Netnographic Study Research Articles

Online transgender Sex Work and Public Health. A Netnographic Study in Tenerife.

The purpose of this study is to understand and describe the nature of internet advertisements of transgender sex workers, and how demand drives the configuration of their services. An analysis of the offer-demand contents (n = 257) was carried out on a sexual contact website. Five categories were identified: sociodemographic characteristics, supply management, sexual services, health and clients. The results include risk factors associated with public health and social exclusion within this group. The results may inform strategies for developing socio-health interventions targeted towards transgender women in the situation of prostitution.

Resistance and sexuality in virtual worlds: An LGBT perspective

Virtual worlds can provide a safe place for social movements of marginal and oppressed groups such as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT). When the virtual safe places are under threat, the inhabitants of a virtual world register protests, which have critical implications for the real-world issues. The nature of emancipatory practices such as virtual protests in the digital realm research remains somewhat under-explored. Specifically, it remains to be seen how the oppressed communities such as LGBT take radical actions in virtual worlds in order to restore the imbalance of power. We conducted a 35-month netnographic study of an LGBT social movement in World of Warcraft. The lead researcher joined the LGBT social movement and data was captured through participant observations, discussion forums, and chat logs. Drawing on the critical theory of Michel Foucault, we present empirical evidence that illuminates emancipatory social movement practices in an online virtual world. The findings suggest that there are complex power relations in a virtual world and, when power balance is disrupted, LGBT players form complex ways to register protests, which invoke strategies to restore order in the virtual fields.

Understanding emotional customer experience and co-creation behaviours in luxury hotels

PurposeA holistic understanding of sources that evoke customer emotions is essential for creating a positive emotional customer experience (ECX). Despite a significant focus on the cognitive aspect of customer experience and traditional customer behaviours (e.g. loyalty and satisfaction), limited attention has been paid to ECX and co-creation behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to address this important knowledge gap by identifying different emotions and prominent sources of ECX (i.e. emotion triggers and constructors) during service interactions. By doing so, key customer co-creation behaviours are also identified, which help enhance positive customer experience.Design/methodology/approachA combined application of the appraisal theory and thematic analysis was used to explore ECX, its sources and co-creation behaviours as observed from 1,063 TripAdvisor customer reviews of luxury hotels in Ireland.FindingsThe results show that a single service interaction can evoke multiple emotions during the interaction process. The findings capture prominent emotions that customers experience and various important emotion triggers (physical environment, service management and offerings and human interaction) and constructors (customer expectation, accumulated service experience and culture fusion and authenticity). Three main customer co-creation behaviours (reinforcing intention, active and resourceful behaviours), which help facilitate the co-creation of positive customer emotions, are also identified.Originality/valueThe study proposes a new framework that provides unique insights into ECX to guide service improvement and innovation. A novel approach of applying the appraisal theory to a netnographic study is used to develop an ECX framework, which integrates various emotion triggers and constructors, and subsequent customer co-creation behaviours in the hotel industry.

Understanding employee sabotage while serving refugees: the case of Syrian refugees in Turkey

PurposeService providers can potentially play a critical role in responding to the global refugee crisis. However, recent evidence suggests that local service employees’ negative and inappropriate behavior is hindering efforts to alleviate the problems faced by refugees. As a response to the call to action to engage with the global refugee crisis in service context and adopting the transformative service research perspective, this paper aims to understand service employees’ motivations to engage in sabotage when they interact with refugees in service settings.Design/methodology/approachThis paper focuses on the case of Syrian refugees in Turkey as a context. Using a netnographic study, this study analyzes comments by Turkish service employees in different social media groups and newspapers’ online platforms to reveal the motivations of those employees to engage in sabotage behavior.FindingsThe findings of this study revealed employees use five emerging themes as potential motivations to justify their sabotage behavior when serving refugees: perceived scarcity of resources, perceived fairness, perceived identity mismatch, perceived role of government and perceived role of other nations.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of this study have implications for service organizations, communities and governments to manage, change and even remove some of those perceptions that lead to employee sabotage resulting in increased suffering of refugees.Originality/valueTo the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to examine the employee sabotage behavior in the context of serving refugees.

Social Media, Public Space and Movement Discussion of Urban Farming in Indonesia

The internet and social media expand public space has been much associated with public space and digital networks in many studies, where Habermas's public space theory and the theory of the Castells network society have been much debated about its relevance to the techno-social development. Both Habermas and Castells tend to see the public space of the Internet as a contestation space where corporate and state forces work in various ways to control and dominate it. This study emphasizes more on the creativity of citizens forming community networks through the use of the Internet and social media and conducting autonomous conversations in the public space. Netnographic studies of the dynamics of the discourse of public space in the social movement networked Indonesia Berkebun show that the Internet and social media become creative means for citizens to package global discourse locally to voice their demands. This study concludes that the concepts and theories of public space, network society are relevant as tools for analyzing public space and Internet networks and social media. The potential of the Internet network and social media as autonomous communication spaces depends on the design and purpose and the utilization of available features. Conversations - conversations that are restricted to the agenda of the 3E program help communities focus on discourse and shape the character of a rational Indonesian gardening space. This community from the beginning realized the potential of the Internet and social media to form networks and public spaces. But like gardening, public space requires commitment, such as caring for the garden from pest attacks, weeds, giving it fertilizer so the plants grow as expected.

Negosiasi Pemuda dalam Fleksibilitas Pasar Kerja: Studi Netnografi terhadap Mikro-Selebriti di Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta

Today the labor market flexibility to be a trend among young people. This emergence of flexibility becomes an ambivalence. On the one hand, it is a form of adaptation with increasingly mobile work. However, according to Guy Standing flexibility actually produces new dangerous class. The vulnerability arises in the form of no guarantee of protection for workers and the security of the labor market. Through netnographic studies the author seeks to examine the employment choices of youth as micro-celebrities, the benefits gained, obstacles faced and negotiations carried out to answer the uncertainty that leads to his work. The researcher observed through the internet and conducted in-depth interviews. The selection of research informants was purposively conducted, namely, micro-Sebritic workers living in the Special Region of Yogyakarta in ages 16-30 years. From the results of the study found that: First, working as a micro-celebrity is the need for leisure. For young people working as micro-celebrities is a hobby as well as a profession. Second, many micro-celebrities are faced with dilemmas and uncertainty situations, both coming from themselves and parents. Finally, negotiations are carried out by youth to deal with uncertainty over their work and the dilemma they face.

INFORMATION SHARING AND MECHANISM IN ONLINE COMMUNITY

The emergece of C2C (customer to customer) community in e-commerce platform is expected to boost the number of SME moving to online plaform. Since the community could provide information and experience required by new e-commerce players. This study aims to analyse what information is shared by members in C2C community and what is the information sharing mechanism that implemented on it. Netnographic study was conducted by observing 1002 posts from the Bukalapak community for six months. As Bukalapak is one of the largest C2C platfom in Indonesia. The result shows that the information shared could be classified by keyword in to five classes, namely categories of tips and tricks, ideas and problems with third parties, ideas and problems of features, community, and question and answer. The information category that has not been covered by Bukalapak original categories is and problems with third parties which mentioned in many posts by community member. The mechanisms used to share the information are including, standard, policy, status and reward.

Descriptive assemblage of psychedelic microdosing: Netnographic study of Youtube™ videos and on-going research projects

BackgroundDespite increasing clinical and neuroscientific research, pharmacological neuroenhancement literature rarely discusses psychedelic drugs. However, psychedelic microdosing, the ingestion of sub-perceptual doses of psychedelics like psilocybin, has gained increasing public and scientific attention. Published research on the topic is scarce and systematic studies of the digital milieus surrounding psychedelic microdosing are currently non-existent. MethodsIn this netnographic study, we explore psychedelic microdosing by focusing on Youtube™ and listing current research projects as a descriptive assemblage. We used the Youtube Data Tool (YDT) for data extraction from the YouTube™ platform. We selected videos that specifically focused on microdosing with a psychoactive substance and descriptively analysed the ecology of practices of the six most viewed videos focusing on definitions, dosages per substance and claimed effects. ResultsOur initial data extraction, completed in 2016, resulted in total of 115 Youtube™ videos. Additional data extractions done in 2017 and 2018 showed a 290% increase of “microdosing” videos between 2016 and 2018, indicating that the phenomenon is growing, at least online. The digital milieu of microdosing in 2016 included 48 videos (41,7%) which mentioned a psychoactive substance. The six most viewed videos comprised 92% (N = 934,819) of the total view count and the ecology of practices depicted psychedelic microdosing as beneficial, but the claimed effects and dosing require critical evaluation. Contrary to how typical users of illicit drugs are often portrayed in the media and science, these videos revolved around themes like research, experiments, self-monitoring and the imperative of sharing results. As our descriptive assemblage demonstrates several psychedelic microdosing research projects are under way, potentially influencing user practices and knowledge. ConclusionThis type of online drug research can be used to gather knowledge of under-researched topics, like psychedelic microdosing. However, further digital and non-digital drug research is needed to investigate this potentially rising phenomenon.

Developing a typology of tourist harassment in archeological sites: a netnographic approach

ABSTRACTTourist harassment has received some attention over the past two decades as a major challenge affecting travelers’ personal safety and their perceptions of tourism destinations. However, there is still a need to understand and explore in depth the types of behavior that constitute tourist harassment. Using a qualitative netnographic study approach, this study identified the types of harassment that tourists are likely to experience in archeological sites. Travelers’ anecdotes reporting harassment incidents in two Jordanian archeological sites, Petra and Jerash, were retrieved from TripAdvisor and examined using a hybrid content analysis approach. Six key categories of tourist harassment emerged from the data. These categories were labeled as vendors’ persistence, obtrusive on-site service providers, beggar children, sexual harassment, verbal abuse, and physical abuse. Each category was explored in depth and exemplified using travelers’ anecdotes. A typology of tourists’ response to harassment was also developed based on the anecdotes. Results suggest that vendors’ persistence was the most frequently reported type of harassment. When experiencing harassment, tourists are likely to respond by resisting the harassers. The findings have several theoretical and managerial implications for both researchers and destination managers.

The logics of digital advocacy: Between acts of political influence and presence

A growing body of research highlights how the Internet and social media offer new platforms for advocacy. This article contributes to the debates on digital advocacy by combining interest group and social media studies and present the notions of digital access politics, digital information politics, and digital protest politics for a comprehensive analysis of digital advocacy. Based on a netnographic study of two highly different advocacy groups working with workers’ rights in a Swedish context, we find that online and offline activities are highly interconnected. While previous studies have largely focused on how groups gain political influence, present digital advocacy is much more oriented towards gaining political presence through social media. The article proposes that future studies into advocacy in the digital era needs to study acts for political influence and acts for political presence as intertwined or even as two sides of the same coin.

English

English

Knowledge sharing and accumulation dynamics in autonomous online consumer communities: Individual and collective levels

Enabling the sharing of dormant consumer knowledge, autonomous online consumer communities constitute communities of consumption practice. Drawing from the knowledge management literature, this article investigates consumer knowledge activation and accumulation dynamics in online communities within the naturalistic setting of an online forum. The netnographic study identifies different patterns of knowledge activation, giving insights into the kind of consumer knowledge that emerges in autonomous online communities. Different characteristics of online communities such as potential presence of rare knowledge, breadth of views or additive value of similar views are leveraged, to produce different types of collective knowledge. The study contributes to the online communities literature by deconstructing the dynamics of knowledge sharing and accumulation in autonomous communities; these function as communities of consumption practice and contribute to consumer empowerment through building collective knowledge from individual activations. It contributes to the consumer knowledge literature a two-level, individual and collective, characterisation of knowledge activation and accumulation.

Positive and negative emotional spirals in e-WOM of new recreational sports: a case study on Nordic walking

Practising physical activities in public spaces may evoke a variety of emotional expressions, particularly when an activity is considered novel and embarrassing. To date, there is limited knowledge on emotional sharing concerning novel recreational activities in online context via electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM). We approach this knowledge gap by exploring online discussions on Nordic walking, the purpose being to investigate emotional sharing in online discussions concerning the activity. In our netnographic study, we analyse what kinds of discrete emotions related to Nordic walking are shared online in different countries, what are the triggers of online emotional sharing and what are the outcomes expressed online by Nordic walking practitioners. We collected data from countries with various levels of Nordic walking popularity and discovered four types of dynamics - negative spiral, positive spiral, positive change and negative change - that add to the research concerning emotional sharing.

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Применение нетнографических исследований для оценки результативности провокационного и партизанского маркетинга на рынке произведений искусства и культуры

Применение нетнографических исследований для оценки результативности провокационного и партизанского маркетинга на рынке произведений искусства и культуры

Commodification of Religion and Pop Culture on Social Media: Netnographic Studies

Instagram accounts owned by cultural industry have been followed by millions of followers and are not limited to a group of people in a country because cyberspace creates unlimited communities. Cultural industries that use Instagram place halal (allowed in Islam) and syar'i (based on Islamic law) labels as important elements in promoting their commodities. The following article tries to look at the commodification of several posts on Instagram that are related to religious identity and the implications that are formed by the cultural industry in Muslim communities. The following qualitative research is analyzed by content analysis based on data collection - neographic studies - from several Instagram accounts, such as travel, fashion, and cosmetics agent acoounts which utilize Islamic attributes. The results of this study indicate that the cultural industry always introduces new trends of pop culture through Instagram by using religious attributes, such as using the terms halal, syar'i, or Muslim. Religion as an agency is widely used by the cultural industry in advertising its commodities. In addition, the agency is a tool to persuade consumers to buy commodities and at the same time it is able to identify consumers as pious and modern Muslims.

Designing the geography of luxury: Online perceptions and entrepreneurial options

Abstract This research applies the Design Thinking approach to explore the online perceptions of luxury and place experienced by potential purchasers and other interested parties. A netnographic study, encompassing observations and interviews, was conducted using a product purity framework developed from the analysis of over 3000 online-posted commentaries. The findings indicate that online users perceive luxury product purity and place of origin in three principal ways. First, uncertainty can breed scepticism of product purity. Second, some users expand their horizons to embrace the reality. Third, some use the information to develop their own definitions of luxury product purity. Designing suitable models to map the complexity of product purity is likely to enhance the effectiveness of companies and operators in managing the place-related perceptions surrounding their products, resulting in an increased brand equity value and a more effective responsiveness to the market.

Customer Attitude towards Online Ads of Smartphone Brands: A Netnographic Analysis of User Generated Comments on YouTube

Today ads are no more one-sided communication but a mixture of online and offline channels developed for the sake of direct interaction with the communities. YouTube in specific and other online video platforms in general have shifted paradigm of TV commercials altogether for many brands.Just like other product brands, smartphone brands have also their presence on social media including YouTube and have their channels at it. The smartphone online ads on YouTube gain millions of views, thousands of likes, and dislikes, comments and replies to these comments.However, these quantitative metrics cannot necessarily be seen as an indicator of effectiveness of online video ads. There is a need to have some qualitative and exploratory evaluations to know about viewer's attitude toward the online brands of smartphones. This netnographic (ethnographic) research study is examining viewers' attitude toward smartphone brands ads. 13 video ads of 4 popular smartphone brands(Samsung, Huawei, Oppo, and Q Mobile) in Pakistan have been taken with 2926 viewer's comments and their replies. The findings are helping in the assessment of viewers (consumers) comments on the basis of cognitive and emotive processing and supportive and antagonistic stance toward online smartphone ads as well as brands. The research outcomes have implications for marketing managers specifically of smartphone brands to use smartphone video ads as a part of their viral marketing campaign. The research paper is also discussing the limitations and future research directions.

REDUCING THE GREEN GAP: THE IMPACT OF CULTURAL & PERSONAL VALUES ON ADOPTION OF HYBRID & ELECTRIC VEHICLES IN THE US, UK, AUSTRALIA & SOUTH AFRICA

ABSTRACT Companies today marketing environmentally-friendly innovations continue to address the ‘green gap’ between consumer attitudes towards environmentally-friendly products and actual behavior. This study on innovation, sustainability, and consumers investigates the influence of cultural and personal values on consumer adoption of hybrid and electric vehicles. The automobile industry plays a crucial role in consumers’ lives, nations’ economies and public policies, and plays a key role in generating greenhouse gas emissions and global warming of the ecological environment. We present the first known cross-cultural, netnographic study of consumer values in reviews of green vehicle adoption in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and South Africa. The findings provide new consumer insights to help reduce the green gap and generate more successful marketing strategies for eco-innovations to achieve the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profits. Keywords Green Gap, Consumer Attitudes, Cultural and Personal Values, Perceived Risk, Consumer Adoption, Green Vehicles, Cross-Cultural, Marketing, Netnographic, Sustainable Consumption, Ecological Environment.

Broadcasting War Trauma: An Exploratory Netnography of Veterans' YouTube Vlogs.

This exploratory netnographic study is among the first to investigate military video blogs (milvlogs) posted by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who self-published stories on military-related trauma to YouTube. Studies have shown that self-published milvlogs provide benefits such as education, social support, and self-management of chronic physical and psychological illness. The aim of this study was to explore combat veterans' milvlogs and to determine themes that emerged across the videos. We transcribed and analyzed content from 17 milvlogs. Our analysis yielded seven themes: motivation, loss, managing symptoms, help-seeking, guilt and shame, suicide, and connecting to other veterans. We concluded that veterans were initially drawn to vlogging to connect to others. Vlogging also served as a medium for combat veterans to tell their stories, position these stories against others' experiences, and engage in outreach and advocacy. Finally, milvlogs may provide an easily accessible resource for developing preventive and/or mental health treatment/support links.