Download The Role of Qualitative Research in Current Digital Social Media

Call for Papers
A Two-Volume Special Issue of Psychology & Marketing
on
The Role of Qualitative Research in Current Digital Social Media:
Aspects and Issues
Guest Editors:
Morgan P. Miles, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Norat Roig-Tierno, Valencia International University (VIU) and ESIC, Spain
Helena Martins Gonçalves, ISEG-University of Lisbon, Portugal
Andrea Rey-Martí, University of Valencia, Spain
The proliferation of the internet and digital technologies has enabled new ways of
communication, participation and interaction namely through social media (e.g., social
networks, blogs, online forums, news websites, and wikis). Social media play an
increasingly important role on everyday life of the consumers (private and professional)
by allowing them to find information, to interact with each other, and to create,
comment and share diverse contents. Companies use more and more social media to
communicate with, listen to, and develop dialogues with consumers spending an
increasing share of their budget in social marketing strategies. Consumer behavior is
changing and so are the practices of companies.
Research is needed to understand the influence of social media in consumers’ attitude
and behavior and in companies’ practices and performance. Topics that deserve
attention, but are not limited to, are: new consumer behaviors in social media context,
consumer social learning and social attitude formation, social media influence on
consumer decision making, the causes and consequences of “engagement”,
mechanisms to encourage consumers to share product/brand information that the
companies want to, the use (what and how) of multiple social media platforms (e.g.,
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc.), the role of social media as a research tool and in
consumer insight, the opportunities & constraints of social media marketing to
communicate with consumers, the integration of digital vs. non-digital communications,
and implications of demographic, geographic & cultural differences in social media
marketing. The foregoing topics could pertain to consumer-to consumer, business-toconsumer, business-to-business, and not-for-profit business and organizational
contexts.
Although quantitative research has prevalence over qualitative research, the fact is that
the latter has the advantage of deepening knowledge by dealing with a relatively
smaller number of cases. The origins of qualitative research methods can be traced to
Alex Osborn’s work in creative problem solving in the 1930s. Since then, a plethora of
spinoffs of that basic brainstorming technique (e.g., depth interview, focus group,
Phillips 66 Groups etc.) as well as other newer techniques (e.g., analogy, scenario
analysis etc.) have evolved including the relatively recent Qualitative Comparative
Analysis (QCA: csQCA or fsQCA) for use in a variety of research settings including
social media. Articles for this special issue could employ any of these methods.
Given the scope of the special issue theme, a double volume of this special issue is
planned to include the best works that explore aspects and issues pertaining to the
entire gamut of the theme. Such works may comprise original research or review of
extant research with clear directions for future research. All papers, with citations &
references in APA style, must be submitted to the Conference website at www.gikaacademy.com and presented at the conference. Deadline: Tuesday, November 10,
2015 for full papers or extended abstracts. Sunday, January 10, 2016 for full papers
from scholars who have submitted only an extended abstract.