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Paper short abstract

My research focuses on industry analysts as Hype’s New Actors, showing how they translate knowledge from different sources into tools and documents while balancing performance incentives, fair views on hyped information, and power dynamics between different actors in the digital economy.

Paper long abstract

In the rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence, the concept of hype has attracted increasing scholarly attention. However, within current hype studies there remains limited empirical research that examines the mechanisms and power dynamics through which hype operates in the digital economy, particularly in relation to how hyped narratives generate momentum and shape dominant understandings of future possibilities.

Drawing on the social world/arenas theory and the concept of broker, my research focuses on a particular group of actors in this field: industry analysts, identified by Pollock and Williams (2026) as Hype’s New Actors. It contributes to the sociology of expectations by showing how analysts accumulate knowledge from different sources, occupy a brokerage position within networks, and systematically translate knowledge into tools such as the Hype Cycle. Although such artefacts are not always directly used in everyday practices of generating anticipation, they have become widely recognised devices through which actors think, talk, and act upon hype, helping to stabilise particular way of thinking about technological future.

My research also contributes to hype studies and the literature on industry analysts by examining the power dynamics within analysts’ own professional world, where a balance must be maintained between performance incentives inside analyst firms and the production of fair views on hyped information. Particular attention is given to the power relations between vendors, end users, press and public discourse, and to the methodological work through which analysts collect evidence and shape influential accounts of technological futures.

Key words: industry analysts, hype management, collective narratives