Expanding Research Horizons: use of online interviews in Consumer Culture Theory

Abstract

Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) is the consumer research culturalist tradition. With the deterritorialization of culture, networked cultural connections fluidly encompass social and economic dynamics. The Internet has become a cultural network that allows for mediated social interactions. In this context, online interviews emerged as an adaptation of face-to-face interviews and a means of accessing individuals from physically dispersed cultural contexts, therefore, suitable for the CCT agenda. Thus, this research seeks to characterize the use of qualitative online interviews through Digital Technologies for Information and Communication in CCT research. To this end, we analyzed a research corpus composed of articles that adopted the online interview. The articles were published in the main international marketing journals recognized for publishing works in the culturalist tradition of consumer research. We identified that online interviews have gain resonance in the field, through different qualitative research methods, with a focus on access to spatially dispersed consumers. However, little emphasis has been given to the operationalization of the interviews. Thus, we concluded that discussions about the technique's use would be suitable for its broader and more transparent adoption.