The ethical dilemmas and challenges of ethnographic research in electronic communities

The purpose of this paper is to raise the awareness of a range of ethical dilemmas and challenges facing researchers who adopt ethnographic approaches in electronic community research.
  

The ethical dilemmas and challenges of ethnographic research in electronic communities

Neil HairRochester Institute of Technology, US

Moira ClarkHenley Management College, UK

INTRODUCTION

Research into the phenomenon of electronic communities is a rapidly emerging field. Coupled with the ferocity of viral marketing and the substantial take-up of social networking sites online, newly found electronic communities of consumers are in abundance (Hagel & Armstrong 1997; Anderson 1999; Kozinets 1999, 2002; Wachter et al.2000; Johnson 2001; Siu 2002). Marketers are quickly realising the importance of these communities by studying consumer interactions with one another as a...

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