Özlem Sandikci

University of Glasgow, Management, Faculty Member

Istanbul Şehir University, Management, Faculty Member

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Özlem Sandıkcı Türkdoğan is a Professor of Marketing at the University of Glasgow. Her research addresses sociocultural dimensions of consumption and focuses on the relationship between globalization, marketing, and culture.

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Papers by Özlem Sandikci

Exploring Needs, Desires, and Hopes: a Study of Impoverished Migrated Consumers

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Development and Quality of Life in Turkey

Journal of Macromarketing, 2016

Recently, scholars have been calling attention to the macro-social and institutional structures s... more Recently, scholars have been calling attention to the macro-social and institutional structures shaping development and welfare. In this study we offer a socio-temporally situated understanding of quality of life (QOL) in a developing country setting and investigate the effects of macro structures on consumer well-being. Specifically, we focus on neoliberal development (led by the business sector, rather than led or directed by the government) and examine how a neoliberal transformation of the marketplace affects consumers’ QOL perceptions. The context of our research is Turkey, a developing country that has been an avid follower of neoliberal policies since the 1990s. We focus on three key macro-social developments that have been shaping Turkish society in the past decades – globalization, religion, and economic growth – and seek to understand how these forces influence consumers’ satisfaction with life. Our study contributes to the literature on development and QOL by first, showi...

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The ontological pitfalls of Islamic exceptionalism: A re-inquiry on El-Bassiouny's (2014, 2015) conceptualization of “Islamic marketing”

Journal of Business Research, 2016

In response to Jafari and Sandıkcı's (2015a) critique of her 2014 article entitled "The one-billi... more In response to Jafari and Sandıkcı's (2015a) critique of her 2014 article entitled "The one-billion-plus marginalization", El-Bassiouny (2015) dismisses the authors' key ontological debate over exceptionalism as a historical and political discourse and diverts attention to new areas of enquiry (e.g., disciplinary legitimacy, Islamic jurisprudence and methodological pluralism) to further her original "transcendental values integration" approach to marketing theory, practice and education. While offering new insights, El-Bassiouny's account is still largely driven by discourses of marginalization, exceptionalism and Islamism. This article therefore: (1) reappraises the oversimplification of the marginalization discourse; (2) reiterates the pitfalls of Islamic exceptionalism at an ontological level; (3) cautions against the consequences of ideological readings of Islam in marketing and consumer research; and (4) re-emphasizes the importance of understanding identity dynamics in the analysis of the complex intersections of Islam, marketing and consumption. In conclusion, the article offers some areas for future research.

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Islam, Consumption and Marketing: Going Beyond the Essentialist Approaches

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2011

Islam and marketing are two terms that, until recently, seldom came together. Yet today, there is... more Islam and marketing are two terms that, until recently, seldom came together. Yet today, there is a burgeoning interest, in both academic and practitioner circles, in understanding Muslim consumers and devising marketing strategies and practices that will enable companies to reach what is now considered to be a highly attractive market segment.

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Strolling Through Istanbul’s Beyoğlu

Space and Culture, 2013

In this essay, I evaluate Istanbul’s Beyoğlu as a hybrid and negotiated space and investigate how... more In this essay, I evaluate Istanbul’s Beyoğlu as a hybrid and negotiated space and investigate how the imaginary and lived experiences of space enable as well as constrain transgressive everyday practices and identity politics. Through analyzing memories, imaginations, and experiences of Beyoğlu, in particular its drag/transsexual subculture, I explore the ways in which the past and present interact under the dynamic of globalization and (re)produce Beyoğlu as a space of difference and containment. Beyond the intricacies of Istanbul’s sex trade, night life, and queer subculture, I propose that the singular district of Beyoğlu, given its geographical, historical, and social location, operates as a microcosm of the tensions and negotiations between East and West, local and global, past and present.

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Religious communities and the marketplace

Marketing Theory, 2013

Sociopolitical analyses of religion evidence the increasing prominence of religious communities a... more Sociopolitical analyses of religion evidence the increasing prominence of religious communities across the world. However, existing work on religion–consumption interaction focuses mostly on the personal effects of religion and examines how religion and religious ideologies influence individual decision making, choice, and purchase and shopping behaviors. In this study, we focus on the collective experiences of religion and unpack the multiple ways consumption shapes and is shaped by a communal religious ethos. Through an ethnographic study of a Turkish-based Islamic community, we show that consumption plays important roles in attracting individuals to the community, socializing them to the communal ethos, and drawing symbolic boundaries between the community members and outsiders. We also discuss how the communal religious ethos shapes consumption practices and brand relationships of members and influences the marketplace dynamics.

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Competently Ordinary: New Middle Class Consumers in the Emerging Markets

Journal of Marketing, 2014

Although the new middle classes in emerging markets are a matter of significant interest for mark... more Although the new middle classes in emerging markets are a matter of significant interest for marketing scholars and managers, there has been little systematic research on their values and preoccupations. This article focuses on new middle class consumers to identify the new, shared socio-ideological sensibilities informed by the recent neoliberal reforms in emerging markets and examines how these sensibilities are actualized in consumption. Through an ethnographic study of fashion consumption in Turkey, the authors explicate three salient new middle class sensibilities, which implicate the mastery of the ordinary in pursuit of connections with people, institutions, and contexts. These sensibilities crystallize into a particular mode of consumption—“formulaic creativity”—which addresses consumers’ desire to align with the middle and helps them reconcile the disjuncture between the promises of neoliberalism and the realities of living in unstable societies. The article provides recomm...

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Interrogating Non-Western Consumer Cultures: Are We Really Talking About Postmodern Plurality, Multiple Modernities or Pre-modern Transformations?

In-Between Modernities and Postmoderities: Theorizing Turkish Consumptionscape

The Technomyth of Youth in Anti‐Aging Skin Care Products Advertising

Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 1996

... 414 Ozlem Sandikcl ... Women, particularly, &quot;learn to redescribe their body changes ... more ... 414 Ozlem Sandikcl ... Women, particularly, &quot;learn to redescribe their body changes through the language of technology, rather than the language of experience.&quot;14 The beauty culture is now dominated by a variety of authoritarian fi-gures prescribing for women what to do and ...

Globalization and rituals: does Ramadan turn into Christmas?

This study explores how the dynamics of consumer culture and globalization interact with Islamic ... more This study explores how the dynamics of consumer culture and globalization interact with Islamic beliefs, rituals and behaviors, and revive and modify local rituals in order to fit with modern consumption-driven lifestyles. Specifically, we focus on urban Turkey and discuss how Ramadan rituals are being reinvented, modified and reinterpreted at the marketplace. We argue that the commercialization of Ramadan is neither an instance of cultural imperialism nor an instance of postmodern disorder. Rather, commercial logic and consumerist ideology hybridize Western and non-Western traditions and practices, creating new expressions of existing rituals.

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Poverty and socioeconomic injustice in Muslim geographies

Islam, Marketing and Consumption, 2016

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The Halal Nail Polish: Religion and Body Politics in the Marketplace

(Re-)Claiming Bodies Through Fashion and Style, 2021

Wearing nail polish is a contentious issue for practicing Muslim women. Because nail polish sets ... more Wearing nail polish is a contentious issue for practicing Muslim women. Because nail polish sets a permanent barrier between water and nail, performing wudu (a ritualized body cleansing procedure that every Muslim should undertake before salat-daily prayers) becomes problematic. In recent years, a new breathable line of nail polish, which allows water to penetrate nail, became available. The so-called halal nail polish category generated not only interest but also a lively online debate. In this study, I use the controversy over the nail polish to interrogate the complex ways through which social, cultural, material and religious interpretations of body intersect with marketplace dynamics and inform identities.

International marketing at the interface of the alluring global, the comforting local, and the challenges of sustainable success

This chapter highlights the poles of global/local and standardization/adaptation and calls for a ... more This chapter highlights the poles of global/local and standardization/adaptation and calls for a focus on the specific interaction between a local context and the global forces while forming a glocalization strategy. It focuses on a key question managers try to answer: what is the right marketing approach for a fi rm operating in international markets? The decision of if and how to tailor their marketing offerings to global/local market dynamics is fundamental in defi ning the marketing strategy of both transnationals and local companies in emergent markets. We describe how emergent market companies can successfully compete with transnational giants by developing brands that serve consumers bridge various sociocultural tensions in their daily lives. We focus on one such tension: the alluring global and the comforting local. Two cases – a Russian brand of cosmetics, Green Mama and a Turkish brand of cola, Cola Turka – demonstrate effective business solutions that bridge the desire for both the local and the global. These cases also underscore that the specifi cs of the design and implementation of glocalization as well as cultural analysis of the sociohistorical context of a national market are vital for successful marketing.

Religion and Everyday Consumption Ethics: A Moral Economy Approach

Journal of Business Ethics, 2020

As research on ethical consumers and consumption practices has continued to grow, a complimentary... more As research on ethical consumers and consumption practices has continued to grow, a complimentary body of work concerned less with ethical consumption but more with ethics in consumption has emerged. Problematizing the divide between ethical and non-ethical consumption, this stream of research focuses on the domain of everyday and explores the moral struggles individuals face while engaging in ordinary consumption practices. However, the attention on the ordinary runs the risk of obscuring the contribution of the 'extraordinary' or the transcendental to the ethical concerns embedded in the mundane flow of the everyday. This study addresses this blind spot and explores the ways in which religion is implicated in everyday consumption ethics. In doing so, I go beyond a view of religion as an individual trait and emphasize its role as a major institutional structure of the contemporary political economy. The empirical context of the study is the controversy over the so-called halal nail polish. The debate over the products' appropriateness for Muslim women provides a fertile setting to explore how an ordinary object becomes an ethical problem amid changing relations between religion and market. In order to trace and analyze the linkages between daily practices and institutional dynamics I draw from the moral economy framework and discuss the multiple and conflicting moral repertoires that shape the ethical evaluations of the object. The study offers several contributions to the existing theorizations of everyday consumption ethics and moral economies of consumption. It also highlights the potential of interdisciplinary approaches in providing a holistic understanding of the ethical and moral dimensions of consumption.

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Western influences in Turkish advertising

Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, 2019

Purpose This purpose of this paper is to explore how Western design, fashion and aesthetic styles... more Purpose This purpose of this paper is to explore how Western design, fashion and aesthetic styles influenced advertising practice in Turkey in the post-Second World War era. Specifically, the authors focus on the key targets of the consumerist ideology of the period, women and discuss the representations of females in Turkish advertisements. Design/methodology/approach Data were analysed using a combination of social semiotic and compositional analysis methods. Compositional analysis focused on the formal qualities and design elements of the ads; social semiotic analysis sought to uncover their meaning potentials in relation to social, cultural, political and economic dynamics of the period. The advertisements of a prominent Turkish pasta brand, Piyale, published in the local adaptation of the American Life magazine, between 1956 and 1966, constitute the data set. Findings The analysis reveals that Piyale followed the stylistic and thematic trends prevailing in American and European...

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A sociohistorical analysis of packaging design: a case study of the Turkish pasta brand Piyale

Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, 2019

Purpose This paper aims to understand how social, cultural and political economic dynamics inform... more Purpose This paper aims to understand how social, cultural and political economic dynamics inform packaging design. Specifically, it focuses on one of the oldest Turkish pasta brands, Piyale, and seeks to understand the impact of the changes in the macro-institutional structures on its packaging practices over the course of almost a century. Design/methodology/approach The analysis is mainly based on data collected through archival and documentary research. The archival data are gathered from various sources including the personal archives of the former managers, advertisements published in the popular magazines of the time and industry reports and documents. Data are analyzed using a combination of compositional and social semiotic analysis. Findings The analysis indicates four distinct periods in the brand’s history. The design elements and visual identity reflect the social, cultural, political, economic and technological changes shaping the Turkish society in these different tim...

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The role of mundane and subtle institutional work in market dynamics: A case of fashion clothing market

Journal of Business Research, 2019

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Religion and the marketplace: constructing the ‘new’ Muslim consumer

Religion, 2018

ABSTRACT Despite the prediction that modernization would lead to secularization, the past 30 year... more ABSTRACT Despite the prediction that modernization would lead to secularization, the past 30 years brought a global resurgence of religion. As many scholars note, religion has gained a new visibility in the contemporary political economy and become firmly embedded within the identity politics. The changing role of religion is linked to the growing influence of neoliberalism and the expansion of the market logic. In this study, I look at the intersections between Islam, consumption, and market and trace the shifts in the conceptualizations of Muslims in relation to the changing market dynamics and the broader socio-political and economic structures. I discuss three phases through which the view of Muslims as modern consumers in search of distinction and propriety comes to dominate the view of Muslims as non- or anti-consumers: exclusion, identification, and stylization. I conclude by discussing the implications of the study for the current understandings of the marketization of religion.

Consumers’ rights, justice, and sustainable development of markets

In this paper we focus on the notion of ‘social justice’ to argue that the establishment of socia... more In this paper we focus on the notion of ‘social justice’ to argue that the establishment of social justice in markets should be seen as a pivotal doctrine of Islamic system of economics and business, as it was in the early Islamic era. Our interest in this topic has been primarily triggered by observing an unprecedented upsurge of attention from different subjects within the fields of economics and business to developing new knowledge in relation to the ‘Islamic’. We do acknowledge that Islamic economics has an established history and its scholars (both Muslim and non-Muslim) have traditionally accumulated a wealth of knowledge in a wide range of topics. For example, in the domain of financial markets and banking industry, Islamic economics has shed light on the development of numerous Shariah-compliant products and services across the world, amongst not only Muslims but also non-Muslims (e.g., HSBC in the UK). Similarly, scholars’ (e.g., Kahf, 1992a, 1992b, 1996; Khan, 1984, 1995; Kalantari, 2008) application of economic theories to consumption has fructified new areas of scholarship in relation to consumption in Muslim majority contexts (see Hasan, 2005; Suerdem, 2013; Jafari and Suerdem, 2012). However, with the acceleration of modernisation and neoliberalism, growth of consumerism, and socio-economic developments in Muslim geographies (particularly oil-rich countries), the question of ‘what makes a socio-economic system Islamic?’ is gaining evermore importance. The scope of this question goes beyond the disciplinary boundaries of economic theories to encompass a broader range of issues in business ethics, management, marketing, and international business/marketing, to name but a few (see Abuznaid, 2009; Beekun, 1996; Rice, 1999).