Concept discovery,process explanation,and theory deepening in e-marketing research: The case of online auctions

By reviewing recent consumer research on online auctions, the commentary distinguishes between three forms of e-marketing research: (1) concept discovery, leveraging advances in technology to identify and describe new concepts or phenomena of significance to marketers; (2) process explanation, seeking to provide insights into the psychological, social, and economic mechanisms underlying the discovered concepts or phenomena through asking and answering ‘when’ and ‘why’ questions; and (3) theory deepening, using the online environment as the setting or context to develop, elaborate on, and test general marketing and consumer behavior theories. It is argued that while there is substantial value in each of these research forms for advancing marketing knowledge, theory deepening has perhaps been the least popular form of research conducted in online environments thus far, but it may yet turn out to be the most significant and enduring form in the long run.