Asian Marketspaces and Digital Ethnographic Methods: Challenges and Adaptations

With growth in social media, mobile communications, and location-based services, online transactional spaces are evolving in complex, multidimensional ways. In Asia – for reasons that are often cultural, linguistic or political – the patterns of evolution often differ from the well-known, dominant western patterns. This paper examines the challenges of employing online ethnographic methods in adaptive ways in Asian settings – particularly those in China, Japan and Korea; and with some attention also to other major Asian nations. Starting with an evolutionary typology of online consumption and transaction spaces with an East Asia focus, the paper reviews the existing literatures on online ethnography and identifies the challenges and opportunities to evolve ethnographic approaches for Asian settings. The paper proposes adaptive directions for evolution of online ethnographic methods suitable for Asian contexts.

Citation:

Man Zhang and Nikhilesh Dholakia (2011) ,"Asian Marketspaces and Digital Ethnographic Methods: Challenges and Adaptations", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Zhihong Yi, Jing Jian Xiao, and June Cotte and Linda Price, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 162-162.