Finding common ground: transcending insider-outsider positionality in consumer research

This article advances understanding of researcher positionality in cross-cultural consumer research by introducing the Positionality Spectrum, a dynamic framework that captures the fluid, situational and affective nature of researcher positionality. Drawing on collaborative autoethnography and qualitative interviews with 32 British, Nigerian and Nigerian immigrant households, we demonstrate how researchers experience shifting moments of insiderness, outsiderness and in-betweenness across the research process. The findings challenge fixed or linear conceptions of positionality, highlighting the value of multicultural research teams in enhancing reflexivity and interpretive rigour. We offer practical guidance for navigating power, identity and cultural complexity in research with marginalised communities and foreground positionality as relational, temporal and ethically consequential, supporting more inclusive and epistemically just research practices.