The Department of Strategy and Management invites you to a faculty seminar with Associate Professor Nathan Warren, BI Norwegian Business School.
Speaker Bio:
Nathan Warren is an Associate Professor of Marketing at BI Norwegian Business School. His research examines how consumers navigate tensions between individual desires and social expectations in three domains: extraordinary consumption, interpersonal perception (e.g., status and masculinity), and digital tipping. He investigates consequential social and managerial issues shaping contemporary society, with implications ranging from sustainable consumption to frontline services. Nathan's research has been published in top marketing journals, such as Journal of Consumer Research and Journal of Consumer Psychology, and has been featured in global press outlets, such as BBC, NPR, the Atlantic, and FoxNews. For more on Nathan's research, see his website https://www.nathanwarrenresearch.com/ or listen to this AI-generated podcast summarizing his CV.
Abstract:
Mythological archetypes, such as the hero, rebel, and outlaw, shape marketplace cultures. The recurrent presence of trickster characters in global mythology suggests the trickster archetype reflects a fundamental part of the human psyche. We suggest the trickster has been overlooked due to conflation with related archetypes, and that focusing on the unique attributes of the trickster reveals useful insights into the characteristics and trajectories of unbridled and insatiable consumption appetites. The trickster lens reveals that consumers who have unbridled and insatiable appetites dissolve boundaries of distinction (e.g., in vs. out; appropriate vs. inappropriate) and feed their appetites by playing tricks along those boundaries. Like the trickster archetype, consumers with unbridled appetites gain unique perspectives on the malleability and usefulness of social boundaries, causing societal disruptions. These disruptions are usually ambiguous or socially destructive, but can be beneficial when trickster-ish consumers develop a social purpose. We consider societal implications, such as the current post-truth society, emanating from other unbridled insatiable appetites, including addiction, creativity, entrepreneurship, and power.