Carlos Diaz Ruiz is an Associate Professor (tenure track) at the Department of Marketing. His research revolves around market-shaping, consumer culture, and disinformation research. He is the author of Market-Oriented Disinformation Research: Digital Advertising, Disinformation and Fake News on Social Media, a book that studies the money funding disinformation online.
Carlos Diaz Ruiz received the 2025 Thomas C. Kinnear Award for his work on disinformation in social media echo chambers. His work on disinformation research has been published in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, New Media & Society, and the Journal of Marketing Management.
His work in marketing and consumer research has been published in well-respected scientific journals, including the Marketing Theory, the European Journal of Marketing, and Industrial Marketing Management.
Carlos Diaz Ruiz is Associate Editor at the Journal of Marketing Management.
Dr. Diaz Ruiz was born and raised in Mexico City and completed his Doctorate (Ph.D.) in Finland. His dissertation explored how market research firms build actionable insights.
Dr. Diaz Ruiz was a faculty member at KEDGE Bordeaux in France. Later, he joined the University of Auckland in New Zealand as a Lecturer and was promoted to Senior Lecturer.
Before entering academia, Dr. Diaz Ruiz worked as a consumer insights consultant to major companies in Latin America. He advised organizations in diverse industries on how to anticipate consumer trends. The market research industry recognized this contribution, including in ESOMAR's Insights250 list for 2022 and 2024.
As an educator, he uses his research and industry experience to teach university students courses like qualitative research, strategic branding, consumer culture, and user innovation. One of his interests is to develop teaching methods in close collaboration with insights agencies to help train the next generation of insights professionals. His teaching approach is designed with industry professionals considering the requirements of marketing agencies.
As a researcher, he uses business anthropology, including in-depth research methods such as ethnography, to design consumer-led marketing strategies.
Carlos Diaz Ruiz held faculty positions at Hanken School of Economics (Finland), Aalto University (Finland), KEDGE Business School (France), and the University of Auckland (New Zealand). At Hanken, Carlos Duiaz Ruiz is Associate Professor. He supervises bachelor and master thesis students, so please contact him if you are interested in discussing a topic.
Carlos Diaz Ruiz developed and taught multiple courses in Consumer Culture, Consumer Insights, Branding Strategy, Marketing Strategy, and Market Research.
