Watch the recordings of the two panels held at this event on the use of ethnography in business research.
Organised by Daniel Beunza and Saeid Rahanjam, June 2024
Ethnography at Bayes
With its proximity to the City of London, excellence in qualitative research, and world-class faculty, Bayes Business School is uniquely positioned to exploit the growing interest in organizational culture through ethnographic research.
An established qualitative research methodology, ethnography involves the systematic study of culture through immersive fieldwork and participant observation. Initially deployed in anthropology to study remote communities, ethnography has since been adopted in business schools and business research.
Nowadays, businesses like Google and Facebook employ ethnographic methods to gain insights into user behaviour. Following the increased use of cultural audits by regulatory bodies, industries like banking and law have embraced ethnographic approaches to analyse their own cultures.
The event examined the distinct potential of ethnography in disciplines like organizational behaviour, sustainability, marketing, entrepreneurship, finance, or actuarial science. It did so by showcasing in two panels the ethnography research and related insights of Bayes academics.
The panels
The first panel considered the distinctive traits of ethnography by addressing questions like, how does ethnography differ from qualitative research in general? Or, what are ethnography's unique advantages?
A second panel turned to opportunities for ethnography in the City of London by exploring, for instance, how companies are already using ethnography, and how researchers at Bayes might take advantage of it.
This event brought together researchers interested in ethnography to foster collaboration and identify opportunities for research, impact, consulting, and executive education.
Panel 1: What is ethnography, and what is distinctive about it?
Introduction: Daniel Beunza
- Topic: What is distinctive about ethnography, and how can business schools leverage its potential for research, impact, teaching and consulting?
Speaker: Dipsikha Guha
- Topic: An Ethnographic reflection about navigating Caste-Gender Intersectionality in Global South, reflecting upon entrepreneurial experiences of rural women in India
Speaker: Joelle Evans
- Topic: The importance of immersion in ethnography
Speaker: Itziar Castello-Molina
- Topic: Exploring NETnography: challenges and opportunities of analysing communities online
Speaker: Nettra Pan
- Topic: Ethnography’s relationship to deductive research in the context of management theory-building & an in-depth case study of a social impact Venture Capital firm
Q&A
Panel 2: Opportunities for ethnography in the City of London
Introduction: Daisy Chung
- Topic: Opportunities for ethnographers at Bayes given its partnership the City of London Corporation
Speaker: Andreas Tsanakas
- Topic: A case study of using ethnography to understand how insurers deal with uncertainty in their risk models, plus an outline of future research opportunities in the field of fair insurance pricing
Speaker: Saeid Rahanjam
- Topic: The Rise of the Bank Culture Agenda: Exploring Bank Culture through Ethnography
Speaker: Alex Atanasova
- Topic: Ethnography and the study of consumer behavior in the marketing industry
Speaker: Daniel Beunza
- Topic: Ethnography training and behavioral interventions on organizational culture
Q&A
Speakers
Dipsikha GuhaResearch Student
Saeid RahanjamResearch Student
