facebook and Amazon were launched in the 1990s. The book Lean Start-up, published in 2011, was another important milestone for digital start-up literature. As unicorn companies emerge around the world, topics highlighted in the news include the vast amount of capital that digital start-ups are raising, the ways in which these digital ventures are disrupting industries, and their global impact on digital economy. However, digital start-ups, digital venture ideas, and their venture creation process lack a unified venture creation model, as there is a gap in the re-search on entrepreneurial processes in a digital context. This research is an explorative study of the venture creation process of innovative digital start-ups that examines what is missing from entrepreneurial process models in a digital technology context and investi-gates how early stage digital start-ups conduct the venture creation process, starting with the pre-phase of antecedents and ending with the launch and scaling of the venture. The research proposes a novel process model of innovative digital start-up venture crea-tion and describes the nature and patterns of the process. A conceptual model was devel-oped based on the entrepreneurship, information systems, and digital innovation litera-ture and empirically assessed with a multi-method qualitative research design. The data collected from semi-structured interviews, internet sources, and observation field notes covered 34 innovative digital start-ups and their founders. Interviews were conducted in-ternationally in high-ranking start-up ecosystems, and the data were analysed with the-matic analysis and fact-checked by triangulating internet data sources. The contribution to entrepreneurship theory is a new illustrative model of the venture creation process of innovative digital start-ups, including the emergent outcome of the process having a digi-tal artefact at its core (e.g., mobile apps, web-based solutions, digital platforms, software solutions, and digital ecosystems). Digital platforms and their multiple roles in the process are presented, as well as the role of critical events as moderators of the process which trigger new development cycles. During the venture creation process, the recombining of digital technologies, modules, and components enabled by digital infrastructures, plat-forms, and ecosystem partners represent digital technology affordances. This recombina-tion provides opportunities for asset-free development of digital venture ideas