Hi all,
Can Interpretative Phenomenological analysis be used in consumer behaviour research? I can't find much prior consumer behaviour research which has utilised IPA and as such I am wondering if it simply doesn't fit.
Thanks in advance!
Yes. For example, see the following papers:
1. Bustard, J. R. T., Bolan, P., Devine, A., & Hutchinson, K. (2019). The emerging smart event experience: an interpretative phenomenological analysis. Tourism Review, 74(1), 116-128.
2. Townsend, K., Kent, A., & Sadkowska, A. (2019). Fashioning clothing with and for mature women: a small-scale sustainable design business model. Management Decision, 57(1), 3-20.
3. Goolaup, S., & Solér, C. (2018). Existential-phenomenology: understanding tourists’ experiences. In Handbook of Research Methods for Tourism and Hospitality Management. Edward Elgar Publishing.
4. Cormack, J., Postăvaru, G. I., & Basten, G. (2018). Analyzing qualitative minigroup data using thematic analysis. SAGE Publications Ltd.
5. Karavaglidis, K., & Cogan, N. (2018). Understanding the motivations behind the ‘iron sport’among Greek competitive bodybuilders using interpretive phenomenological analysis.Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies, 12(1), 167-180.
4.
6. Conroy, D., & de Visser, R. (2014). Being a non-drinking student: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. Psychology & health, 29(5), 536-551.
The following publications may further help:
- Acharya, A. and Gupta, M. (2016) Self-image enhancement through branded accessories among youths: A phenomenological study in India, The Qualitative Report, 21, 7, pp. 1203-1215.
- Hackley, C. (2004) Doing Research Projects in Marketing, Management and Consumer Research. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis e-Library. (See: Chapter 6, Phenomenology, pp. 111-126).
- Jacobs, L., Conroy, D. and Parke, A. (2018) Negative experiences of non-drinking college students in Great Britain: An interpretative phenomenological analysis, International journal of mental health and addiction, 16, 3, pp. 737-750.
Yes. Granovetter's (1985) construct of social embeddedness lends itself nicely to hermeneutic (or Husserlian) phenomenological research. Good luck!
Granovetter, M. (1985). Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology, 91(3), 481-510.
You might want to consider phenomenography as an approach. It emerged from Phenomenology but it uses variation in understandings of phenomena as the focus of interest. Thus it can be applied to research that looks at any sort of practice. Let's say you want to understand consumer's understanding of the practice of vacuuming their carpets. You would conduct interviews asking people to talk about their experiences of vacuuming and what it means to them; then look at the variation in the views of the participants to get some idea of the salient issues...you might then be able to better design and market a new vacuum cleaner or other product or service related to vacuuming. Look up some papers by Jörgen Sandberg for some good examples of how to conduct excellent phenomenographic research.