Search results

The principal objective here is to describe conceptual and research tools for achieving deeper sense‐making of what happened and why it happened –including how participants interpret outcomes of what happened and the dynamics of emic (executive) and etic (researcher) sense‐making.

This article uses a mixed research design including decision systems analysis, cognitive mapping, computer software‐based text analysis, and the long interview method for mapping the mental models of the participants in specific decision‐making processes as well as mapping the immediate, feedback, and downstream influences of decisions‐actions‐outcomes.

The findings in the empirical study support the view that decision processes are prospective, introspective, and retrospective, sporadically rational, ultimately affective, and altogether imaginatively unbounded.

Not using outside auditors to evaluate post‐etic interpretations is recognized as a method limitation to the extended case study; such outside auditor reports represent an etic‐4 level of interpretation. Incorporating such etic‐4 interpretation is one suggestion for further research.

Asking executives for in‐depth stories about what happened and why helps them reflect and uncover very subtle nuances of what went right and what went wrong.

A series advanced hermeneutic B2B research reports of a specific issue (e.g., new product innovation processes) provides an advance for developing a grounded theory of what happened and why it happened. Such a large‐scale research effort enables more rigorous, accurate and useful generalizations of decision making on a specific issue than is found in literature reviews of models of complex systems.

Using brand netnography (analyzing consumers' first‐person on‐line stories that include discussions of their product and brand use), this article aims to probe how visitors interpret the places, people, and situations that they experience while traveling in Japan.

Through analysis of online consumer stories about their trip experiences, Heider's balance theory is applied to visitors' trip experiences. Follow‐up contact with the consumers allows application of autodriving methodology to gather additional post‐trip insights.

The results show immediate and downstream positive and negative associations of concepts, events, and outcomes in visitors' stories. Maps of consumer stories identify kernel concepts and include descriptions of how visitors live a specific destination's unique promises (e.g. distinct cultural history). Using the kernel concepts as a basis, Holt's five‐step strategy for building icons is applied to the travel destination to show how a destination can create a brand identity.

Bloggers reporting their travel experience may not be representative of the population of travelers. On the other hand, travel blogs potentially can influence trip planning by other visitors collecting travel information.

Blog reports represent an unobtrusive method of collecting emic interpretive information from consumers. Emic reporting provides deep insights about consumers' trip interpretations. Tourism and hospitality managers can use this information to improve service experiences and design communication strategies to strengthen positive iconic imagery reported by consumers.

Emic and etic interpretations of travel experiences create a bricolage of the travelers' experiences. Autodriving methodology is extended to tourism research to gather additional insights and to better clarify informants' interpretations. This article also expands on a revisionist proposal to Holt's five‐step strategy for building destinations as iconic brands and suggestions for tourism management.

Figs. 2 and 3 illustrate the impact of different cues-in-contexts affecting the implicit thinking and sensemaking of the observer (e.g., researcher) to the emic story being told in the visuals. The creation of Figs. 2 and 3 rests on a theoretical platform of Carl Jung's (2009) archetypal theory and method of decoding his own dreams. Jung's (2009) paintings of his dreams to enable conscious interpretation of his conversations within the collective unconscious inform a call for creating visual narrative art to inform meanings of personal and collective unconscious relating to stories consumers tell about buying and using brands.The collective unconscious contains the wisdom and experience of untold ages and thus represents an unparalleled guide for explaining the meaning of what is happening and what will happen. “Active imagination” and “self-experimentation” are terms Jung refers to in his use of paintings and sculpture to create dialogues between “directed thinking” (conscious thinking or what in the 21st century is referred to as “system 2 thinking”) and fantasy thinking (personal and collective unconscious, what is similar to “system 1 thinking,” see Evans, 2003). (Woodside, Megehee, & Sood, 2011).

This chapter points out that the use of a wide range of theoretical paradigms in marketing research requires researchers to use a broad range of methodologies. As an aid in doing so, the chapter argues for the use of case study research (CSR), defines CSR, and describes several CSR theories and methods that are useful for describing, explaining, and forecasting processes occurring in business-to-business (B2B) contexts. The discussion includes summaries of six B2B case studies spanning more than 60 years of research. This chapter advocates embracing the view that learning and reporting objective realities of B2B processes is possible using CSR methods. CSR methods in the chapter include using multiple interviews (2 + ) separately of multiple persons participating in B2B processes, direct research and participant observation, decision systems analysis, degrees-of-freedom analysis, ethnographic-decision-tree-modeling, content analysis, and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fs/QCA.com). The discussion advocates rejecting the dominant logic of attempting to describe and explain B2B processes by arms-length fixed-point surveys that usually involve responses from one executive per firm with no data-matching of firms in specific B2B relationships – such surveys lack details and accuracy necessary for understanding, describing, and forecasting B2B processes.

This paper aims to investigate talent management (TM) practices of independent fine dining restaurant (FDR) organizations and explores why employee retention rates in FDRs are higher than other restaurants. This research adds to the TM literature by surfacing attitudes and influences that lead to employee retention.

The present study collects data using McCracken’s (1988) long interview method to provide insights into value similarities and differences between employees and independent restaurant managers. Fourteen interviews at two independent FDRs inform the results. This study employs a grounded theory approach.

Study results show that people take pride in working for the restaurants and the culture within the restaurant inspires a higher level of self-esteem. This independent, family-owned environment helps employees and managers achieve higher work performance and satisfy overall lifestyle needs. Respondents report their employment helps them to do things that bring out the best in them and allows them to accomplish other things that they want in life. The study also suggests that a shared value system between employees and managers creates a more stable workforce and longer tenure.

The current study examines only two independent family-owned FDRs, so generalization is limited. The current study uses grounded theory to expand on research in the TM literature.

If owners and managers of FDR focus on addressing employees’ higher-order motivational needs, they have a better chance of retaining employees. Losing productive employees has high direct and indirect costs, and the restaurant industry is plagued with high turnover. Independent restaurants also need to evaluate their new employee orientations because unstructured training contributes to an environment of uncertainty. Developing a positive culture in an FDR is possible with a focused, family-oriented business. This work culture takes time to develop. Recruiting and selection methods to ensure a fit with the culture and values are a cost-effective method to ensure the continuation of this culture. The consistent values between employees and managers in this study demonstrate that hiring for personal values and not necessarily for skills already developed helps with positive TM in FDR.

The current study extends the knowledge in TM, ecological systems theory and motivational needs-based theory through detailed interviews and value analyses. Long interviews and triangulation of the data surface conscious and nonconscious memories from both employees and managers specifically relating to employee retention factors in FDR.

The paper aims to look at some of the problems commonly associated with qualitative methodologies, suggesting that there is a need for a more rigorous application in order to develop theory and aid effective decision making.

The paper examines three qualitative methodologies: grounded theory, ethnography, and phenomenology. It compares and contrasts their approaches to data collection and interpretation and highlights some of the strengths and weaknesses associated with each one.

The paper suggests that, while qualitative methodologies, as opposed to qualitative methods, are now an accepted feature of consumer research, their application in the truest sense is still in its infancy within the broader field of marketing. It proposes a number of possible contexts that may benefit from in‐depth qualitative enquiry.

The paper should be of interest to marketers considering adopting a qualitative perspective, possibly for the first time, as it offers a snap‐shot of three widely‐used methodologies, their associated procedures and potential pitfalls.

The purpose of this study is to examine, through the lens of the buying center concept, a theorized link between organizational buying behavior (OBB) and a national culture of collectivism, large power distance, particularism and a wasta practice.

A qualitative methodology was used to gain better understanding of OBB in an under-researched business environment of the Arabian Gulf. The data come from 41 organizational practitioners who reported on the industrial buying processes in their organizations with reference to the buying center framework.

The study developed a model of the buying center for the emerging markets governed by socio-political institutions.

The data were obtained only from one culturally specific world region.

To attain efficacious results in culturally distant business environments, industrial marketers should complement home country experience with a thorough understanding of how national cultures affect the dynamics of OBB.

The study updates the conceptualization of the buying center’s organizational actors (OAs) for business contexts beyond traditional, mature markets. It reveals the typology of decisional influencers, introduces and defines the role of advisers and clarifies the role of the gatekeeping bureaucracy and differing perceptions thereof by OAs.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the methodological significance and potential of integrating Facebook in ethnographic research. The authors discuss how friendly relationships with participants could be initiated, fostered and managed by incorporating Facebook in ethnographic data collection and how such relationships deepen ethnographic interpretation.

This paper focuses on the methodological implications of adopting “friendship as method” during ethnographic research. The discussion is premised upon a longitudinal, multi-method ethnographic research process exploring new family identity formation in Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

Building on friendship theories, the authors suggest that Facebook engagement helps overcome three challenges inherent to ethnographic research: gaining access and immersion, capturing multiple perspectives, and developing rich and thick interpretations. The findings illustrate that adopting Facebook as a platform to strengthen friendships with research participants expands the researcher’s field by enabling him to follow the ethics and pace of conventional friendship and by inspiring dialogical interaction with participants. Thus, it is suggested that Facebook helps diluting the power hierarchy in the participant–researcher relationship and encourages participants to reveal more subtle details of their mundane lived experiences.

Even though researchers have often used social media interactions in ethnographic research, there is no theoretical foundation to understand how such interactions could better inform the depth and richness of research phenomena. Particularly, considering the emerging significance of social media in personal identity construction, sustenance and enactment, it is import to understand how such mediums enable researchers overcome inherent methodological complexities. Therefore, this paper contributes to literature on conventional ethnography, netnography and friendship theories by presenting a theoretical framework to understand how Facebook interaction contributes to overcome challenges in conducting ethnographic research.

Are consumers tired of standing out? This study probes whether or not fast fashion understands the implicit behavior of their customers while dressing up or down. Retailers tend to market their more ready-to-wear (dress-down) fashion product in an approach that allows the customer to customize the outfits to become easily “me-self,” through a big selection of accessories for men and women such as hats, glasses, and scarves. Versus the dress-up look that echoes with conforming to social norms. Today marketers seem to misunderstand the tendency that when one dresses down they often seek to blend in more with the environment rather than display their own personality through fashion. The study extends the literature through explicating the process of picture introspection and member check using confirmatory personal introspection (CPI). Even though when one dresses down you would expect more individuality, according to the findings the subject sample was also more inclined to blend in society and stand out less. In the dress-up look there was a strong call for displaying features of a powerful and strong individuality.