Ethics and care in qualitative research

This chapter considers the key ethical considerations scholars should ponder when conducting qualitative marketing and consumer research. We begin by considering the two types of ethical considerations that Guillemin and Gillam (2004) distinguish: 1) procedural ethics, which involves obtaining approval from an ethics committee, and 2) ‘ethics in practice’, or the ethical issues that arise during the course of the research. We identify the tensions between these two domains. Ultimately, we advocate for and adopt a perspective on relational ethics that acknowledges the interconnected network of ethical issues faced by qualitative marketing and consumer researchers and focuses attention on interpersonal bonds and connections.