Method and Narrative form of Ethnographic Research 05/06/2021

In this session, we were faced with a fundamental question- “Why do we need Business
Anthropology?”
To answer this, Malinowski talks about Trobriand Islanders in the Pacific and Donald about his periods
with the Al Murrah Bedouin in Saudi Arabia. Both of them were in a foreign land where they were
completely unaware of their language, food habits and acceptable social behavior. Thus, the only way to
learn was through a process called participant observation which primarily focuses on qualitative
(ethnographic) techniques rather than quantitative ones.

In business anthropology, this process can be carried out through interviews which range from
unstructured to highly structured ones having a strict set of questionnaires.

The main purpose of ethnography is to obtain an in-depth comprehension of people and their culture.
Now, in the main practice of participant observation, ethnographers observe their subjects in their
natural environment and depend upon passage of time to get a natural reaction out of them. But this
process of participant observation is time consuming and hence anthropologists are moving towards a
faster and less toiling form of ethnography, called digital ethnography.

In this fast-paced world where everyone needs to be connected at all times, companies are using digital
innovations like Big Data, Machine Learning, AI to process this huge amount of electronic data and
making use of it.

As shown in the presentation in the class, companies are taking the help of semiotics in order to connect
with its customer base. For example, the M of McDonald’s is represented in such a way that it indicates
a smiley face, indicating a sense of happiness upon consumption of their products. Also, the arrow in the
Amazon logo not only signifies its a to z business contingency plan but also represents the happiness
they bring to people with their services.

Analysis of Social Situations

Anthropologists focused on systematic social networks while focusing on kinship. The network analysis
they conducted focused on a structure or a pattern in organizations-formal or informal. This network
analysis helps in creating a linkage pattern to explain organizational behavior. It is used to understand
conflict management in corporate executives.

Also, we learnt about Kinship analysis which leads to social practices related to brand attachment or
‘nostalgia’ factor.

Amalgamation of qualitative and quantitative methods

U.S. anthropologists have been grappling with quantitative data and ways to make the best use of it for
decades now, and we certainly understand the importance of context in analytical data. Methods like
statistical inferences add rich detail to open ended research and give it a specific direction.
Hence the question in hand becomes that ‘Can Ethnographic research be used hand in hand with
quantitative tools and expertise?’ and can virtual ethnography be as useful as the traditional
participant observation? But with each passing day as more and more people are getting dependent
digitally, virtual ethnography is becoming ever so relevant.