What effects does digital servitization have on the development of online qualitative research? An exploratoty approach

  • Lázaro Echegaray Eizaguirre Camarabilbao University Business School, España
Keywords: Online qualitative research, Digital servitization, Data collection and analysis, Social research institutes

Abstract

Servitization is understood as the improvement of the supply of products and services through the application of value-added elements3. Throughout its existence, social and market research has relied on electronic services that have contributed to the development of quantitative methodology first and qualitative after. This article aims to analyze the effect of these technological developments on qualitative market research. Thus, from an exploratory and descriptive perspective, through desk research and content analysis, the relationship between digital servitization4 and qualitative methodology is described. The results show the existence and use of these tools in the marketing world and their implementation in social research institutes. However, it could be said that, despite its widespread implementation in the research industry, the recruitment figures remain very low.

Author Biography

Lázaro Echegaray Eizaguirre, Camarabilbao University Business School, España

Full-time professor and researcher at the Bilbao Chamber of Commerce University School, in the Social and Market Research and Consumer Behavior area. Research coordinator at the same center, his areas of interest revolve around market research and marketing, social communication, and innovation in all its fields. He holds a degree in Sociology and a PhD in Social Communication. He has produced extensive academic work in these fields and has six years of research experience. He has visited national and international universities as a visiting professor.

References

American Marketing Association (AMA). (2025, 24 de febrero). How social listening is the key to cultural relevance to your brand. https://www.ama.org/2025/02/24/how-social-listening-is-the-key-to-cultural-relevance-to-your-brand/

Alameda, D. (2019). El cualitativo en la era del ‘data’. Investigación y Marketing, (144).

Almaqbali, M. S. (2019). Challenges in managing and archiving Big Data in Oman's private sector. Journal of Information Science and Technology, 5(2), 45-60. Recuperado de https://www.researchgate.net/publication/392859009

Arlandi, L. (2025, 4 de marzo). Mediterránea. El valor del talento. Marketing Directo. https://www.marketingdirecto.com/punto-de-vista/la-columna/mediterranea-valor-talento

Atanet, D. (2015). La tecnología digitasl como palanca de cambio de la investigación. I&M (Investigación y marketing), Nº 128.

Bala, M. (2016). Innovaciones sociales para territorios “inteligentes”: ¿ficción o realidad? Problemas del desarrollo, 48(190), 11–35. https://doi.org/10.22201/iie.01874704p.2017.190.591

Barbu, A., & Isaic-Maniu, A. (2011). Data collection in Romanian market research: A comparison between prices of PAPI, CATI and CAWI. Management & Marketing, 6(3), 349–364. Recuperado de https://www.managementmarketing.ro/pdf/articole/230.pdf

Borcel, A., & Torres, O. (2024, diciembre). Potenciando la investigación cualitativa con IA: De la transcripción a la optimización del análisis [Webinar cápsula formativa]. Insights and Analytics.

Boegershausen, J., Datta, H., Borah, A., & Stephen, A. (2022). Fields of Gold: Web scraping and APIs for impactful marketing insights. Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

Bortels, I. (2019). ¿Estamos en un revival de la investigación cualitativa? I&M (Investigación y Marketing), Nº 144.

Echegaray, L. (2012). Análisis de la influencia de la implantación del modelo digital audiovisual en el estudio comercial de las audiencias: Tendencias metodológicas y opiniones del sector empresarial audiovisual (Tesis doctoral, Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea). Repositorio institucional. https://ekoizpen-zientifikoa.ehu.eus/documentos/5ecb7f62299952131520243e

Echegaray, L., & Peñafiel Saiz, C. (2013). La utilización de las redes sociales como nuevas herramientas aplicadas al análisis de audiencia. Trípodos, (33), 177–193. https://doi.org/10.1387/tripodos.12339

Echegaray, L. (2018). Historia de la investigación social: Un viaje desde la primera encuesta (S. XVIII) a la actual investigación online. ESIC.

Echegaray, L. (2024). Investigación cualitativa: Diseño, análisis y presentación de resultados. ESIC Editorial.

ESIC. (2018). Small data: ¿Qué es y cuál es la diferencia con el big data? https://www.esic.edu/rethink/tecnologia/small-data-que-es-y-cual-es-la-diferencia-con-el-big-data

Fowles, J. (1992). Why viewers watch: A reappraisal of television effects. Sage Publications

Guandalini, I. (2022). Sustainability through digital transformation: A systematic literature review for research guidance. Journal of Business Research, 148, 456–471. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.07.001

Hernández-Suárez, A., Sánchez-Pérez, G., Toscano-Medina, K., Martínez-Hernández, V., Sánchez, V., & Pérez-Meana, H. (2018). A web scraping methodology for bypassing Twitter API restrictions (arXiv:1803.09875). arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.09875

Humphrey, J., & Wang, J.-H. (2018). Social listening: A potential game changer in reputation management. Journal of Communication Management, 22(3), 274–291. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCOM-10-2017-0164

Insights and Analytics, & ESOMAR. (2021). Datos para España y mundiales de investigación de mercados en 2023: Informe anual elaborado por Insight and Analytics para España y compilado por ESOMAR para el total del mundo. I&A. https://ia-espana.org/estudios-y-otras-publicaciones/

Insights and Analytics, & ESOMAR. (2022). Datos para España y mundiales de investigación de mercados en 2023: Informe anual elaborado por Insight and Analytics para España y compilado por ESOMAR para el total del mundo. I&A. https://ia-espana.org/estudios-y-otras-publicaciones/

Insights and Analytics, & ESOMAR. (2023). Datos para España y mundiales de investigación de mercados en 2023: Informe anual elaborado por Insight and Analytics para España y compilado por ESOMAR para el total del mundo. I&A. https://ia-espana.org/estudios-y-otras-publicaciones/

Insights and Analytics, & ESOMAR. (2024). Datos para España y mundiales de investigación de mercados en 2023: Informe anual elaborado por Insight and Analytics para España y compilado por ESOMAR para el total del mundo. I&A. https://ia-espana.org/estudios-y-otras-publicaciones/

Khder, M. A. (2021). Web scraping or web crawling: State of the art, techniques, approaches, and applications. International Journal of Advances in Soft Computing and its Applications, 13(3).http://ijasca.zuj.edu.jo/PapersUploaded/2021.3.11.pdf

Kowalkowski, C., Gebauer, H., Kamp, B., & Parry, G. (2017). Servitization and deservitization: Overview, concepts, and definitions. Industrial Marketing Management, 60, 4–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2016.12.007

Lawson, R. (2015). Web Scraping with Paython. Scrape data from any website with the power of Paython. Packt Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78216-436-4.

Mattelart, A., & Mattelart, M. (1997). Historia de las teorías de la comunicación. Editorial Paidós.

Merchante, M. (2019). ¿Quién teme al cuali? Investigación y Marketing, (144). Recuperado de https://ia-espana.org/no-144-el-resurgir-del-cualitativo/

Mitchel, R. (2018). Web scraping with Python: Collecting more data from the modern web (2nd ed.). O’Reilly Media.

Morchid, M., & Hdouch, Y. (2024). Coding the data using ATLAS.ti in the qualitative analysis of conceptual metaphors. International Journal of Research in Education Humanities and Commerce, 5(2), 225. https://doi.org/10.37602/IJREHC.2024.5219

Narvaiza Cantín, L., Campos, J. A., Martín-Peña, M. L., & Díaz-Garrido, E. (2025). Unveiling digital service readiness: Exploring customer and manufacturer organizational perspectives in digital service innovation. Journal of Enterprise Information Management. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEIM-04-2024-0210

Palve, S., Abdulhussain, A., Sawant, O., Yadav, A., & Kasar, A. (2024). Decoding Big Data: A Practical Comparison Between Hadoop and Spark. RTPC, 11(3), 15–23.

Proulx, M., & Shepatin, S. (2012). Social TV: How marketers can reach and engage audiences by connecting television to the web, social media, and mobile. Wiley.

Rabetino, R., Kohtamäki, M., Kowalkowski, C., Baines, T. S., & Sousa, R. (2021). Guest editorial: Servitization 2.0: Evaluating and advancing servitization-related research through novel conceptual and methodological perspectives. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 41(5), 437–464. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-05-2021-840

Rahman, A., & Muktadir, M. G. (2021). SPSS: An imperative quantitative data analysis tool for social science research. International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, 5(10), 300–302. https://doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2021.51012

Reyes-Flores, G., & Mejía-Rivera, K. A. (2024). Inteligencia artificial en la investigación cualitativa: Análisis bibliométrico de la producción científica indexada en Scopus. New Trends in Qualitative Research, 20(4). https://doi.org/10.36367/ntqr.10.4.2024.e1116

Ruiz, L. (2019). La subjetividad del cualitativo. Investigación y Marketing, 144.

Sancho Escrivá, J. V., Fanjul Peyró, C., de la Iglesia Vayá, M., Montell, J. A., & Escartí Fabra, M. J. (2020). Aplicación de la inteligencia artificial con procesamiento del lenguaje natural para textos de investigación cualitativa en la relación médico-paciente con enfermedad mental mediante el uso de tecnologías móviles. Revista de Comunicación y Salud, 10(1), 19–41. https://doi.org/10.35669/rcys.2020.10(1).19-41

Silverman, D. (2013). Doing qualitative research. London: SAGE Publications.

Sivarajah, U., Kamal, M. M., & Irani, Z. (2017). Critical analysis of Big Data challenges and analytical methods. Journal of Business Research, 70(C), 263–286. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.08.001

Sjödin, D., Parida, V., Kohtamäki, M., & Wincent, J. (2020). An agile co-creation process for digital servitization: A micro-service innovation approach. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 40(4), 477–504. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-08-2020-0544

Stewart, M. C., & Arnold, C. L. (2018). Defining social listening: Recognizing an emerging dimension of listening. International Journal of Listening, 32(2), 85–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/10904018.2017.1330656

Wajcman, J. (2022). Optimizing temporal capital: How big tech imagines time as auditable. American Behavioral Scientist, 66(10), 1345–1364. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642221112999

Williamson, C., Van Rooyen, A., & Dry, R. (2025). In tandem with artificial intelligence: A working framework for coding in ATLAS.ti™. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 24, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069241306551

galeradasglaux
Published
2026-02-27
How to Cite
Echegaray Eizaguirre, Lázaro. 2026. “What Effects Does Digital Servitization Have on the Development of Online Qualitative Research? An Exploratoty Approach”. Bulletin of Economic Studies 80 (236), 127-42. https://doi.org/10.18543/bee.3238.