Professor Johanna Gummerus: Find your inner scientist!
Gummerus has also worked as a visiting professor at Karlstad University from 2018-2021 at their Services Research Center, which is closely related to CERS at Hanken. Her main research interests are service innovation, vulnerable consumers' experiences of service systems, and the impact of digital solutions on consumers.
“Service innovation is about how to successfully innovate services or products. It can be new methods or new ways of using staff. You can change an entire market through new practices or by changing the understanding of what customers want," says Gummerus.
As an example, she points to Jungle Juice Bar, where the product itself, different varieties of smoothies, is not new in itself, but the way it is sold is new. CERS focuses a lot on how the understanding of customer needs and the idea of how to be competitive is constantly changing.
“In my course on bachelor level, I try to awaken the joy of research in the students. We all have the opportunity to curiously observe and question phenomena around us and find new explanations and solutions to problems”, says Gummerus.
Johanna Gummerus is currently involved in the NatuReach research project, which is led by the University of Vaasa with Hanken as a co-partner. The project focuses on how technology can be used to bring nature to people who are unable to experience it in real life, such as terminal care patients or the elderly.
"This involves for instance the use of VR glasses or rolling a hospital bed into a dome where a virtual reality from nature is displayed".
In her spare time, Johanna Gummerus is mostly involved in forest parkour, as she puts it. In reality this means running in the woods after her dog, which has a very strong hunting instinct.
"The dog chases everything from deer and rabbits to snowflakes and leaves. I also have no sense of direction, so I once got so lost with my dog that I almost missed a lecture I was supposed to give," she laughs.
Text and photo: Marlene Günsberg