Human vulnerability and robo-advisory: An application of Coeckelbergh’s vulnerability to the machine-human interface
ISSN: 1746-5265
Article publication date: 19 March 2018
Issue publication date: 24 April 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the work of Mark Coeckelbergh into the field of management.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper with interviews.
Findings
The author suggests that Coeckelberghs’ considerations of an anthropology of vulnerability have the potential to provide a rich and insightful exploration of the machine-human interface, which is not afforded by many of the current approaches taken in this field. Their development of an anthropology of vulnerability suggests an approach to the machine-human interface that re-frames the machine-human interface in terms of human vulnerability, rather than machine’s performance, and sustains that the machine-human interface can be understood in terms of the transfer of human vulnerability.
Research limitations/implications
This paper reveals some of the possibilities inherent in Coeckelbergh’s theories by providing an analysis of a specific event, the recent introduction of robo-advisors in portfolio management, from a Coeckelberghian perspective and by exploring some of the implications of this type of approach for the machine-human interface.
Originality/value
As far as the author knows, there is no previous paper on this topic.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the following people for their help in the development of this paper. The anonymous reviewers for their comments and recommendations on earlier drafts, Patrick Chung and Steve Cinelli for their continuing advice, and the individuals and organization that participated in the study discussed in the paper, without whose generosity and openness, the original research would not have been possible.
Citation
Beltramini, E. (2018), "Human vulnerability and robo-advisory: An application of Coeckelbergh’s vulnerability to the machine-human interface", Baltic Journal of Management, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 250-263. https://doi.org/10.1108/BJM-10-2017-0315
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited