Dr Alex Thompson is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing within the University of Exeter Business School. His background is in the field of anthropology and socio-cultural approaches to marketing. His ethnographic approach to marketing seeks to address the dynamics that occur between consumer actions, the marketplace, and cultural meanings. His research interests lie within the areas of embodied forms of knowledge production; the production of culture perspectives; practice theory, and ritual. Alex incorporates a number of interpretive methods including videography, in-depth interviewing, participant observation, and life story narratives.
Dr Thompson recceived his PhD at Imperial College London. His research explores how businesses have adapted ethnographic market research methods in their quest to better understand customer needs. He has published in journals such as the Journal of Business Research, the Journal of Marketing Management and International Small Business Journal. He has also co-authored the textbook Essentials of Marketing with Professor David Brown. Dr Thompson holds a BA in Anthropology from the College of Wooster (USA), and an MBA from Central Michigan University (USA).
In addition to his academic experience, Dr. Thompson has worked on a number of commercial research projects where he applies ethnographic approaches to understanding marketplace dynamics. His clients include GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, the LaBelle Entrepreneurial Centre, the Imperial College Business School, Novartis, Water Regulatory Advisory Scheme (WRAS), and the Public Broadcast System (PBS).
Nationality: American
Administrative responsibilities
- Director of the MSc in International Business
- Student Staff Liaison Committee
Qualifications
BA in Anthropology (College of Wooster), MBA (Central Michigan University), PhD (Imperial College London)
Research clusters
Research interests
- Ethnographic Research
- Market Research
- Production of Culture
- Consumer Culture Theory
- Ritual
- Embodiment
Within the field of academic research in consumer culture, ethnography has become an institutionalized method in understanding the socio-cultural dimensions to consumer behaviour. The popularity of ethnography has also gained ground in commercial settings where there are several books about ethnography as a research technique as well as many large organizations that incorporate ethnographic findings into day-to-day decision-making. However, there are few studies that look at how commercial ethnographers construct, represent, and deploy insights gained via ethnographic methods. What kind of consumer does commercial ethnography create? How is this construction utilized in the application of ethnographic knowledge? What are the implications of commercial ethnography for understanding consumer culture?
Alex’s research interests centre on an understanding of how consumers are constructed within the marketplace. Through a qualitative understanding of market research practices, Alex explores commercial market research engagements where consumer knowledge is produced. His research seeks to make a contribution to those studies in marketing that shed light on the roles marketing agents play in the generation of cultural meaning within the marketplace.
Key publications | Publications by category | Publications by year
Key publications
Stringfellow L, Thompson A (2014). Crab antics? Contesting and perpetuating status hierarchies in professional service firms.
Journal of Professions and Organization,
1, 118-136.
Abstract:
Crab antics? Contesting and perpetuating status hierarchies in professional service firms.
The focus of this research is a multi-level theory building exercise that highlights how status hierarchies are perpetuated, contested, and produced in small firm environments. Through eliciting the narratives
of the owners of small accounting practices, we aim to explore the specific dynamics of status and to identify how informants come to understand, perpetuate, and change notions of status within their organizational field. We identify macro-theoretical perspectives through the notion of ‘status framing’, which unpacks the professional norms, institutional logics, and marketplace structures that shape industry practice and understanding. Drawing from micro-level perspectives of ‘status sensemaking’, we highlight how industry members create their own status perceptions that effectively legitimize, reinforce, and contradict
industry status archetypes. We highlight the ‘crab antic’ nature to these status battles through narratives of ‘status reconciliation’, where informants effectively negotiate macro and micro status hierarchies.
We explicate practice through linking the micro and macro realms of experience in small professional practices and identify how status is socially organized within the accounting profession. In doing
so, we contribute to the status literature by highlighting that status is not a unified, stable concept, but one that is highly volatile and often undermined by actors vested in perpetuating the status quo.
Abstract.
DOI.
Thompson A, Stringfellow L, Maclean M, MacLaren A, O’Gorman K (2014). Puppets of necessity? Celebritisation in structured reality television.
Journal of Marketing Management,
31(5-6), 478-501.
DOI.
Thompson AS, Penaloza, Lisa (2013). Constructing the Visual Consumer. In Emma B, Warren S, Schroeder J (Eds.) Routledge Companion to Visual Organization, London: Routledge.
Publications by category
Journal articles
Stringfellow L, Thompson A (2014). Crab antics? Contesting and perpetuating status hierarchies in professional service firms.
Journal of Professions and Organization,
1, 118-136.
Abstract:
Crab antics? Contesting and perpetuating status hierarchies in professional service firms.
The focus of this research is a multi-level theory building exercise that highlights how status hierarchies are perpetuated, contested, and produced in small firm environments. Through eliciting the narratives
of the owners of small accounting practices, we aim to explore the specific dynamics of status and to identify how informants come to understand, perpetuate, and change notions of status within their organizational field. We identify macro-theoretical perspectives through the notion of ‘status framing’, which unpacks the professional norms, institutional logics, and marketplace structures that shape industry practice and understanding. Drawing from micro-level perspectives of ‘status sensemaking’, we highlight how industry members create their own status perceptions that effectively legitimize, reinforce, and contradict
industry status archetypes. We highlight the ‘crab antic’ nature to these status battles through narratives of ‘status reconciliation’, where informants effectively negotiate macro and micro status hierarchies.
We explicate practice through linking the micro and macro realms of experience in small professional practices and identify how status is socially organized within the accounting profession. In doing
so, we contribute to the status literature by highlighting that status is not a unified, stable concept, but one that is highly volatile and often undermined by actors vested in perpetuating the status quo.
Abstract.
DOI.
Thompson A, Stringfellow L, Maclean M, MacLaren A, O’Gorman K (2014). Puppets of necessity? Celebritisation in structured reality television.
Journal of Marketing Management,
31(5-6), 478-501.
DOI.
Thompson AS (2011). Review Essay- Commercial Ethnography. Consumption Markets and Culture, 14(1), 117-121.
Thompson AS (2010). Commercial Ethnography and the Production of Practice. European Advances in Consumer Research, 9, 445-446.
Thompson AS (2002). Leading Quietly: an Unorthodox Guide to Doing the Right Thing. Mid-American Journal of Business, 17(2).
Chapters
Thompson AS, Penaloza, Lisa (2013). Constructing the Visual Consumer. In Emma B, Warren S, Schroeder J (Eds.) Routledge Companion to Visual Organization, London: Routledge.
Publications by year
2014
Stringfellow L, Thompson A (2014). Crab antics? Contesting and perpetuating status hierarchies in professional service firms.
Journal of Professions and Organization,
1, 118-136.
Abstract:
Crab antics? Contesting and perpetuating status hierarchies in professional service firms.
The focus of this research is a multi-level theory building exercise that highlights how status hierarchies are perpetuated, contested, and produced in small firm environments. Through eliciting the narratives
of the owners of small accounting practices, we aim to explore the specific dynamics of status and to identify how informants come to understand, perpetuate, and change notions of status within their organizational field. We identify macro-theoretical perspectives through the notion of ‘status framing’, which unpacks the professional norms, institutional logics, and marketplace structures that shape industry practice and understanding. Drawing from micro-level perspectives of ‘status sensemaking’, we highlight how industry members create their own status perceptions that effectively legitimize, reinforce, and contradict
industry status archetypes. We highlight the ‘crab antic’ nature to these status battles through narratives of ‘status reconciliation’, where informants effectively negotiate macro and micro status hierarchies.
We explicate practice through linking the micro and macro realms of experience in small professional practices and identify how status is socially organized within the accounting profession. In doing
so, we contribute to the status literature by highlighting that status is not a unified, stable concept, but one that is highly volatile and often undermined by actors vested in perpetuating the status quo.
Abstract.
DOI.
Thompson A, Stringfellow L, Maclean M, MacLaren A, O’Gorman K (2014). Puppets of necessity? Celebritisation in structured reality television.
Journal of Marketing Management,
31(5-6), 478-501.
DOI.
2013
Thompson AS, Penaloza, Lisa (2013). Constructing the Visual Consumer. In Emma B, Warren S, Schroeder J (Eds.) Routledge Companion to Visual Organization, London: Routledge.
2011
Thompson AS (2011). Review Essay- Commercial Ethnography. Consumption Markets and Culture, 14(1), 117-121.
2010
Thompson AS (2010). Commercial Ethnography and the Production of Practice. European Advances in Consumer Research, 9, 445-446.
2002
Thompson AS (2002). Leading Quietly: an Unorthodox Guide to Doing the Right Thing. Mid-American Journal of Business, 17(2).
- Cultural approaches to marketing
- Principles of marketing
- Marketing and society
Dr Thompson's primary teaching interests surround applying cultural approaches to understanding within the field of marketing. A cultural approach to understanding marketing phenomenon means that he is interested in the dynamics that occur between marketers, consumers and the marketplace. This perspective focuses on how cultural meanings are produced amongst actors and is sensitive to how social relations are negotiated. His interests here are manifest in his Consumption, Markets and Culture course.
He is also interested in broader marketing practices. In his Principles of Marketing course, he explores some of the current issues faced within marketing and how companies use marketing practices to achieve market differentiation.
Alex is also the programme director of the MSc in International Business (IB). As programme director, he mentors the International Business cohort and teaches Current Issues in International Business. Alex is also the module coordinator for BEMM384- International Business Plan project, where utilises a business simulation game in helping students learn key business planing and strategy skills that they can take into employment.
Modules
2023/24
