Published Theories and Conceptual Models
Original theories developed through Systematic Thematic Analysis — each one peer-reviewed, named, and ready to be applied, tested and extended.
Interactive Buying Process Theory
A triadic affordance theory of in-store technology: customers’ goals sit at the centre of three nested layers of affordances. Perceived affordances arise where the system artefact’s capabilities meet the customer’s perception; imagined affordances are shaped by customers’ expectations within the surrounding environment; and actualised affordances materialise where user ability meets customer experience. The theory extends affordance theory from a dyadic to a triadic process, explaining how affordances are anticipated and enacted during buying interactions with technologies like Scan & Go apps.
Wheel of Co-Created Brand Identities and Brand Love
A model of the infinite co-creative relationship between luxury brands and consumers on Instagram. User engagement — textual and visual interaction — sits at the centre; around it, the qualitative codes Craftsmanship, Sustainability, Elegance and Artistry carry the symbolic value of luxury; the outer ring holds the higher-order semiotic concepts Monarchic Perception, Sophisticated Aura and Prestige Continuum. Developed through systematic conductive thematic analysis and verified with structural equation modelling.
Theory of Three-Level Technology Incorporation
How self-service technology becomes embedded in consumers’ daily buying behaviour. Moving beyond TAM and UTAUT, the theory delineates dimensions of dissatisfaction, satisfaction and incorporator roles across three levels of the adoption process, showing how consumers progress from first contact to full incorporation of scan-and-go technology into their shopping routines — with fresh implications for how retailers design and integrate in-store technology.
Affordances Flow Funnel
A conceptualisation of the enablers and constraints of in-store buying as a flow process through scan-and-go apps: affordances move through a funnel in which enabling features draw customers deeper into technology-mediated buying, while constraints — skill gaps, system limitations, environmental friction — narrow the flow and can divert customers out of it.
Panic Buying as Social Practice
Developed through the exemplar study behind Systematic Thematic Analysis: panic buying during COVID-19 was not an individual failure of rationality but a socially constructed practice, produced through misinformation and rumour on social media. Grounded in Protection Motivation Theory and the Theory of Rumor Transmission, the model explains how perceived consequences, misinformation and content characteristics converge to trigger collective buying behaviour.
UGC Social Brand Engagement Model
A model of how user-generated content builds social brand engagement: insights from diverse consumers show how UGC participants, social context and platform practices interact to produce engagement journeys with fashion and luxury brands — extended in later work through electronic semiotics and symbolic interactionism on Instagram.