Members

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.

Field 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)

Research topics

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

Research unit

Business Studies

About me

 

Educational background and teaching themes:

I hold a Doctor of Science in Economics and Business Administration. I also serve as a Docent (adjuct professor) in Digital and Sustainable Business at LUT University’s School of Business, Finland.

I work at the Faculty of Management and Business as a University Lecturer and Academic Director of the international Master’s Degree Programme in Leadership for Change (LFC).

My teaching focuses on themes such as sustainability and the circular economy, case study research, platform business, and supervision of master’s theses.

 

Research interests:

My research combines themes from strategic business management, strategic marketing, sustainability, consumption, sociomateriality, and (emerging) technology business. I aim to promote the development of sustainable business solutions and consumption practices in society. You can find my latest publications below (please scroll down to view them).

I am one of the founding members of the research group on food waste and the circular economy, known as WASTEBUSTERS. Our group seeks to address various sustainability challenges through research and to support the transition toward a sustainable circular economy.

 

Ongoing research projects where I am involved with:

• CARE Project: Promotes household-level transition to the circular economy in five countries (Finland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, and Estonia), focusing on food waste and clothing consumption. Funded by the European Union (2024–2027).
• CIRCEX Project: Investigates human experiences of the circular economy in the context of plastics. Funded by the Academy of Finland (2024–2027).

 

Completed research projects:

• LOWINFOOD Project: Focused on reducing food waste and related innovations. Funded by the European Union (2020–2025).
• IN2FOOD Project: Concentrated on managing food waste by creating and developing interdisciplinary courses, a research center, and a master’s programme. Conducted in collaboration with Indonesian university partners and funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ Capacity Building for Higher Education programme (2021–2024).
• WASTE MATTERS Project: Used qualitative research methods to explore the role of change agents in the circular economy transition. Funded by the Foundation for Economic Education (Liikesivistysrahasto) from 2020 to 2023.

About me

I work as a University Lecture in marketing. I also hold a title of Docent at University of Vaasa (related to sustainable circular consumption). My research interests include sustainable circular economy, especially from the perspective of consumers.  

My profile at researchportal.tuni.fihttps://researchportal.tuni.fi/en/persons/nina-mesiranta

My research groupshttps://research.tuni.fi/wastebusters/https://research.tuni.fi/markkinointi/

Responsibilities

Research and teaching

Field of expertise

CIrcular economy; Sustainable consumption; Food waste; Clothing consumption; Social media; Qualitative resesarch methods

Research unit

Business studies

Research fields

Marketing; Consumer research

About me

I am a doctoral researcher in marketing with an interest in consumption phenomena, culture, and sustainability. In my dissertation, I study consumer collectives that advance the circular economy, such as repair cafés and social media communities. These groups facilitate the sharing of materials and resources, create inspiring meanings around circular solutions, and teach consumers skills such as repairing and maintenance. Thus, they create a social change towards circularity. My expertise focuses particularly on interdisciplinary circular economy research, qualitative social media research methods, and developing deep consumer insights.

Responsibilities

I have the pleasure of working as a member of both the Customer Oriented Marketing research group and the Wastebusters research group at Tampere University. 

Within Wastebusters, I have contributed to the Waste Matters: Change Agents’ Engagement in Circular Economy Transformation project, where we examined circular startups and social media influencers in sustainable fashion. I have also been involved in the EPELI project, which identified national guidelines for regulating the marketing of unhealthy foods to children.

In addition to research, I teach on bachelor-level courses in the marketing programme. I also took part in launching the Digital Commerce study module (Digitaalisen kaupan opintokokonaisuus), organised in collaboration with the Finnish Commerce Federation and five Finnish universities.

Furthermore, I have worked as the conference coordinator for the Nordic Retail and Wholesale Conference (NRWC) 2022, hosted at Tampere University.

Field of expertise

Circular economy, consumer collectives, waste reduction, anti-consumption, sustainable consumption, netnography, interpretative consumer research, qualitative methods

Research unit

Customer oriented marketing research group

Research topics

In my PhD project I examine meat consumption reduction with a sociocultural approach focused on routine food practices (food acquisition, cooking, eating, storing). I'm interested in how meat consumption and its reductions are legitimised in food marketing discourse, and how the societal controversies around meat emerge in consumers' everyday life. 

I'm also studying the promotion of sustainable consumption practices in the context of civil society. The broader aim of my PhD project is to increase the understanding of changes in the consumer culture and life within planetary limits.