Henna Syrjälä (Jyrinki)

• Docent. D.Sc. (Bus. Adm. & Econ.)
• Professor (Associate) at University of Vaasa

Materials are an essential part of social practices, their performance and sustainability. However, there are different views on the role of materials in practices and the agency they induce in relation to humans. The purpose of this research is to examine the agency of material in the household energy consumption practices. To this end, we analyse...

In this study, we theorise the pluri-temporality of market-mediated spaces. By taking the Finnish sauna as an empirical context, we analyse the sauna as a pluri-temporal space whose momentary existences are actualised by slow and fast spatio-temporal movements flowing simultaneously at different speeds. In so doing, we advance the concept of the sa...

This chapter dives into the use of gamification in higher education, evaluating the benefits of gamification, such as increased student engagement and knowledge retention, while addressing concerns about its impact on intrinsic motivation. It discusses the transition from reward-based to meaningful gamification, aiming to propose ways to foster aut...

This study examines which topics climate-wise housing is connected to in public speech. Climate-wise housing stands for housing choices that take social, ecological and economic perspectives into account. The data of the study consists of a variety of journalistic texts and online discussions collected in a larger research project. Content analysis...

Kuluttajien arkisella toiminnalla kodeissa on vaikutusta asumisen ilmastopäästöihin. Lähestymme asumista kodin käytänteinä. Tutkimme sitä, miten kuluttajat ymmärtävät ilmastoviisaan asumisen ja millaiset kodin käytänteet ovat heidän mielestään ilmastoviisaita. Ilmastoviisaus-käsitettä ei ole aiemmin tieteellisessä keskustelussa määritelty. Lähestym...

In this article, we argue that the pervading hegemonic narrative on gamers’ eating culture emphasizing hedonistic and fast foods is a one-sided storyline that highlights a potentially harmful gamer stereotype. To that end, we reveal the variety of gamers’ food consumption and broaden the narrative depicting the relationship between gamers and eatin...

In this article, we examine the linkage between students’ game-playing motivations and a wide variety of gamification elements within higher marketing education. Using an interpretive and convergent mixed-methods design, we discover four clusters of students that vary in terms of their game-motivational bases and views on gamification elements. Soc...

The fashion system constitutes one of the most unsustainable industries. In response, the majority of the sustainability research has concentrated on finding ways to boost acquisition of greener products, whereas more recent research has regarded anti-consumption as the pathway to sustainable consumption. However, there appears to be a conceptual a...

CONSUMER MARKETING (6 ECTS) Doctoral course will be held October 12-15, 2021 online (zoom). It is organized by University of Vaasa, Finland in collaboration with Aarhus University, Denmark. The course is supported by Nordic Academy of Management (NFF). Students form NFF members institutions take priority to the course.https://nordicacademy.hi.is/...

In this paper, we introduce the concept of saunascape. To that end, we explore what kind of socio-material practices are carried out within sauna bathing, and thereby discover the elements of saunascape. We focus on interrelated practices of sauna bathing and address the agentic capacity of saunascape as it structures these practices. The data wer...

In this paper, we revise the concept of neolocalism by showing how companies that sex up rural places update and add novel nuances to neolocalist marketing. As the positive aspects drawn from tradition, stories and history are at the center of neolocalism, we aim to highlight how the usually negatively perceived images of the rural may be turned in...

Humans have long interacted with animals. Recently, market-based responses to societal challenges, including loneliness and mental well-being include the use of animals. Considerable research concerning consumer–animal relationships has also examined the benefits (micro, meso, and macro) of human-animal interaction and companionship. However, much...

Although most gamification studies share the idea that customer engagement is one of the expected outcomes of gamification, they tend to treat engagement one-dimensionally as a psychological outcome of gamification. The study explores from the consumer perspective how benefits stemming from gamification and consumer brand engagement are dimensional...

Alhonnoro, Leipämaa-Leskinen, and Syrjälä analyse distributed agency in food waste, focusing on how non-human actors participate in production and/or reduction of food waste in retailing. Adopting the Actor-Network Theory, they follow how bread may—or may not—turn to waste. They zoom in on the interactions of three particular sets of non-human acto...

We explore how the aesthetics and functionality of pet homes are balanced in the socio-material practices produced within digital platforms. The study draws on netnographically generated data related to pets and to interior decoration. The findings show how the practice of problematization appears interacted with various human and non-human entitie...

Purpose: This chapter examines two rather extreme examples of non-human entities in home assemblage, interior objects, and companion animals, and how their agency appears distributed with human consumers in assembling home. The authors aim at drawing conceptual contrasts and overlappings in how agency expresses itself in these categories of living...

Offering a novel view on morality in consumption, this book creatively examines how the seven deadly sins - pride, greed, lust, gluttony, envy, wrath, and sloth – are embodied in contemporary consumer society. Each of the seven chapters summarizes previous literature of the sins across disciplinary boundaries, and explores how consumption is likely...

This chapter constructs a multilevel understanding on how greed appears in the marketing students’ consumption. To that end, it draws on the discussions that regard consumers’ lived experiences at the micro-level influencing and getting influenced by the phenomena at the larger level contexts. Greed is understood as a dissatisfaction of never havin...

Full text openly available on the Edward Elgar's website: https://china.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/edcoll/9781788117180/9781788117180.00007.xml

This book provides theoretical, methodological and practical insights into the use of autoethnography as a research methodology. Autoethnography offers unique possibilities to gain an in-depth understanding of social and cultural contexts as well as research topics through description and reflective analysis of personal, lived experiences. In this...

In this chapter, we construct a methodology termed analytic auto-netnography. We suggest that by combining two varieties of ethnographic research, autoethnographic and netnographic methodologies, we can offer a fruitful way to understand social phenomena in the digitalized world. In this manner, the depth of autoethnography is coupled with the brea...

Purpose Drawing on food consumption research and human-animal studies, this study explores how the meanings related to a living horse may be transferred to those of horsemeat. This is accomplished by constructing a nuanced understanding of how different semantic meaning categories of accepting/avoiding consuming horsemeat relate to each other. Des...

Multifaceted autoethnography: Theoretical advancements, practical considerations and field illustrations is now going into print! This book provides theoretical, methodological and practical insights into the use of autoethnography as a research methodology. The seven autoethnographies of the book demonstrate the multifacetedness of this approach...

The current research examines the everyday lives of gameplayers by searching instances in which gameplaying practices intersect with snack consumption practices. Thereby, it aims to respond to the views suggesting that digital gameplaying should be studied within multiple spaces and occasions and within the prevailing cultural frames. Thus, the typ...

Advergames and gamification represent a promising means of product differentiation for food companies in an oversaturated marketplace, as they enable engaging consumers with brands in a playful and fun way. This need of food companies to find novel gamified ways to lure new customers and involve existing ones has implications for game designers who...

Snack consumption encompasses the repetitive habits of consumers in various everyday life spaces. Despite the pervasiveness of snack consumption worldwide, the phenomenon of snacking has not been given extensive attention, unlike other areas of food consumption research. Yet, snacking shows certain distinctive features, such as fluidity of places....

As gamification and digital game playing is getting more and more popular, also business-life is increasingly relying on this phenomenon for attracting different consumer groups. To illustrate, food companies are trying to find new ways to appeal customers and answer to their market demands through development of new snacks concepts. Acquiring more...

Purpose – This paper aims to show how social needs – the need for integration and need for distinctiveness – guide Finnish young adults’ mundane consumption behaviors. Design/methodology/approach – The study draws on literature on the fundamental importance of social needs for people’s social well-being and the healthy development of the young. Th...

The present paper aims to delineate the turning point of the transformation that takes place when a casual enthusiast becomes a serious hobbyist within the subculture of dog agility devotees. Thereby, this paper participates in prior discussions in consumer research that have deliberated on transformations. In particular, the current paper makes a...

Pets live with people; they participate in people's everyday life activities and are often seen as human-like family members. Consumers in the industrialized world are investing more money in their pets and spending more time with them than ever before. The pet and the owner can even be considered to form a unit that consumes together. In this pape...

PurposeThis paper examines in what ways cultural representations of money reveal deprivation and empowerment in poverty. Methodology/approachThe study draws on Finnish poor consumers’ narratives of their daily lives to identify the discursive practices involved in money talk. Poverty is seen as a frame in which the tacit cultural knowledge of money...

Tutkimme kuluttajan kokemaa arvoa lemmikkeihin liittyvässä kulutuksessa. Sovellamme aikaisemmassa tutkimuksessa luotua typologiaa, jonka mukaan arvon kokemista voidaan tarkastelka taloudellisena, sosiaalisena, altruistisena ja hedonistisena. Haastamme kuitenkin näitä neljää tyyppiä tutkimalla arvon kokemista vuorovaikutteisena sekä suhteellisesti r...

Present study is situated in Finnish Kvarken Archipelago, which got the World Natural Heritage Site status in 2006. The small and micro tourism enterprises (SMTEs) working Kvarken face a challenge : how do you make profitable and successful tourism business with the World Heritage status, without destroying your most important assets which are the...

This study presents a novel conceptual illustration of the non-voluntary anti-consumption practices that evolve in poor circumstances. The study brings a complementary and contrasting perspective to current discussions on anti-consumption by clarifying the understanding of non-voluntary anti-consumption practices and market resistance. Three concep...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify which consumption practices young adults regard as necessary. Recently, necessity consumption has not attracted the interest of consumer researchers, even though it serves as an important concept for studying the fundamentals of consumption. Design/methodology/approach – The data are based on cons...

The objective of this paper was to analyse how pet-related consumption can be connected to consumer identity construction. This objective is based on the idea that consumers use symbolic meanings from possessions to construct and communicate their identities. Objects of attachment have especially been found to be closely connected to the formation...

It appears that within contemporary experience economies, time is often perceived to be an even more critical consumption resource than money. The article investigates how horse enthusiasts structure their consumption of time. To do so, the article addresses time as an object of consumption, specifically time consumed within free time, and with par...

In this study the purpose was to explore how the construct of extended self gets interpretations in different subcultures of dog owners. For this, an analysis of five dog owners representing different subcultures was conducted. The dog owners were labelled as "a city dog owner"," a working dog owner", "two home dog owners" and "a hunting dog owner"...