She gained her Ph.D. at the University of Strathclyde in September 2001. Her research focuses on the understanding of marketing practice, the assimilation of digital technologies into marketing practice and at the consumer interface and the exploration of brand challenges. This works centres on information technology diffusion and application with a dominant focus on data, databases, social networking, web 2.0 technological challenges and digital branding.She is a co author on the Kotler, Keller, Brady, Goodman and Hansen (2012) Marketing Management textbook. This is one of the world's leading marketing textbooks. She is a founding and active member of an international research group, the Digital Technology in Marketing Network with colleagues from University of Ulster, Queens University and the university of Limerick.