Doctoral Candidate

Name: Nicole Mäkineste

email: nicole.i.makineste@durham.ac.uk

Research Project: Blockchain end user adoption and societal challenges (DC-11)

Biography

Nicole Mäkineste is a Finnish native with an international background in her education and work. She holds a BSc from Turku School of Economics and an MSc from Universiteit van Amsterdam. Nicole’s academic path has been intertwined with her passion for digital business and technologies. Before joining the DIEM consortium, she gained industry experience working in the digital commerce department at Nike, where she was involved in projects implementing new capabilities to Nike’s digital ecosystem and building optimal consumer journeys across platforms.

Motivation for the PhD

While working at Nike, Nicole enrolled in an Executive Master’s program that she completed alongside her work. This experience demonstrated to her that conducting academic research was an endeavor she wanted to continue engaging in. She seeks to draw inspiration from her industry background and conduct research that provides impactful insights for both academic discourse and industry actors

Why DIEM

As the DIEM consortium provides doctoral candidates an opportunity to engage with a cohort of industry experts, Nicole believes this platform will help her refine her ideas into impactful research questions that hold real-world value for industry actors. Furthermore, she is looking forward to the support the DIEM consortium can provide her throughout her research journey.

Doctoral Candidate Journey & Lessons Learned

Familiarizing with Academic Discourse:
Understanding where the current academic discourse stands, the key journals and conferences, and how the publication process works helped Nicole in crafting her own research plan.

Time Management and Resource Balancing: Nicole has gained skills in managing her time and resources and balancing competing priorities. She had to consciously adjust her working methods to fit the academic environment.

Personal Interests & Fun Fact

Personal Interests
Nicole is an avid reader and always up for a discussion on book recommendations. She enjoys a wide variety of books, with favorite genres including contemporary fiction, fantasy, and investigative non-fiction pieces on financial crime.

Fun Fact
Nicole has moved to two countries, the Netherlands and the UK, without having ever visited them before.