Maria Arango-Kure (they/she)
PhD Candidate
Jönköping International Business School
Welcome
I’m a doctoral candidate at Jönköping International Business School (JIBS), affiliated with the Media, Management and Transformation Centre (MMTC). My research explores how digital technologies shape institutions, influence, and ethical boundaries in complex and evolving ways.
My dissertation examines platform dynamics in the media industry, particularly how interactions between actors, algorithms, institutions, and infrastructures relate to what is perceived as legitimate, ethical, or possible in digital environments. I employ a mixed-methods approach, combining computational and interpretive methods, to analyze these dynamics and their implications for governance, communication, and social outcomes.
More broadly, my work examines the ethical dimensions of digital systems: how they frame information, constrain agency, and distribute harm. I also contribute computational methodological expertise to collaborative interdisciplinary projects.
Download CVAbout
Hi there, I’m Maria
Latin American born, now based in Sweden, and sharing my home with my partner and our two dogs Waldi and Ente. I have spent almost 20 years working in digital strategy, development and marketing in digital spaces through my own digital agency, and I actively work with non-profit organizations, communities of practice and activist collectives looking to create sustainable, fair and safe online spaces.
In 2019 I returned to academia, and since 2022 I’ve been pursuing my PhD at JIBS, affiliated with MMTC. My academic path is interdisciplinary, taking insight from the fields of audiovisual communication and new media design, media economics and management, marketing, organization studies, and information systems. I bring all of these perspectives to my research, my teaching, and my practice.
Research
My areas of interest
My research sits across organization studies, information systems, and media management, connected by a concern with the dynamics between digital systems, people and institutions.
Digital ecosystems and responsibility
The dynamics of digital ecosystems, and the tensions between profitability, power, and social value.
Media economics and management
How media industries are structured, how they compete, and how they adapt to digital transformation.
Manipulation and marketing ethics
Where influence ends and manipulation begins in marketing and digital communication.
Computational social science
Developing computational approaches to study organizational and social phenomena at scale.
Publications
My latest peer-reviewed work
All my PublicationsManipulation: An integrative framework of unethical influence in marketing
Competition and media performance: A cross-national analysis of corporate goals of media companies in 12 countries
Bad news sells: The demand for news magazines and the tone of their covers
Colombian Media in the XXI Century: The Re-conquest by Foreign Investment
Teaching
My approach to teaching
I teach across digital marketing, digital innovation, AI, and digital ethics, with an emphasis on critical thinking, ethical grounding, and hands-on engagement. I want students to leave my courses with the judgment to question the systems they’ll work in.
Projects
My initiatives
More about my projectsI create and lead initiatives that bring researchers, practitioners, and educators together around shared challenges. These projects sit alongside my research and teaching, focused on building community and capacity around computational methods and responsible digitalization.
They are interdisciplinary, collaborative, and open to anyone interested in doing research and practice more thoughtfully. If you’d like to get involved in any of my initiatives, whether as a speaker, participant, or collaborator, I’d love to hear from you.
Data Methods Initiative
An academic initiative making data-driven methods accessible for social science researchers through seminars, workshops and PhD education.
Responsible Digital Innovation Symposium
A biennial symposium connecting researchers, practitioners, and policymakers around responsible digital innovation.
NEWS
My latest updates
Short updates on where I’m presenting, events I’m participating in, and other things happening around my research and projects.
Looking forward to bringing my own research to the Data Methods Initiative seminars, sharing methodological reflections on computational approaches to studying platform governance and responsibility.
Excited to visit Copenhagen Business School to present ‘Paved with Good Intentions: A Computational Case Study of Platform Responsibility Failure’ at the Computational Social Science Lab seminar. A great chance to discuss the project with computational social science colleagues.
Presented ‘Editorial Responses to Governance Change on Digital Platforms: The Case of Clickbait on Medium’ at the MMTC internal seminar. Always good to workshop ideas with colleagues before sending a paper out into the world.
Outreach