Instagram’s ‘Fitspiration’ Trend and Its Effect on Young Women’s Self-Esteem

Increasingly, sports and fitness brands are using a variety of social media platforms. Instagram has come to the fore in the area of fitness, asserting itself as the de facto channel for users to catalogue their athletic activities, and offering inspirational training advice to followers. Considering this increasingly-popular ‘fitspiration’ trend, we see a significant impact upon young female users self-esteem, specifically in relation to their perception of body imagery. Hence, this paper will develop understanding of fitness brands’ social media activities by investigating the impact of Instagram upon the selfesteem of young women. Nascent literature has examined influence upon self-esteem among women throughout a variety of advertising mediums, however, none have explored the connection between self-esteem and social media. Accordingly, semistructured interviews with female sports enthusiasts are proposed to uncover opinions and perceptions relating to their use of Instagram. Initial findings reveal a strong correlation between participant perception of the ‘fitspiration’ social media accounts they subscribe to, as well as the impact upon their self-esteem. Ultimately, this paper makes two theoretical contributions relating to the effect of social media upon female self-esteem, as well as contributing to a wider debate of body image within a modern digital economy

Social Media Marketing Evaluation Decision Making Processes and the Agency-Client Relationship

Evaluation of social media marketing is central to its success. This thesis seeks to contribute to our understanding of social media marketing evaluation processes and outcomes, together with an exploration of the dynamics of agency-client relationships. It contributes to knowledge across three major themes: strategy development, evaluation, and agency-client relationships and is one of the first studies to consider the role of the agency-client relationship in social media marketing. In particular, the study addresses a gap in current knowledge by revealing the significant influence of agency-client relationships on the processes and outcomes of social media marketing strategy development and evaluation. Adopting the ontological and epistemological position that reality is socially constructed, a qualitative study of twenty social media marketers provided a specialist digital agency perspective of social media campaigns. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with key practitioners, supported by a cognitive-mapping elicitation technique. The findings generate knowledge of the first two major themes: strategy and evaluation through the development of two process models: the ‘Cycle of Social Media Marketing’ for strategy, and the ‘Cycle of Social Media Marketing Evaluation’ for evaluation. Findings for the second theme reject the traditional view of agency-client relationships, and instead offers a fresh perspective on these relationships in social media marketing, identifying three sub-themes: context, conflict and co-creation. The findings reveal key techniques for enhancing client relationships, including client account management strategies; the impact of conflict on trust between both parties; the crucial role of mutual participation in strategy development of strategy and evaluation; and the importance of co-creation, largely facilitated through collaborative learning workshops. This study has implications for scholars as it contributes to our understanding of evaluation in relation to strategy development in a rapidly developing area of modern marketing practice, affirming the importance of social media data analysis to decision-making. This study has implications for practice as it extends knowledge through conceptualisations of processes and offering insights into the influence and dynamics of agency-client interactions in social media marketing. Finally, a key contribution to knowledge is the development of two conceptual frameworks: The Contextualised Conceptual Framework of Social Media Marketing Evaluation in Strategy Development, and The Conceptual Framework of Agency-Client Dynamics in Social Media Marketing which encapsulate the multi-layered nature of this study and the vital importance of evaluation in social media marketing

Are you local? The challenges of local search engine optimisation strategies

Local search engine optimization (SEO) can be a powerful strategy for small to medium sized enterprises. Limited studies provide information on these strategies. This study seeks to understand specialist SEO agencies approaches to performing it, and the associated challenges which emerge in the process. Semi-structured interviews with key informants revealed a range of practical approaches. Challenges identified include the influence of recent search engine algorithm updates resulting in fluctuating ranking factors, as well as the importance of mobile to enacting a local SEO strategy. A better understanding of the nuances of local SEO strategies is provided that can assist and inform industry and future scholars

Evaluation and decision making in social media marketing

Purpose – As organisations are increasing their investment in social media marketing (SMM), evaluation of such techniques is becoming increasingly important. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to knowledge regarding SMM strategy by developing a stage model of SMM evaluation and uncovering the challenges in this process. Design/methodology/approach – Interviews were conducted with 18 key informants working for specialist SMM agencies. Such informants are a particularly rich source, since they manage social media campaigns for a wide range of clients. An exploratory research was conducted and thematic analysis surfaced the key components of the SMM evaluation process and associated challenges. Findings – The SMM evaluation framework is developed. This framework has the following six stages: setting evaluation objectives, identifying key performance indicators (KPIs), identifying metrics, data collection and analysis, report generation and management decision making. Challenges associated with each stage of the framework are identified, and discussed with a view to better understanding decision making associated with social media strategies. Two key challenges are the agency-client relationship and the available social analytics tools. Originality/value – Despite an increasing body of research on social media objectives, KPIs and metrics, no previous study has explored how these components are embedded in a marketing campaign planning process. The paper also offers insights in the factors that make SMM evaluation complex and challenging. Recommendations for further research and practice are offered

Examining the dark force consequences of AI as a new actor in B2B relationships

Artificial intelligence (AI) in industrial marketing has seen significant research attention through various theoretical lenses with an emerging thread examining the dark side effects of AI. Thirty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted with buyers and suppliers of AI marketing solutions to investigate the consequences of AI ‘dark forces’ on B2B relationships. We posit AI as a new actor that has blurred the lines of the actors-resources-activities model. Findings show AI is now considered a new actor within B2B networks wielding dark force consequences such as algorithmic gatekeeping, which initiates dehumanization effects. In addition, AI is reliant on access to datasets which drives up resource costs. A lack of accountability of AI marketing solutions leads to opportunistic behaviours compromising actor relationships. Our conceptual model maps our understanding of the dark force consequences underpinning theoretical and managerial implications and recommendations for increased awareness and mitigation of dark forces

On your marks, headset, go! Understanding the building blocks of metaverse realms

In 2011, Business Horizons published the social media honeycomb article to help managers and scholars understand what was, then, a new form of media, along with its various platforms and how to engage with and learn to use it. Today, we face similar challenges and opportunities with the metaverse as we try to discover how to attract, enable, serve, and capture value from users in the virtual world. In this article, we introduce the concept of a metaverse realm (i.e., a specific type of metaverse space and community) and present the metaverse honeycomb model to explain the functionalities and affordances for different metaverse realms. We present two applications of the honeycomb model to show how shifting attention to immersive functionalities can characterize various metaverse realms. To conclude, we outline how the model could be used to strategically evaluate metaverse realms in terms of their external fit (i.e., the who-what-how of realms), internal fit (i.e., the trade-offs and synergies of realm functionalities), and life cycles (i.e., roadmapping and directing realm evolution)

Implementing artificial intelligence in traditional B2B marketing practices: an Activity Theory perspective

Anecdotal evidence suggests that artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are highly effective in digital marketing and rapidly growing in popularity in the context of business-to-business (B2B) marketing. Yet empirical research on AI-powered B2B marketing, and particularly on the socio-technical aspects of its use, is sparse. This study uses Activity Theory (AT) as a theoretical lens to examine AI-powered B2B marketing as a collective activity system, and to illuminate the contradictions that emerge when adopting and implementing AI into traditional B2B marketing practices. AT is appropriate in the context of this study, as it shows how contradictions act as a motor for change and lead to transformational changes, rather than viewing tensions as a threat to prematurely abandon the adoption and implementation of AI in B2B marketing. Based on eighteen interviews with industry and academic experts, the study identifies contradictions with which marketing researchers and practitioners must contend. We show that these contradictions can be culturally or politically challenging to confront, and even when resolved, can have both intended and unintended consequences

PROJECTIONS OF DEMAND FOR HEALTHCARE IN IRELAND, 2015-2030: FIRST REPORT FROM THE HIPPOCRATES MODEL. ESRI RESEARCH SERIES NUMBER 67 OCTOBER 2017

This report provides baseline estimates and projections of public and private healthcare demand for Irish health and social care services for the years 2015–2030. This is the first report to be published applying the Hippocrates projection model of Irish healthcare demand and expenditure which has been developed at the ESRI in a programme of research funded by the Department of Health. Development of the model has required a very detailed analysis of the services used in Irish health and social care in 2015. This is the most comprehensive mapping of both public and private activity in the Irish healthcare system to have been published for Ireland

The great convergence? Mortality in Ireland and Europe, 1956–2014. ESRI Research Bulletin 202019 September 2020.

This study examines differences in mortality in Ireland and the EU-15 between 1956 and 2014 and provides insights into the causes of death and age groups responsible for the recent convergence to our EU-15 peers

How many beds? Capacity implications of hospital care demand projections in the Irish hospital system, 2015-2030. ESRI Research Bulletin 2018/11

The Irish hospital system at present does not have enough hospital beds to meet demand for care adequately. When measured against other OECD countries, Ireland has a low supply of hospital beds and records the highest rate of patient bed occupancy at 95 per cent. The expected rapid growth and ageing of the Irish population is projected to increase demand for hospital care further. This means that in the coming years there will be an even greater need to increase the number of available hospital beds. This paper employs the ESRI HIPPOCRATES healthcare projection model to project the number of public and private hospital beds that may be required between 2015 and 2030. Importantly, in developing these projections we take into account the ability to move care to non-hospital settings