Playing the game of fashion in the digital era: the dynamic relationship between consumers and algorithms
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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Authors
Date
2021
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Marketing
Language
en
Pages
45+6
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Abstract
Existing literature on algorithms has predominately focused on how brands can use algorithms to their advantage. Thus, it has neglected understanding the phenomenon of consumer-algorithm relationships. This research aimed to fill this gap in the existing literature by studying fashion consumers’ interactions with Instagram’s algorithm. As a highly competitive consumption activity, fashion was a fruitful focus for the study, and Instagram, being recognized as an influential fashion space, provided a proper context through which to research the phenomenon. The study was led by the following research question: How do fashion consumers interact with algorithms? The study was conducted through qualitative, phenomenological research. Data was collected through eleven semi-structured interviews, and the informants were chosen based on their knowledge as fashion consumers and their activity as users of Instagram. To support the interviews, each participant was asked to share their screen and demonstrate how they use Instagram. Through the analysis, Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of fashion capital was used to ground the findings. The results enhance the current understanding of algorithm interactions by showing that fashion consumers are acutely aware of Instagram’s algorithm. Furthermore, consumers can effectively influence the algorithm, enabling it to perform as a consumption tool. For some fashion consumers, the algorithm is used as a strategic tool for fashion field maneuvering. By enacting various interaction strategies, these consumers train it to curate new forms of capital. However, other consumers use algorithmic misalignments such as repetitive, pushy content to identify and abandon devalued fashion. The findings challenge existing literature by showing that many consumers do not want to participate in the constant upkeep of training algorithms. Finally, this study adds to the existing research on targeted recommendations by showing that while fashion consumers use the algorithm as a tool in their consumption process, their activity on Instagram is not exclusive to fashion. Therefore, making it difficult for the algorithm to mirror the fashion field and influence consumption accurately.Description
Thesis advisor
Weijo, HenriKeywords
algorithms, cultural capital, social capital, fields of fashion, Instagram, recommendation systems, fashion consumption