Find Your Digital Belonging

By Emily Meeson

Ethics Statement I confirm that this work has gained a favourable ethics opinion and that I have faithfully observed the terms of the opinion in the conduct of this project.

Signed:

Printed Name: Emily Meeson Date: 18/01/2023

Word Count: 7673 words

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How are collectivism and community impacting the world of Web3 and its consumers?

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Introduction.............................................................................................................06

1.1 - Aims and Objectives........................................................................................08

Literature Review....................................................................................10

2.1 - Introduction..................................................................................................11 2.2 - Collectivism and the Consumer.........................................................12

2.2.1 - Collectivism and Consumer Engagement.....................12

2.2.2 - Collectivism and Consumer Well-being.........................16 2.3 - Development of Collectivism on the Internet..............................20

2.3.1 - Understanding DAOs.............................................................22

2.3.2 - Digital Communities..............................................................24 2.4 - Organisational Change........................................................................26 2.5 - Research Gap Analysis.........................................................................28

Methodology....................................................................................................30

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3.1 - Research Strategy...................................................................................30

3.1.1 - Research Onion...........................................................................31 3.2 - Secondary Research.............................................................................34 3.3 - Sample.........................................................................................................35 3.4 - Positionality Statement........................................................................36 3.5 - Methods.......................................................................................................38

3.5.1 - Survey and Limitations..........................................................38

3.5.2 - Interviews and Limitations.................................................39

3.5.3 - Digital Ethnography and Limitations..............................40

Community in the Digital Ream........................................42

4.1 - Behaving Collectively................................................................................44 4.2 - Socially Identifying with the Digital...................................................46 4.3 - Decentralised Well-being......................................................................48

The Allure of Community............................................................50

5.1 - Community, Direct-to-consumer.......................................................52 5.2 - Fashioning DAOs.....................................................................................54 5.3 - Enticing Consumers into Communities.........................................56 5.4 - Key Insights................................................................................................58

Commercial Insights.......................................................................60 6.1 - What’s In It For Me?..............................................................................60 6.2 - Others Like Me.......................................................................................60 6.3 - Keep in Touch.........................................................................................61 6.4 - Be Benevolent.........................................................................................61

Conclusion...........................................................................................................62

7.1 - References...................................................................................................64 7.2 - Image References....................................................................................70 7.3 - Bibliography...............................................................................................73

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Society is facing a time of dissonance and disparity (Raymond, Rhodes, and Steel, 2022). Nevertheless, there is a trend arising in society that may be the antithesis of this dissonance, collectivism. Consumers are beginning to group into communities and collectives to support each other or to fight the disparity in society (Friend and Houghton, 2022) (see PESTLE, appendix 1). This development has arisen alongside the rise of another movement, the launch of Web3. These two trends have intertwined to create manifestations of digital communities such as Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) and Discord Communities.

Within this report, existing data on the development of collectivism and digital communities are analysed and evaluated. A methodology is then shown to highlight how the primary research has been formulated. The research is then analysed, and findings are discussed to form commercial insights that can inform businesses.

The development of digital collectivism is significant as lots of consumers were unable to feel connected to others during the Covid-19 Pandemic and required group identification to cope with the isolation (Stevenson et al., 2021). This can explain why there has been such a growth in digital communities for people to feel more connected. The pandemic may have died down but there is still a need for belonging among consumers and online communities may be a place for consumers to find this.

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Collectivism Community Web3 DAOs Discord Discord Well-being

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This research will aim to understand how collectivism is impacting Web3 in different ways. It will also aim to discover what draws consumers to online communities and how consumers interact within these communities.

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Understand the impact of collectivism on Web3.

Assess the way businesses are adapting to a collectivist mindset within their brand structure.

Research how digital communities can be an asset to brands.

Explore the consumer response to the use of collectivism and community within brands.

Investigate what is drawing consumers to Web3 and collectivism.

Understand how consumers and brands interact within brand communities

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The following section of this research report is a literature review. This has been formulated to ascertain the depth and breadth of the existing secondary data and literature that pertains relevance to the subject of collectivism, and its effect on the industry and the consumer. The literature review aims to gain a rapid understanding of existing research surrounding collectivism when preparing to carry out research (Lim, Kumar, and Ali, 2022). Within this review, relevant literature has been collated and clustered into three relevant themes to help the reader gain a background understanding of the research subject. All topics within the review are evidenced by reliable and authoritative resources.

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2.2.1 - Collectivism and Consumer Engagement To begin to comprehend collectivism and its impact on the consumer we must first understand why there has been a turn towards consumers interacting more with collectivism.

A growing body of literature has noted how collective behaviours began to reemerge at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic. K.G. Card refers to this in their writing for the health psychology & behavioural medicine Journal; they note that Collectivism was a protective factor during the pandemic (p. 2, par. 1) (see PESTLE, appendix 1).

They hypothesise that this was due to an increase in conformity with social norms such as social distancing. Professor John Drury argues that people are willing to sacrifice more for collective causes rather than for themselves (par.

17, 2021). This was exemplified in the way the majority followed guidelines to protect those more at risk from Covid-19. This can explain why collective behaviours have become more prevalent.

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Implications on social behaviours from the pandemic have developed to become a Macro-Trend of consumers acting in more collective ways. This is exemplified in the work of Friend and Houghton for LS:N Global (2022). In their Industry Report, it is discussed how consumers are forming collectives to create a force for good or to force a change in society (par. 2). Due to the turbulent era, humanity has been confronting (Raymond, Rhodes, and Steel, 2022), occurrences such as citizen’s uprisings and protests have become more common (Friend and Houghton, 2022).

These protests would not be possible without people working together to reach a collective goal.

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Alongside this increase in collectivism there has been a decrease in trust in the main pillars of our society government and religion (Pew Research Center, 2022 and St Mary’s University, 2018) (statistics for this are available in the Pestle, appendix 1). Even before the Covid-19 Pandemic. D. Stephens suggests in a Business of Fashion (BoF) article that brands and corporations have the opportunity to gain the trust that the other pillars have lost, and to create communities to support their consumers (par. 6). He argues that by buying a brand’s product you are also buying into the brand’s beliefs and values. Stephens uses the example of Nike and explains that by wearing the Swoosh symbol you are identifying to others that you are a believer in their brand and part of a community of other like-minded people. As Nike have a reputation for including activism in their marketing (Eyada, 2020); by wearing the brand, consumers can show they stand for the same values as the brand and its community. They are wanting to be viewed as a part of something that can be seen as a force for good which aligns partially with what Friend and Houghton discussed in their industry report.

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Adapted Hierachy of Trust Immersion into the brand community and full brand trust.

Consumer becomes a brand advocate.

Enticement into the brand community

Belief in brand’s values, belief the brand is honest and transparent.

Interest and preference over other brands.

Baseline brand awareness, and trust that needs can be met by the brand.

No trust established yet.

To understand how consumers begin to trust brands and become a part of their communities, it is critical to use theory.

K. Sherwin developed a Hierarchy of Trust Pyramid (2016) to help web designers to fulfil consumers’ trust needs before engaging with them or asking for personal information (See appendix 2 for original model). This pyramid has been adapted to explain how consumers become participants within the brand community and explain why they become involved. It has been adapted by using the secondary research carried out for this literature review, in particular, D. Stephens BoF’s article, and Fuggetta (2012) who discussed the importance of consumers being brand advocates. The pyramid has 5 levels, each level shows an increase in trust in the brand and a commitment to being a part of the brand community. This pyramid can explain why consumers can trust brands enough to become immersed in their communities. They can be enticed by the brand’s values (Stephens, 2019) to want to be a part of a bigger collective (par.12).

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2.2.2 - Collectivism’s Impact on Consumer Well-being A considerable amount of literature has been published on the impact of collectivism on the well-being of the consumer. These studies show that group membership and socialising can have a considerable effect on a person’s mental and physical health. Loneliness has been described by many as a “social epidemic” (Killeen, 1998). Even before the pandemic literature has noted how much the western world has experienced the negative and also detrimental effects of loneliness (Durcan and Bell, 2015). But this has developed even more so since the Covid-19 pandemic (Bower and Patulny, 2021), due to the isolation that everybody faced with social distancing rules. Many pieces of literature have discussed an antithesis to loneliness, the social cure.

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Maintaining Relationships Through Life Transitions Life Transition

Social Identity Threat

Well-being Social identity Continuity

Belong to multiple groups

Maintain Group Memberships

Multiple bases of social identification

Maintained Social Identity

Time

The social cure focuses on the importance of group memberships and social identity to improve the health of a person (Haslam et al., 2018, pa. 6). Jetten et al. (p. 29, 2009) adapted a model from Haslam et al. (2008) (See appendix 3 for original model) to explain how after a serious change in life maintaining and taking on group memberships can help you through the change. We can apply this to people’s possible coping mechanisms for loneliness during the Covid-19 pandemic and could further explain the shift towards a collective mindset. As it suggests that people have taken on more group memberships since the Covid-19 Pandemic which, in turn, enhances well-being (Canto and Vallejo-Martín, 2021).

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As outlined earlier, researchers have discovered how social group memberships can play a vital role in enhancing health.

Research has shown that improving your social relationships can have the same health benefits as quitting smoking (Jetten, Haslam and Haslam, 2014). To explain why social group membership is so important for consumer health and well-being we can use Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory.

This theory consists of three elements: categorisation, identification, comparison.

Social Categorisation: Defining people you meet into different social categories to understand them better.

Social Identification:

Joining a group and adopting the identity of the group they have categorised themselves into. Selfesteem is bound to group membership.

Social Comparison:

Comparing the in-group with the out-group. To maintain a sense of self-esteem groups, need to compare favourably with others.

(Tajfel and Turner, 1979) 18

This model suggests that the identification we gain with our group membership helps to support our health and well-being. This could be because group membership identification determines how a consumer deals with certain stressors in life and the support they get (Jetten, Haslam and Haslam, 2014). Therefore, it can determine the outcome of the stressors faced.

The literature discussed signifies why collective behaviours are being adopted by consumers.

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Useful Definitions Web3 -

The next iteration of the World Wide Web (First there was Web1.0 and Web2.0) that has a greater focus on decentralisation and hopes to achieve this by utilising blockchain, cryptocurrency and NFTs (Bentley, 2022).

Blockchain –

A distributed, digital database or ledger which is shared among nodes on a computer network. The information is stored electronically and mainly used in cryptocurrency to keep a record of transactions (Hayes, 2022).

Cryptocurrency –

A system to issue tokens to be used as a medium of exchange and maintained on a digital ledger (Pernice and Scott, 2021).

NFTs –

Non-Fungible tokens. A unit of data that is stored on the blockchain. It certifies that the digital asset is unique and not interchangeable. NFTs tend to be some form of digital artwork (Anand, 2022).

DAOs –

A type of legal structure with no central governing body. The members have a common goal for the entity to perform well.

It is typically used amongst cryptocurrency enthusiasts. They have a bottom-up management approach (Reiff, 2022).

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2.3.1 Understanding DAOs The development of collectivism has also impacted how businesses can form.

Particularly concerning the advancement of the internet into Web3. A way that this has developed is through the emergence of Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs). DAOs are entities which are community managed and that have no concept of leadership or central authority (Knaus, 2022, par.3) (see PESTLE, appendix 1). The ambition of these organisations is to democratise business, (Beniiche, Ebrahimzadeh and Maier, 2021, par.

12) as businesses in their current form are more focused on a hierarchy (Zwieglinska, 2022, par. 2) which means only certain people in the business get to make important decisions and gain a large proportion of the profits. Beniiche, Ebrahimzadeh and Maier explain in their journal article that the blockchain gives creators the opportunity for trusted collaboration as it keeps track of everything through smart contracts. This also allows for organisations to be transparent with the way they operate (Dounas and Lombardi, 2022, pp.35–45) which as demonstrated in section 2.2.1 is vital to engage consumers within a brand. Experts say that DAOs are a solution for employees and creatives to gain ownership and agency over what they do and create (DeYoung et al., 2022) (taken from PESTLE, appendix 1). This is because the blockchain technology registers who participates in the DAO which makes sure they gain a fair reward or profit (Brassey, Burns and Knight, 2022, par.

13), as the smart contracts are automatically executed as soon as conditions are met (Knaus, 2022).

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The literature makes clear that an element of automation is key to the operation of DAOs (Beniiche, Ebrahimzadeh and Maier, 2021).

However, DAOs still require involvement from humans. This model demonstrates how DAOs differ from other kinds of organisations as automation is central to its operation but requires humans at the edges to run the operation smoothly.

Regarding the industry applications of DAOs, some are beginning to materialise.

Artificial Intelligence

DAOs

Robots

Traditional Organisations

(See appendix 4 for original model) (Beniiche, Ebrahimzadeh and Maier, 2021)

According to Dounas and Lombardi (2022), industries and governments are looking into using DAO membership or tokens as an incentive for consumers. This can be illustrated by the Helium Tokens DAO. The incentive for this DAO is to build a 5G network. This is done by connecting a Helium mining node to your Wi-Fi network, when people use the data from your node you gain rewards in Helium tokens which can be used as cryptocurrency (Willard, 2021). We can apply Skinner’s (1953) Incentive Theory of Motivation to understand the draw to DAOs such as Helium. Skinner hypothesised that humans are drawn towards behaviours and opportunities that offer a positive reward. With the example of the Helium token the reward or incentive is the token and helping to build a 5G network. There are also DAOs being constructed within the fashion industry. Red DAO is an ideal example of this. This DAO focuses on attaining digital fashion and is most renowned for purchasing one of Dolce and Gabbana’s inaugural NFTs, the Doge Crown for nearly $1.3 million in Ether cryptocurrency (Tong, 2021).

There is little authoritative literature on this subject so far, but some is starting to emerge. This proves that it is an emerging trend that requires further research.

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2.3.2 Online Communities In the case of the development of collectivism on the internet, there has been another kind of evolution. This is the introduction of the community-based platform Discord. G. Sides (2022) describes Discord as a platform that can host instant messaging, video, and voice chat. The platform is divided into smaller servers or communities (see PESTLE, appendix 1). This is different from regular social platforms which are orientated around one central community. The majority of marketing literature around discord explores the marketing potential of brands hosting their discord servers to create a niche community for their brands. Many experts are suggesting this as Discord enables a direct-to-consumer conversation (Zwieglinska, 2022) and a shift away from the broadcast-only mindset platforms such as Meta, which is currently struggling to retain its users. This is due to the lack of a community experience and how Apple’s privacy changes have undermined consumer marketing (Perloff, 2022, par. 9).

Discord has no third-party tracking (Boyd, 2021) or paid advertising which may be a reason why brands are more trusted on this platform (see PESTLE, appendix 1). It gives brands the perfect opportunity to connect with their ad-resistant consumers (McDowell, 2022).

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Discord is an invite-only platform, as you need an invitation link to join a channel which according to McDowell creates a sense of exclusivity. This can relate to Tajfel and Turner’s Social Identification theory as the consumers can gain a sense of belonging and identification by being invited into these communities.

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Similarly, to the previous analysis of DAOs (2.3.1), this section will outline how collectivism is causing a business change but will be looking closely at the traditional side of businesses. Akin to consumer behaviour and collectivism, some businesses and industries have been using a more collectivist approach since the Covid-19 Pandemic. This is exemplified by the collaboration seen between scientists to create a vaccine during the pandemic (Raymond, Rhodes, and Steel, 2022, p. 2, par. 19). Scientists were working together for the betterment of the population and to save lives. This is supported by Professor John Drury’s argument seen in 2.2.1 which states that people are willing to sacrifice more for collective causes than themselves (par. 17, 2021). The collaboration seen by Scientists increased the levels of trust in them from the British public (Wellcome Monitor, 2020). A possible hypothesis for this is that effective collaboration can increase trust for your consumers. It could be argued that this theory is already being put into practice by brands within the fashion industry. An example of effective collaboration in the Fashion Industry is the creation of Alexander McQueen’s technology-driven platform MCQ. It is described by HighSnobiety journalist Daniel So (2020) as a creative collective which acknowledges all the creators that bring each collection to life. It is a collaboration project which has no single creative director.

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Both the example of Scientists during the Pandemic and MCQ use an element of the zone of proximal development theory (Vygotsky, 1987). This theory operates on the hypothesis that the zone of proximal development is the gap between the abilities an individual can achieve on their own and the abilities they can achieve with guidance. There are three key categories in this theory. These are:

Tasks a learner cannot accomplish with assistance Tasks a learner can accomplish with assistance Tasks a learner can

accomplish without assistance

The second category could explain why collaboration can be essential to progress as getting guidance and help from others can help individuals’ complete tasks they can’t do on their own. This can explain why collaboration was so essential to Scientists during the pandemic.

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This literature review has assessed three key aspects of collectivism and how it currently affects consumers and the fashion industry and how it will in the future. It has additionally effectively highlighted the gaps within the current literature to aid further research on this subject. The largest omission to be observed was within section 2.3, “Development of Digital Collectivism”; within this section, the lack of authoritative literature was emphasized particularly in the case of how collectivism can be harnessed digitally within the fashion industry.

With this in mind, the additional primary research of this report will aim to understand commercial digital collectivism and the interactions between consumers online, between each other and with brands.

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3.1 - Research Strategy To help ascertain a legitimate answer to the research question, various forms of both primary and secondary research have been executed. The primary research strategy for this project was formulated by using The Research Onion which was developed

by Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill in 2016.

The research onion is a system that helps a researcher to form the essential stages to create an effective methodology (Raithatha, 2017). The original model of The Research Onion can be found in appendix 5.

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Analysis

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3.1.1 - Research Onion Philosophy

The Research Onion begins by making the user select a philosophy. The philosophy should be the assumptions the researcher takes about the development of knowledge (Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill, 2016).

Concerning this project, a philosophy of interpretivism has been adopted.

Interpretivism is the assumption that human nature is unpredictable and considers the cultures and circumstances of the people it studies (Alharahsheh and Pius, 2020). This philosophy was selected because interpretivism helps researchers understand different social worlds (Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill, 2016) and collectivism is a social behaviour (Newman and Newman, 2020). So, by adopting this philosophy we can recognise there is no set law to how people will act in different social situations which enables the research to be viewed with few presumptions.

Approaches

With regard to the approach selected for this project, the inductive approach has been chosen. The inductive approach is defined as beginning research with observation and data collection which then moves to description and analysis to create a theory (Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill, 2016). This is apt as the aim of the study is to develop industry insights and a theory to answer the research question.

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Methodological Choice

The desirable methodological choice for this study was mixed methods.

Mixed methods can be defined as using multiple methods in a research study.

It encompasses both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques (Shorten and Smith, 2017). This was chosen as it was believed that to acquire the best insight into the study multiple methods of data collection would be required.

Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill also suggest that researchers select an order of methods (see appendix 6 for full list). This study incorporates sequential explanatory mixed method use. This is where the quantitative phase of the research informs the qualitative research that is subsequently done (Creswell, 2013).

Strategy

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These methods of study were predicted to be able to achieve the most insight from consumers and to help gain an understanding of what the future holds for collectivism in the fashion industry.

A survey strategy was selected to help understand the demographics that are affected or a part of this trend and a baseline understanding of the consumers (Saunders, Lewis, and Thornhill, 2016).

Ethnography was the second strategy selected, in particular Digital Ethnography.

It is used in research to immerse oneself within a different culture to gain a greater understanding, it is based on direct observation (Gobo and Marciniak, 2016). It was believed that this would be appropriate for this study as the aim of the study is to understand a collectivist culture or collectivist behaviours.

Time Horizons

A longitudinal study was determined to be the best choice for the research project as it allowed the study to change and develop. It was carried out over the space of two months, which is shorter than most longitudinal studies, but it allowed variables to be better controlled.

Data Collection and Data Analysis

Three methods of data collection have been selected to achieve the strongest insight into the impact of collectivism. Following the Sequential Explanatory method, the first method is the questionnaire method.

A questionnaire is defined as a list of printed questions to be completed by respondents to give their opinions (Roopa and Rani, 2012). It is a vital method of data collection as it allows collected data to be standardised, so it is coherent for analysis.

Additionally, interviews were used for data collection. It is a favoured method amongst practitioners because it encourages natural conversation to get the best out of the respondents (Hannabuss, 1996). The final method of data collection was digital ethnography. Digital ethnography is similar to ethnography, however, it is carried out within virtual spaces (Kaur-Gill and Dutta, 2017). As the literature review has highlighted, the future of collectivism has a large place on the internet.

For analysing quantitative data, the method of data visualisation has been used. The term data visualisation refers to visually representing and presenting data to promote understanding (Kirk, 2019).

This was deemed an effective analysis method as it highlights the insight from the research. To analyse the qualitative data, the theory previously highlighted in the literature review will be used to gain meaningful insight from the data.

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Within this study, external secondary data has been utilised to gain a baseline of knowledge about the subject to develop a strong basis for primary research.

Moreover, the secondary research gave a more global view of the subject information which is difficult to attain by only using primary research. In terms of the literature that was used within this study, the majority of it has originated from peerreviewed academic journals. The subject matter from these journals has mainly been surrounding consumer psychology, in particular collective behaviours, and the development of Web3. Many books have also been used, surrounding similar subjects to the journals. Industry reports have also been inherently useful in furthering subject knowledge. The majority of industry reports come from databases such as LS:N Global, Forbes, and Business of Fashion. The sources were selected based on the validity of the literature. For journals, it was checked whether they were peer-reviewed and if they were heavily opinionated, as this is an indicator of author bias (University of Wisconsin, 2022).

Branded articles were also avoided as this would also be an indicator of bias. The research attained from secondary sources that had similar themes were clustered together to help gain an understanding of the research question.

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Survey Sample

As far as the sample was concerned, it was collected using a non-probability sample. This meant that respondents were selected on a non-random criterion (Vehovar, Toepoel and Steinmetz, 2016).

This includes a convenience sample for the survey and a purposive sample for both the digital ethnography and the interviews.

This strategy allowed an understanding of a select demographic that interacts with collectivism.

In terms of the secondary research, it was found through the institution’s library, internet search and Google Scholar.

Respondents for the survey were found by putting it out on different social media platforms and survey swap sites. For the interviews industry professionals and others were contacted whose insights were deemed useful. The digital ethnography was taken from communitybased social media platforms.

Insight has been gained from a variety of secondary sources, including from psychologists, researchers, and trend analysts. A total of 2 industry professionals were found and analysed. There were 100 respondents to the survey that was published, which covered age demographics ages 18-65. 2 Industry professionals were interviewed, 1 journalist and 1 social psychologist. For the digital ethnography 6 discord channels and 2 DAOs were analysed.

Industry Interviews Sample

Digital Ethnography Sample

Moving on now to consider the limitations of this sample. The respondents for the study are not from vast geographical locations (excluding the digital ethnography). This may affect the results of the study as collectivism can affect geographics in different ways (Triandis, 1995).

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As a part of this research, I realise it is important to acknowledge my position as a researcher in correlation with this study. More experienced researchers have stressed the importance of positionality as it can influence a researcher’s interpretation of other studies and their own research (Holmes, 2020). In terms of my position, there are several factors to consider. First is my prior knowledge of the subject which is key to announce as it could have affected how I view the data. I had prior knowledge of data as I had previously carried out a small amount of research into the subject in the past for a different and unrelated project. This meant that I already had an interest in the trend, which could have meant I subconsciously had preconceived ideas about the trend, which could have impacted my research. Secondly, my geographical location may have affected the outcome of my results. This is because the majority of my survey respondents would be from a similar area to where I live, this may mean there is less differentiation in the responses due to the geographical location.

Additionally, as aforementioned geographical location can impact the level of collective behaviours within that society (Triandis, 1995).

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3.5.1 - Questionnaire The aim of the questionnaire that was released was to gain some initial understanding of consumers and their relationship with collectivism. A questionnaire was selected in line with the previously mentioned sequential explanatory mixed methods usage, which suggests carrying out quantitative research before qualitative (Creswell, 2013). The questionnaire was designed with 11 questions to be simple for respondents to answer to ensure as much retention as possible. It began with several screening questions to ascertain what demographics the respondents were from and whether they reached the correct requirements for the study (Brace, 2018). There was very little screening that actually took place as the initial survey was to gain a baseline understanding of collective consumers; it only required participants to be over 18 (for ethical reasons). After the screening questions were the main questionnaire that consisted of questions to understand consumers’ opinions and behaviours about collectivism. To see a full list of questions please see appendix 7. The majority of questions were close ended which allowed for uncomplicated data management, which was essential at the beginning of the primary research. A convenience sampling method was selected to gain as large a sample as possible. This was due to accessing willing and available participants (Etikan, Musa and Alkassim, 2016), and where the questionnaire was promoted which was social media platforms and survey swap websites. The survey had a total of 100 respondents in total.

The demographics of the respondents are highlighted below. The main limitation of this research is that because the questions were mainly closed it limits the amount of analysis that can be carried out. This is because respondents can only give certain answers which makes them restricted.

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3.5.2 - Industry Interviews Participants in the Industry interviews were selected with a purposive non-probability sample (Vehovar, Toepoel and Steinmetz, 2016). Participants were selected based on their experience in fields relating to collectivism. There was a total of two industry expert interviews. One interview was with a journalist for a popular fashion and industry magazine. Their articles mainly focused on the development of the metaverse with subjects such as DAOs, NFTs, and Discord. The second interview was with social psychologist, Juliet Wakefield, who has carried out a large amount of research on the social cure and how group memberships can improve health and wellbeing. The interviews were semi-structured; they had a basic set of questions, but the conversation was free to flow, which helped to gain a greater understanding of the interviewee’s perspective (Fylan, 2005). Both interviews lasted for 30 minutes and were recorded and transcribed by software on the video calling apps used (Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams).

See appendix 9 and 10 for full transcripts. The limitation of the industry interviews is that research could have required more interviews to allow for more industry insights. However, it was difficult to get responses for many more industry experts.

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3.5.3 - Digital Ethnography Now looking to the digital ethnography that was carried out for this report. Observation was carried out over five discord servers that had some relation to the fashion and beauty industry. These were: UNDW3 Lacoste, Gucci Vault, INCIDER Community, RTFKT Hub and GORJS DAO. Ethnographic studies were also carried out into two DAOs: RED DAO and GORJS DAO. Access to Discord servers was gained via invitations that were available online. For the DAOs insight was gained from looking at their twitters, discord servers and websites. The method of participant observation was taken for the ethnography as it is an unobtrusive way to gain insight as you can see consumers act naturally within their discord servers (Jensen et al., 2022). The ethnography was conducted over the space of 10 days, mainly on discord servers. Data was mainly recorded through field notes when observing discord communities. Due to the fact that these were private groups, so field notes are used to maintain the ethical approval of this project. Full field notes are available in appendix 11-15 and 19. For public data screenshots were taken. The field notes could also present a limitation for the study as the field notes could contain a certain amount of unconscious bias.

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4.1 - Behaving Collectively This research aimed to understand how consumers are reacting and behaving due to this rise in a collective mindset.

The survey carried out for this research showed that community is an important factor in people’s lives. However, the survey also showed that the majority of respondents simply belong to friendship groups rather than actual communities.

It was also interesting to note that 49% of the respondents found that community has become more important to them since the pandemic (see appendix 16).

This correlates to Jetten et al’s model (p.

29, 2009) specified in section 2.2.2 as this showed how taking on group memberships can help people through change. This can explain why people value community more so since the pandemic. Dr Juliet Wakefield highlighted in her interview (see appendix 9) that the pandemic limited interactions with other people, which, in turn, made people value their community identity more.

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So Imp

Community Importance to Consumer’s

Community Importance Since the Pandemic.

Less Important

Not Important

omewhat portant

Important

Same Importance

More Important

The digital ethnography carried out on discord servers exhibited a large amount of collective behaviour between the consumers interacting on the servers. An example of this collective behaviour was in the UNDW3 Lacoste server (see appendix 11). The majority of members had similar profile pictures to the one shown here. These were the NFTs that they had bought from Lacoste. Having these set as their profile pictures shows an extent of conformity within the community; the members wish to be seen as a collective.

This was also seen in other NFT-inspired servers such as GucciVault and RTFKT (See appendix 12 and 15). This is very contrasting to social platforms such as Instagram where profile pictures tend to be of the owner of the account. This shows that there is a different mindset to other social platforms, people are conforming to the communities that they are a part of. Similar to the Social Identification element of Social Identity Theory.

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4.2 - Socially Identifying with the Digital A key theory that was identified within the literature review has also been palpable throughout the primary research.

This is Social Identity Theory (Tajfel and Turner, 1979). Primary research has distinctly shown how social identity can impact a consumer’s sense of belonging within a community. It has also shown how wanting this sense of belonging can impact what groups an individual chooses to join. The first two stages of Social Identity Theory were of particular relevance to the research carried out.

Firstly, Social Categorisation. The journalist spoke in their interview about how Web3 can provide a place for individuals to connect with others with shared interests (see appendix 10). This means that individuals are categorising themselves into communities that have similar interests to theirs. Branded discord servers are aligning themselves with this need by providing channels within this server for people to talk about their interests. These topic channels also tie in with the brand of the discord they are under. This table shows examples of how each brand’s topic channels tie in with its brand identity.

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UNDW3 Lacoste

Tennis, Fashion

Lacoste began as tennis apparel brand

GucciVault

Vintage, Fashion

Relates to Gucci’s historic past

StockX

Sneakers, Collectibles,

Consumers are avid sneaker collecters

INCIDER

Fashion, Pets, Mental Health

Brand presents itself as fun but considerate.

RTFKT

Gaming, F1 Racing

Brand’s clone NFTs are used in metaverse gaming.

We secondly have Social Identification.

This is where the consumers are adopting the behaviours of the discord servers.

For instance, as aforementioned, having your profile picture set as your NFT from the brand is a form of social identification.

As the members are joining the discord, seeing this as a norm, and replicate it on their profiles. Another identification behaviour is saying “gm” (standing for Good Morning) to each other. Saying GM in the crypto and NFT community is a way of greeting each other, it announces you as a member of the community and is used to build camaraderie online (Grossman, 2021).

It was a frequently used saying within the discord servers; some servers even had channels dedicated to wishing everyone a “gm”. Members adopting the behaviour of wishing each other “gm” is another sign of social identification within these communities. It was also recognised within the digital ethnography that the majority of members were pleasantly interacting with each other and were always more than happy to answer each other’s questions and queries. This also shows a sense of socially identifying within the communities as the members have adopted a pleasant and helpful way of speaking to each other.

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4.3 - Decentralised Well-being As identified in the literature review, physical and mental health can be impacted by the groups a person identifies with. This was evidenced in the interview with Dr Juliet whose research has been centred on how group identification and social interaction (known as the social cure) can have a positive impact on our mental and physical health (see appendix 9). During the interview, she spoke about how group membership can improve health and well-being because in strong groups we receive support from others and can feel a sense of belonging. This helps to increase our well-being and health.

This mindset was evidenced within the survey as 96% of respondents believed community membership improves their well-being (see appendix 16).

Do Consumers talk to their communities about Current Affairs, Social Issues, and Mental Health?

Does Community Improve Consumer Well-being?

No

No

Yes

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Yes

“I see no reason why you couldn’t gain a lot of health and well-being benefits from an online group interaction.”.

Dr Juiliet Wakefield Dr Juliet also believes that this can be replicated in digital communities, “I see no reason why you couldn’t gain a lot of health and well-being benefits from an online group interaction.”. Digital ethnography into discord servers also demonstrates that some brands are considering the wellbeing of their consumers when operating their servers. The INCIDER Community, for instance, have a channel dedicated to mental health where members can discuss issues that they are facing (see appendix 14). It was noted whilst studying this channel that every issue that was seen was responded to by a member who tried to help them. Talking to your communities about issues such as mental health is certainly something that is on the rise. The survey showed that 86% of respondents talk to their communities about current affairs, social issues, and mental health. So INCIDER is attending to people’s need for support from their community. GucciVault has also displayed consideration for their community’s wellbeing, including their working team (see appendix 12). The research noted that they had posted about how they were giving their discord team a break to recharge and spend time with their loved ones. They also encouraged the members of their community to do the same and take time for themselves. This shows that they are encouraging well-being and self-care in their community.

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