Raffaele Filieri, Audencia Business School

Elmira Djafarova, Northumbria University

Margot Racat, IDRAC Business School

Veronika Keller, Szechenyi Istvan University

Rickard Enstroem, MacEwan University

Social media influencer marketing faces uncertainty amid algorithm fatigue, regulatory scrutiny, declining consumer trust, and AI-generated influencers. Traditional theoretical frameworks struggle to explain how AI content, algorithmic curation, and synthetic personas reshape influence dynamics.

This special issue examines whether traditional influencer marketing is ending or undergoing paradigm shift in how influence is constructed, monetized, and governed. It explores how authenticity, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic mediation intersect to reshape influence practices while addressing emerging regulatory frameworks.

The issue welcomes empirically grounded contributions from multiple disciplines including strategy, media studies, consumer behavior, and technology management. It particularly encourages interdisciplinary, globally inclusive research examining non-Western contexts, emerging platforms, and underrepresented influencer communities.

Appel publié par Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences / Revue Canadienne des Sciences de l Administration. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Trust, credibility, and authenticity in digital influence
• Algorithmic mediation, platform governance, and market structure
• Consumer resistance, fatigue, and agency
• Virtual influencers, AI, and synthetic content
• Cultural, generational, and global perspectives on influence
• Professionalization, labor, and monetization in the creator economy
• Ethics, power, and the dark side of influencer marketing
• Expanding contexts of influence in B2B, nonprofit, and public sectors
• Strategic navigation of platforms, algorithms, and AI tools across global-local digital markets
• Authenticity and trust negotiation in activism, sustainability, and cause-related marketing

Timeline

• December 31, 2026: Submission Deadline
• March 1, 2027: Final Decisions and Revisions

Andrea Vocino, Deakin University

Marta Massi, Athabasca University

Sandro Castaldo, Bocconi University

AI is increasingly central to consumer-brand interactions across digital and physical channels, raising questions about how consumers form and maintain trust, evaluate brand authenticity, and retain agency in automated decision environments. This special issue seeks to understand the psychological mechanisms underlying consumer responses to AI-mediated marketing, particularly how trust develops across diverse touchpoints and human involvement levels.

Authenticity and consumer agency emerge as critical concerns when AI shapes brand communications and customer choices. As generative AI and personalization tools become more prevalent, consumers must evaluate whether experiences feel genuine and aligned with brand values, while simultaneously navigating questions of autonomy and control in algorithmically curated environments. The issue welcomes diverse methodological approaches to advance theory, measurement, and practical understanding of these interconnected phenomena.

Appel publié par Psychology and Marketing. Voir l'appel sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Trust formation, calibration, repair, and withdrawal in AI-mediated consumer-brand interactions across channels and touchpoints
• Consumer judgments of authenticity in AI-generated content, recommendations, service encounters, and brand communications
• Trust transfer between human employees, algorithmic agents, platforms, and brands in omnichannel and phygital journeys
• Consumer agency, autonomy, control, and reactance in algorithmically curated or automated marketing environments
• Psychological and design cues (e.g., disclosure, explainability, transparency, anthropomorphism) that affect trust and authenticity
• Comparative consumer responses to human, AI, and hybrid service provision in retail, hospitality, health, education, and luxury contexts
• Mechanisms of resistance, acceptance, and adaptation to AI across different risk levels, involvement levels, and product categories
• Cross-cultural, generational, and demographic differences in responses to AI-mediated marketing and phygital experiences
• Measurement development and validation for trust, authenticity, agency, and related constructs in AI-enabled consumer settings
• Conceptual integrations linking consumer psychology, service systems, and digital platform research in AI-mediated markets

Timeline

• January 31, 2027: Submission deadline

Antonella Cammarota, International University of Monaco

Jessica Vredenburg, Auckland University of Technology

Benjamin Rosenthal, Getulio Vargas Foundation

Brand activism has evolved into a mainstream corporate practice where companies and executives publicly engage with controversial socio-political issues. While existing literature has explored authenticity, ideology, and corporate strategies in brand activism, there remains a significant gap regarding its broader social and transformative impacts. The phenomenon has expanded across diverse contexts including non-profits, universities, CEOs, and consumers, and is studied in B2B markets, the luxury sector, and globally.

Recent developments suggest that brand activism is undergoing significant transformation. Since late 2024, many major corporations have withdrawn from diversity and inclusion commitments, scaled back activist visibility on social media, and reduced socio-political content. This shift, driven by rising populism, geopolitical conflicts, and societal polarisation, highlights a critical disconnect between existing theoretical frameworks and evolving real-world practices that scholars struggle to capture adequately.

Appel publié par Journal of Marketing Management. Lire l'appel complet sur le site de l'éditeur. Fiche de l'appel sur kerostig.

Potential topics

• Changes in Brand Activism Strategies – Is brand activism taking a new form? Are we witnessing the rise of less visible, more strategic, or quieter modes of activism? How do activist brands act in the current landscape?
• Emerging Brand Activist Contexts – How, and to what extent, does brand activism manifest across different political, cultural, and geographical contexts? Particular attention is invited to the Global South and emerging markets, where civil liberties, media pluralism, or legal protections for civil rights may be limited or contested.
• Institutional Actors as Activist Agents – What happens when universities, public institutions, public figures, or cultural organisations engage in activist practices? How do these actors influence public discourse, shape political debate, or redefine the boundaries of market responsibility?
• The Transformative Effect of Brand Activism – Can marketing-driven activism lead to lasting social change, or is it ultimately limited to symbolic gestures and market-oriented performance goals?
• International and Transnational Dimensions of Activism – How does activism unfold across national borders, global supply chains, and international institutions? What new conditions arise when brand activism is framed as a systemic, transnational commitment?
• Backlash, Culture War, and Polarisation – How brand activism is affected when social and institutional risks emerge, corporate activism provokes ideological resistance, public fatigue, or consumer boycotts? How has the context of rising populism affected the conditions for brand activism?
• Consumer Activism and Spaces of Expression – Has consumer activism changed? If so, how do activist consumers influence brand strategies, communication, and positioning? How do new forms of digital and/or offline spaces affect how consumer activists express their demands, critiques, or support? Are there changes in the relationships between brands and consumer activists?
• Authenticity and Consumer Activism - How can we critically differentiate between authentic brand activism and opportunistic appropriation of activist discourse? Have consumers' understandings of authentic brand activism changed amid current shifts in the sociocultural context?
• Artificial Intelligence and Activist Contents – How is artificial intelligence transforming the creation, personalisation, and dissemination of activist messages? What ethical, moral, and authenticity-related concerns arise when activism is mediated by machine-created content?
• Shifting Channels of Activist Communication – To what extent has sociopolitical pressure prompted a shift in activist communication from open, accessible platforms - such as social media - to more niche, closed (not public) or offline spaces? What are the implications of this relocation of activism visibility and audience engagement regarding brand activism practices and social impact?
• Activism and the Depoliticisation of Society – What are the potential connections between brand activism and the depoliticisation of society? Does brand activism foster genuine political engagement and collective mobilisation, or does it risk causing activism fatigue, depoliticising conflict and reinforcing dominant ideologies? How can we critically assess the boundaries between symbolic engagement and meaningful transformation?
• Measuring Systemic Impact – How can we assess the broader societal effects of brand activism beyond corporate performance indicators or consumer responses? What critical or participatory methodologies are needed to evaluate systemic change?

Timeline

• September 30, 2026: Manuscript deadline