Business Ethnography in Organizations: An Analysis of Research Patterns and Methodological Trends

Abstract

Abstract Purpose: Despite its growing relevance, the global evolution of business ethnography across sectors, regions, and disciplines remains understudied. This study provides an empirically grounded overview of research patterns and methodological practices within a defined corpus of peer-reviewed publications on ethnographic studies conducted inside business organizations. Methodology: This study analyses a corpus of 180 peer-reviewed academic papers. Bibliometric techniques, implemented with the bibliometrix package in R, were used to examine patterns of scientific production, disciplinary distribution, and thematic networks. In parallel, manual coding was applied to assess the characteristics of ethnographic fieldwork, including data collection tools and fieldwork duration. Together, these approaches map where and how business ethnography is practiced, identify thematic clusters, and reveal methodological trends. Findings: Within this corpus, business ethnography appears multidisciplinary and adaptable, with the strongest concentration in ICT, industry/manufacturing, and professional services, and weaker presence in finance, construction, and energy/logistics. Fieldwork locations are heavily skewed toward Western Europe and North America. Thematic patterns combine established organizational concerns (e.g., culture, identity, routines) with expanding digital and socio-technical topics (e.g., algorithms, data work, crowdsourcing). Methodologically, studies rely primarily on participant observation, interviews, and document analysis, and most report comparatively short fieldwork periods, consistent with a broader shift toward rapid and time-bounded ethnography in organizational settings. Originality: By integrating bibliometric mapping with systematic coding of fieldwork practices, the study provides a focused evidence base on how business ethnography in organizations is being published and conducted, highlighting recurring emphases, blind spots, and methodological trade‑offs relevant to both scholars and applied researchers.