Nathan B. Warren
Associate Professor of Marketing
BI Norwegian Business school
research goals
1
Understand how customers and cultures adapt as digital technology becomes more pervasive.
2
Empower managers and consumers who are struggling to adapt to changing norms. ​
CONSUMER CULTURE
What happens when people dedicate their whole lives to a single consumption passion--when they are consumed by an unbridled need to consume? My research on single-minded wilderness consumers uncovers the surprising usefulness and sustainability of dirt, the accidental creativity and destruction of unbridled appetites, and the unexpected joy of technological failure.
GENDER & STATUS
Why are some behaviors status worthy and others not? When is a man considered a man? And when are status and masculinity helpful or harmful? My research into gender and status examines pervasive social beliefs and stereotypes that highlight distinctions between idealized gender and status systems and the often distorted gender and status systems that actually exist.
DIGITAL TIPPING
How should businesses use technology to request tips? Should tip requests be private? Should they occur before or after serving customers? ​As a former restaurant waiter, I am fascinated by changing tipping norms. My tipping research aims to improve customer engagement and firm revenue.
CONSUMER CULTURE
CONSUMER DIRTWORK
"Consumer Dirtwork: What Extraordinary Consumption Reveals about the Usefulness of Dirt"
This paper introduces the concept of consumer dirtwork, which reveals the usefulness and potential sustainability of reconsidering literal and figurative dirt.
Journal of Consumer Research
- Warren & Price
GENDER & STATUS
How effort shapes status
What happens when people try to earn status?
This paper finds that effort can increase or decrease status, depending on the status-linked goal they are trying to achieve. People who try to become wealthy are higher status than effortlessly wealthy people. People who try to be cool are lower status than effortlessly cool people.
Journal of Consumer Psychology
"Trying too hard or not hard enough: How effort shapes status"
​
- Warren & Warren, 2024
DIGITAL TIPPING
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Tipping Privacy
What happens when tip selections are no longer private?
Supported by grants from MSI, the Oregon Consumer Protection Fund, and the Berkman Charitable foundation, this paper finds that reducing tipping privacy has damaging effects on repatronage and WOM, with mixed effects on tip amounts, because customers who feel watched feel less in control and less generous.
Journal of Business Research
"Tipping Privacy: The Detrimental Impact of Observation on Non-Tip Responses"
​
- Warren and Hanson (2025)