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RSA Annual Conference 2024 June 11-14, 2024, Florence, Italy Opening the geographical black box of the influencer economy (SS22) Session Type: Paper Session (in-person) Session Organizers: Han Chu, Kiel University, Germany c...@geographie.uni-kiel.de<mailto:c...@geographie.uni-kiel.de> Robert Hassink, Kiel University, Germany hass...@geographie.uni-kiel.de<mailto:hass...@geographie.uni-kiel.de> Chun Yang, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China chuny...@hkbu.edu.hk<mailto:chuny...@hkbu.edu.hk> Deadline for abstract submission: January 30, 2024 Session Description: The ‘influencer economy’ is a recent innovation emerging from digital platforms and their abiliity to bridge virtual and physical space to both create new industries (e.g., digital content industry, mobile games, live streaming industry, online retail, online hailing etc.), as well as newly emerging platform ecologies (Ibert et al., 2022). Although there is now an increasing economic geography literature on several ‘economies’ that emerged because of digitalization and digital platforms, such as the platform economy (Kenney and Zysman, 2020) and the gig economy (Anwar and Graham, 2020), so far, little research has been done on the influencer economy, although it represents an increasingly important part of the platform economy (Economist, 2022; Hung et al., 2022; Engels, 2022, 2023; Shapiro). In China, its contribution to the economy is estimated at $210bn, that is 1.4% of GDP, whereas 75% of marketers in the US spend money on them (Economist 2022). According to Shapiro and Aneja (2019, 19) “14.8 million Americans earned income by posting their creations on Instagram, WordPress, YouTube, Tumblr and five other platforms”. The big thriving of the influencer economy have become a global phenomenon (Backaler, 2018). The emergence of the influencer economy is highly conditioned by the platform economy (Kenney and Zysman, 2020), and is part of the broader concepts of the creator economy (Florida, 2022; Rieder et al., 2023) and attention economy (Davenport and Beck, 2001; Kubler, 2023). Social media influencers are individuals who earn money directly from personal brand building and monetize their influence due to sponsored content (Khamis et al., 2017). Influencers can become celebrities, and some celebrities, who gain their fame through traditional media, such as film, can become influencers, so there is some overlap between the two terms. Typical industries using influencers include fashion, cosmetics, beauty, plastic surgery, gaming, travel, and luxury branding. Influencers can be regarded as ‘circulators’ (Pike, 2013) of brands and value creation, between producers, consumers and regulators. They affect reputation, symbolic value and can also hide undesired associations (Ibert et al., 2019) or political messages (Schneider, 2021). Culture and norms and values affect influencers’ style, and vice versa, for instance in the case of China with its Wanghong culture and wanghonglian aesthetic (Wang and Picone, 2023; Abidin, 2016). Influencers are impacting traditional business models, including not only offline sales channels but also traditional e-commerce channels. The influencers in “half-e-commerce platforms” represent an enhancement based on the network effects of the platform economy and monopolistic effects (Chu et al., 2023). In China, the sales capability of a single live broadcast by top influencers can even surpass the annual sales of an entire normal shopping mall (Baijiahao, 2023). However, research on this influential power is limited, let alone on restrictions and controls. After the emergence of the platform economy, the influencer economy has once again changed the way products are produced and supplied in traditional manufacturing, retailing and service industries and further changed the distribution and method of profit capture. Moreover, influencers increasingly affect place marketing and place branding (Banks, 2022). Recently, some articles in economic geography touched upon the influencer economy, such as in work by Repenning and Oechslen (2023) on “digipreneurs”, which is broader than influencers, including producers and entrepreneurs, and Poorthuis et al. (2020) and their work on the fashion industry from an attention economy and social media perspective. Our session aims at opening the geographical black box of the influencer economy further with papers that not only map the influencer economy in a descriptive way, but also focus on research questions that are affected by several perspectives and paradigms in economic geography, such as evolutionary, relational, institutional economic geography. We welcome papers both empirical, theoretical, as well as policy-related papers, as well as comparative papers, on the influencer economy, from a broad range of industries and locations. Topics and questions might include 1) what affects the influencer economy and 2) what the influencer economy affects: * Where and how did the most powerful influencers emerge? Why there? * How did they develop through time and concerning geographical impact? * Where and why did some influencers have long time success? Where and why did some fail? * What kind of skills did they have before they entered the influencer economy? What is the biography of influencers? * What and where are the networks and interactions that were built up by influencers? * How do influencer economies differ across regions and countries? What is the role of institutions and regulations in facilitating or hindering the influencer economy? * How do influencers impact different industries? What is the difference during these processes? * How do influencers affect the industries they work for? Do they interact with users and customers and does that interaction lead to innovation or product improvement? * How do influential people impact their communities and places? * What is the role of influencers on politics? * How does culture affect influencers’ style? * What role do influencers play in place branding and place marketing? Based on the special session, we are planning to submit a proposal to an international economic geography journal after the conference. To submit an abstract to the session, please select SS22 as the "Gateway" in the submission system. We look forward to your submissions. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.regionalstudies.org%2Fnews%2F2024annual-special-sessions%2F%23&data=05%7C02%7CECONOMICGEOGRAPHY-L%40LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU%7C9b96c08c3ee644d4826408dc1c229013%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C638416182824808097%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C62000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=hDQIWCil3nPPOc%2FfceE7N4dRZQEYuWHBOzuTu9gIegA%3D&reserved=0! https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flounge.regionalstudies.org%2FMeetings%2FMeeting%3FID%3D485&data=05%7C02%7CECONOMICGEOGRAPHY-L%40LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU%7C9b96c08c3ee644d4826408dc1c229013%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C638416182824808097%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C62000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=RMUK%2FPvxzgCr5qVOrMkaMecPjSRKbjJMNfHe%2BZ8a68U%3D&reserved=0 Best regards, Han Chu ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Dept. of Geography, Working Group Economic Geography Kiel University Ludwig-Meyn-Str. 8 24118 Kiel, Germany Phone: +49 431 880-4029 https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wigeo.uni-kiel.de%2Fen%2FPeople%2Fhan-chu&data=05%7C02%7CECONOMICGEOGRAPHY-L%40LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU%7C9b96c08c3ee644d4826408dc1c229013%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C638416182824808097%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C62000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=eLmeXytJyNMocjU5OLptzi%2B%2FbfgkVTsaPAtwCHgDDYs%3D&reserved=0 Google Scholar: https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.com%2Fcitations%3Fuser%3Dr64ZhFEAAAAJ%26hl%3Den%26oi%3Dao&data=05%7C02%7CECONOMICGEOGRAPHY-L%40LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU%7C9b96c08c3ee644d4826408dc1c229013%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C638416182824808097%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C62000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=fuuLtb12CUdPoVl5cbdJV1jCeOWdcxsWi3DfVIE89k0%3D&reserved=0 Research Gate: https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fprofile%2FHan-Chu-chuhan&data=05%7C02%7CECONOMICGEOGRAPHY-L%40LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU%7C9b96c08c3ee644d4826408dc1c229013%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C638416182824808097%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C62000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=zFzY2ofUYaUciCxI2ECxi%2Fu8pT9XdQRi5Kgh6Zuk9RM%3D&reserved=0 <https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fprofile%2FHan-Chu-chuhan&data=05%7C02%7CECONOMICGEOGRAPHY-L%40LISTSERV.UCONN.EDU%7C9b96c08c3ee644d4826408dc1c229013%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C638416182824808097%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C62000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=zFzY2ofUYaUciCxI2ECxi%2Fu8pT9XdQRi5Kgh6Zuk9RM%3D&reserved=0> References Abidin, C. 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