Jag undervisar på både grundnivå och på avancerad nivå. Dessutom handleder jag doktorander i marknadsföring.

I min forskning tittar jag på olika aspekter av konsumtionens symboliska dimensioner. Jag är t.ex. intresserad av hur individer i vårt konsumtionssamhälle skapar mening och värde genom konsumtion samt hur varumärken fylls med mening i ett samspel mellan populärkultur, marknadsföringsaktiviteter och konsumenter. Mina forskningspublikationer har bl.a. förekommit i Advances in Consumer Research; Consumption, Markets and Culture; European Journal of Marketing; Journal of Consumer Culture; Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Global Fashion Marketing; Journal of Marketing Management; Journal of Place Management and Development; Marketing Theory; och Research in Consumer Behavior såväl som i ett flertal bokkapitel publicerade i svenska såväl som internationella antologier.

Jag har också skrivit böckerna Unboxing Marketing: Creating Value for Consumers, Firms, and Society, där jag och medförfattarna Benjamin Hartmann, Anders Parment and Cecilia Solér ger marknadsföringsstudenter en rad nya perspektiv på klassisk marknadsföring; Marknadsföring, människor och interaktion, där Peter Svensson och jag gör en kritisk granskning av de mest grundläggande marknadsföringsbegreppen; Konsumtion – begreppbart, där jag tillsammans med etnologen Lars Kaijser ger en introduktion till konsumtionskulturområdet; och Märken och människor – om marknadssymboler som kulturella resurser, där jag tillsammans med Anders Bengtsson och Benjamin Hartmann tar ett samlat grepp på de olika roller som varumärken spelar för dagens konsumenter. För att fånga de visuella aspekterna av dagens konsumtionskultur har jag också arbetat med videografier och har presenterat prisvinnande filmer på The ACR Film Festival och i Consumption, Markets and Culture.

För att nå människor utanför akademin har jag också skrivit böcker där jag introducerar begreppet konsumtionskultur för en bredare publik: Vi är vad vi köper: konsumtionskulturen är här för att stanna, tillsammans med antropologen Katarina Graffman samt På jakt efter den tid som kommer: bubblor, skam och andra fenomen tillsammans med Graffman och modevetaren Emma Lindblad. Tillsammans med Katarina Graffman skriver jag också en blogg på Resumés hemsida. 

I urval från Stockholms universitets publikationsdatabas

• Black Metal - Bara i döden är vi true

  2021. Tommy Jensen, Jacob Östberg. På tal om döden, 117-134

  Kapitel

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• Introduction to the Special Issue on Gender Impacts

  2021. Susan Dobscha, Jacob Östberg. Journal of Marketing Management 37 (3-4), 181-187

  Artikel

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• Failure

  2021. Dannie Kjeldgaard (et al.). Marketing Theory 21 (2), 277-286

  Artikel

  Failure is ubiquitous in popular and consumer culture. In this commentary, we interrogate discourses around failure and outline potential avenues of inquiry for the marketing and consumption theory disciplines. We begin by synthesizing how failure has hitherto been conceptualized in marketing theory. Then, we discuss how recent rethinking of failure in other disciplines can be meaningful for marketing thought, and propose a new agenda for marketing scholars for studying failure, that moves beyond studying failure as a primarily destructive phenomenon that arises predominantly in service encounters.

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• Unpacking Nordic branding

  2021. Lars Pynt Andersen, Frank Lindberg, Jacob Östberg. Journal of Place Management and Development 14 (3), 362-378

  Artikel

  Purpose

  This paper aims to develop place branding theory toward the accommodation of a multifaceted understanding of value and value negotiation by Nordic branding actors by way of answering the following question: How is Nordicness appropriated by Nordic branding actors and what value regimes are drawn on in the process?

  Design/methodology/approach

  Using field data from a selection of branding actors and sectors in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, a qualitative analysis of Nordic branding performances is used to unpack the negotiations of valuation of worth.

  Findings

  The analysis identified three principle orders of worth behind Nordicness (civic, green and inspired) that are negotiated through compromises between orders of industry and domestic and by contesting the orders of fame and market. The findings indicate how Nordicness is performed as principle worths and tensions and how these are rendered meaningful as propositions of “value as difference” as they are performed in practice by brand actors.

  Originality/value

  Several studies focus on how place branding “adds value;” however, few studies have been aimed at unpacking how a “value universe” is negotiated as a more complex understanding of worth or “value.” This study thus opens up for branding heterogeneity, which signifies awareness of competing notions and orders of worth among small- and medium-sized enterprises and other central stakeholders; this could further inspire interdisciplinary, value-based research into the potential contingencies of (product) branding and place branding in other contexts and regions.

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• Why do crowds cause trouble? Exploring affective instability in collectivity

  2021. Maíra Magalhães Lopes, Joel Hietanen, Jacob Östberg. Marketing Theory 21 (4), 539-560

  Artikel

  Through our ethnographic study of urban activism collectives in Sao Paulo, we propose another approach for exploring the process of collective formations and their longevity. Rather than seeking out the representational meanings of individualized communities, we approach collectivity from the perspective of crowds. Crowds are affective. Crowds are contagious. By adopting affect-based theorizing, we discuss affective intensities that bring about collectivity before the individuals awaken to narrate their meaning-makings. In our ethnographic context, collectives resist manifestations of gentrification (i.e., consumer culture in itself) and offer us a multifaceted site of being and becoming with the crowds. We explore how connections and disconnections affectively rekindle the social expression of collective bodies in consumer culture. This way, we add new dimensions to extant theorizing of consumer collectivity that tends to focus on individualized meaning, stability, and harmony.

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