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To introduce the contents of the special issue, and provide an integrative overview of the development of observational methodologies in marketing research, as well as some directions for the future.

A historical review of the development of observational methods, beginning with philosophical foundations, is provided. Key philosophical debates are summarized, and trends in observational methods are described and analyzed, with particular reference to the impact of technology. Following this, the contributions to the special issue are summarized and brought together.

Observational research in marketing is more than the well‐known method of “participant‐observation.” In fact, technology has the potential to revolutionize observational research, and move it beyond a solely “qualitative” method. The internet, video, scanner‐tracking, and neuroimaging methods are all likely to have a big impact on the development of traditional and innovative observation methods in the future. The articles in the special issue provide a good overview of these developments.

The views of the authors may differ from those of others.

Observation is a far more wide‐ranging strategy than many perceive. There is a need for more expertise in all types of observational methodologies within marketing research schools and departments, in order to take account of the vast opportunities which are currently emerging.

Provides an original perspective on observational methods, and serves as a useful overview of trends and developments in the field.

A customer’s visit to a retail website is a critical “moment of truth” during which contemporary retailers attempt to simultaneously, during a single web navigation, capture customers’ attention, build rapport, and prompt them to act. By showing how to capture customer commitment over the course of a single website visit, the concept of customer website engagement, defined as “the process of developing cognitive, affective and behavioural commitment to an active relationship with the website”, addresses strategic concerns. Drawing from literature on engagement, the purpose of this paper is to consider how retail websites can engage customers during the course of a website navigation. A conceptual model of website customer engagement underpinned by relationship marketing and communication knowledge, shows how perceptions of the website’s exploration and sense-making potential can activate consumer engagement, and is then empirically tested.

Using survey data, measures of the four dimensions of engagement (interaction engagement, activity engagement, behavioural engagement, and communication engagement) and of three drivers are developed and validated. The model is tested empirically (n=301) using structural equation modelling.

The results support the process conceptualisation of engagement, which identifies organismic as well as conative stages, and show the distinct roles played by perceptions of informational exploration, experiential exploration and sense-making in activating engagement.

The study provides online retailing practice with an organising framework enabling online retailing managers to consider how, depending on their product category and their size, they might (re)design their website to optimally produce customer engagement.

The study contributes to online marketing and retailing knowledge by showing the relevance of the concept of engagement as it pertains to customers’ single navigations on retail websites, and by empirically showing, through a parsimonious model, how engagement can be activated and unfold.

The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer emotions and the social science and observation measures that can be utilised to capture the emotional experiences of consumers. The paper is not setting out to solve the theoretical debate surrounding emotion research, rather to provide an assessment of methodological options available to researchers to aid their investigation into both the structure and content of the consumer emotional experience, acknowledging both the conscious and subconscious elements of that experience.

A review of a wide range of prior research from the fields of marketing, consumer behaviour, psychology and neuroscience are examined to identify the different observation methods available to marketing researchers in the study of consumer emotion. This review also considers the self report measures available to researchers and identifies the main theoretical debates concerning emotion to provide a comprehensive overview of the issues surrounding the capture of emotional responses in a marketing context and to highlight the benefits that observation methods offer this area of research.

This paper evaluates three observation methods and four widely used self report measures of emotion used in a marketing context. Whilst it is recognised that marketers have shown preference for the use of self report measures in prior research, mainly due to ease of implementation, it is posited that the benefits of observation methodology and the wealth of data that can be obtained using such methods can compliment prior research. In addition, the use of observation methods cannot only enhance our understanding of the consumer emotion experience but also enable us to collaborate with researchers from other fields in order to make progress in understanding emotion.

This paper brings perspectives and methods together to provide an up to date consideration of emotion research for marketers. In order to generate valuable research in this area there is an identified need for discussion and implementation of the observation techniques available to marketing researchers working in this field. An evaluation of a variety of methods is undertaken as a point to start discussion or consideration of different observation techniques and how they can be utilised.

The purpose of this paper is to bring international marketing and consumer research attention to multicultural marketplaces as a new focal research lens. It develops a conceptualisation of multicultural marketplaces, demonstrating why they constitute new conceptual territory, before specifying five key areas for research development.

The paper draws from seminal international marketing literature and other fields to propose perspective shifts, and suggest theories and frameworks of potential usefulness to the five research areas.

The paper conceptualises multicultural marketplaces as place-centred environments (physical or virtual) where the marketers, consumers, brands, ideologies and institutions of multiple cultures converge at one point of concurrent interaction, while also being potentially connected to multiple cultures in other localities. Five key areas for research development are specified, each with a different conceptual focus: increasing complexity of cultural identities (identity), differentiation of national political contexts (national integration policies), intergroup conviviality practices and conflictual relationships (intergroup relations), interconnectedness of transnational networks (networks), and cultural dynamics requiring multicultural adaptiveness (competences).

For each research area, a number of research avenues and theories and frameworks of potential interest are proposed.

The paper demonstrates why multicultural marketplaces constitute new conceptual territory for international marketing and consumer research; it provides a conceptualisation of these marketplaces and a comprehensive research agenda.

Research was carried out with 185 respondents (general managers and senior doctors) who had completed the Belbin Team Role Self Perception Inventory. The purpose was to determine any differences in perceived team‐role behaviour which might be associated with occupation and gender. The research found that two team‐role clusters emerged, with doctors significantly more likely to fall into one and managers significantly more likely to fall into the other. Doctors were more often associated with roles focused on the team and achievement of the task, while managers were more often associated with leadership roles and an external focus. The research also found significant differences between men and women on two of the team‐role types, women showing preference for the more intellectual roles within teams.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a more thorough understanding of cognitive social capital (shared representations) building in a multicultural marketing context.

An ethnographic study with in-depth interviews and observations are used to explore how Chinese entrepreneurs utilize cultural metaphors to build their cognitive social capital in the USA. Both Chinese entrepreneurs and their American stakeholders (consumers and business associates) are interviewed.

The three themes from the findings are cultural conceptual blending, frame shifting with stereotype dilution and metaphor conversion. These form the sub-processes of an overall process the authors name “cross-cultural shifting.” The use of visual and verbal cultural metaphors by the Chinese entrepreneurs leads to conceptual blending, a process of blending of elements and relations from various scenarios in the mind. A frame shifting and stereotype dilution follows, culminating in the conversion of the cultural metaphors into the deep (universally recognized) metaphors of resource and connection.

Given that metaphors are one manifestations of culture and also effective for communicating universally, they play a role in cognitive social capital building in a multicultural context. This exposition calls for further research the utilization of cultural metaphors in international marketing.

The variability in communication and comprehension of business stakeholders from different cultures influence their cognitive social capital building (cooperative behavior to exchange resources). This makes it imperative for multicultural marketers to understand the use of cultural metaphors to enhance cognitive social capital in a multicultural context.

This exposition on cross-cultural frame shifting will result in improved knowledge of the role of cultural metaphors in enhancing multicultural understanding, shared representations and cognitive social capital in international marketing.

The purpose of this paper is to address the gap in the literature on experiential elements of online shopping environments.

The paper uses a theory‐building approach to understand how consumers perceive their experience of the navigation of an online shopping environment and identifies the facets which make up their experiential intensity. The paper first reviews the literature on the experiential attributes of web sites. It then outlines the methodology and explains the use of a “shopping with consumers” approach to uncover consumer perceptions.

Combining think‐alouds with in‐depth interviews, four dimensions of experiential intensity are found (context familiarity, product presence, visual impact and site‐user understanding), and related to four perceptions of a shopping navigation, as: an experience, a tool, an environment, and a dialogue between shopper and web site.

This conceptualisation adds to the literature on experience creation, which is critical in delivering consumer value. It is more specific and extensive than extant typologies, clarifies the construct and increases its explanatory power. Think‐alouds and depth interviews are shown to yield valuable insights. Consumer perceptions reflect the expectations they have of shopping environments. When shopping online, consumers think like shoppers, not computer users. They want to feel in a familiar shopping context. They want to examine products closely and seek the sense of personal relationship and involvement induced by site‐user understanding. Marketers need to harness technological developments to respond to these expectations. Practically, the study provides e‐retailers with a framework to assess the current levels of experiential intensity, or initiate the creation of more intense experiences.

This study seeks to adopt a holistic approach to consider how consumers perceive online shopping environments. The conceptual model proposes that consumers perceive these environments in terms of their sense‐making and exploratory potential, and it considers the influence of these on user involvement with the web site, shopping value and intention to revisit.

A survey was administered to 301 respondents after they had shopped on a specific web site for eight minutes. Structural equation modelling was used to validate the measures developed and test the hypothesised model.

Sense‐making and exploratory potential are distinct constructs; exploratory potential mediates the relationship between sense‐making potential and involvement. Furthermore, involvement is essential in producing shopping value and intention to revisit.

The study highlights the importance of the exploratory potential of web sites since sense‐making is necessary but not sufficient to involve customers with the content of a site. It reveals that, in spite of sensory limitations and consumers' possibly more instrumental orientation in online contexts, they are still very sensitive to the shopping experience for its own sake.

The two concepts of sense‐making and exploratory potential and their ten dimensions provide marketers with their own consumer‐focused language when discussing the aims of their web site with information systems and design specialists.

This study suggests that the distinction between sense‐making and exploratory potential is a pertinent and parsimonious organising framework to understand holistically how online shopping environments are perceived and impact on consumers when they shop online.