Alternative Qualitative Methods
Introduction
Advancing Marketing Theory, Special issue of Marketing Theory; Deadline 1 Sep 2024
INTEREST CATEGORY: MARKETING RESEARCH
POSTING TYPE: Calls: Journals
Posted by: Anuja Pradhan
Call for Papers: Special Issue of Marketing Theory
Advancing Marketing Theory through Alternative Qualitative Methods
Submission Deadline: 01 September 2024
Special Issue Editors:
Anuja Anil Pradhan, Scott Jones, Carly Drake, Emma Banister, Kathy Hamilton, and Maria Piacentini
Details of the special issue:
This special issue in Marketing Theory is aimed at fostering meaningful discussion, stimulating debate, extending current knowledge, and exemplifying how alternative qualitative research methodologies can generate novel insights to advance consumer research and marketing theory. Today, interpretative methods, such as ethnographic interviews and observations, are widely accepted in the field, yet they were once considered alternative. For the first half of the twentieth century, business schools were criticised for being trade schools, and for failing to conduct rigorous research (Bennis and OToole, 2005). In response, business schools embraced the scientific research methodologies of more established and developed academic disciplines, thereby mirroring the logic of the broader economy (Clinebell and Clinebell, 2008). As marketing practice primarily revolved around economic criteria (e.g., profitability, cost minimisation, and marginal returns), along with an emphasis on physical distribution logistics and efficiency, positivist theories were a natural fit for the field (Hirschman, 1986). However, as the marketing concept evolved, so did its methods of inquiry, and in the late 1980s and early 1990s, consumer research grew sympathetic to the type of interpretive analysis adopted in the social sciences more broadly (Sherry, 1991).
The raison d礙tre for this special issue on alternative qualitative methods is to encourage and ask researchers to distinctly position alternative methods as a tool for theory building and critique. The use of alternative, and non-textual research methods and methodologies has increased in recent years, particularly within the arena of consumer culture research (Rokka, 2021; Seregina, 2020). Scholars have adopted innovative methodologies such as videographic approaches (Jayasinghe and Ritson, 2013); art-based research (Bettany, 2022); and poetry (Rojas-Gaviria, 2021); to advance marketing theory as well as to better understand contexts and phenomena. Alternative methods need to be considered as their own valuable form of inquiry, with the potential to initiate a change, or challenge how we think, feel, and theorise (Coffin and Hill, 2023; Rokka and Hietanen, 2018), and this includes and incorporates difficult-to-measure experiences (Canniford, 2012) and accessing sentiments that are hard to convey (Scott and Bradford, 2022).
Alternative methods for data collection, analysis, and representation enable access to different kinds of knowledge, such as bodily and sensory knowledge, and disrupt hierarchies like the linguistic turn; allowing for subjectivities in different contexts to be understood in different ways (Seregina, 2020). For example, in their argument for a sonic turn, Patterson and Larsen (2019) demonstrate how a performative approach to knowledge has the potential to expand and disrupt conventional understandings of consumer research. Scott and Uncles (2018) illustrate how drawing on the body as a site of knowledge can reveal aspects of multisensory consumer experiences that would be missed by more conventional approaches. Transmedia analysis shows how a quantum perspective of time might help us better understand the ways in which consumers control narratives, and how brandscapes can accommodate for this (Feiereisen et al., 2021). Alternative methods have emerged as particularly helpful for analysing topics that are difficult to access through more traditional methods, such as traumatic experiences (Harman et al., 2020), vulnerability in the marketplace (Downey, 2020), or affective atmospheres (Preece, et al., 2022). Researchers have used mobile methods such as walking interviews (Mak et al., 2022), and zines as representation tools (Kravets and Karababa, 2022) to co-produce knowledge between the researchers and participants, therefore disrupting the convention of the author as the all-knowing storyteller. The adoption of alternative methods can also help academics become reflexive and challenge assumptions about the meanings and theories they produce (Scott and Bradford, 2022).
Marketing scholars may take inspiration from related fields where alternative research methodologies are more readily embraced. Sociological researchers, for example, have introduced the painting with data technique to challenge traditional data interpretation and better represent spiritual, beautiful, affective, and physical experiences (Balmer, 2021). Research has mobilised role-playing card games to showcase participants as knowledge co-creators rather than subjects of enquiry (Popan et al., 2023); established object interviews as means to better understand interactions with material culture (Woodward, 2016), and proposed friendship as method in order to produce collaborative scientific knowledge as a critique to normative visions of the objective and distant scientist (Ram穩rez-i-Oll矇, 2019).
Nevertheless, despite the increase in use of alternative methodologies in consumer and social sciences, we still see these methods facing heightened scrutiny compared to more mainstream methods (Hackley, 2016) – an issue intensified by restricted space devoted to methodological approaches in journal publications, and a lack of step-by-step guidance. Interpretivist marketing studies have found their homes in a variety of publications; however, authors still encounter hurdles during the review process. These challenges can stem from reviewers limited familiarity with less mainstream or unconventional research paradigms, and the political expectations of fitting alternative methods and formats into established review processes (CRIS Collective, 2023). Consequently, we aim to provide a space for researchers to discuss not only the opportunities, but also the challenges, associated with adopting alternative methodologies in the advancement, as well as critique of marketing theory.
As qualitative research continues to garner increasing acceptance within marketing academia, it can sometimes encounter the dilemma of conforming to quantitative standards or requirements. To illustrate, some top-ranked journals in the discipline frequently demand large qualitative datasets, in order that studies are considered robust. While this approach may be reasonable in some circumstances, in others it may inadvertently curtail the creativity and inventiveness of both qualitative researchers and participants, while also limiting forms of expression and interpretation. This special issue aims to overcome some of these challenges by providing researchers a space to highlight how unconventional qualitative research methodologies can yield important strides in theoretical progress. With this call, we hope to extend the emancipatory agenda in consumer research, which has previously been seen through special issues on short stories (Brown and Kerrigan, 2020), videographies (Rokka et al., 2018) and a forthcoming poetics of consumption (Sodergren et al., 2024).
Who is the special issue aimed at?
This special issue calls for researchers who have ventured into, employed, or are contemplating the adoption of alternative, qualitative methodologies for exploring and understanding consumer research phenomena and advancing marketing theory. We also encourage researchers using creative elements within more traditional qualitative techniques to submit to this special issue. By doing so, we aim to keep our understanding of alternative as inclusive as possible. Submissions encompassing both conceptual and empirical work are welcomed. The journal is open to alternative modes of representation and dissemination, encourages multidisciplinary approaches, and invites varied research contexts from around the world. Potential topics could explore, though are not limited to, the following:
- How can alternative methods help us understand consumer phenomena in new ways?
- What types of theory development are best suited to (which) alternative methods?
- What provisions have, or should researchers make, to ensure alternative research methods are appropriate, relevant, and innovative?
- How can alternative methods foster inclusivity and epistemic diversity in the marketing discipline?
- In what ways can embodied, performative, or pre-reflexive knowledge advance marketing theory?
- How do contexts (Askegaard and Linnet, 2011) foster or impede the use of alternative methodologies for theory generation?
- Beyond research dissemination, how can adoption and use of alternative methodologies support alternative modes of thinking, feeling, and knowing (Coffin and Hill, 2023)?
- How do alternative methods support the co-production of knowledge between researchers and participants?
- How can alternative and non-extractive research methods decolonise knowledge (Igwe et al, 2022) or challenge existing knowledge hierarchies (Kravets and Varman, 2022) in order to advance marketing theory?
Submission Instructions
Authors are encouraged to refer to the Marketing Theory website for instructions on submitting a paper and for more information about the journal. Manuscripts should be submitted, as normal, through the ScholarOne Manuscripts portal .
Expressions of interest and questions about expectations, requirements, etc. should be directed to the guest editors.
Order of Guest Editorship Note
This SI editorial team represents the coming together of a set of academics, who have worked together in various ways in recent years. The order represents a rotating and evolving lead on our shared projects, and has been agreed by us all.
References
Askegaard, S., and Linnet, J.T. (2011). Towards an epistemology of Consumer Culture Theory: Phenomenology and the context of context. Marketing Theory, 11(4), 381-404.
Back, L., and Puwar, N. (2012). A Manifesto for Live Methods: Provocations and Capacities. The Sociological Review, 60(issue-s1), 617.
Balmer, A. (2021). Painting with data: Alternative aesthetics of qualitative research. The Sociological Review, 69(6), 11431161.
Bennis, W. and OToole, J. (2005). How business schools lost their way. Harvard Business Review, 83(5), 96104.
Bettany, S. (2022). Doing marketing differently: an artnography of cathartic consumption in trauma. Journal of Marketing Management, 38(15-16), 1851-1872.
Brown, S., and Kerrigan, F. (2020). Once Upon a Theory: Editorial Introduction to Expressions of Interest. Marketing Theory, 20(2), 147150.
Canniford, R. (2012). Poetic witness: Marketplace research through poetic transcription and poetic translation. Marketing Theory, 12(4). 391-409.
Clinebell, S. K., and Clinebell, J. M. (2008). The tension in business education between academic rigor and real-world relevance: The role of executive professors. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 7(1), 99107.
Coffin, J., and Hill, T. (2023). Introduction to the special issue: presenting marketing differently. Journal of Marketing Management, 38(515-16), 1613-1632.
CRIS Collective (2023). Let there be a We: introducing an ethics of collective academic care. European Journal of Marketing, ahead-of-print.
Downey, H. (2020). Elucidating ethnographic expressions: Progressing ethnographic poetics of vulnerability. European Journal of Marketing, 54(11), 26512674.
Feiereisen, S., Rasolofoarison, D., Russell, C.A., and Schau, H.J. (2021). One Brand, many Trajectories: Narrative Transportation in Transmedia. Journal of Consumer Research, 48(4), 651-681.
Hackley, C. (2016). Autoethnography in Consumer Research, Chapter 8 in Paul M. W. Hackett (Ed) Qualitative Research Methods in Consumer Psychology- Ethnography and Culture, New York, Routledge, pp. 105-117.
Harman, V., Cappellini, B., and Campos, S. (2020). Using Visual Art Workshops with Female Survivors of Domestic Violence in Portugal and England: A Comparative Reflection. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 23(1), 23-36.
Hirschman, E. C. (1986). Humanistic inquiry in marketing research: Philosophy, method, and criteria. Journal of Marketing Research, 23(3), 237.
Igwe, P.A., Madichie, N.O. and Rugara, D.G., (2022). Decolonising research approaches towards non-extractive research. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 25(4), 453-468.
Jayasinghe, L., and Ritson, M. (2012). Everyday Advertising Context: An Ethnography of Advertising Response in the Family Living Room. Journal of Consumer Research, 40(1), 104-121. Kravets, O., and Karababa, E. (2022). Ripping through a storified place: an exercise in critical breaking. Journal of Marketing Management, 38(15-16), 1672-1690.
Kravets, O., and Varman, R. (2022). Introduction to special issue: Hierarchies of knowledge in marketing theory. Marketing Theory, 22(2), 127-133.
Mak, C.K., Lai, A.L., Tsaousi, C. and Davies, A. (2022). Mobilising the walking-with technique to explore mundane consumption practices: practical and theoretical reflections. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 25(3), 383-401. Patterson, M. and Larsen, G. (2019). Listening to consumption: Towards a sonic turn in consumer research. Marketing Theory, 19(2), 105-127.
Popan, C., Perez, D., and Woodcock, J. (2023). Cards against gamification: Using a role-playing game to tell alternative futures in the gig economy. The Sociological Review, 0(0).
Preece, C., Rodner, V., and Rojas-Gaviria, P. (2022). Landing in Affective Atmospheres. Marketing Theory, 22(3), 359380.
Ram穩rez-i-Oll矇, M. (2019). Friendship as a scientific method. The Sociological Review, 67(2), 299317.
Rojas-Gaviria, P. (2021). Poetizing to improve consumer representation. Marketing Theory, 21(4), 443 589.
Rokka, J. (2021). Consumer Culture Theorys future in marketing. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 29(1), 114-124.
Rokka, J., and Hietanen, J. (2018). On positioning videography as a tool for theorizing. Recherche et Applications en Marketing, 33(3), 106 121.
Rokka, J., Hietanen, J. and Brownlie, D. (2018). Screening marketing: videography and the expanding horizons of filmic research, Journal of Marketing Management, 34(5-6), 421-431.
Scott, R.O., and Uncles, M.D. (2018). Bringing sensory anthropology to consumer research. European Journal of Marketing, 52(1/2), 302-327.
Scott, R., and Bradford, T.W. (2022). Researching multi-sensory experiences through an artists eye. Journal of Marketing Management, 38(15-16), 1651-1671.
Seregina, A. (2020). Co-creating bodily, interactive, and reflexive knowledge through art-based research. Consumption Markets & Culture, 23(6), 513-536.
Sherry, J. F. (1991). Postmodern alternatives: The interpretive turn in consumer research. In: Handbook of Consumer Behaviour. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, pp. 548591.
Sodergren, J., Dagalp, I., and Rojas-Gaviria, P. (2024). Poetics if Consumption. Consumption Markets & Culture (forthcoming 2024).
Woodward, S. (2016). Object interviews, material imaginings and unsettling methods: interdisciplinary approaches to understanding materials and material culture. Qualitative Research, 16(4), 359374.