Book review: Creative Research Methods in the Social Sciences – A Practical Guide

The book ‘Creative Research Methods in the Social Sciences: A Practical Guide’, authored by Helen Kara, introduces creative research methods to social science researchers. This is because, as the author puts it, ‘Doing research is an inherently creative activity at all stages of the process. The more methodological tools a researcher is able to use, … Continue reading Book review: Creative Research Methods in the Social Sciences – A Practical Guide

New book: The Dark Side of CRM

I just received my copy of the book 'The Dark Side of CRM - Customers, relationships and management', which I co-edited with Bang Nguyen and Lyndon Simkin and can be ordered here. The book tackles the duplicitous practices and undesirable behaviours that affect the relationships between firms and customers. Building relationships with customers enables a firm to learn … Continue reading New book: The Dark Side of CRM

Varian: Say what to do, not what it is

This weekend I decided to clean my paper files. Tucked in between my notes on refining your research questions, or writing a PhD thesis, I came across this 2001 article by Hal Varian with writing advice. The article has various useful tips, both general advice about writing, and specific advice about writing three different types of … Continue reading Varian: Say what to do, not what it is

July 2015 round-up

July was a strange month, and yet very typical of this time of the year. I returned to my teaching and managerial responsibilities following the end of the sabbatical (including an office move), attended the Academy of Marketing Conference in Ireland, and had annual leave. My #5pm pictures tell a great story about this … Continue reading July 2015 round-up

New book: The Private Security State

I am delighted to let you know about the publication of the book “The Private Security State? Surveillance, Consumer Data and the War on Terror”. This book is the outcome of a large research project led by Professor Kirstie Ball, at the Open University, and which I was part of. This project looked at the … Continue reading New book: The Private Security State

How presenting your work can help you improve it

This isn’t a real post. Just the musings of a tired mind. Over the past few weeks, and specially the past few days, I have been kicking myself for committing to present the findings of the ‘Digitalisation of SMEs’ project (I mentioned it on the blog, earlier - for instance, here), at a research seminar … Continue reading How presenting your work can help you improve it

Why I edited an Wikipedia entry

It seems that mentioning that I had edited an entry in Wikipedia raised some questions marks (and, possibly, an eyebrow or two). To be clear, I wrote a very, very small sentence, in the Wikipedia entry for ‘Co-Creation’. If you had checked it just before and after my addition, you would probably not even notice … Continue reading Why I edited an Wikipedia entry

New book ‘Social Media in Social Research: Blogs on Blurring the Boundaries’

Today is the day. It’s the launch of the book ‘Social Media in Social Research: Blogs on Blurring the Boundaries’, to which I contributed a chapter on using social media for qualitative research. The book was curated by Kandy Woodfield and is original in that she invited a broad range of social research experts to … Continue reading New book ‘Social Media in Social Research: Blogs on Blurring the Boundaries’

Advice for creating short video presentations?

I was searching for some materials for my lecture, and came across the video below, summarising an academic journal article that I use in my teaching, and which I blogged about here. I really, really liked this video. The camera follows a woman walking in a busy high street, while a female voice-over talks about … Continue reading Advice for creating short video presentations?