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ABSTRACT This interview with Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland, one of the most distinguished researchers in computational social science, Senior Research Fellow at Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, and Toshiba Professor of Media Arts & Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), offers insights into his academic journey, research career, and impactful publications. The conversation reflects on essential milestones that shaped Alex Pentland’s career, exploring the influence of his experiences as a young student and the importance of an intellectually stimulating environment in fostering academic growth. He also shares insights into following technological trends, focusing on publications addressing real-world problems, and managing a robust and impactful research lab (Human Dynamics) at MIT. This interview provides an in-depth view of his experiences and insights, offering guidance and inspiration for students and scholars.

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ABSTRACT Objective: the relationship between player and character is important to understand the concept of the extended self in virtual markets. This study aims to further understand this relationship between player and online game. MMORPGs have several resources that affect the psychological experience of players, who feel connected to their characters. The online world seems to free us from our physical bodies and provide new ways to express ourselves. Thus, the archetypal structures are part of the social imaginary, as fictional universes and avatars in online games. Methods: a netnography methodology was used in order to participate in an online community of the game and collect information about the construction of the game archetype, the players’ relationships and their extended self, and the motivations that engage the players. Results: it was found that archetypes serve as limitations but also as a guarantee of involvement and satisfaction. We also identified person-building relationships in search of an ideal reality, and we found that the motivations that most drive players are the search for relationships and escapism as a way to immerse and escape from ‘real reality.’ Conclusions: the study was directed toward the archetypal construction of the game. The extended self is a form of consumption and interaction with the avatar but also an escape from ‘real reality’ and the co-construction of an archetype of a virtual fantasy world that forms part of the relationship and evolution of consumption and entertainment patterns.

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ABSTRACT Objective: the COVID-19 pandemic profoundly disrupted societal norms, reshaping daily routines and consumption practices by blurring the boundaries between personal and public spaces. This study examines how beauty consumption adapted to these disruptions, focusing on the role of digital platforms in fostering self-expression, self-care, and social interaction. Methods: using practice theory as a framework, we employed netnography, in-depth interviews, and archival analysis to explore the interplay between digital tools, self-presentation, and consumer behavior during the pandemic. Results: our findings highlight three key triggers - perception of free time, domestic social exhibition, and insecurity with new routines - that drove the adaptation of beauty practices. Consumers prioritized mental health and self-presentation in digital spaces, embracing new at-home routines facilitated by tools like social media tutorials and virtual try-on technologies. Social media influencers encouraged experimentation, while brands adapted their strategies to promote DIY solutions and align products with emerging values around self-care and virtual presence. Conclusions: this study extends the literature on consumption disruption, offering a framework to understand the co-evolution of consumer practices and market adaptations in digitally mediated contexts.

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ABSTRACT Objective: drawing from digital consumer activism and the Foucauldian concept of resistance, the aim of this research is to analyze how cosplayers’ digital activism governs their online interactions. Method: the ethnographic Foucauldian genealogy was carried out over a four-and-a-half-year data collection period. Results: our analysis revealed the Fight for Respect dispositif, when cosplayers’ digital activism represents the exercise of multiple resistances assembled to organize themselves through digital activism to establish care of the self and others. It is described by how consumers encompass several levels when dealing with attacks against themselves or their peers: from a proposal for coexistence - Agenda; to a desire for change - Protests; and reaching a position of rupture - Riot. Conclusion: the study highlights how consumer activism carried out virtually by a specific and engaged audience is capable of continually re-elaborating digital marketing relationships. Such activism opposes a dark-side activism, reiterating the importance of researchers and marketing managers paying attention to the curtailment or manifestation of pride in ontological conditions that are typically attacked in the digital environment.

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ABSTRACT Objective: the increase in e-commerce transactions has resulted in the understanding of the dynamics of pricing in digital marketing in B2B and B2C environments. This is crucial for capturing buyer preferences and influencing store profitability. Our empirical study reviews how factors such as product popularity, transaction volume, price adjustments, and shipping time influence price dispersion on two-sided e-commerce platforms. Methods: panel data regression models were estimated using a comprehensive dataset from different product categories. Results: the main findings reveal a negative influence of product popularity on price dispersion, suggesting stronger competition and buyer engagement as potential drivers. A positive association between transaction volume and price dispersion also highlights the effect of efficient marketing strategies. Conclusions: the research is important because it sheds light on variables that are significant for transactions on digital two-sided platforms, such as product popularity. It also assists managers in efficiently planning pricing strategies, product promotion, and reputation management.

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ABSTRACT Objective: besides free access to online games that adopt the free-to-play business model, players may purchase items to customize the game’s appearance in a consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketplace. However, the aesthetic value of the virtual items has yet to receive attention in the literature. For this type of game, this study examines a conceptual model of user participation in purchasing virtual goods, testing the relationships between perceived value dimensions (aesthetic, functional, and economic), continued usage intention, and word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendation, with attitude as a mediating factor. Methods: a survey sample of 157 Brazilian users was analyzed with structural equation modeling. Results: the three types of perceived value were supported as antecedents of attitude, which mediates the relationships between perceived value and the consequent intentions of reuse and WOM recommendation. The model’s overall fit index is 64.61%, and its explanatory power is 44% for continued use intention and 64% for WOM recommendation. Conclusions: this study advances the understanding of the dynamics of C2C markets for virtual goods through an empirical analysis of the antecedents of loyalty, including the aesthetic dimension of perceived value. The findings indicate where the platforms can improve, for example, reinforcing the aesthetic value of virtual goods to promote connections with and among users, thus increasing continued use and WOM recommendation.

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ABSTRACT Objective: this study aimed to understand how the processes of anti-consumption are configured in a community that brings together adherents of no-poo and low-poo techniques. Method: characterized as a qualitative approach, netnographic data were collected, followed by semi-structured interviews with the subjects. Results: anti-consumption occurs from the beginning of adherence to these techniques, and it is practiced against some types of shampoos or the entire category of these cosmetic products. However, being against consumption did not cancel the relationship with the market. Due to the characteristics of this community and its history, it was characterized as a place of anti-consumption and resistance that has become a consumption environment. Conclusions: this study identified anti-consumption as the initial phase of a transformative process following the adoption of no-poo and low-poo hair-washing techniques. This individual process introduces a reframing of consumption, potentially leading to behaviors of reduction or consumerism. In this way, recording the particularities of consumption carried out by those who use washing techniques in the virtual community allows this segment of consumers to be known and recognized by society.

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ABSTRACT Objective: the goal of the study is to expand the current knowledge of sponsorship within the scenario of eSports whose novelty inherits many challenges that are important to improve future management decisions in broader sports contexts. The study investigates the influence of authenticity on sponsors’ overall brand equity and on fans’ purchase intention, having the Brazilian League of Legends Championship as this research’s scenery. The theories supporting this study are the balance theory and attribution theory. Methods: the study’s sample consists of League of Legends fans capable of recalling at least one sponsor of the championship. The data analysis applied confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and multigroup analysis. Results: suggest that brand authenticity affects the eSports fans’ perception of sponsors’ overall brand equity and their purchase intention. Additionally, overall brand equity exerts a mediation role between brand authenticity and purchase intention. Finally, gamers’ experience moderates the influence of brand authenticity on overall brand equity and on purchase intention. Conclusions: This study contributes to the knowledge in marketing and consumer behavior in the digital environment since eSports’ sponsorship brings the ‘digital’ to the very core of the context of investigation, the phenomenon, and the locus for knowledge application.

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ABSTRACT Objective: this research investigates how influencers embrace culturally stigmatized practices to build their opinion leadership on social networks. Methods: the work adopts the netnographic method for a longitudinal case study of the influencer Ju Feitoza, who has become a reference in the housewife movement known as ‘Neighbors of Insta’ on Instagram. Results: the research demonstrates the development of a platform for building leadership of influence through four strategic steps in the digital environment: (1) building a sense of community, (2) authenticity under stigma, (3) destigmatization of social identity, and (4) entrepreneurial leadership. Conclusions: this study demonstrates how influencers strategically build their leadership on social networks by re-signifying culturally stigmatized practices, transforming undervalued, ordinary and invisible practices into aspirational and marketable activities.