Elina Närvänen

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.

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)

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

Editorial Review Board Member, European Journal of Marketing

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

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

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 Marketing, 56(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