In-depth interviews

The research question aims to focus on the individual customers because the individually performed CE with LFBs is considered. In-depth interviews thereby enable “to understand the meaning of the participant’s experiences and life worlds” (Malhotra et al., 2017, p. 209) by socially and interperson-ally interacting with the participant. Meaning is drawn from interpreting what the participant says (Malhotra et al., 2017). Particularly with regard to the individual and unique nature of the SC and an individual interpretation of it (Onkvisit & Shaw, 1987) – as well as with regard to the diverse char-acteristics and perspectives amongst the Millennials – in-depth interviews enable researchers to get involved with the single participants and empathize with their individual lifeworld. As the participants can be assumed to have different backgrounds with regard to CE, it is of great importance, especially in the context of the research question, to grasp the individual and personal perspectives of the par-ticipants and to understand them in depth. Furthermore, the SC can be seen as a very personal con-struct, which requires that the individual interviewees reveal highly personal information. In order to avoid biased answers due to social pressure in the presence of other participants – e.g. in a focus group – a one-on-one interview represents a reasonable method (Malhotra et al., 2017).

With respect to methodological implementation, there are further advantages: The chosen approach enables to rather explore the participant’s life world than to confirm assumptions (Healey &

Rawlinson, 1994). Furthermore, the researcher is given the opportunity to adapt flexibly to the par-ticipants’ conversational structure and, for example, to ask ad hoc questions, which goes along with the individual observation of the participants (Saunders et al., 2016). Lastly, the interviewer is as-signed a rather passive role which allows the interviewee to give extensive and detailed responses (Bryman, 2012). Some drawbacks come a long with it, which are discussed in detail in the chapter concerning the limitations (see chapter 7.3), in conclusion, however, semi-structured in-depth inter-views are chosen as the most suitable methodology in regard to the research question at hand.

4.6.2.2 Interview design

The 14 interviews – including the two pre-tests – are conducted with participants who match the criteria stated above. All of the interviews are carried out within a time frame of two weeks – more precisely from March 27^th until April 24^th, 2020. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting restraint of contact, all interviews are conducted via FaceTime. Caused by that, it is not thoroughly possible to control potential disruptive factors to which the candidates are exposed during the inter-view. However, this approach enables the researchers to reach out to participants located in five dif-ferent countries (see chapter 4.6.1.2). The duration of each interview is between 40 minutes and one hour. All interviews are recorded by audio.

The data collection is thereby organized as follows: First, based on the defined sample criteria, a screener questionnaire including the stated criteria is developed (see chapter 4.6.1.1, see appendix A). In a second step, the semi-structured interview guide is designed. Third, through the extended social network of the researchers, people are contacted who would generally be suitable for the re-search. Once initial approval is given, the screener is filled out by the participants to again ensure that they would meet the sample criteria. As a result, appointments for the interviews are scheduled.

Fourth, pre-tests are carried out with two of the participants. This enables to check whether the type of questions is generally understandable for the interviewees and whether they are logically comphensible. Changes for the guide are identified and the guide is adjusted accordingly. Fifth, the re-maining twelve interviews are conducted and, with the consent of the participants, recorded by audio.

Sixth, all of the 14 interviews are transcribed which is assisted by the online software Otter. As re-quested by the respective participants, five of the interviews are firstly conducted in German, so that they are translated into English afterwards. The 14 English transcripts can be found in the appendix (see appendix E).

4.6.2.3 Interview guide

As previously stated, the semi-structured in-depth interviews are structured and conducted with the assistance of an interview guide. A complete version of the guide can be retrieved from the appendix B.

The guide is divided into five different chapters – namely Introduction, Warm up: Luxury Fashion and Your Lifeworld, Luxury Fashion Brands and Self-Concept, Luxury Fashion Brands, Self-Concept and Customer Engagement, and Goodbye. However, those solely serve as an orientation for the

researchers to structure the interview. Whilst, the first and last chapters mainly serve to give the par-ticipant a pleasant beginning and end of the interview, the other three chapters each address a specific thematic area. In the course of the interview and along the different chapters, the overall research question is constantly considered and deepened more and more towards the end of the interview. By doing so, it is aligned with the exploratory research character, since the interview starts with a broad focus and narrows down in the further course (Saunders et al., 2016). Within the individual chapters, potential questions with respective sub-questions are listed to holistically cover the thematic area summarized in the chapter. Thereby, the questions show an open character, which is illustrated by question words such as “how” and “what”. Following the semi-structured approach, however, it is again emphasized that the several questions rather serve as an orientation than as a strict stipulation.

As a consequence, in the course of the data collection, some areas are particularly concentrated on, while others are somewhat neglected in order to adapt to the GT approach and the associated adapta-tion to the growing state of knowledge by the conducadapta-tion of each interview (Saunders et al., 2016).

In the following, the several chapters of the interview guide are shortly presented in terms of their content and purpose.

The Introduction is divided into two sections and mainly serves to convey a pleasant and welcoming atmosphere. A welcome and presentation of the interviewer as well as a short overview of the inter-view process is given. In addition, the participant is informed about the overarching research purpose and the anonymous and confidential treatment of the data. Furthermore, the interviewee is given the opportunity to ask questions before the beginning of the interview. In the second part of the introduc-tion the participant is asked a few quesintroduc-tions regarding the current living situaintroduc-tion and hobbies. This serves above all to loosen up the discussion atmosphere and to establish a familiar relationship be-tween the interviewer and interviewee.

The chapter Warm up: Luxury Fashion Brands and Your Lifeworld serves above all to sensitize the

The third chapter – Luxury Fashion Brands and Self-Concept – starts by raising awareness for the interviewee’s own SC. Thus, the interviewee is asked to reflect on his own image as well as the presumed outward appearance. After sensitizing for this topic, the interviewee is asked to relate this to the fashion context by asking questions such as “In which way is dealing with LFBs related to your personality?”. Furthermore, it is reflected whether the interviewee identifies a match between his (aspirational) SC and the presented brand’s image. It is also dived deep into the motivation behind selecting LFBs, the interviewee deals with in his everyday life. This chapter further serves to work towards the overarching research question and to gain first insights of the connection between CE and the interviewee’s SC.

The fourth chapter interrelates all of the three considered concepts – LFBs, SC, and CE – and thus regards the overall research question. First, the interviewee is asked to present his or her own under-standing of CE and is moreover required to give examples on how to execute such engagement with LFBs in particular. Afterwards the interviewee is requested to elaborate on a specific example of CE with LFBs that he or she has already done. Thereby, the interviewee is allowed to refer to examples that he or she already gave in the screener questionnaire. This mostly pays off the first part of the overall research question. Within the last two sections, the participant’s overall motivations behind as well as his or her personal outcome by engaging with LFBs are elaborated on. The latter thereby dives deep into the perceived benefits and influences in regard to the customer’s SC and thus, strongly focuses on the latter part of the overall research question. It should be noted, however, that the find-ings with regard to the research question were not only drawn from this section of the guide but were generated throughout the entire interview course.

Lastly, in the Goodbye chapter the interviewee is given the opportunity to add information, that was not part of the questions so far, and to ask questions.