[Rezension] Economy as Communication: Communication as Economy—Call-Out Economics, Macromarketing and Communication Economics from the Point of View of Systems Theory

Stumpf, Marcus Book Review — Published Version [Rezension] Economy as Communication: Communication as Economy—Call-Out Economics, Macromarketing and Communication Economics from the Point of View of Systems Theory Corporate Reputation Review Provided in Cooperation with: Springer Nature Suggested Citation: Stumpf, Marcus (2024) : [Rezension] Economy as Communication: Communication as Economy—Call-Out Economics, Macromarketing and Communication Economics from the Point of View of Systems Theory, Corporate Reputation Review, ISSN 1479-1889, Palgrave Macmillan, London, Vol. 28, Iss. 3, pp. 201-203, https://doi.org/10.1057/s41299-024-00191-5 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/330807 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. 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If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Vol.:(0123456789) Corporate Reputation Review (2025) 28:201–203 https://doi.org/10.1057/s41299-024-00191-5 BOOK REVIEWS Economy asCommunication: Communication asEconomy—Call‑Out Economics, Macromarketing andCommunication Economics fromthePoint ofView ofSystems Theory MarcusStumpf1 Published online: 10 June 2024 © The Author(s) 2024 Information society, knowledge age, attention economy, reputation economy. There are several social-economic trends which indicate a fundamental change regarding the evolution of markets: the turn from analytics and rational choice to communications and relational choice and communications. The book “economy as communication—communication as economy” by Jan Lies, a German economist, describes the communicative change in the economy. For this purpose, the role of communication in companies and markets is examined. Companies, markets and their environment are viewed as social (sub)systems. The media logic that shapes economic society has changed and led to the call-out economy: The altered media logic stems from the transformation of media recipients. They have evolved from passive to active media producers. Active media producers can easily position themselves as social systems through social media, explaining their power that leads to the call-out economy. Call-out economics describes the importance of public speak-ups for markets and management. Social media shares, likes and posts are the most popular examples for speak-ups. Call-outs are designed to go viral and, thus, becoming narratives. They are appropriate to impact markets. Narratives are temporary market orders. Digital crises triggered by dissatisfied customers or fashions driven by fans of a brand are examples that can be traced back to speak-ups and have developed into market-defining narratives. Call-outs are examples of digitized stakeholder claims in the management-and-marketera 4.0. After the introductory chapter1, the communicative turnaround in management is developed in chapter2. The discussion initially turns to the converging logic within economic societies with their markets, companies, management, media, and brands. Logics are “doctrines of thought” which shape the framework for patterns of thought and thus explain fundamental functions, processes, methods and paradigms. Economy refers to planned action in order to obtain goods in the face of scarce resources. To do this, economic societies organize themselves with the help of companies, households and markets to coordinate supply and demand. Management logics explain how corporations contribute to business, i.e. value creation. Markets are social systems aiming to organize exchange networks between buyers and sellers in order to enable product and/or service transactions. The logic of communication is to create meaning, within economics and management especially to shape and impact (goods, services, labour) markets. Media logic is defined as a form of communication, and the process through which media transmit and communicate information. Media logics changed from passive media consumers to interactive produsers. Branding logics focus shifts from differentiation in * Marcus Stumpf [email protected] 1 FOM University ofApplied Science, Franklinstraße 52, 60486FrankfurtamMain, Germany 202 M.Stumpf order to distinct from competitors to meaning which attracts customers. Chapter3 characterizes management as communication. It retraces the increasingly communicative character of management. Management has evolved and gone through different phases: Management 1.0 to 4.0. Management has always depended on information to generate decision-making knowledge. But communication in management is more: management as dialogue is participative management. It is a strategy of aesthetic management to enforce decisions by avoiding dysfunctional call-outs from employees and customers. Hence, management becomes more and more communication. The role of management communication evolved from “providing information to direct” (management 1.0) to “developing mutual values” (management 4.0). This development makes management itself become dialogic media competencies. Chapter4 conceptualizes the character of corporations as communicating social systems. Corporations consist of and are driven by communication (organizational communication) aimed at realizing market exchange. A prerequisite for this is value creation. Value creation has always been the core function of corporations. But the pattern of value creation changed. It is used to be an autonomous process within corporations. The idea was to organize competitive advantages internally to satisfy customer needs. Today, this process depends on ongoing social-economic interaction internally and externally. Consequently, corporations are forced to dynamize their internal and external communication to synchronize their values with customers and stakeholders beyond the markets. Today, companies are value creation systems that extend beyond formal corporate boundaries. The boundaries of social systems are shaped by mutually shared values. Value creation in social systems is fluid because it is knowledge-dependent and relevant knowledge also resides with the value creation partners. Not only value creation partners are customers, but also brand communities that organize themselves dynamically in social media and, thus, become value drivers. The socio role of brands as value creation partners will later lead to the role of brands as social-economic changing instances. They operate as a kind of change agent when they are conceptualized in chapter7 as a lynch pin between companies and the economic society. Chapter5 transfers the view of “organisations as communications” to markets. It retraces the shift in the understanding of markets as events (focus on market clearing) to a multi-complex social system of communications (focus on market initiation). This leads to a history formation in the market phases “1.0” to “4.0”. Market 1.0 takes up the classic market description. The classic market participant is perfectly informed, decides rationally, and operates completely without emotions. Market exchange is supposed to be an event and outcome of individual and rational choice. If communication management intends to impact markets, e.g. with brand communication, to increase market success, the traditional market view debates communication which is already done. Communication is always already done, as the model man of classical economics “homo oeconomicus” is considered to be perfectly informed. Branding is, therefore, not necessary. With the New Institutional Economics, which questions the “invisible hand”, the (non-)emergence of economically relevant institutions such as markets or companies came into focus from around the 1940s. Market 2.0 evolved. Transaction costs play a central role here. These include, for example, the costs of searching for information, which can arise from asymmetric information distribution between the supply and demand sides. Thus, information economics emerged and the rise of the importance of communication becomes apparent. Market 3.0 is discussed across different academic field, e.g. within economy, sociology or cultural science. Markets are not isolated trading places, but intertwine with other instances of a society. Assumptions about the functioning of markets today are being expanded and made more complex. Markets are now seen as communicative and cultural entities, processes and socio-digital networks. The view on markets shifted from efficient market ideas and market anomalies to behavioural economics. Both are driven by communications. Markets have completed the “communicative turn”, an application of the “cultural turn”. Markets 4.0 are highly socio-economic social communication networks driven by digitization. Examples are manifold: “Hot topics” such as greenwashing are examples of markets as communication about production. Fashions are markets as communication about products or services. Aesthetics are markets as communication about consumption. Such examples show that markets today are narratives. This substantiates the significance of the call-out economy, explaining the subtitle of the book. Call-outs are public speak-ups aiming to become narratives. Narratives are able to shape temporary market order, e.g. fashions, rumours or market rituals. Chapter6 turns the theme of chapter5 (markets as communication) upside-down (communications as markets): News, media, events, agencies and communication devices are selected elements of communication markets. The media markets are, therefore, much more than income from information or electronic devices. They are also permeated by the results of corporate communication: advertising, product placement and content marketing as branded content and/or organic content as viral narratives in social media characterize the communication processes of (digital) socio-economic society. They are destined to create new markets for businesses. These markets are communication-based. Markets are communication and communication represents living markets. Chapter7 conceptualizes brands as a social-economic lynch pin between corporations and customers. Powerful brands are not strong because they look good, have a nice logo or run 203 Economy asCommunication: Communication asEconomy—Call‑Out Economics, Macromarketing and… creative campaigns. Rather, powerful brands are driven by their community. That means brands are corporate, customer and social driven if just the contemporary meaning of purpose driven or sustainable brands is regarded. That means brands do not control the customer but depend on them. Brands in a world of social systems are paradoxical. They are agile and stable at the same time. They are agile institutions when they provide dynamic corporate competency by increasing opportunities to observe the currently valid stakeholder values and stabilize the relations with brand communities. This mechanism serves to stabilize as they organize order by shaping the meaning, especially not only brand meaning in the case of brand communities, but also socio-economic cultural meaning in general. Brands can evolve from planned trademarks for image building to social systems. They begin to come to life when interested parties, fans or critics become involved for or against a brand. Brands become applied macromarketing. For the value synchronization between companies and their stakeholders, macromarketing is needed as a social marketing competence. The book closes with chapter8: Stakeholder claims, market narratives, externalities of production and consumption, bullish markets, fake news, agenda setting and fashions with the “in” and “out” of brands: communication shapes business, driven by call-outs—all of these examples show that business is communication and communication is business. The callout economy represents this evolution. Call-outs represent the rising voices of employees, customers and other stakeholders expressed and reinforced by (social) media. Call-outs are attempts to change relevant knowledge within market societies: Call-outs are a method of transforming individual communication into market shaping narratives. Precondition for this is the reputation of the market participants. Markets become a reputation economy as conversations depend on reputation. Business society has long since adapted to dealing with call-outs: with interactive brand leadership. If companies, the markets and their environment consist of social networks and these networks develop and work on the basis of common values, then communication is currently the driving force of economic society. It shapes management, its companies and markets. Management 1.0 has evolved into management 4.0. Successful brands stand for the social competence of corporate management. The prerequisite for this is that companies understand brands not only as a teaching platform for brand values (image building), but also as learning platforms to constantly integrate new requirements into brand management (brands as joint ventures). Thus, branding means applied macromarketing. In summary, this book provides a conceptual framework for Shiller's “Narrative Economics”, by positing call-outs as initiating mechanisms aimed at becoming market-dominant orders. This transforms macromarketing into a practical management competency, as brands evolve into value-generating joint ventures. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. 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