Your research plan should, in all but a very few cases, stick with the idea of just a little fieldwork during your China visit. (A few of you have some very special needs, or a bit more time in China, and you may do a bit more business-related fieldwork and interviewing while in China, and that's fine). This limitation makes sense because our time in China is quite short. Anyway, as you know by now, China demands a long-term commitment. A short visit will not allow you time to do a great deal of in-country field research.
But when you launch into a little fieldwork, you can borrow an idea from Intel, where anthropologists like Ken Anderson (that's Ken in the photo) are using anthropological techniques for research that drives business strategy.
So while I recognize that much of your China visit is a chance to smell the culture and not a full-on field research experience, there may be a few handy hints in the field-research department that I can offer.
These days, more and more businesses recognize the value of an anthropological approach not only for discovering what consumers do with products and services, but for building strategy, too. You can visit my colleague Ken Anderson's short article in the on-line version of the Harvard Business review, here, for a taste of what I mean. The rather more open-ended approach that anthropologists usually take to fieldwork may be just the ticket for an exploratory visit to China. I hope you'll find a few methodological (and theoretical) hints interesting and useful.
I hadn't heard of "Corporate ethnography" prior to reading Mr. Anderson's article. I can see 100 ways that my company could benefit from this approach. Not only with new services(since the customer isn't always able to articulate exactly what they want) but also utilizing this approach to help customers handle the "CHANGE" that comes along with oursourcing to State Street. By observing their business culture, practices, etc it would allow State Street to be a partner in giving them the tools they need to handle the changes occuring.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the article and the ideas it stirred!
I agree with Julie in that "Corporate Ethnography" is a completely new term for me, not one typically thrown out there in today's ever changing business terms du jour. For my project - looking at the cultural changes which have led to the explosive growth in pet ownership in China - this whole approach couldn't be any more on the money. I think not only looking at how the numbers of pets have increased, but observing the interactions between owners and their pets would be particularly insightful. If the new "breed" of Chinese dog owner is anything like what we've seen here in the US, this will become a booming industry, just now in its infancy. All the typical extravagances lavished on our pets here - from Doggie Day Care, to premium high end specialty foods, to toys, to veterinarians boarded in specialty fields such as oncology - all these are sure to follow in China as well.
ReplyDeleteI've been toying with the idea of writing up just how it is that ethnographic approaches systematize the innovation process. This blog and soon may be as good a place and time as any.
ReplyDeleteObservational—and participatory—work, carefully done in the right settings may indeed suggest how the adoption of the companion animal complex will happen in China. The trajectory of these innovations is not always linear--moments that were in sequence in one national setting or culture may be out of sequence in another. Or some elements just won't be adopted while some rather new ones may emerge too. How will this work out? Best way to know: research in the experience-near domain, right up close with real pet owners in China. Now, that would be something!
Thanks, Eddie! (And Thanks, Julie! I hope you can look at some retail banking while in China--its quite amazing!)
Ethography might be useful to assess shifts in consumer views during this recession. Last fall a group of us were debating about the chances of deflation similar to that Japan experienced in the 1990s. I argued that American consumers had spent decades using their credit cards and weren't likely to follow the Japanese model. We can all read the financial numbers showing that Americans now are looking a lot more like the Japanese. Ethnoggraphy would be useful to assess whether this is a long term trend/shift in spending/savings habits or a short term response to current economic conditionsm--and a lot more reliable than wild guesses like mine. And my mother said don't go into anthropology because you will never get a job.
ReplyDeleteLaurel
Laurel,
ReplyDeleteYour mother was correct (mother's are always correct). And, in fact, you might probably answer that long- versus short-term question with a pretty simple questionnaire. But if you wanted to really understand WHY Americans are shifting their views/habits about savings, and what they are REALLY doing with their credit cards (and people always lie about money, so just asking isn't quite enough), then multi-method ethnographic work might just be the ticket.
Ethnography is a new one for me as well. Intel seems to be on to something using Ethnography in their business strategy. It makes sense that if you understand consumer trends you can more effectively design products that they want.
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