The course is aimed at students with basic knowledge of qualitative research methods.

The course aims at equipping students with competences for carrying out ethnographic empirical research in a variety of market settings inside and outside the organization, in consumer studies and in intra-organizational communication studies. The course therefore enables students to empirically generate insights for market research, strategic communication, branding, and product innovation processes. Further, the course equips the students with foundational skills for using ethnographic and qualitative methods in their master's thesis. The course is designed to cover the basics of ethnographic methods in market contexts. It focuses on the challenges of doing ethnographic research in globalized market contexts and in organizations.

The research process:

Research techniques include:

Students are required to demonstrate advanced knowledge of the qualitative research process and demonstrate their ability to apply the methodological procedures and data collection/analysis tools introduced in the course. The student must be able to systematically develop new insights on the basis of suitable qualitative data. The student must be able to compare a variety of methods in relation to the chosen research topic and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the methods. The student should be able to critically reflect on the use of ethnography and apply and interpret ethnographic data in relation to theoretical developments and practical/managerial implications.

The students has fulfilled the learning goals of the course when he or she can:

More specifically this means that the student should be able to:

Examples:

Textbooks:

Spring.

2 X 2 hours per week for 11 weeks.

In order to enable the students to achieve the learning objectives of the course, the teaching is organised in such a way that it provides students with knowledge of key concepts and methods in market ethnography, while also supporting students’ individual project work.

The course is based on a combination of lectures with active student participation, student presentations, online discussions, and online feedback. Students will work on a project from the beginning of the course, utilizing a limited set of the issues introduced in class.

The workload of the course:

Lectures: 44 hours.

Preparation: 90 hours.

Preparation of exercises: 25 hours.

Exam preparation: 111 hours.

In total: 270 hours.

Ordinary examination in June.

Reexamination in August.

The form of the reexam is subject to change. This will be announced 14 days befiore the reexam takes place.

Registration for the course is automatically a registration for the ordinary examination in the course. Cancellation is not possible. If the student does not participate in the examination, the student will use an examination attempt.

Active participation in practical group exercises during the semster.

Internally evaluated.

Written report.

Duration: Date for submission will appear from the examination plan.

Location: Home assignment.

Internet Access: Necessary.

Hand in: Via SDU-assignment in the course page in Blackboard.

Extent: 30 pages for four students and additional 5 pages per extra group member, excluding appendices. The appendix must contain examples of coded primary data collected by the group so that an evaluation of the quality of both the data and the coding is possible.

Exam Aids: All exam aids allowed.

The report can be written in groups of min. 4 and max. 5 students. The report must be written in English.

Deviations from this may be granted by the teacher based on special circumstances.

The preface must contain a co-author statement, specifying who was the responsible lead authors for which main section  of the term paper , such that an individual evaluation is possible. While the other team members necessarily contribute directly (e.g. writing some parts of the text) or indirectly (e.g. collecting and analyzing data) to all parts of the report, there is always one lead author who has designed this section, revised it and checked its final version, so that he or she is responsible of the content.

The report presents a self-chosen topic in which the students apply the course content to their own research project and develop empirical, theoretical and strategic recommendations. The topic of the report must be pre-approved by the lecturer.

The report must document a) the form(s) and extent of data collection and b) the data analysis (coding) undertaken by the group.