Professor Rohit Varman

Department of Marketing
Professor of Marketing and Consumption

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)121 415 8356
Email: r.varman@bham.ac.uk

Address: Birmingham Business School
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT

Rohit Varman is Professor of Marketing and Consumption at BBS. His current inter-disciplinary research focuses on corporate violence, exploitation, unfree labour, and resistance to corporatization and marketization.

He has published in leading journals that include Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Retailing, Organization Science, Human Relations, Organization Studies, Journal of Service Research, and Marketing Theory. Rohit’s research was awarded Emerald Citation of Excellence in 2015. He is also former President of the International Society of Markets & Development.

He is currently a co-editor-in-chief of Marketing Theory and an associate editor of Consumption, Markets & Culture. Rohit serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Macro Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management, and Journal of Historical Research in Marketing. He has guest edited special issues of Marketing Theory, Journal of Marketing Management, Journal of Macro Marketing, and Journal of Historical Research in Marketing. He has also co-edited books published by Cambridge University Press on alternative organizations in India and on critical marketing published by Routledge.

He is interested in supervising PhDs in the following areas:

Critical Theory
Marketing and Society
Consumer Culture
History of Marketing
Subaltern Consumption
Resistance and Consumer Movements
Colonialism, Consumption, and Markets

Qualifications

Ph.D, University of Utah
MBA, McGill University

Biography

Rohit Varman has a master’s degree in Business from McGill University. His PhD in Marketing is from University of Utah. He started his academic career in India at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur before moving to Indian Institute of Management Calcutta where he spent 13 years. He also taught at Deakin University from 2015-2017. Rohit joined University of Birmingham in 2019 as Professor in Marketing. At University of Birmingham, Rohit held a range of leadership roles such as Doctoral lead for the Department of Marketing and Head of the Department of Marketing.

Rohit contributes widely to the academic community. He serves on the board of the International Society of Markets and Development (ISMD) and is a past President of ISMD. He is on the editorial board of journals such as Journal of Macro Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management and Journal of Historical Research in Marketing. He is co-editor-in-chief of Marketing Theory and an Associate Editor for Consumption Markets and Culture. Rohit has been a visiting researcher at Karlstad University, New School, and Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

Past Positions:

2017 – 2019 - Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta
2015 – 2017 - Professor, Deakin University
2012 – 2015 - Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta
2010 –2012 - Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta
2009 – 2010 - Senior Lecturer, Henley Business School, University of Reading
2006 – 2008 - Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta
2002 – 2006 - Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Teaching

Social Marketing and Societal Issues
BSc Programme in Singapore

Cross Cultural Communication
MSc Programme

Postgraduate supervision

Four Successful PhD Supervisions
Served on Supervisory Committees for Several PhD Students

Research

Research interests

Rohit’s broad areas of research are critical management/marketing and consumer culture. His current inter-disciplinary research focuses on corporate violence, exploitation, unfree labour, consumer ethics, and resistance to corporatization and marketization. He is also interested in history of marketing and impact of colonialism on consumer culture.

Other activities

Co-Editor-in-Chief, Marketing Theory
Associate Editor, Consumption, Markets and Culture
Member, Editorial Review Board of Journal of Macromarketing
Member, Editorial Review Board of Journal of Historical Research in Marketing
Member, Editorial board of Journal of Marketing Management
Guest Co-Editor (with Olga Kravets) Special Issue on Hierarchies of Knowledge of Marketing Theory, 2022
Guest Co-Editor (with Nikhilesh Dholakia) Special Issue on India of International Journal of Historical Research, 2018
Guest Editor, Special Issue on Markets, Marketing and Violence of Journal of Marketing Management, 2018
Guest Co-Editor (with Giana Eckhardt and Nikhilesh Dholakia) Special Issue on Globalization of Marketing Ideology of Journal of Macromarketing, 2013
Editor, Decision (Journal published by Indian Institute of Management Calcutta), 2008-10
Ad Hoc Reviewer
Marketing Theory
Journal of Consumer Research
Journal of Service Research
Journal of Public Policy and Marketing
Journal of Business Ethics
Human Relations
Organization Studies

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Varman, R & Vijay, D (eds) 2022, Organizing Resistance and Imagining Alternatives in India. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009193405

Article

Varman, R, Belk, RW & Sreekumar, H 2024, 'Post-Colonial Consumer Respect and the Framing of Neocolonial Consumption in Advertising', Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 51, no. 2, ucad063, pp. 362–382. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucad063

Varman, R & Meshram, K 2024, 'The making of negative being: Religion, humiliation, and consumer vulnerability', Marketing Theory, pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931241275550

Varman, R & Srinivas, N 2023, 'Theorizing necroptics: Invisibilization of violence and death-worlds', Organization. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084231189188

Varman, R, Al-Amoudi, I & Skålén, P 2023, 'Workplace Humiliation and the Organization of Domestic Work', Organization Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/01708406231157034

Eckhardt, GM, Belk, RW, Bradford, T, Dobscha, S, Ger, G & Varman, R 2022, 'Decolonizing marketing', Consumption Markets and Culture, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 176–186. https://doi.org/10.1080/10253866.2021.1996734

Varman, R, Sreekumar, H & Belk, RW 2022, 'Money, sacrificial work, and poor consumers', Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 657–677. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucac008

Varman, R, Vijay, D & Skålén, P 2022, 'The conflicting conventions of care: transformative service as justice and agape', Journal of Service Research, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 86-107. https://doi.org/10.1177/10946705211018503

Chatzidakis, A, Maclaren, P & Varman, R 2021, 'The regeneration of consumer movement solidarity', Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 289–308. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucab007

Varman, R, Skålén, P, Belk, RW & Chaudhuri, HR 2020, 'Normative violence in domestic service: a study of exploitation, status, and grievability', Journal of Business Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-020-04444-1

Chapter

Varman, R 2023, Poverty, Modern Slavery, and Caste-Based Biopolitics. in Researching Poverty and Austerity: Theoretical Approaches, Methodologies and Policy Applications. Taylor and Francis, pp. 71-88. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003226222-6

Varman, R & Vijay, D 2022, Capitalist Deathworlds and Alternative Worldmaking. in R Varman & D Vijay (eds), Organizing Resistance and Imagining Alternatives in India. Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-40. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009193405.001

Varman, R & Vijay, D 2021, The Thanatopolitics of Neoliberalism and Consumer Precarity. in Y Minowa & R Belk (eds), Consumer Culture Theory in Asia: History and Contemporary Issues. 1st edn, Routledge Frontiers in the Development of International Business, Management and Marketing, Routledge, New York. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003111559-14

Editorial

Chatzidakis, A, Kerrigan, F & Varman, R 2023, 'Academic integrity, quality scholarship, and critical perspectives cannot be suppressed', Marketing Theory, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 557-560. https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931231199557

Kravets, O & Varman, R 2022, 'Introduction to special issue: Hierarchies of knowledge in marketing theory', Marketing Theory, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 127–133. https://doi.org/10.1177/14705931221089326

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