Expanding knowledge of institutional complexity through the hyphen-spaces opened up by participant videography

Abstract

Despite the success of videographic methods, they have not been used to expand the range of contexts where institutional complexity informs marketing theory. In applying participant videography to such a study, however, we can also better understand how both methods and researchers themselves are variously embedded in the institutional complexity being studied. We explore this through the idea of hyphen-spaces amongst researchers, between researcher and participants, and involving the technologies used in research. We show how video helps researchers to understand institutional complexity in contexts where consumption practices may be difficult for participants to reflect on and articulate. We then further explain how interpreting video data opens up hyphen-spaces in which the research team can reflect on their own institutional embeddedness and implicit political aims.