Jakob Westergren

Jakob Westergren is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Communication, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen, where he investigates funding models for Libraries, Archives, and Museums through the Velux Fonden-funded project "Post-Neutrality within Libraries, Archives, and Museums." He maintains an affiliation with Uppsala University's Department of Business Studies, Sweden, where he earned his PhD.

His educational background includes a Doctor of Philosophy in Business Studies from Uppsala University (awarded May 26, 2025), with doctoral research focused on organizational enactment of school competition. His thesis, "But now tell me how this drink is made: Four essays on the enactment of school competition," analyzed competitive dynamics in educational institutions.

Westergren's research centers on organizational sociology, legitimacy construction, and institutional theory within educational and cultural contexts. He examines how schools navigate competitive pressures to craft educational offerings and legitimacy claims, while his current project explores post-neutrality challenges in cultural institutions. His methodological approach emphasizes qualitative analysis of organizational behavior in institutional environments.

His 2025 publications reveal a cohesive research trajectory examining competitive dynamics in Swedish upper secondary schools, with emphasis on student recruitment strategies and educational offer development. The 2019 retailing study demonstrates his broader interest in place-based organizational contexts, showing conceptual continuity in analyzing institutional positioning across different sectors.

Westergren actively contributes to academic discourse through conference presentations, including his September 2025 lecture "Enacting competition? Exploring how upper secondary schools struggle to become legitimate competing actors." His research on educational competition has gained traction with 68 Mendeley readers and social media engagement. The Velux Fonden grant supporting his cultural institutions project represents his primary current research funding.