Dr. Pia Albinsson

Dr. Pia A. Albinsson is Beroth Professor of Marketing in the Walker College of Business at Appalachian State University, where she has taught since 2009. Her research on advertising effectiveness, consumer activism, collaborative consumption and value co-creation has been published or is forthcoming in the Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Psychology & Marketing, Consumption, Markets, and Culture, among others. 

Albinsson has published several edited and co-authored books within the sharing economy and sustainability realm, including The Rise of the Sharing Economy: Exploring the Challenges and Opportunities of Collaborative Consumption (Praeger 2018), Uber (ABC-CLIO 2020, and re-released in paperback by Bloomsbury 2025), Understanding Collaborative Consumption (Edward Elgar 2024) and a textbook titled Marketing and Sustainability: Contradiction or the Path to Profitable Businesses and Sustainable Societies (Wiley 2024).

Albinsson’s research in collaborative consumption has focused on the way social entrepreneurs and community members create peer-based sharing spaces to extend the life-time usage of clothing and other goods. In the process the sharing spaces help build community and social capital. Similarly, in her work on online and offline consumer activism, she has examined how grassroots consumer movements have focused on changing small businesses to engage in sustainable business practices and creating more awareness of environmental issues. 

Areas of expertise

• Sharing economy
• Collaborative consumption
• Marketing and sustainability
• Consumer behavior
• Consumer activism