Emerging technology dynamically changes the way we consume and build markets.
As such, my research focuses on the impact of diverse digital and social media as it is developed and adopted. Leveraging theories from sociology and philosophy, my research offers insights into technology's role in value creation, identity development, and market system dynamics. Using multiple methods, I investigate phenomena that are timely, theoretically-important, and industry-relevant. I am fortunate that my work has been honored with academic awards and covered industry media coverage.
Select Projects-in-Progress
The "Nicosia Award goes to a paper that several reviewers believe has the potential for significant scholarly impact," said Rajiv Vaidyanathan, Executive Director of ACR and Professor of Marketing at the University of Minnesota Duluth"
Project | 01
Creating Value in Real Estate
Digital technology has significantly impacted modern marketing and consumer experiences. It has become crucial to understand how marketing technology influences value creation within a network. Applying actor-network theory to service-dominant logic, we conduct an inductive study exploring how a technology (i.e., VR-tours) becomes an actor with the potential to cocreate value in the context of the residential real estate market. Data collection includes semi-structured interviews, archival documents, and online comments. What emerged from our analysis is a model of how a technology-actor can participate in a value cocreation network through reliance and diffusion of the technology. The technology’s unexpected value potential influences other actors to renegotiate their roles and practices in the network, creating value destabilization with implications for the larger market.
Co-Authors: Debra A. Laverie, Hans Hansen
Funding: Rawls COB Ph.D. Student Research Grant Award (informant compensation and travel)
Award-winning work:
Franco Nicosia ACR Best Paper Award
Early findings:
TTU Rawls News
ACR Proceeding
Dissertation Committee:
Debra A. Laverie, Ph.D.
Chair of Committee
Markus Giesler, Ph.D.
Hans Hansen, Ph.D.
Robert E. McDonald, Ph.D.
Project | 02
Building VR-Content Markets
Drawing upon imagination theories from philosophy and sociology, this study reveals how a novel media technology market emerges and expands into multiple verticals or industries. This study follows the early mobilization of an artificial intelligence enabled virtual reality technology among multiple actors within the market. Data collection includes semi-structured interviews with firm-actors and customers, as well as archival documents and online records. Employing a multi-step analysis guided by extended case method, the findings reveal that culturally constrained forms of imagination processes among multiple actors drive the creation and growth of the VR-content market. Developers use recreative imagination, envisioning a world beyond their own experience, to establish the initial market emergence. Non-firm-actors, inspired by consumption experiences, participate in creative imagination to build the market unexpectedly. Further, the findings highlight potential market futures envisioned by actors’ recreative imagination. Although diverse on the surface, the imagination processes are constrained into the socio-historical roots of Silicon Valley, and its sociotechnical imaginary. This reveals the opportunity for the content and its data derivatives to be used for further market expansion. The existence of both positive and negative implications demonstrates the need for additional stakeholders to be involved in future market decisions.
Co-Author: Markus Giesler
Early findings:
ACR Conference Proceeding
Flyer
Project | 03
Digital Resource Use in Identity Transformation
​We explore how technology influences consumers' in purposeful identity transformation, we study how different digital platforms are used for a Minimalist transition. Findings show that this emotional journey is both supported and creates new tensions in their identity transformation.
Co-Authors: Kevin Harmon, Tim Kaskela
Funding: J.B. Hoskins Professorship (informant compensation and transcriptions)

Project | 04
Digital Disconnection and Wellness
​I have multiple projects researching how consumers are remolding the marketplace through the voluntary rejection of digital technology in pursuit of well-being. Early findings reveal that consumers are motivated to discuss on Twitter their productivity, family, and spiritual values. Implications of this consumer movement are vast, impact consumers, firms, policy makers, and educators.
Co-Authors: Breanne A. Mertz, Ashley Hass, Tim Kaskela, and Louis J. Zmich, Kevin Harmon
Early findings:
Stukent Digital Summit 2022
Award-Winning Work:
Best Paper Marketing for Higher Ed SIG Future Trends in Consumer Behavior Special Issue, AMA Winter 2022

Project | 05
Service Super-Heroes: Small Business Owners' Crisis Mitigation
Small business owners (SBOs) face unique identity challenges when providing services during the current global pandemic. To maintain services, SBOs must modify strategies. We investigate SBOs' journey through early crisis management. We employ an inductive, qualitative approach in the context of VR-photographers in residential real estate. We find that business communities offer a social alliance, verification, and sensemaking that can promote creative strategy changes and adaptive capabilities. This creativity can inspire SBOs to take on a new identity of a “super-hero,” where they assist to bring normalcy and sustain the market while keeping others safe.
Target: Journal of Marketing
Co-Author: Ashley Hass
We thank the We Get Around Network for their support in data collection.
Early findings:
SMA Proceeding
Award-Winning Work:
Sharon Beatty Best Paper in Services Marketing, SMA 2020 Conference
Publications
Mertz, B., Hass, A., Anderson, K.C., Kaskela, T., & Zmich, L. (in press) “#SocialMediaWellness: Exploring a Research Agenda and Conceptualization for Healthy Social Media Consumption,” Journal of Consumer Behavior
Winner of Future Trends in Consumer Behavior Track Best Paper at Winter AMA (2022)
Bradley, T., Anderson, K.C., Hass, A. (2023), “The Virtuous Cycle: Social Media Influencers’ Potential for Kindness Contagion,” Journal of Macromarketing, 43(2), 110-118.
Anderson, K. C., & Laverie, D. A. (2022). In the consumers’ eye: A mixed-method approach to understanding how VR-Content influences unbranded product quality perceptions. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 67, 102977.
Anderson K.C., Freybote, J., & Manis, K. T. (2022), The Impact of Virtual Marketing Strategies on the Price-TOM Relation, The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics.
Winner of Jane K. Fenyo Best Student Paper Award at AMS (2020)
