Kjellberg, Hans

How are markets shaped? My research revolves around market(-ing) practice and the strategic efforts of various actors to change how markets work. This includes activities that shape individual economic exchanges, rules and norms for such exchanges, and how such exchanges are represented as markets. The research approach I work with is inspired by the sociology of science and techniques and could be characterised as constructivist market studies. In my PhD thesis, Organising Distribution, I studied the modernisation of Swedish food distribution in the 1940s and 50s. I also take interest in methodological issues and in particular the use of sociological methods in studying markets. Over the years I have worked with a number of such methods such as quantitative network analysis, historical methods, autoethnography, and visual archaeology. In my work on market(-ing) practice I've been fortunate enough to co-operate closely with C-F Helgesson, formerly at SSE, now at Uppsala University. Over the past two decades I have also been involved in the establishment of the Interdisciplinary Market Studies group with a number of likeminded colleagues across Europe: Luis Araujo, Manchester; Franck Cochoy, Toulouse; John Finch, Glasgow; Susi Geiger, UC Dublin; Debbie Harrison, BI; Robert Spencer, Kedge Marseille; Alexandre Mallard, Ecole de Mines ParisTech; Stefan Schwarzkopf, CBS, among others.

I am currently engaged in four research projects: a international comparative study of valuation and pricing of cancer drugs (funded by RJ, with Ebba Sjögren and Lei Huang); an interdisciplinary project on how the rise of online influencers reshapes commercial and social relations (funded by VR and SHB, with Riikka Murto and Johan Nilsson); a project on how firms, sectors and societies build resilience (with Pär Malmberg, funded by the Swedish Transport Administration); and a project on tensions between multiple value-creation logics in the Nordic forestry sector (funded by SHB, with Kaisa Koskela-Huotari and Suvi Nenonen).

Some recent publications are:

• Chimenti, G & H Kjellberg. 2022. Mutable mobiles? Making space for an access-based car sharing market. EPA: Economy and Space. DOI: 10.1177/0308518X221092773

• Cochoy, F, J Hagberg & H Kjellberg. 2021. Price display technologies and price ceiling policies: governing prices in the WWII and postwar US economy (1940–1953). Socio-Economic Review, 19(1), 133-56. https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwz045 

• Diaz Ruiz, C & H Kjellberg. 2020. Feral segmentation: How cultural intermediaries perform market segmentation in the wild. Marketing Theory, 20(4), 429-57. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470593120920330.

• Geiger, S & H Kjellberg. 2021. Market mash ups: The process of combinatorial market innovation. Journal of Business Research, 124, 445-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.11.010.

• Hagberg J & H Kjellberg. 2020. Digitalized markets. Consumption Markets & Culture, 23(2): 97-109. https://doi.org/10.1080/10253866.2020.1694209.

• Hagberg, J, H Kjellberg & F Cochoy. 2020. The Role of Market Devices for Price and Loyalty Strategies in 20th Century U.S. Grocery Stores. Journal of Macromarketing, 40(2): 201-220. https://doi.org/10.1177/0276146719897366

• Kjellberg, Hans, Ebba Sjögren & Linus J. Krafve. 2023. The functions of known to be inaccurate prices in markets: A cross-country comparison of pharmaceutical list pricing. Journal of Business Research, 167, 114193. (AJG3)

• Kjellberg, H. 2021. Market expertise at work: introducing Alvin E. Roth and Michel Callon. AMS Review. https://rdcu.be/cBwQp 

• Kjellberg, H & R Murto. 2021. Theorizing markets. AMS Review. https://rdcu.be/cBwQd

• Kjellberg, H and E Sjögren. 2020. Actor-Network Theory – delight in the details. In Eriksson-Zetterquist et al (eds.). Theories and Perspectives in Business Administration. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

• Vargo, SL, L Peters, H Kjellberg et al. 2022. Emergence in marketing: an institutional and ecosystem framework. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. https://rdcu.be/cKWZf