Abstract
Netnography is a relatively new research method, which adapts research techniques of ethnography to study cultures and communities through computer-mediated communications. It has become a popular research method in marketing research during the 21st century. However, the use of netnography in the field of information systems (later referred as IS) has not been studied to great extent. Thus, we have conducted a systematic literature review to investigate the ethical practices of netnographic research in the field IS.To analyse the ethical practices of netnographic research and discussion surrounding it, we have collected 52 articles which use netnography either as their sole research method or as their completing research method. These articles were selected from 77 IS journals. Our findings indicate that netnography is an emerging research method which is still moulding its ethical guidelines. Researchers, who use netnography, do not completely agree on the ethically just manner of conducting netnography. However, it is apparent that certain ways of conducting netnography are often considered to be ethically just where as some other ways might be often considered to be ethically unjust.
Highlights
Our findings indicate that netnography is an emerging research method which is still moulding its ethical guidelines
Netnography is a relatively new research method, which adapts research techniques of ethnography to study of cultures and communities through computer-mediated communications
While the popularity of using netnography as a research method has grown in the resent 20 years, the discussion about the ethical guidelines of this method has started alongside its use
Summary
Netnography is a relatively new research method, which adapts research techniques of ethnography to study of cultures and communities through computer-mediated communications. Langer and Beckman (2005) argue that netnography shares many characteristics with content analysis of traditional forms of media such as TV or newspapers, especially when the discussion takes place in a public forum which is accessible for all internet users without any registration, and for the most part this seems correct especially when conducting netnographic research in internet They themselves did not follow most of the principles stated by Kozinets in 2002 when they studied consumer’s onlinecommunication about cosmetic surgery. If the forum under study does not have identifying information of the participants, and the researcher somehow comes by this information (especially external to the forum itself), rule 2 reapplies, as doxxing members is considered bad form and can at worst be dangerous to doxed individuals Some researchers, such as (Xun & Reynolds, 2010), highlight that one of the benefits of using online sources for data collection is that it offers good possibilities of using direct quotes in research reports. While analysing these articles our main interest was directed to the ethical guidelines the authors had decided to follow and the ethical discussion the authors engaged in themselves
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