Marketing Research in the Digital Age: Questions for Researchers Entering a Magical World

The adoption and use of multiple digital technologies by consumers and organisations has created new opportunities to understand those interactions, as well as interactions between consumers. Research approaches have moved... [ view full abstract ]

The adoption and use of multiple digital technologies by consumers and organisations has created new opportunities to understand those interactions, as well as interactions between consumers. Research approaches have moved beyond established methodological boundaries and towards researching the ‘life as lived’. This conceptual paper considers how our understanding of marketing research is evolving as a result of the digital era across six identified themes; boundary blurring of research types, types of data available, static versus dynamic view of research, changing nature of data, sampling questions, and automation in research. Each of these themes raises questions concerning how marketing research is designed and conducted. The contribution of this paper resides in the identification of key questions which will assist in shaping methodological thinking in marketing.