Social digital space analysis in management research: Proposal for a multidimensional methodology based on a systemic approach

Abstract

Analyzing new digital spaces such as online forums in management research, especially in research fields related to human or organizational issues in management, involves methodological questions because of the emerging nature of these research subjects. How to observe a digital field? How to analy ze new digital spaces generated by the interactions which are increasingly temporal and mobile? What about research ethics for studies in a digital field? From a methodology developed after a study of digital social spaces assembling professionals from the French territorial public sector, this article proposes a multidimensional methodology based on the autopoietic systems theory [22, 29, 45, 46, 47] for analyzing new digital spaces in management research. This proposal also suggests that three aspects specifically need to be considered in order to develop new research methodologies in the field of social digital spaces analysis in management research: observation, analysis and ethics.