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1 – 10 of 189All research has the potential to affect people, ethnographers delve into the life of the every day of their participants, they walk their walk, talk their talk and strive for…
Abstract
All research has the potential to affect people, ethnographers delve into the life of the every day of their participants, they walk their walk, talk their talk and strive for valid, in-depth contextualised data, gathered over a longitudinal and often intimate basis. Ethnography is explorative and inductive. It is messy, unpredictable and complex. Ethnography conducted with young people and children adds to the intricacy of managing ethically sound research practice within and beyond the field. In recent years, ethnographies with children, young people and families have become increasingly prominent, yet few scholars have written about conducting ethnographic research with children and young people (Albon & Barley, 2021; Levey, 2009; Mayeza, 2017). The ethnographer that works with children and young people needs to be aware that the power relationship between adults and children operates in complex and sometimes surprising ways and so needs to be ethically aware, ethically reactive and be prepared to be ethically challenged.
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The aim of this paper is to investigate whether technological developments can be used in call centre environments to build trust and hence lasting customer relationships beyond…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to investigate whether technological developments can be used in call centre environments to build trust and hence lasting customer relationships beyond the usual focus on efficiency gains through automation.
Design/methodology/approach
Draws upon depth interviews with management and staff in three very different types of call centre to critically examine the ways in which caring attitudes and competent behaviour of call centre staff can contribute to building durable bases for customer trust.
Findings
While one of the case studies exemplifies a purely economic rationale for call centre operations, the other two demonstrate that a truly optimal application of technology creates a shared system of which customers and employees form an integrated part. Employees' knowledge of the system and the product it underpins are applied in a positive way to create relationships and trust with the customers with whom they transact.
Practical implications
Argues that competitive advantage can be gained if the customer perception is of an organisation that is concerned with building relationships based on competence or empathy to meet individual needs – features which stand out clearly in an industry sector often associated with standardised services, “sweatshop” working conditions and control‐based management practices focused on a purely economic rationale.
Originality/value
Demonstrates that multi‐channel environments for customer interaction offer potential for competitive advantage beyond short‐term efficiency gains when the convenience of channel choice is creatively combined with competent and empathetic customer service.
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Nick Osbaldiston, Felicity Picken and Lisa Denny
The seachange phenomenon has recently returned to the policy and planning agenda in Australia owing to some recent data showing new movement patterns out of capital cities. This…
Abstract
The seachange phenomenon has recently returned to the policy and planning agenda in Australia owing to some recent data showing new movement patterns out of capital cities. This chapter presents a discussion around this via review of the literature in the areas of amenity migration, counter-urbanisation and lifestyle migration. It further proposes, through demographic research into the region of Gippsland in Victoria, that we need to begin to better understand the motivations for shifting away from the capital cities and the flow on impacts in local communities. Among these impacts are coastal populations in various stages of flux, transforming communities based on local, familiar ties and an enduring relationship to place with new residents from far and wide. As these communities and places are ‘opened up’ through permanent, semi-permanent and visitor populations, more work is required to understand the local place as one that is increasingly inclusive of converging mobile lives, driving communities in transition and renegotiations of identity, belonging and security.
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To question the models of childhood implied within contemporary UK debate about advertising to children. The paper identifies a role for qualitative market research in…
Abstract
Purpose
To question the models of childhood implied within contemporary UK debate about advertising to children. The paper identifies a role for qualitative market research in establishing a more fully‐articulated account of childhood, with implications for both policy makers and marketers.
Design/methodology/approach
A brief literature review of contemporary sociological perspectives on childhood informs an account of controversy in the UK about the legitimacy of advertising to children. Adult versions of childhood from this debate are contrasted with children's own accounts of their experience of advertising, drawing on a pilot study using informal qualitative methods.
Findings
Illuminates the assumptions about childhood which divide industry advocates from their critics, and suggests that qualitative understanding of children's experience of advertising should have a greater role in complementing the predominantly positivist research on which the debate draws.
Research limitations/implications
Limited to recent UK discourse on children and advertising (which may restrict its extendability to non‐European cultures), and draws on a very small pilot study. This does, however, point the way to future research using informal methods.
Practical implications
Intended to enrich understanding of debate and policy on advertising and children, and to encourage the informed use of qualitative research in this area.
Originality/value
This paper fills a gap in the predominantly empirical or polemical literature in this area by setting competing arguments in an ontological framework.
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Caroline Bekin, Marylyn Carrigan and Isabelle Szmigin
To broaden the scope of our knowledge of collective voluntarily simplified lifestyles in the UK, by exploring whether voluntary simplifiers achieve their goals by adopting a…
Abstract
Purpose
To broaden the scope of our knowledge of collective voluntarily simplified lifestyles in the UK, by exploring whether voluntary simplifiers achieve their goals by adopting a simpler life.
Design/methodology/approach
Radical forms of voluntary simplifier groups were explored through participant‐observation research. The methodology can be broadly classified as critical ethnography, and a multi‐locale approach has been used in designing the field.
Findings
Although for some of these consumers voluntary simplicity seems to have reinstated the enjoyment of life, certain goals remain unfulfilled and other unexpected issues arise, such as the challenges of mobility in the attainment of environmental goals.
Research limitations/implications
This is an ongoing research, however many opportunities for further research have arisen from this study. Quantitative research could be undertaken on the values and attitudes buttressing voluntary simplicity specifically in the UK. The extent to which such communities influence mainstream consumers could be studied both quantitatively and qualitatively. Mainstream consumers' attitudes to the practices of such communities could prove useful for uncovering real consumer needs.
Practical implications
Despite these communities position in the extreme end of the voluntary simplicity spectrum, their role in shaping the practices and attitudes of other consumers is clear.
Originality/value
This paper provides new consumer insights that can re‐shape policy‐making and marketing practice aimed at achieving a sustainable future.
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Juliet Memery, Phil Megicks and Jasmine Williams
Despite growing awareness of ethical and social responsibility (E&SR) issues in academia and industry, investigation of their influence on consumers' buying decisions has been…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite growing awareness of ethical and social responsibility (E&SR) issues in academia and industry, investigation of their influence on consumers' buying decisions has been limited. To help fill this gap, this paper reports the findings of a preliminary investigation to establish the key E&SR factors affecting grocery shopping behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
The study drew upon existing literature in the areas of ethics, social responsibility, shopping and store image to identify the individual elements of E&SR. An exploratory qualitative study of E&SR consumers (E&SRC) was then conducted, using seven focus groups, and a typology of key factors of concern to these consumers was derived from analysis.
Findings
The findings identify seven core categories, containing seventy‐one sub‐categories. These interlink to form three main clusters: food quality and safety, human rights and ethical trading, and environmental (green) issues. Shoppers trade off these E&SR factors against standard retail purchasing factors, in particular convenience, price and merchandise range when deciding which shops to use and what products to buy.
Research limitations/implications
The typology derived from this exploratory research may be used alongside conventional store image factors in future research, to help predict those factors that influence purchasing behaviour. Similarly, it may assist brand and retail managers in profiling, and meeting the needs of, E&SRC.
Originality/value
The research distinguishes differences in how shopper types vary in their behaviour, and proposes a set of implications for managers of the research and areas for further investigation.
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To propose a model for ethical behaviour based on product, production and marketing methods, and to make use of qualitative data relating to a specific product in order to test…
Abstract
Purpose
To propose a model for ethical behaviour based on product, production and marketing methods, and to make use of qualitative data relating to a specific product in order to test its validity. This model is termed the Ethical Cube.
Design/methodology/approach
The model was developed as a result of early examination of ethical practices. It was then tested using publicly available examples of marketing, production and product information concerning the wine industry.
Findings
The model was found to be effective, if basic. Proposals for improvements and extensions are put forward.
Research limitations/implications
The examples used are largely those that are in the public domain. Facets of a product are classed as ethical or unethical according to the number of reported examples in each area of study – with a special emphasis on production and marketing.
Practical implications
This can provide a standard framework for assessing the ethicality of any product.
Originality/value
This paper is of value to researchers and marketing practitioners seeking to evaluate the public impressions of a specific product.
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To review the history of “green marketing” since the early 1990s and to provide a critique of both theory and practice in order to understand how the marketing discipline may yet…
Abstract
Purpose
To review the history of “green marketing” since the early 1990s and to provide a critique of both theory and practice in order to understand how the marketing discipline may yet contribute to progress towards greater sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines elements of green marketing theory and practice over the past 15 years by employing the logic of the classic paper from 1985 “Has marketing failed, or was it never really tried” of seeking to identify “false marketings” that have hampered progress.
Findings
That much of what has been commonly referred to as “green marketing” has been underpinned by neither a marketing, nor an environmental, philosophy. Five types of misconceived green marketing are identified and analysed: green spinning, green selling, green harvesting, enviropreneur marketing and compliance marketing.
Practical implications
Provides an alternative viewpoint on a much researched, but still poorly understood area of marketing, and explains why the anticipated “green revolution” in marketing prefaced by market research findings, has not more radically changed products and markets in practice.
Originality/value
Helps readers to understand why progress towards a more sustainable economy has proved so difficult, and outlines some of the more radical changes in thought and practice that marketing will need to adopt before it can make a substantive contribution towards greater sustainability.
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