The Trust-Power Paradox in Early Adoption of Generative AI: Toward Stakeholder Emancipation and Socially Responsible Marketing

Publication Date

1-1-2026

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of Macromarketing

DOI

10.1177/02761467261463135

Abstract

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is reshaping how power, trust, and agency are distributed across market systems. This study examines the earliest phase of GenAI adoption, analyzing 478,232 tweets posted between November 2022 and April 2023 following the public release of ChatGPT, to understand how stakeholders negotiated autonomy, vulnerability, and control in algorithm-mediated environments. Topic modeling reveals a dual narrative in which GenAI was embraced for its creative augmentation while simultaneously prompting concern about opacity, fairness, and diminished influence. These patterns illuminate the trust-power paradox, the tension between relying on GenAI for enhanced capability and experiencing reduced agency through centralized, opaque decision structures. Drawing from these insights, we develop three conceptual models, the Stakeholder Experience Matrix, the Emancipatory Readiness Funnel, and the Ethical AI Governance Compass, which together explain how early encounters with GenAI shape conditions for stakeholder emancipation and socially responsible marketing. The study advances macromarketing scholarship by linking early public meaning making to structural mechanisms of trust, empowerment, and governance, and offers a foundation for designing AI systems that strengthen rather than constrain stakeholder agency.

Keywords

early adoption, ethical innovation, generative AI, socially responsible marketing, stakeholder emancipation, trust-Power paradox

Department

Marketing and Business Analytics

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