Digital practices tracing: studying consumer lurking in digital environments

Abstract

The aim of this article is to introduce a methodological framework for the systematic capture and analysis of consumer lurking practices in digital environments.Despite the prevalence of lurking practices in digital environments, it is an understudied topic in marketing and consumer research due to methodological constraints. To remedy this, we introduce Digital Practices Tracing (DPT), a novel methodological framework that integrates digital methods and post-phenomenological inquiry. Specifically, the proposed methodology enables the capture of lurking practices as they occur naturally by using tracking devices and uncovering underlying motivations via follow-up interviews. The contribution of the article is threefold. First, it provides a very detailed research protocol (articulated in six sequential steps) to implement the DPT framework. Second, by illustrating the value of this methodology with a pilot study on lurking practices, it puts forth an ad hoc taxonomy of digital lurking practices (See, Search, and Save) as they occur in real time in their natural environmentsmaking them de facto visible. Third, it demonstrates how the DPT framework can be applied to the study of a wide range of consumer digital practices that go beyond lurking.