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Understanding customers is critical for service researchers and practitioners. Today, customers are increasingly active online, and valuable information about their opinions, experiences and behaviors can be retrieved from a variety of online platforms. Online customer information creates new opportunities to design personalized and high-quality service. This paper aims to review how netnography as a method can help service researchers and practitioners to better use such data.

A systematic review and analysis were conducted on 321 netnography studies published in marketing journals between 1997 and 2017.

The systematic review reveals that netnography has been applied in a variety of ways across different marketing fields and topics. Based on the analysis of existing netnography literature, empirical, theoretical and methodological recommendations for future netnographic service research are presented.

This paper shows how netnography can offer service researchers unprecedented opportunities to access naturalistic online data about customers and, hence, why it is an important method for future service research.

Netnographic research can help service firms with, for example, service innovation, advertising and environmental scanning. This paper provides guidelines for service managers who want to use netnography as a market research tool.

Netnography has seen limited use in service research despite many promising applications in this field. This paper is the first to encourage and support service researchers in their use of the method and aims to stimulate interesting future netnographic service research.

The role of nostalgia in consumers’ lives and its application in the design of marketing strategies has been highlighted in prior research. However, the role of nostalgia as well as the consumers’ nostalgic inclination in the development of new products has not been investigated yet, either for existing products or new ones. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to underline and understand the collaborative process of value co-creation for both actors (companies and consumers) in the development of nostalgic new products.

A double methodology was used through a netnographic study (which is inspired by ethnography) and semi-directed interviews. Concerning the netnographic approach, the data collection were conducted on both general and specialized social networks, web sites and forums. The semi-directed interviews were conducted among 12 individuals. The verbatim were analyzed through a content thematic analysis. The use of both methodologies helped to underline recurrent and complementary findings.

The analysis highlights four main results: first, the main criteria for selection and purchase of products and services; second, the perception and dimensions of nostalgia; third, the link between nostalgia and consumption; and finally, the relationship between nostalgic experiences and the co-creation process.

This research is the first to study the value of the co-creation process for the development of nostalgic new products.

The authors provide an example of a group of online shoppers exploiting a pricing mistake and exploring the drivers of predatory shopping that may harm online retailers. This paper aims to examine the role of social vigilantism, proactivity and self-presentation in driving individual predatory shopping behaviors and delivers a broader understanding of how these behaviors develop in online communities.

The authors use a mixed-methods sequential research model. In Study 1, the authors explore predatory shopping by using a netnographic textual approach to analyze an online forum engaging in predatory shopping. In Study 2, the authors empirically analyze the uncovered conceptual findings using the PROCESS macro.

Customers who engage in predatory shopping online exhibit social vigilantism when communicating their views to others and proactively seeking out pricing mistakes and opportunities. Customers engaging in predatory shopping adapt their presentation online to increase their chances of success; this effect is strengthened by the online disinhibition effect.

Predatory shoppers can actively seek out pricing mistakes online, encourage participation and exploit mistakes by adapting their self-presentation. Therefore, online retailers should be proactive and consistent when communicating with customers and collaborating to deter predatory shopping. In addition, online retailers should focus on building advocates in communities to prevent harm from predatory shoppers online.

Online predatory shopping is explored qualitatively and quantitatively to understand the propensities that can drive predatory behavior and provide warning signs for online retailers. In addition, the effects of predatory shopping drivers are analyzed in the presence of the online disinhibition effect.

The Internet is redefining the way in which researchers and consumers can access information on hospitality products and experiences. For example, a growing number of online communities (e.g., http://Tripadvisor.com) offer consumers the opportunity to view and participate in various forums and reviews of hospitality experiences around the world. This has created a rich source of information which researchers can tap into, via Internet-based methodologies, to deepen current understanding of the modern hospitality consumer. Thus, the Internet has become a viable (virtual) fieldwork site for hospitality and other research. However, net-based methods have not been fully embraced in hospitality research. In particular, attention is drawn in this chapter to netnography (online ethnography), a novel, Internet-based research methodology, which has rarely been employed in hospitality research. Further, it is suggested, researchers can complement traditional research techniques with netnography to create more rigorous methodologies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between consumer movements and sustainability certification bodies in the development of food-related consumer campaigns.

This paper adopts a longitudinal approach to the study of an empirical case, the Fairtrade Towns (FTT) movement in the UK. It combines netnographic analysis on the FTT’s online forum with interviews with members of the community and of the certification body coordinating the movement.

The author conceptualises Sustainably Certified Consumer Communities (SCCC) as a distinct sub-group of consumer movements whose identity coalesces around a sustainable certification and that mobilises supporters with the purpose of promoting social change through the marketplace. The longitudinal approach allows the identification of definitional elements, main practices and unresolved tensions of this concept.

Research addressing the social movement dimension of contemporary food-related sustainability certification is limited. The present study advances consumer research through the conceptualisation of SCCC and contributes to a new understanding of the political roles that market-oriented certification bodies can play in consumer activism. From a managerial perspective, it provides valuable insights into practitioners interested in fostering community engagement.

The emergence of peer-to-peer accommodation (P2PA) introduces new values and meanings to the hospitality experience. Focusing on the diverse dimensions of the tourist experience, the purpose of this paper is to identify and assess the relative importance of the main dimensions of guests’ P2PA experience and its relationships with perception of authenticity, place attachment and loyalty to both the visited destination and the P2PA.

A qualitative netnographic approach with content analysis permitted the analysis of 250 reviews taken from the Airbnb platform, specifically focusing on P2PAs where guests stay with hosts in the same space.

The results of the study suggest that guests’ P2PA experiences are particularly influenced by the experience dimensions “aesthetic/sense”, “relate/social interaction”, “escape”, “act” and “feel”. P2PA experiences also result in loyalty intentions, to both the visited destination and the particular P2PA. The dimensions “aesthetic/sense”, “relate/social interaction” and “escape” stand out as most influential in determining perceived authenticity. In turn, place attachment is most influenced by the dimensions “feel” and “relate/social interaction”.

Limitations of this research need to be acknowledged: the P2PA guest experience is explored from the restricted perspective of online reviews using passive netnography. Therefore, some criteria of data collection, for instance, gathering only reviews written in English and with more than 80 words, may be limitative in a more comprehensive assessment of the P2PA experience. Another point is, although P2PA platforms such as Airbnb encourage their guests to review the experience, some people are not inclined to do so; therefore, the published reviews may not reflect all possible experiences at these accommodations inclined to do so; therefore, the published reviews may not reflect all possible experiences at these accommodations.

This study suggests a comprehensive analytical framework for assessing the “holistic multidimensional tourist experience”, integrating Pine and Gilmore’s (1999) and Schmitt’s (1999) approaches, thus deepening the conceptual and methodological debate on the tourist experience. It further contributes to a better understanding of the dimensionality of the tourist experience in the context of shared accommodation. The dimensions under analysis and their association with perceived authenticity, loyalty and place attachment are both of theoretical and practical interest, suggesting approaches to improve the P2PA experience as well as the image and success of the destinations where these units are located.

This paper aims to investigate how actors in the farmer’s network influence the adoption of smart farming technology (SFT) and to understand how social media affects this adoption process, in particular focusing on the influence of social media on trust in knowledge dissemination within the network.

The methodology used a two-stage process, with semi-structured interviews of farmers, augmented by a netnographic approach appropriate to the social media context.

The analysis illustrates the key role of the farmer network in the dissemination of SFT knowledge, bringing insight into an important B2B context. While social media emerges as a valuable way to connect farmers and promote discussion, it remains underused in knowledge dissemination on SFT. Also, farmers exhibit more trust in the content from peers online rather than from SFT vendors.

Novel insights are gained into the influence of the farming network on the accelerated adoption of SFT, including the potential role of social media in mitigating the homophilous nature of peer-to-peer interactions among farmers through exposure to more diverse actors and information. The use of a social network theory lens has provided new insights into the role of trust in shaping social media influence on the farmer, with variances in farmer trust of information from technology vendors and from peers.

This study explores enablers that firms could use to motivate consumers toward responsible consumption behavior. Completing the loop of responsible consumption – linking firms and consumers –helps firms to attain responsible consumption targets as part of the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The study uses netnography as the qualitative research methodology.

The important enablers of responsible consumption behavior are choice editing, design intervention, addressing consumers' environmental identity, brand assurance, promoting innovation mindset and consumer empowerment – at the level of consumers and at the crosslevel of interaction between firms and consumers. Such enablers can help the firms in nudging their consumers toward responsible consumption.

Using the lens of the expectancy–value theory of achievement motivation, this study extends the theoretical domain of responsible consumption.

The enablers of responsible consumption behaviors found here serve as a useful guide for the strategies to attain the SDGs.

The SDG goal 12 of responsible consumption is the focus of this study. The entire fabric of responsible consumption is woven around anthropocentric views, and hence the findings of this study have clear social implications.

This is a first study to explore how firms can facilitate consumers to consume responsibly, to attain the SDGs. This is also one of the first studies on responsible consumption, using netnography as the research methodology. Additionally, it also extends the applicability of the expectancy–value theory of achievement motivation to the context of responsible consumption behavior.

This paper aims to distil the management challenge pertaining to B2B SME branding strategy, communication and constraint in the emerging market context of Chinese manufacturing.

Complemented by 19 interviews, this paper adopted a novel methodological approach – netnographic analysis – to investigate a selection of Chinese manufacturing SMEs.

Findings revealed three managerial approaches to B2B brand management: conservative, flexible and integrated-exploratory.

Understanding the three approaches offers managerial implications for Chinese manufacturer SMEs to redesign their branding practice. Informed with a better understanding of the available option, they will be able to achieve high value-added production through branding to gain competitiveness. This study sheds light on B2B SME branding from an emerging market perspective, an area that has been largely neglected in the existing literature.

Findings make a novel contribution to B2B SME brand management literature by clarifying practical management issues pertinent to Chinese emerging market manufacturers in particular, and offering widely generalizable lessons for B2B brand management research.

This paper aims to examine the open innovation engagement process in terms of how online community members create and share knowledge for open innovation and the consequences of engagement.

A mixed methods approach based on netnography (Study 1), qualitative interviews (Study 2) and surveys (Study 3) was adopted in three studies.

The results of Study 1 show that hotel brand community members actively create and share their knowledge by evaluating hotel policies, providing service suggestions and creating new service ideas. The results of Study 2 identified enjoyment and empowerment as major antecedents of the engagement and brand loyalty and a sense of brand community as major consequences. In Study 3, the relationships among them were quantitatively examined.

This research provides empirical knowledge on online engagement and identifies the innovation value of online platforms. The research also provides knowledge on the engagement process for open innovation by online community members in terms of its antecedents and consequences. As a main limitation of the study, this research only focuses on a single online brand community.

While most existing tourism research analyzes the role of user-generated content in customer decision-making, this research provides a fresh insight into the innovation value of customer knowledge.