Thursday, 11 March 2021

2021 KBS Spring Seminar Series

The 2021 KBS Spring Series continues on Tuesday 16th March at 1:15 pm with a seminar by Annmarie Ryan and Martin Mullins.   The seminar format is informal and interactive facilitating discussion and Q&A and will take place on MS Teams Click here to join the meeting  The title and abstract are below

Gasping for a pint: On qualifying markets as safe in the time of Covid, the case of the Irish Hospitality
A presentation by Dr. Annmarie Ryan, Management and Marketing, followed by response from discussant, Prof Martin Mullins, Accounting and Finance

Abstract This project is concerned with disruptive effect of the Covid-19 pandemic and how the crisis that has ensued has triggered many re-ordering effects in how markets are configured. While, at first there was much talk of ‘all being in this together’, it has soon become apparent that there are winners and losers and stark inequalities evident. Where some multinationals have seen profits soar, we see many small firms closing, initially temporarily due to lock downs, but evidently this is becoming a more permanent feature. These effects are not just economic, but also social and cultural, disrupting public, private and third spaces, after Oldenburg and Brissett (1982).  I focus on the (humble) Irish Pub as a third space (see Scarbrough, 2008). Third places exist outside the home and beyond the "work lots" of modern economic production. The focus of this paper is how safety has become a key marketing positioning and survival strategy in markets for hospitality services. We take the position that Covid-related safety is a negotiated, accomplished quality, and therefore not something that can be taken as given or straightforward (see Smith, 2013).  The process of qualifying a good/service for market exchange has been an important feature in the work of Callon et al., (2002) and research within Constructivist Market Studies (CMS). The notion of qualification, as a process points to the efforts made by competitors to attach consumers to their own products, and where needed detaching them from competition products and services. These ongoing efforts suggest that even markets that could be said to be “up and running” are subject to constant changes and shifts (Geiger et al 2012). While there is much literature on the qualification of products, less attention has been given to the qualification of services and spaces. Drawing on data from documentary and social media sources we trace the reconfiguration of markets elements, (actors, objects and places), market processes, and market forms, in particular around key moments of controversy (e.g. initial lock down March 2020, Summer reopening, Autumn lock down, pre-Christmas opening, and the January 2021 fall out).