JAMS Announces Special Issue on Influencer Marketing

Plus, insights from the authors of an invited article on influencer marketing. The submission deadline for the Special Issue “From Buzz to Business: Analyzing the Post-Hype Phase of Influence Marketing” is February 1, 2025.

We also interviewed the authors of the invited article, “Influencer marketing unlocked: Understanding the value chains driving the creator economy”.

From the Authors

Our article explores the evolving landscape of influencer marketing and emphasizes its impact within the growing creator economy. Our article introduces an equity-driven framework that systematically analyzes the interplay among firms/ brands, influencers, followers, and digital platforms and highlights how each party contributes to value creation and management.

We highlight the need to understand influencer marketing as an ecosystem rather than a set of isolated activities. Firms leverage influencers to enhance customer equity through targeting, positioning, and marketing mix elements, which help create customer value along the entire customer lifecycle, from acquisition to retention. Influencers manage follower equity by building long-term, authentic relationships with their followers, creating and curating valuable content, and promoting their brand alongside firm partnerships. Finally, platforms maximize user equity through ad campaigns and strategic curation algorithms determining content visibility.

Our article also looks at the complex value exchange dynamics within the ecosystem, such as how firms measure return on investment (ROI) and how influencers balance their need for authenticity with commercial collaborations. It outlines key challenges such as accurately measuring ROI, managing platform algorithms, and maintaining follower authenticity. In doing so, it integrates the substantial research related to influencer marketing published in recent years in leading journals.

In addition to presenting a comprehensive overview of the mechanisms of value creation and exchange in influencer marketing, the article provides strategic implications for marketers seeking to optimize influencer engagements. We also propose eleven “INFLUENCERS” research directions for future academic exploration, focusing on key aspects like customer equity, the alignment between influencers and brands, authenticity, and the impact of platform curation algorithms. The article offers a holistic and structured approach to understanding influencer marketing and its role within the creator economy.

Conversations with the Authors

What inspired you to focus on this topic?

This article emerged from discussions at the 12th Triennial Invitational Choice Symposium at INSEAD (France) in 2023. The starting point of our discussions was the need for a more integrative framework to analyze questions on influencer marketing that goes beyond looking at the effectiveness of specific influencer marketing actions (e.g., which influencers to work with or how to design influencer marketing posts). Within our framework, we wanted to show how the three main actors in this space – platforms, influencers, and brands – are related and jointly participate in the value-creation process. In addition, we aimed to discuss new trends in influencer marketing that, until now, did not receive sufficient attention within the literature, such as issues related to livestreaming, platform curation algorithms, and the role of generative artificial intelligence.

How did you choose the specific framework or theoretical lens for the manuscript?

We believe that influencer marketing is entering a new phase of maturity. What has previously been considered a niche marketing tool, relevant only to selective firms to target specific customer groups, has become an established tool within the marketing framework. Our specific framework is based on the logic of customer lifetime value and customer equity, which has shaped literature in the domain of customer relationship management in recent years. Within our article, we adapt this value-creation logic to the influencer landscape. We also highlight that the traditional marketing logic that starts from segmentation, targeting, and positioning and then moves to the marketing mix and value creation applies similarly to the new phenomenon of influencer marketing.

What key challenge or questions were you hoping to address with this paper?

Our aim with this article was twofold: First, we wanted to bring the discussion around influencer marketing back to the central tenet of value creation within marketing. In our view, influencer marketing must prove that it can generate value for consumers and firms and go beyond simply being a cool, new technique to continue its growth and increase its importance. Second, during our discussions, we realized that the current literature on influencer marketing looks at a rather narrow set of issues and that many questions of importance are not addressed yet. Hence, we aimed to provide an agenda for future research to guide research in this area.