doi: 10.56294/dm202325
SHORT COMMUNICATION
Mapping the Landscape of Netnographic Research: A Bibliometric Study of Social Interactions and Digital Culture
Mapeando el panorama de la investigación netnográfica: un estudio bibliométrico de las interacciones sociales y la cultura digital
Carlos Alberto Gómez Cano1 
*, Verenice Sánchez Castillo2 , Tulio
Andrés Clavijo Gallego3
1Corporación Unificada Nacional de Educación Superior – CUN. Florencia, Colombia.
2Universidad de la Amazonía. Florencia, Colombia.
3Universidad del Cauca. Popayán, Colombia.
Cite as: Gómez Cano CA, Sánchez Castillo V, Clavijo Gallego TA. Mapping the Landscape of Netnographic Research: A Bibliometric Study of Social Interactions and Digital Culture. Data & Metadata. 2023;2:25. https://doi.org/10.56294/dm202325
Submitted: 31-01-2023 Revised: 16-02-2023 Accepted: 20-03-2023 Published: 21-03-2023
Editor: Dr.
William Castillo González
ABSTRACT
Introduction: netnography is a research method that has emerged in response to the growing popularity of online communication and social networks.
Aim: to analyze communication patterns about netnography in the Scopus database.
Methods: a bibliometric study was conducted in the Scopus database on netnography. The analysis was conducted globally, by country, and by institution.
Results: a total of 11173 documents and 2213 authors were recovered. 35,1 % of the documents were open access. The global field-weighted citation impact was 1,27. the most productive ones in the following order: United Kingdom (275 documents), United States (223 documents), Australia (165 documents), Brazil (100 documents), and France (83 documents).
Conclusions: the results show that netnography is an emerging area of research, with a wide geographic and thematic diversity, that has experienced steady growth in recent years and is being explored in a variety of contexts, from market research to the analysis of social dynamics online.
Keywords: Netnography; Bibliometrics; Online Communities; Virtual Communities; Web Based Communities.
RESUMEN
Introducción: la netnografía es un método de investigación que ha surgido en respuesta a la creciente popularidad de la comunicación en línea y las redes sociales.
Objetivo: analizar los patrones de comunicación sobre netnografía en la base de datos Scopus.
Métodos: se llevó a cabo un estudio bibliométrico en la base de datos Scopus sobre netnografía. El análisis se realizó a nivel global, por país y por institución.
Resultados: se recuperaron un total de 11173 documentos y 2213 autores. El 35,1% de los documentos eran de acceso abierto. El impacto de citas ponderado por campo global fue de 1,27. Los países más productivos fueron, en orden, Reino Unido (275 documentos), Estados Unidos (223 documentos), Australia (165 documentos), Brasil (100 documentos) y Francia (83 documentos).
Conclusiones: los resultados muestran que la netnografía es un área emergente de investigación, con una amplia diversidad geográfica y temática, que ha experimentado un crecimiento constante en los últimos años y que está siendo explorada en una amplia variedad de contextos, desde la investigación de mercado hasta el análisis de las dinámicas sociales en línea.
Palabras clave: Netnografía; Bibliometría; Comunidades en Línea; Comunidades Virtuales; Comunidades Basadas en la Web.
INTRODUCTION
Netnography is a research method that has emerged in response to the growing popularity of online communication and social networks. It involves the use of ethnographic methods to study online communities, their culture, and the social interactions that take place within them. Netnography allows researchers to explore the dynamics of online communities and the way individuals construct and communicate their identities in these digital spaces.(1,2)
The study of netnography is relatively new, but it has already proven to be a fruitful area of research. As the use of digital technologies continues to grow and evolve, the potential for netnographic research to provide insights into human behavior and communication in digital spaces becomes increasingly important.(3)
Netnography can be used to study a wide variety of online communities, from consumer communities to political movements, providing researchers with a valuable tool for exploring a range of phenomena in the digital world.(4)
Bibliometric studies provide a quantitative analysis of research output in a particular field, allowing researchers to identify trends, patterns, and key contributors.(5) It is necessary to develop a bibliometric study of netnography to provide an overview of the research landscape worldwide.
Objective: to analyze communication patterns about netnography in the Scopus database.
METHODS
A bibliometric study was conducted in the Scopus database on netnography, using the search strategy "TITLE-ABS-KEY (netnograph*)", and then the data were exported to the SciVal tool for analysis. Descriptive bibliometric indicators such as the number of documents (Ndoc), number of citations (Ncit), citations per publication (CPP), and The Global Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) were used. Furthermore, collaboration networks among countries and authors, as well as term co-occurrence, were analyzed using Vosviewer and Bibexel. The analysis was conducted globally, by country, and by institution.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A total of 11 173 documents and 2 213 authors were recovered. 35,1 % of the documents were open access. The global field-weighted citation impact was 1,27.
The documents received 20 100 citations (17,1 citations per publication). Figure 1 shows the main bibliometric indicators of scientific production on Netnography by year. No patents on this subject were found.
Figure 1. Main bibliometric indicators by year
The Scholarly Output in Netnography with both academic and corporate author affiliations were 0,9 % (Ndoc: 11; CPP: 6,2; FWCI: 1,20). 23,5 % of the documents had international collaboration, 21,7 % national collaboration, and 32,2 % institutional collaboration (table 1).
There are 821 Institutions in Netnography. Table 2 shows the institutions with at least 10 published papers.
|
Table 1. Scholarly Output in Netnography by amount of international, national and institutional collaboration |
|||||
|
Metric |
Ndoc |
% |
Ncit |
CPP |
FWCI |
|
International collaboration |
275 |
23,5 |
5494 |
20 |
1,43 |
|
Only national collaboration |
254 |
21,7 |
3959 |
15,6 |
1,34 |
|
Only institutional collaboration |
377 |
32,2 |
6679 |
17,7 |
1,05 |
|
No collaboration |
265 |
22,6 |
3968 |
15 |
1,37 |
|
Table 2. Institutions in Netnography |
|||||||
|
Institution |
Sector |
Country |
Ndoc |
Ncit |
Authors |
CPP |
FWCI |
|
University of Southern California |
Academic |
United States |
18 |
438 |
4 |
24,3 |
3,8 |
|
University of Queensland |
Academic |
Australia |
16 |
493 |
12 |
30,8 |
1,93 |
|
Griffith University Queensland |
Academic |
Australia |
15 |
492 |
20 |
32,8 |
2,29 |
|
Bournemouth University |
Academic |
United Kingdom |
15 |
641 |
16 |
42,7 |
2,94 |
|
York University Toronto |
Academic |
Canada |
15 |
207 |
7 |
13,8 |
1,94 |
|
The University of Auckland |
Academic |
New Zealand |
13 |
1993 |
16 |
153,3 |
3,7 |
|
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University |
Academic |
Australia |
12 |
308 |
15 |
25,7 |
1,64 |
|
Southern Cross University |
Academic |
Australia |
12 |
509 |
6 |
42,4 |
1,36 |
|
Aalborg University |
Academic |
Denmark |
12 |
79 |
14 |
6,6 |
0,62 |
|
University of Aveiro |
Academic |
Portugal |
12 |
67 |
13 |
5,6 |
0,75 |
|
Edith Cowan University |
Academic |
Australia |
11 |
210 |
17 |
19,1 |
1,72 |
|
Hong Kong Polytechnic University |
Academic |
Hong Kong |
11 |
195 |
17 |
17,7 |
1,31 |
|
University of Surrey |
Academic |
United Kingdom |
11 |
522 |
7 |
47,5 |
2,85 |
|
Tampere University |
Academic |
Finland |
10 |
147 |
14 |
14,7 |
0,9 |
|
Liverpool John Moores University |
Academic |
United Kingdom |
10 |
112 |
11 |
11,2 |
0,67 |
Figure 2 segment size represents relative publication published per Subject Area. It is valid to clarify that a publication can be mapped to multiple Subject Areas.
Figure 2. Publication by Subject Area
The most productive authors were Muchazondida Mkono (16 documents), Robert V. Kozinets (15 documents), and Daiane Scaraboto (10 documents). Figure 3 shows the authorship networks of the scientific production on Netnography.
Figure 3. Authorship network
Figure 4 shows the collaboration network among countries, highlighting the most productive ones in the following order: United Kingdom (275 documents), United States (223 documents), Australia (165 documents), Brazil (100 documents), and France (83 documents).
Figure 4. Network of countries
A qualitative analysis of the publications was carried out, ranging from descriptive ones such as the 20 Topics & Topic Clusters (table 3) and the Topics & Topic Clusters by Subject Area (figure 5). On the other hand, Vosviewer was used to visualize the co-occurrence of terms (figure 6) and the density visualization (figure 7).
|
Table 3. Top 20 Topics & Topic Clusters |
||
|
Topic |
NDoc |
FWCI |
|
Marketing; Consumer Culture; Netnography |
210 |
1,33 |
|
Social Media; Online Reviews; Brand Community |
116 |
1,66 |
|
Place; Heritage Tourism; Tourist Experience |
42 |
1,57 |
|
Product-service Systems; Service Economy; Value Co-Creation |
19 |
1,88 |
|
Open Source Software Development; User Innovation; Photographic Developers |
16 |
0,94 |
|
Social Media; Election Campaigns; Political Communication |
15 |
0,47 |
|
Self-Help Groups; Social Support; Public Health |
15 |
0,74 |
|
Platforms; Collaborative Consumption; Peer to Peer |
15 |
1,55 |
|
Social Networking Sites; Social Media; Instagram |
13 |
0,84 |
|
Wine; Hedonic Price Function; Implicit Price |
13 |
1,81 |
|
Travel Motivation; Music Festival; Destination |
12 |
0,64 |
|
Online Games; Avatar; Players |
11 |
0,56 |
|
Technology Acceptance Model; Mobile Payment; E-Learning |
7 |
1,99 |
|
Synthetic Cannabinoid; Mephedrone; 1-Pentyl-3-(1-Naphthoyl)Indole |
7 |
1,4 |
|
Team Identification; Sports Fans; Social Media |
7 |
0,61 |
|
Customer Satisfaction; Complaint Behavior; Perceived Justice |
6 |
1,41 |
|
Servicescape; Customer Experience; Community Participation |
6 |
2,39 |
|
Destination Image; Competitiveness; Revisit Intention |
6 |
1,2 |
|
Twitter; Medical Education; Professionalism |
6 |
1,08 |
|
Celebrity Endorsement; VIP; Purchase Intention |
6 |
1,06 |
Figure 5. Topics & Topic Clusters by Subject Area
Figure 6. Cooccurrence of terms
Figure 7. Density Visualization
DISCUSSION
Kozinets(6) established four principles for conducting netnographic research:
• Researchers must be transparent about their presence and identity to the members of the online community they are studying.
• The privacy and anonymity of the informants must be protected by the researcher.
• The researcher should actively seek and incorporate feedback from online community members.
• The researcher should obtain permission from community members before directly quoting any specific postings.
Netnographies are like extraction and exploration mining rigs; netnographies can try to use a lot of tools to analyze word counts, sentiment analyses, and natural language similarities to known routines, to derive cultural understanding in a given context.(7)
A netnography study is a method of market research that is interested in ‘computer mediated conversations’. A netnography study is relevant for the analysis of customer attitudes and brand behavior online. It is still a rather novel approach to research, often advocating the combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques and tools for tapping into the mindset of customers in the virtual space. Netnography helps researchers in deriving a communicative and cultural comprehension of the embedded understanding of the customer thought process by mapping the customer comments posted on social media.(6)
In relation to the most productive countries, it coincides that there are specific strategies for the development of netnography, used in a variety of contexts, from studying online communities to market research, and providing valuable information about online communities, consumer opinions, and Internet user behaviors.
In the United Kingdom, Goad et al.(8) found that the use of netnography in the UK has significantly increased in recent years, and is expected to continue growing in the future. In the United States, Kozinets et al.(9) showed that it is a valuable tool for market research and analysis of public opinion. Meanwhile, in Brazil,(10,11) its application is particularly useful for understanding consumer behaviors online.
The thematic categories allow organizing and categorizing areas of knowledge. Reflecting on the most relevant ones found, we can systematize that in relation to:
• Business, Management and Accounting: netnography is a useful tool for market research, allowing researchers to obtain valuable information about consumers and online communities, which can be used to improve business decision-making.(12)
• Social Sciences: netnography allows researchers to study the dynamics of online communities and how individuals construct and communicate their identities in these digital spaces, providing valuable information about social behaviors and human interactions.(13)
• Economics: netnography is a useful tool for market research, allowing researchers to obtain valuable information about consumer preferences and behaviors online, which can be used to improve business decision-making and the development of commercial strategies.(14,15)
• Computer Science: netnography uses ethnographic research methods to study online communities, their culture, and the social interactions that take place within them, involving the use of computer tools and techniques for the collection and analysis of online data.(7,16)
Netnographic researchers deal with a range of multimedia content, including images, drawings, photography, sound files, edited audiovisual presentations, website creations and other digital artifacts.(2)
In order to migrate the refined perceptivity of ethnography to online media, netnography provides participative guidelines, such as the inclusion of Skype interviews, and in-person participative fieldwork, and an advocacy of the research web-page. With methodological rigor, care, and humility, netnography provides a dance of possibilities for human understanding in social technological interaction. The interpretation of human communications under realistic contexts is a key aspect of netnography, as it allows for a deeper understanding of native conditions of interaction when those human communications are shaped by new technologies.(2)
These approaches are aligned with the findings of term co-occurrence in netnographic research, where the thematic cores take into account the variety of multimedia content and the context in which it is created and consumed.
A detailed qualitative analysis of the main themes in netnographic research has allowed researchers to gain a deep understanding of the key topics in the field. As a relatively young and evolving area, this analysis can provide valuable information about trends and changes in the field, as well as identify areas where more research is needed.
Furthermore, this analysis can provide information about the current challenges and limitations of the field, which can help researchers focus their future work on areas where improvements or innovative approaches are needed.
As noted by Vega-Almeida et al.(17) a qualitative analysis of the main themes in netnographic research can also help identify gaps in the literature and areas where more research is needed. This can be especially valuable for researchers seeking to conduct new studies in the field, as it allows them to identify areas of research that may have a greater impact and generate new knowledge.
Limitations and future perspectives
This bibliometric study on netnography has focused solely on the Scopus database, which can be considered a limitation in terms of comprehensiveness. It is possible that some relevant publications may not have been included in this database. Therefore, future bibliometric studies should include other relevant databases and sources of information.
This analysis has mainly focused on the quantity of publications and their temporal and geographical distribution, providing an overview of the scientific production on netnography. However, future bibliometric studies should delve deeper into the analysis of emerging themes and trends in netnography research.
On the other hand, the results of this study provide valuable information for researchers and professionals working in the field of netnography, as it allows them to identify the main trends and patterns in scientific production. This can be used to improve the planning and management of future research and projects in the field of netnography.
CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, this bibliometric study on netnography in the Scopus database provides a general overview of the scientific production landscape in this field. The results show that netnography is an emerging area of research, with a wide geographic and thematic diversity, that has experienced steady growth in recent years and is being explored in a variety of contexts, from market research to the analysis of social dynamics online.
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13. Gambetti R. Netnography, Digital Habitus, and Technocultural Capital. Netnography Unlimited, Routledge; 2020.
14. Atsız O, Seyitoğlu F. A netnography approach on the daily local-guided shopping tour experiences of travellers: An unexplored facet of the sharing economy. Journal of Vacation Marketing 2023;29:103–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/13567667221078248.
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17. Vega-Almeida RL, Arencibia-Jorge R. La investigación sobre Ciencias de la Información en Cuba: flujos del conocimiento durante el período 2005-2019. Iberoamerican Journal of Science Measurement and Communication 2021;1:1–28. https://doi.org/10.47909/ijsmc.50.
FINANCING
None.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
No conflict of interest.
AUTHORSHIP CONTRIBUTION
Conceptualization: Carlos Alberto Gómez Cano, Verenice Sánchez Castillo, Tulio Andrés Clavijo Gallego.
Methodology: Carlos Alberto Gómez Cano, Verenice Sánchez Castillo, Tulio Andrés Clavijo Gallego.
Software: Carlos Alberto Gómez Cano, Verenice Sánchez Castillo, Tulio Andrés Clavijo Gallego.
Investigation: Carlos Alberto Gómez Cano, Verenice Sánchez Castillo, Tulio Andrés Clavijo Gallego.
Original writing-drafting: Carlos Alberto Gómez Cano, Verenice Sánchez Castillo, Tulio Andrés Clavijo Gallego.
Writing-revision and editing: Carlos Alberto Gómez Cano, Verenice Sánchez Castillo, Tulio Andrés Clavijo Gallego.