Vera Hoelscher

This study explores how digital platforms generate economic and non‐economic value for a specific group of users: mumpreneurs. We collected qualitative data from 26 mumpreneurs in the United Kingdom who have caring responsibilities for young children and are running a business on the community‐based platform Instagram. We found that through using Instagram and its algorithms, mumpreneurs can create various types of value in this context. Drawing on previous research into value creation, we make several contributions to the information systems literature. First, we unpack and explain alternative forms of value generated by digital platforms. Our findings show that through community‐based platforms such as Instagram, mumpreneurs can create various types of economic and non‐economic value— engagement , cognitive , economic , and self‐preservation value —that is consistent with their business, social, and personal needs. Second, we propose a process model of value creation; and we identify two mechanisms that lead to value creation through Instagram's algorithms: recommended connectivity and adaptability . Third, we identify a temporal dimension of value creation through Instagram. This article contributes to the theory in the growing body of literature on value creation linked to digital platforms and explains several implications for theory and practice.

Marriage equality has exposed how the institution of marriage is changing, but less attention has been given to how informal institutions around heterosexual marriage rituals are affected by a growing demand for gender equality. By applying institutional theory and feminist institutionalism to the context of women proposing to their male partners, this paper observes how shifts in gender norms change heteronormative institutions. Drawing from interviews with women who proposed to men and a virtual ethnography, we describe how reverse proposals can set precedence for emulation of practices or mimetic isomorphism. We therewith contribute to institutional theory in threefold ways. First, we describe how mimetic isomorphism introduces new standards and norms into a highly traditional institution. Second, we show how this integration of new standards and norms serves this patriarchal institution to remain relevant and appear progressive. Finally, we contend that this tension of joining a patriarchal institution but doing so in a subversive manner represents a double bind for women who are encouraged by society to formalize their heteronormative relationships through marriage and yet chastised for initiating this themselves.