Sam Lynch

Dr Samantha Lynch BA, MSc, PhD, PCLTHE, SFHEA

• Former University Head of Department Fashion & Marketing Programmes
• UK and US higher education experience
• Senior Lecturer in Fashion Marketing, Pure Marketing & Consumer Behaviour bridging knowledge exchange between academia and industry
• Expert Researcher Customer Decision Making Journey for Omnichannel Retail
• Founder at FS | Fashion Smart access the brightest minds in fashion - recruitment and consulting
• Founder at Work Smarter workshops & coaching to accelerate your academic career

Sam holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Marketing from the University of Stirling. Followed by an MSc in International Fashion Retailing (with distinction) and a PhD in Fashion Marketing and Management from the University of Manchester. Sam is an expert in consumer behaviour for omnichannel retail.

As a a marketing professional with 15+ years of experience and a PhD in retail marketing and consumer behaviour, Sam continues to work with industry and welcomes enquiries about collaboration, knowledge exchange and consultancy. Sam can work with marketing agencies, retail brands, airports, independent consultancy professionals, international education institutions and business networks. Samantha is a certified member of the Market Research Society. Dr Sam delivers custom client projects on the following retail areas: Consumer Behaviour | Customer Service & Experience | Omnichannel Customer Journey | Customer Persona Profiling

As a marketer by trade and later as an academic in the field of consumer behaviour, Dr Sam Lynch applies her marketing know-how to help academics leverage their personal brand and work smarter in higher education. In addition to her flagship personal branding course, Dr Sam offers one to ones and workshops on productivity, career change and development, academic entrepreneurship, PhD journey. You can view her full catalogue on her website. Her academic consultancy Work Smarter was borne out of her own experience of juggling an MSc & PhD while working in industry. Sam has navigated the world of academia as a PhD student, lecturer, senior lecturer and subsequent head of department. She believes that you can be a successful academic and still have a life!

Sam is an international academic and expert in consumer behaviour for retail. Her research is focused on consumer decision-making journeys and her PhD examined the stages of omnichannel consumer decision-making journey for fashion. Her research seeks to examine the how and why behind consumer shopping behaviour and has explored concepts such as risk, pre-and post-purchase cognitive dissonance along with returns behaviour. Samantha has published work in the field of fashion retailing and has presented on the UK and international conference circuit. Passionate about knowledge-exchange Sam has overseen and delivered partnerships with industry through fashion sponsorship events, working with graduate students in industry and independently through her consultancy.

Research & Knowledge Exchange Areas

• Customer decision-making journey
• Omnichannel retailing
• Fashion and beauty retail
• Airport retailing
• Multi-method qualitative research
• Qualitative blog methodologies
• Student decision-making in higher education

Sam is reviewer for the following academic journals on retailing, fashion, marketing and consumer behaviour:

• Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing
• Journal of Fashion Marketing & Management
• Journal of Business Research
• International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management
• Information & Management

As a Senior Lecturer, Former Programme leader and Head of Department Samantha is a recognised Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Samantha continues to lead, develop and scrutinise new modules and academic programmes centred upon marketing, fashion, retailing and consumer behaviour. Her responsibilities have included management, revalidation and validation of fashion marketing and fashion business degree programmes. Samantha's teaching ethos is centred upon industry knowledge-exchange bringing the real world into the classroom underpinned by a deep understanding of higher education learning and in-depth subject knowledge. Sam has delivered teaching at both UK universities and leading US higher education colleges.

Companies

• Innovation Lead Creative Scale-Up Innovate UK (2022)
• Adjunct Professor - Business of Fashion Fordham University (2021)
• Co-Founder FS | Fashion Smart* (2021)
• Founder - Work Smarter* Dr Sam Lynch (2018)
• Founder www.drsamlynch.co.uk Fashion | Knowledge Exchange | Research | Academia Dr Sam Lynch (2014)
• Head of Creative Industries Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) (2021 — 2022)
• Head of Department (Fashion & Marketing) University of Winchester (2020 — 2021)
• Programme Leader & Senior Lecturer - Fashion Marketing Degree & Fashion Business Degree University of Winchester (2018 — 2020)
• Lecturer in Marketing - Fashion Marketing and Media University of Winchester (2017 — 2018)

Education

• The University of Manchester - Doctor of Philosophy - PhD Consumer Behaviour , Scholarship Omnichannel Customer Decision Journey for Fashion | Supervised by Professor Liz Barnes 2012 - 2018
• University of Stirling - BA (hons), Business Studies & Marketing 2001 - 2005
• The University of Manchester - MSc, International Fashion Retail: Consumer Behaviour | Supervised by Professor Liz Barnes 2011 - 2012
• University of Winchester - PGCLTHE 2018 - 2019
• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy - Fellow 2020