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Elina Närvänen

Professor, palvelut ja kauppa

About me

I am Professor of Services and Retailing at Tampere University and Docent of Consumer Behavior and Consumer Research at University of Jyväskylä. My research profile is interdisciplinary, and I focus especially on interpretive approaches to consumer and service research. I mainly use qualitative research methods to investigate topics including food waste and the circular economy from the perspectives of consumption and business, customer and consumption communities as part of marketing, and branding in services and retailing fields. I am the leader of Wastebusters research group at the Faculty of Management and Business.

Fields of expertise

Marketing, service research, sustainable consumption and circular economy, consumer behavior, consumption and customer communities, brand management, qualitative research methods (interviews, ethnography and netnography, narrative research, frame analysis)

Top achievements

PhD thesis of the year award by University of Tampere and School of Management 2014; Prima doctor title in Doctoral promotion, 2018

Main positions of trust

Editorial Review Board Member, European Journal of Marketing

Editorial Board Member, Kulutustutkimus.nyt (A journal published by the Finnish Association of Consumer Research)

Research topics

Sustainable consumption, circular economy, consumption communities, consumption practices, branding

Research unit

Business Studies

Selected publications

Most important recent publications: 

Kastarinen, A., Närvänen, E., & Valtonen, A. (2022). Doing Family over Time: The Multilayered and Multitemporal Nature of Intergenerational Caring through Consumption. Journal of Consumer Research. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucac050 

Leipämaa-Leskinen, H., Närvänen, E., & Makkonen, H. (2022). The rise of collaborative engagement platforms. European Journal of Marketing56(13), 26-49. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-11-2020-0798 

Mesiranta, N., Närvänen, E., & Mattila, M. (2022). Framings of food waste: How food system stakeholders are responsibilized in public policy debate. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing 41 (2), 144-161. https://doi.org/10.1177/07439156211005722 

Moisander, J, Närvänen, E. & Valtonen, A. (2020) Interpretive marketing research: Using ethnography in strategic market development. In L. Penaloza, L. Visconti & N. Ozcaglar–Toulouse (2020) (Eds.), Marketing Management: A Cultural Perspective. 2nd Edition, London: Routledge. 

Närvänen, E., Mattila, M., Keränen, J., Kaivonen, I. & Nurminen, M. (2022). Framing value propositions in the food waste business: A sociocultural approach. Industrial Marketing Management, 105, 211-222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2022.06.008 

Närvänen, E., Mattila, M., Mesiranta, N. & Heikkinen, A. (2020) ”Introduction: Solutions for managing food waste”, in Närvänen, E., Mattila, M., Mesiranta, N. & Heikkinen, A. (Eds.) Food waste management: Solving the wicked problem. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1-24. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-20561-4_1  

Latest publications