The evolution and structure of internet-based consumer research : a citation analysis

The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic literature review into the evolution and structure of internet-based ethnographic consumer research during the twenty-year period between 1996 and 2015. The results of a quantitative citation analysis and a qualitative synthesis are presented which demonstrate the limited engagement that marketing researchers have had with the discipline and the limited degree to which the discipline has influenced that literature. This hitherto lack of research presents a significant lacuna and a significant opportunity for marketing scholarship to engage further with that literature. Similarly, there are particular thematic areas where knowledge is currently lacking. Taken together, the quantitative citation analysis and qualitative synthesis demonstrate that netnography is very much an emerging trend in the consumer research literature and there are many theoretical, empirical and practical bases upon which it may be applied, especially in the context of future studies. Keywords: citation analysis, consumer research, netnography, systematic literature review