Video-ethnography during Covid-19 and beyond: Generating user foresights in a virtual world

• Published in: Technological forecasting & social change Vol. 169; p. 120817
• Main Authors: Sakellariou, Evy, Karantinou, Kalipso, Goffin, Keith
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Elsevier Inc 01.08.2021; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Consumers; Context; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Customer satisfaction; Customers; Emic and etic; Ethnography; Housing; Innovations; Interviews; Markets; Narratives; Pandemics; Product specifications
• ISSN: 0040-1625; 1873-5509
• DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120817

Our study on the use of video-based ethnographic narratives and user innovation (Sakellariou et al. 2020) was conducted and published in this journal prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. That was at a time when close interaction with customers and consumers for market research purposes was common and taken for granted. Things are now very different. This means that observing and interviewing customers in-person is currently impossible and the utility and advantages of video-based ethnographic narratives need to be reconsidered. Video-based ethnographic narratives are a novel and enhanced form of market research that is powerful at generating user foresights. These are “understandings of users’ future needs (i.e. future product features and benefits)” (Sakellariou et al. 2020, p1) as opposed to user insights, needs that are associated with current product features and benefits. The importance of methods that generate foresights has been stressed (Schweitzer et al., 2019). How foresights can be generated is an important topic. Therefore, this article will discuss how some of the advantages of video-based ethnographic narratives can still be leveraged during and post Covid-19 times. The use of video-recordings in observing small numbers of customers in their own context, for example in their homes, reveals novel and detailed understandings and takes what is termed an emic perspective (which considers that phenomena need to be closely studied, placing emphasis on the customer’s own views and understanding). The adoption of a systematic coding for analysis can then result in the identification of key patterns in customer behaviour, and relationships between antecedents and outcomes. The findings based on observing small numbers of customers can then be verified in wider surveys, which adopt an etic perspective (which considers that hypotheses about phenomena can be studied objectively from a distance, such as through surveys). The emic and etic perspectives can be combined. Thus, in contrast to traditional market research, video-based ethnographic narratives can generate user foresights, that can inspire future-oriented innovation. Compared to previous approaches to ethnographic market research that rely on the generation of a mass of ambiguous observational data (Crotty, 1998) which have been criticized for being complicated to apply and difficult to analyze, video-based ethnographic narratives generate user foresights in an organized, presentable, and actionable form (Sakellariou, et al., 2020). A key question is whether the method can still be used, following the unprecedented events of the Covid-19 pandemic. This commentary therefore discusses the relevance of the method, as published, in the current conditions. Firstly, it discusses the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on innovation management in companies. Secondly, it focuses on the differences and opportunities for applying the method during the current pandemic, and the contributions that video-based narratives can specifically make in the new innovation context. Thirdly, it discusses the implications for organizations and governments. Finally, it concludes by reflecting on the future outlook for the use of the video-based ethnographic narratives in the post Covid-19 era.