Terry Newholm case study workshop

1. Terry Newholmcase study workshop

2. researching through cases • What is case study? • Introducing my research. • Which research perspective? • Case study workshop.

3. exploring ‘how’ and ‘why’ • researching an organism in its environmentJohn Langrish • ‘How’ questionselicit descriptive stories • ‘Why’ questionselicit rationalisations

4. ethical consumption • human rights (fair trade) • animal welfare (the fir trade) • the environment (green electricity)

5. distancing consumers exit from unethical practices to the extent that they consume significantly less than average of their society in spite of a capacity to increase their income and consume more James Anthony Robert Alan Patrick Natasha Jewel Felicity Elaine Louis Bob Misha Peter Lucy integrating consumers integrate all aspects, consumption, work and social within the core ethical ideas which give meaning to conventional ethical consuming, and often with this, voice their objection to unethical practices Janice Belinda rationalising consumers have reasons for limiting the attention they give to consumption in terms of their ethics and as a result only adopt specific buycott and boycott campaigns How do people maintain themselves as ‘ethical consumers’ in apparently dauntingdecision-making environments? not diminishing the complexity aiding understanding Harrison, Rob, Newholm, Terry & Shaw, Deirdre (Eds.) (2005) The Ethical Consumer, London: Sage.

6. beware of over-wide questions How do young undergraduateslive their lives?

7. pictures can be useful How do young affluent consumers live their lives?

8. housing communities as cases How do exemplary communities achieve high internet connectivity? Newholm, Terry, Kathy Keeling, Peter McGoldrick, Linda Macaulay and Joanne Doherty (2008) ‘Digital divide and the theory of optimal slack’, New Media and Society 10(2): pp381-405.

9. housing communities as cases opportunities to learn redbrickscommunity yellowbrickscommunity

10. ? Your research topics? • question/interest/focus • probable methodology

11. key books & research perspectives • Robert Yin (2002)Case Study Research: Design and Methods, Sage • Robert Stake (1995)The Art of Case Study Research, Sage

12. key books & research perspectives • Robert Yin (2002)Case Study Research: Design and Methods, Sage • Robert Stake (1995)The Art of Case Study Research, Sage

13. key books & research perspectives • Robert Yin (2002)Case Study Research: Design and Methods, Sage • Robert Stake (1995)The Art of Case Study Research, Sage

14. modernistrealist post-structuralconstructivist critical realism research perspectives Solomon, Bamossy, Askegaard and Hogg, (2006), Consumer Behaviour: A European Perspective, p26

15. emic / etic • emic issues “research questions revealed by actors [participants]” by contrast • etic issues “research questions initiated or brought in from the outside by the researcher” Robert Yin (2002) Case Study Research: Design and Methods, Sage, p.170.

16. researching through cases • What is case study? • How many cases will I need? • What boundaries might I set? • How will I structure the research? • How should I present my cases? • Am I just reinforcing my prejudices? • Will I be able to generalise? your consideration your consideration your consideration your consideration your consideration your consideration your consideration

17. Terry Newholmcase study workshop

18. How might I constructa sample? • a single case • exemplar • revelatory • multiple case • sampling (modernist)representative • ‘convenience’ sampling non-representative ‘exampling’ (post-structural)

19. How might I constructa sample? “Balance and variety are important; opportunity to learn is of primary importance.” p6 Stake

20. How many cases will you need? • constructing samples of populations • pre-structured to permit comparison • theoretical sampling • to test your developing theory • theoretical saturation • until you are learning nothing new • case integrity and the reader • the maximum that can be understood

21. ? What cases;how many cases? • take five minutes to considerwhat cases and how many cases you might want to answer your research question • what issues / challenges arise from this

22. case environment embedded cases What boundaries might I set? • the culture • the influence group • the ‘family unit’ • the individual consumer • the decision to buy/boycott example: the ‘ethical consumer’ research

23. ? What boundaries might I set? • five minutes to list the possible boundaries for your research • select one and note your reasons • what issues / challenges arise from this

24. How will I structure the research? • unstructured participant observation • ‘Burning Man’ Robert Kozinets • ‘digital divide’ Newholm et al. • semi-structured ‘exampling’ • ‘young affluent consumers’ Terry Newholm • structured ‘sampling’ • ‘e-bank users’ Linda Ward • longitudinal • ‘customer satisfaction’ Fournier & Mick

25. consumption narratives mobile phone conversations staged research tryadic conversational ‘interview’ designing research example: ‘young affluent consumers’ located in habitats Case study: How do they live their lives? introduction in café methods appropriate to participant

26. triangulation semi-structured interview methods appropriate to question designing research example: ‘ethical consumers’ Case study: How, in so daunting an environment? consumption narratives collecting receipts

27. literal replications non-users lapsed users current users Case 1 Case 7 Case 4 Case 5 Case 8 Case 2 Case 9 Case 3 Case 6 theoretical replications designing research example: ‘e-banking’ research Case study: How does banking fit into their lives?

28. longitudinal research allowed comparison over time designing research interception on purchase interview 24h later interview6/8 weeks later example: ‘rediscovering satisfaction’ Fournier & Mick intercepted consumers at an electronics store and selected 13 examples interview6/8 months later Case study: Satisfaction, in the family setting?

29. designing research resident parties opportunities to learn informant interviews participant observation team meetings resident questionnaire socialisingin the pub Case study: web-surfing in a wired community? example: ‘digital divide and optimal slack’ Newholm, Keeling, McGoldrick, Macaulay & Doherty selected 2 cases of ‘successful’ communities

30. ? How will I structure the research? • take five minutes to think of either a structure or method appropriate to your research question • what issues / challenges / opportunities arise from this

31. Klint (Career) Smith 24 IT Systems Consultant Klint speaks deliberately about his career. Each stage in his success is marked by material acquisitions: house, car, TV. These possessions are like temporary markers along the way to confirm progress of a self-proclaimed ‘workaholic’. Continued success in this competitive environment consists in putting in the work to show your worth. Showing your worth spills over into football, motor racing, golf etc. Because all of these are played with (sometimes senior) work colleagues, the activities have a career dimension. How should I present my cases? No, yes, indeed there’s a hole in the back pocket [of my new jeans] which is, ha, through design not out of er …. [….] People, you’ll recognise the difference that it’s more by design than accident. You haven’t tried doing it yourself you’ve paid, paid the money t’wear them.’

32. How should I present my cases? Case Integrity Case E Liz is a married, 48-year-old jewellery designer who came of age in the 1960s. She does not embrace the role of homemaker readily and does not own many kitchen appliances. In fact, Liz does not even own a stove with burners and, as for small appliances, she says, "I just hate them." But one appliance has special significance to her. As she explained, "I had to do dishes all my life, growing up, and everything. I've always hated it .... My sister and I [did the dishes]. But she was older. She left home first." Asked about her current dishwasher, Liz calls it her "little kitchen slave .... I could stick every little dirty, rotten, nasty thing in there and walk away from it, listen to it hum for 20 minutes or a half-hour, and it's done .... You never even have to think about them." And she added with emphasis, "Wouldn't live without it. It's a lifesaver. Better than a daughter! I keep a Sears warranty on it so that if anything goes wrong they come and fix that sucker too. I do not want to live ever again without a dishwasher---or at least somebody to do my dishes." Liz told a story of a time when her dishwasher broke down. While waiting a few days for the repairman, and in the meantime refusing to do the dishes by hand, Liz laid the dishes out in her bathtub and then turned the hot shower on them. She admitted, "I'm so awful about dishes. I don't even offer to do dishes for people when I'm eating at their home or visiting. I will vacuum, I will scrub their floor, but I don't do the dishes. God, I love my machine." Fournier, Susan, Mick, David Glen (1999) Rediscovering Satisfaction, Journal of Marketing 63(4)

33. member checking representing consumers • Barbara Stern wants to challenge the researcher’s dominance(Stern (1998) Representing Consumers 77) Interpretivists’ try to give primacy to the consumervs.Positivists’ give primacy to theoretical structure

34. representing consumers Interpretivist research aims at “incorporating divergent rather than merely convergent data” (Eric Arnold in Stern (1998) Representing Consumers 118) Are your respondents fully rational?Alternatively, how might you present complex participants?

35. distancing consumers exit from unethical practices to the extent that they consume significantly less than average of their society in spite of a capacity to increase their income and consume more James Anthony Robert Alan Patrick Natasha Jewel Felicity Elaine Louis Bob Misha Peter Lucy integrating consumers integrate all aspects, consumption, work and social within the core ethical ideas which give meaning to conventional ethical consuming, and often with this, voice their objection to unethical practices Janice Belinda rationalising consumers have reasons for limiting the attention they give to consumption in terms of their ethics and as a result only adopt specific buycott and boycott campaigns How do people maintain themselves as ‘ethical consumers’ in apparently dauntingdecision-making environments? Harrison, Rob, Newholm, Terry & Shaw, Deirdre (Eds.) (2005) The Ethical Consumer, London: Sage.

36. ? Representing consumers • How could I maintain case integrity? • How am I representing my cases?

37. How can you answer the criticism which claims you are just reinforcing your prejudices? • Robert Yin: by rigorously pre-structuring your research • Alan Thomas: by challenging your preferred interpretation

38. How can you answer the criticism which claims you are just reinforcing your prejudices? • Robert Yin: by rigorously pre-structuring your research • Alan Thomas: by challenging your preferred interpretation

39. How can you answer the criticism that you are just reinforcing your prejudices? • Robert Yin: by rigorously pre-structuring your research • Alan Thomas: by challenging your preferred interpretation

40. distancing consumers exit from unethical practices to the extent that they consume significantly less than average of their society in spite of a capacity to increase their income and consume more James Anthony Robert Alan Patrick Natasha Jewel Felicity Elaine Louis Bob Misha Peter Lucy integrating consumers integrate all aspects, consumption, work and social within the core ethical ideas which give meaning to conventional ethical consuming, and often with this, voice their objection to unethical practices Janice Belinda rationalising consumers have reasons for limiting the attention they give to consumption in terms of their ethics and as a result only adopt specific buycott and boycott campaigns How do people maintain themselves as ‘ethical consumers’ in apparently dauntingdecision-making environments? Harrison, Rob, Newholm, Terry & Shaw, Deirdre (Eds.) (2005) The Ethical Consumer, London: Sage.

41. How can you answer the criticism that you are just reinforcing your prejudices? • address / account for “all the evidence” (Yin p137) selectively (Stake)? • search for challenging data • explore alternative understandings • trail of evidence • use NVivo to constrain language • ‘one’; ‘some’; ‘many’; ‘most’; ‘all’ • researcher reflexivity

42. How can you answer the criticism which claims you are just reinforcing your prejudices? • take a few minutes to consider the issue of prejudice in your research • in groups, consider what challenges arise from this

43. Will I be able to generalise? • generalising to theory (Robert Yin) • interpretivism is more about understanding than generalising (Robert Stake) • petite generalisations • grand generalisations • counter example modifies a generalisation • positive example increases confidence

44. Will I be able to generalise? • Alan ThomasFinding out Fast (ed.) Thomas, Chataway and Wuyts London: SAGE, 1998. • “Either the case studies will confirm your ideas so that you are more confident about generalizing on their basis or else the case studies will throw doubt on the applicability of your ideas in different circumstances, in which case you should be able to reconceptualize and generalize on the basis of changed or new ideas.” • Craig J. Thompson (2002) ‘A Re-Inquiry on Re-Inquiries’ Journal of Consumer Research p145 • “Through critical reflexive re-inquiry, the community of consumer researchers can become explicitly aware of the kinds of questions, problems, issues, and analytic orientations that stand outside the boundaries of our dominant narrative conventions.”

45. ? What perspective am I taking? • What do your preferred methods (epistemology) suggest about your perspective? • Do I want to understand or find causal links? • What does your preferred perspective (ontology) suggest about the methods you should use? • Ask things like am I an objective observer?

46. Terry Newholmcase study workshop case study: researching an organism in its environment