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The Black Box of Netflix a Qualitative Study of Consumers Perception of Netflix and Its Recommendation System

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The Black Box of Netflix a Qualitative Study of Consumers Perception of Netflix and Its Recommendation System Copenhagen Business School MSoSc in Management of Creative Business Processes Master’s Thesis The Black Box of Netflix A qualitative study of consumers perception of Netflix and its recommendation system Babette Joséphine Verburg (116258) Bjørn Axel Linnet (34470) Supervisor: John Christiansen Number of Characters: 187.202 Pages: 92 16-09-2019 Abstract Recommendation systems are increasingly present in cultural industries providing digital services, helping consumers navigate the continuously growing amount of online content. Scientists have identified potential societal consequences of recommendation systems effect on consumers, however consumers’ perception of recommendation systems have yet to be included in the academic conversation. The purpose of this study is to fill this knowledge gap by including consumers’ perception of the influence of recommendation systems on their cultural consumption, using Netflix and its recommendation system to research the topic. To gain a general understanding of the target groups’ perception of Netflix, and its recommendation system, a pre-study questionnaire was conducted. The knowledge gathered from the pre-study made it possible to further specify the questions for the subsequent focus group interviews and provided insight into how to challenge the focus group interview participants’ perception of Netflix and its recommendation system. This study showed the target group had an ambivalent perception of Netflix and its recommendation system’s influence on their cultural consumption. The target group perceived themselves as autonomous consumers living in a black box society and still believing they were in charge of their consumption. The target group participants acknowledged that consumers can be influenced by Netflix and its recommendation system, but they were not capable of recognizing to what extent they themselves were influenced. This research could be the starting point for further research within the field. 1 Content 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Grand challenge ....................................................................................................................................... 4 1.2 Clarification of concepts .......................................................................................................................... 5 1.4 Pre-understanding ................................................................................................................................... 5 1.5 Purpose .................................................................................................................................................... 6 1.6 Aim & research question ......................................................................................................................... 7 1.7 Delimitations ........................................................................................................................................... 8 1.8 Outline of the paper ................................................................................................................................ 8 2. Academic Conversation .................................................................................... 9 2.1 Literature review ................................................................................................................................... 10 2.1.1 Facilitator of Choice ........................................................................................................................ 10 2.1.2 The influence of recommendation systems on cultural taste ........................................................ 11 1.1.3 Diversity of recommendation systems ........................................................................................... 11 2.1.4 Consumer Autonomy ...................................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Contribution to the knowledge gap ...................................................................................................... 14 3. Background .................................................................................................... 15 3.1 Cultural industries ................................................................................................................................. 15 3.2 Netflix .................................................................................................................................................... 16 3.3 Recommendation systems .................................................................................................................... 17 4. Theory ........................................................................................................... 19 4.1 Theoretical framework .......................................................................................................................... 19 4.1.1 Actor-Network Theory .................................................................................................................... 20 4.1.2 Critical Consciousness ..................................................................................................................... 21 4.1.3 Power Theory ................................................................................................................................. 22 4.1.3.1 Power and interests of the individual user.................................................................................. 24 5. Method .......................................................................................................... 25 5.1 Research Process ................................................................................................................................... 26 5.1.1 Literature review ............................................................................................................................ 27 5.2 Target Group ...................................................................................................................................... 29 5.3 Quantitative Pre-study ...................................................................................................................... 29 5.4 Qualitative focus group interviews .................................................................................................... 32 5.5 Interview analysis .............................................................................................................................. 34 5.6 Ethical considerations ........................................................................................................................ 36 2 6. Findings and analysis ..................................................................................... 37 6.1 Pre-study findings and analysis ............................................................................................................. 37 6.2 Focus group interview findings and analysis ......................................................................................... 40 6.2.1 Relationship to Netflix .................................................................................................................... 41 6.2.2 Critical Consciousness of the Netflix user....................................................................................... 48 6.2.3 The power of Netflix ....................................................................................................................... 62 6.2.4 Uncovering the Black Box ............................................................................................................... 70 7. Discussion ...................................................................................................... 74 7.1 Relationship to Netflix ........................................................................................................................... 74 7.2 Critical Consciousness............................................................................................................................ 75 7.3 The power of Netflix .............................................................................................................................. 80 7.4 Uncovering the Black Box ...................................................................................................................... 82 8. Trial and Error ................................................................................................ 85 8.1 Eye-tracking experiment ....................................................................................................................... 85 8.2 User data experiment ............................................................................................................................ 86 9. Criteria of quality ........................................................................................... 87 9.1 Validity, reliability and generalizability ................................................................................................. 87 9.1.1 Validity ............................................................................................................................................ 88 9.1.2 Reliability ........................................................................................................................................ 90 9.1.3 Generalizability ..............................................................................................................................
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