Researching the socio‐cultural context: putting social representations theory into action

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims at contributing to the conceptual and methodological advancement of international marketing research.Design/methodology/approachThe theory of social representations is utilized to study what the representatives of a certain culture think of objects and products; which values they associate with these, which norms they follow, and in general how they view the world.FindingsTriangulation was employed to facilitate researchers' access to the social representations approach. Six focus group discussions were conducted combined with a free association instrument answered by a sample of 250 respondents. The empirical study began from a social constructionist perspective. Findings showed that several conceptual and functional aspects of a technological innovation (m‐commerce services) are idiosyncratic to particular groups, reflecting the group's societal affiliation and position.Research implications/limitationsA translation problem prevails when dealing with specific words from cross‐cultural research and the similarity of concepts must be considered when translating free associations in the course of international research. Other methodologies were only conceptually presented but not empirically used. Visual approaches such as pictorial instruments or ethnographical tools should be applied in future research.Originality/valueThe results provide a solid basis for international marketing research and suggestions for expanding the current study into international marketing research are provided.