Salme Näsi
Professor Salme Näsi is an outstanding Finnish researcher in the field of management accounting and public sector accounting and public administration. Salme Näsi was born in 1948 in Tyrvää, Finland, and graduated from the University of Tampere in 1970, where she defended her PhD in 1990. Salme Näsi started her academic career at the University of Tampere in 1974. In 1993-1994 she was associate professor and professor at the University of Oulu, and from 1995–2002 worked at the University of Jyväskylä, incl. from 1998 as professor and in 2000–2002 as vice rector. From 2002 until becoming professor emerita in 2014, she served again as professor of accounting at the University of Tampere. Salme Näsi has been a visiting professor at McGill University, Canada, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA.She is a renowned scientist, who has published outstanding work in accounting and especially, public sector accounting. She has made a significant contribution to the development of these fields of research in the Nordic countries, and also at Baltic universities. Under her supervision, 15 doctoral dissertations and two licenciate theses have been defended. The list of publications by Salme Näsi includes 144 research articles and seven monographs or manuals. In 2009, she was the chief organiser of the annual congress of the largest Europe-wide accounting forum, the European Accounting Association (EAA) in Tampere. Professor S. Näsi has repeatedly made speeches at EAA annual congresses and other major international accounting events, introducing the development of accounting research in Finland and other Nordic countries. She has significantly contributed to research and development in her field of research. She has been the leader of the Finnish (and Scandinavian-wide) graduate school of management accounting KATAJA, member of the expert group of the cooperative research for the Finnish Cultural Foundation, member of the research cooperation committee of the University of Helsinki, member and chair of the scientific advisory board of the National Defence of Finland (MATINE), and member of several other boards of experts.
Professor S. Näsi has contributed to the development of relationships between universities and enterprises. She has served as a member of the board of the Finnish Association of Cooperatives, board member of Cooperatives Europe, member of the auditors’ committee of Tampere Chamber of Commerce.
The president of the Republic of Finland has recognised the merits of Professor Salme Näsi with the Order of the White Rose of Finland (2001). Professor Näsi has also been awarded the golden decoration of the Finnish Association of Cooperatives (2016) and the golden decoration of Hannes Gebhard by Pellervo Society (2012).
Professor Salme Näsi has effectively cooperated with UT School of Economics and Business Administration for more than ten years, and during the time she has shared her knowledge and experience with the teaching staff, researchers and doctoral students of our School of Economics. In 2005 she was invited to speak at the Educational Economics Conference in Estonia. That presentation had an impact on the development of public sector accounting at the University of Tartu and other universities of Estonia. She has made presentations at two graduate summer schools organised by UT School of Economics, and conducted seminars three times (in 2006, 2010 and 2014) at master’s and doctoral courses of UT School of Economics. Even more important is her work in co-supervising and consulting doctoral students (Ü. Pärl, 2012), help in finding current research topics, and demonstrating high-level supervision and cooperation. As a co-supervisor and consultant, S. Näsi has also enabled the students to attend courses at the University of Tampere, and organised seminars for UT teaching staff members at the University of Tampere. S. Näsi has been an opponent of doctoral dissertations defended at the University of Tartu. She has also played an important role in the fact that the University of Tartu School of Economics and Business Administration has gradually developed in the scientific research of public sector accounting, and has become more involved in international networks. In this area, the School of Economics has conducted several research projects and public procurements for continuing education courses. As a co-editor, S. Näsi participated together with colleagues from the universities of Kristiansand and Tartu in compiling the special issue of Baltic Journal of Management “Innovations in Accounting, Performance Measurement and Management: International Trends”, which was published in 2012 (Emerald Group). In the years 2014-2015, she contributed significantly as an expert to the Research and Innovation Policy Monitoring (TIPS) project in Estonia, in the area of cost accounting and performance evaluation in universities. Based on her experience, Professor Näsi served as an important advisor and expert at the EAA annual congress, organised in May 2014 by UT Chair of Finance and Accounting in Tallinn. The congress had 1210 participants and in terms of the number of oral presentations (735), it remains the largest international conference ever held in Estonia.
In recognition of the significant contribution of Professor Emerita Salme Elise Näsi to the raising of the generation of economic scientists and the development of economics in Estonia and the University of Tartu, the university is pleased to confer upon Salme Elise Näsi the degree of Honorary Doctor in Economics of the University of Tartu.