From the Odyssey to the Iliad: Stratagems and practical skills in market-oriented ethnography

Abstract

The market-oriented ethnography process constitutes an interesting renewal in the study of consumer behaviour. The methodological and epistemological specificities of this process, part of Consumer Culture Theory (CCT), may compel researchers to adopt certain stratagems and ingenuity in order to access the field, carry out their fieldwork and report their findings. These tactics, which are rarely revealed yet constitute the ‘tricks’ of this method, are outlined in this article in the hope of providing pedagogic insight for marketing researchers interested in this approach, by offering solutions to circumvent certain obstacles.

Channel design to enrich customers’ shopping experiences: synchronizing clicks with bricks in an omni-channel perspective - the Direct Optic case

“…Multiple data sources, multiple coding procedures as well as inter-coder interpretative analysis were used to reduce the risk of potential bias, particularly that of "going native" inherent to ethnographic studies (Robert-Demontrond et al, 2013), and interpretive problems.…”

Diverse, conflicting and complementary worldviews: An anthropological investigation of consumption in CSA

“…Only an anthropological approach makes it possible to understand human realities as experienced by consumers with a view to extracting and interpreting their meanings. The second is determined by the particular nature of our field of research, which might be described as a 'minefield' (Robert-Demontrond et al, 2013). When adopting such an approach, the researcher's attitude is significant.…”

Subjectivity and reflexivity: The contributions of countertransference to interpretative research

“…Béji-Bécheur et al (2011) have shown that an over-important emotional involvement in a sensitive terrain causes the data to be altered. On the other hand, Robert-Demontrond et al (2013) have demonstrated the dangers involved when the research object is evaded and the emotions are suppressed. Similarly, in the analytical framework where the effects of countertransference are seen as a major component with respect to the analysand (Heimann, 1960), the emotional impact felt during the collection of ethnographic data must be seen in a positive way, as a source of enrichment of the analyses (Devereux, [1967] 2014; Gemignani, 2011).…”

“…In this New perspectives, we have provided a definition of countertransference in the context of reflexivity, identified the main sources of the effects of countertransference (the context, the researcher's subjectivity and the intersubjectivity of the ethnographic encounter) and proposed practical recommendations. This tool box is proposed as a complement to the techniques and 'bricolages' which are often proper to qualitative methodologies (Denzin et al, 2006;Robert-Demontrond et al, 2013). Table 2.…”

“…We present an overview of research into countertransference and its effects. Then as a complement to the proposals of Holmes (2014) and Robert-Demontrond et al (2013), we propose a methodological tool box for recording and integrating the countertransference effects into the whole of the research processes, from the collection of data to the writing of the article.…”