Lena Pellandini-Simanyi

Lena Pellandini-Simanyi is a Professor at the Institute of Marketing and Communication Management at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Lugano, Switzerland. Her research focuses on cultural marketing, consumer behavior, financialization of everyday life, and market moralities. She leads a Swiss National Science Foundation grant project investigating how symbolic meanings influence lay investors' stock choices, bridging consumer behavior, economic sociology, and finance.

Her academic work spans interdisciplinary market studies, organizational communication, and ethical consumption. Notable research areas include credit marketing's impact on inequality, the performativity of nudging in market design, and the socio-material construction of consumer rationality. She has published extensively on topics like mortgage markets, debt dynamics, and cultural shifts in consumer practices across Hungary, the U.S., and beyond.

Recent grants include the Lead Agency Swiss National Science Foundation grant (2024), emphasizing her role in shaping market ethics and financial behavior research. Her work often integrates qualitative methods, exploring how legal frameworks and cultural values shape market organization and consumer agency.

• Key Research Themes: Consumer Culture Theory, Markets and Moralities, Financialization, Corporate Communication
• Notable Projects: Analysis of Hungarian mortgage market governance, cross-cultural comparisons of debt practices, and the ethics of algorithmic credit marketing