Dr Kate Sansome
Lecturer
School of Marketing
College of Business and Law
Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD as Co-Supervisor only - email supervisor to discuss availability.
Dr Kate Sansome is a Lecturer in Marketing at Adelaide University, specialising in the circular economy, brand transparency and sustainability communication. Her research examines how transparency and trust can help consumers, businesses and sectors make the shift to a circular economy, and how digital media, influencers and emerging technologies shape sustainable behaviour.
Kate’s research has been published in the European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research and Journal of Brand Management. She has led industry and government-funded projects on food waste in hospitals and aged care and on circular textiles in South Australia, and received the Green Industries SA Women in Circular Economy Leadership Award and the Best Overall Paper Award at the 2025 Academy of Marketing Conference. She serves on the South Australian Fashion Industry Association’s Industry Advisory Committee.
Kate teaches digital media and marketing communications at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including Digital Media in Business, Marketing Communications in a Digital World and Marketing to the World. She designed Content Creation & Management, a course in digital storytelling and the ethics of content production, and developed the Circular Economy course for the MBA. She supervises Honours and PhD students in brand activism, AI disclosure and circular economy in aerospace and agriculture.
Kate completed her PhD at the University of Adelaide in 2024. She also holds a Bachelor of Commerce with First Class Honours, for which she was awarded the University Medal, and a Bachelor of Media (Marketing).
Before academia, Kate worked in digital marketing, communications, and graphic and web design across e-commerce, fashion, music and the non-profit sector. Driven by creativity, social justice and environmental sustainability, she is committed to making a meaningful impact through research, teaching and industry collaboration.
Dr Kate Sansome is a researcher focused on sustainable and circular practices, working to identify and overcome barriers that prevent consumers and businesses from adopting sustainable behaviours. Her work spans the fashion and textile industries and food waste reduction in healthcare settings, providing practical insights to drive meaningful change.
Dr Sansome’s research areas include brand transparency, the circular economy, and consumer engagement with sustainability. Her PhD developed a consumer-based approach to understanding brand transparency, examining how consumers evaluate brands' ethical and sustainable practices. Particularly, her work addresses consumer scepticism and uncertainty, and how this may encourage consumers to engage in circular behaviours, such as recycling, reuse and repair.
Increasingly, her research explores how emerging technologies, including digital product passports, smart manufacturing and artificial intelligence, can enable circularity and be directed toward societal and environmental outcomes rather than efficiency alone.
Her projects on circular economy transitions and reducing food waste demonstrate a commitment to bridging theory and practice. Collaborating with industry partners like End Food Waste Australia, Dr Sansome works on reducing food waste in hospitals and aged care facilities using co-design methods to promote sector-wide sustainability. She has secured competitive grants, including a $250,000 End Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre grant and a $10,000 Women in Circular Economy Leadership Scholarship from Green Industries South Australia. She serves on the South Australian Fashion Industry Association’s Industry Advisory Committee and helped establish the College of Business and Law’s Circular Economy Community of Practice.
Dr Sansome has published in leading journals such as the European Journal of Marketing (ABDC: A*), Journal of Business Research (ABDC: A) and Journal of Brand Management (ABDC: A). She has presented at conferences like the Australia and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC), Academy of Marketing, and the Society of Consumer Psychology (SCP) Marketing for Societal Impact Conference.
| Date | Position | Institution name |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 - ongoing | Lecturer in Marketing | Adelaide University |
| 2024 - 2025 | Lecturer | University of Adelaide |
| 2023 - 2024 | Research Fellow | The University of Adelaide |
| 2021 - 2024 | Casual Lecturer | University of Adelaide |
| 2019 - 2021 | Marketing Academic Tutor | The University of Adelaide |
| Date | Institution name | Country | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 - 2023 | The University of Adelaide | Australia | PhD |
| 2019 - 2019 | The University of Adelaide | Australia | Honours Degree of Bachelor of Commerce |
| 2014 - 2018 | The University of Adelaide | Australia | Bachelor of Media (Marketing) |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2026 | Spry, A., Vredenburg, J., Burgess, A., Gray, H., & Sansome, K. (2026). A lifecycle perspective of brand activism: emergence, evolution and renewal. Italian Journal of Marketing, 2026(1), 22-1-22-26. |
| 2025 | Sansome, K., Conduit, J., & Wilkie, D. (2025). Consumers demand transparency… but do they actually engage? Exploring motives and interactions with brand transparency information. Journal of Business Research, 194, 115386. Scopus26 WoS22 |
| 2025 | Sansome, K., Conduit, J., & Wilkie, D. (2025). Acknowledging brand shortcomings: the interplay between negative disclosures, brand transparency, brand credibility, and word-of-mouth. Journal of Brand Management, 33(2), 154-176. Scopus3 WoS3 |
| 2025 | Cook, N., Sansome, K., Bartrim, K., & Collins, J. (2025). Food waste measurement in Australian hospitals and residential aged care homes. Frontiers in Nutrition, 12, 6 pages. Scopus3 WoS2 Europe PMC2 |
| 2024 | Sansome, K., Wilkie, D., & Conduit, J. (2024). Beyond information availability: Specifying the dimensions of consumer perceived brand transparency. Journal of Business Research, 170, 15 pages. Scopus59 WoS46 |
| 2024 | Sansome, K., Conduit, J., & Wilkie, D. (2024). Consumer-based Conceptualisation of Brand Transparency: Scope, Characteristics, and Contextual Determinants. European Journal of Marketing, 58(12), 0885-1-0885-33. Scopus9 WoS5 |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2026 | Sansome, K., & Matthews, D. (2026). Is Second-Hand Fashion Responsible? Exploring Sufficiency, Stigma and Overconsumption. In https://www.anzmac2026.com/. Auckland. |
| 2026 | Dupuis Day, I., & Sansome, K. (2026). Reducing Effort: Warm Glow in Reusable Packaging. In https://www.anzmac2026.com/. Auckland. |
| 2025 | Burgess, A., Sansome, K., Joubert, A., Matthews, D., & Gray, H. (2025). De-Influencing and Over-Consumption: Managing Ethical Contradictions in the Influencer Economy. In Proceedings of the 57th Academy of Marketing Conference Cork 2025 Saints and Scholars. Cork, Ireland. |
| 2025 | Sansome, K., Willmott, T., Baker, J., & Conduit, J. (2025). Understanding Barriers to Sustainability Transitions: A Service Ecosystem Perspective. In https://academyofmarketing.org/am2025-conference/. Cork, Ireland. |
| 2025 | Burgess, A., Sansome, K., Joubert, A., Matthews, D., & Gray, H. (2025). The Paradox of Influencers in Shaping Ethical Consumption. In 2025 Consumer Culture Theory Conference. London, UK. |
| 2024 | Sansome, K., Baker, J., Conduit, J., & Willmott, T. (2024). Multi-level framework for overcoming barriers to sustainability transitions. In Proceedings of the SCP Boutique Conference 2024. Auckland. |
| 2024 | Sansome, K., Willmott, T., Baker, J., & Conduit, J. (2024). Understanding barriers to sustainability transitions: Multi-level framework. In ANZMAC 2024 Proceedings. Hobart. |
| 2024 | Sansome, K., Willmott, T., Baker, J., & Conduit, J. (2024). A sector-wide investigation into food waste in hospitals and aged care. In Proceedings of the 41st National IHHC Conference. Perth. |
| 2024 | Willmott, T. J., Sansome, K., Baker, J., & Conduit, J. (2024). Workshop: Co-designing sustainability initiatives in hospitals and aged care. In Proceedings of the 41st National IHHC Conference. Perth, Australia. |
| 2023 | Sansome, K. (2023). Acknowledging Negatives? Understanding Valence In Perceived Brand Transparency. In ANZMAC 2022 Conference Proceedings. Perth, Australia. |
| 2022 | Sansome, K., Conduit, J., & Wilkie, D. (2022). Acknowledging Negatives? Understanding Valence In Perceived Brand Transparency. In ANZMAC conference proceedings. Perth. |
| 2019 | Sansome, K., Wilkie, D., & Conduit, J. (2019). The multidimensional construct of transparency and its implications. In .. Wellington, New Zealand. |
Over $30,000 of internal funding at the University of Adelaide and Adelaide University
2025 $10,000 Green Industries South Australia - Women in Circular Economy Leadership Scholarship
2024 $250,000 End Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre - Hospital and Aged Care Sector Action Plan https://endfoodwaste.com.au/projects/institutions-sector-action-plan-hospital-aged-care/
Courses I teach at Adelaide University:
- Digital Media in Business (2026)
- Marketing Communications in a Digital Age (2026)
- Marketing to the World (2026)
| Date | Role | Research Topic | Program | Degree Type | Student Load | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Co-Supervisor | Activist Brands and Not-For-Profit Organisations: How Consumers Respond to Maintaining, Withdrawing, or Adopting Polarising Socio-Political Activism | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Miss Madeline Jane De Gennaro |
| 2026 | Co-Supervisor | Conceptualising Australia in the International Circular Economy in the Agriculture and Aerospace Sectors | Master of Research | Master | Full Time | Mr James Nguyen |
| 2025 | Co-Supervisor | Understanding AI Disclosure in Marketing Communication: Conceptualisation, Presentation, and Consumer Responses | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Miss Tessa Ji |
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