Ammara Latif
Thesis Title: Bridging Attitudes and Actions: Using Smart Data, Eye-Tracking, and Machine Learning to Understand Non-Sustainable Consumer Behaviour
This PhD project investigates how and why consumers’ environmental intentions do not consistently translate into sustainable purchasing behaviour, using smart data, eye-tracking experiments, and machine-learning techniques to study decision-making across the consumer journey. It addresses the persistent intention–behaviour gap by combining longitudinal analysis of real-world purchasing behaviour with experimental and survey-based methods, linking observed choices to objective environmental product indices and socio-demographic characteristics.
The project employs an interdisciplinary, data-driven methodology. Large-scale loyalty-card datasets will be analysed to identify national patterns of environmentally relevant purchasing over time and the socio-demographic and situational factors influencing these behaviours. Eye-tracking laboratory experiments will examine attentional drivers of choice, including the role of environmental labelling and contextual constraints. Participant-donated digital footprint data will enhance ecological validity by bridging laboratory findings with real-world behaviour. Analyses will combine explanatory social-science approaches with predictive AI techniques to test and extend theories of sustainable consumption.
By integrating transactional, experimental, and survey data, the project aims to pinpoint when, where, and for whom environmentally unfriendly decisions arise. The findings will inform theoretical understanding of consumer behaviour and provide actionable evidence to guide policy and interventions promoting sustainability.
Biography:
Ammara Latif is a PhD researcher at the University of Nottingham Business School and N/LAB, with joint supervision from the University of Birmingham Centre for Human Brain Health. Her research integrates advanced data science, AI, machine-learning techniques, smart data, and eye-tracking experiments to examine decision-making across the consumer journey, addressing the persistent intention–behaviour gap in sustainable consumption.
She holds three master’s degrees: an MSc in Data Science (Distinction) from Loughborough University (2025), where she led a research project on network performance prediction for real-time control systems using simulations, ns-3, and machine-learning approaches; an MBA in Human Resource Management; and an MSc in Sports Sciences, where her dissertation was the first study in Pakistan to examine the decline of men’s field hockey. Ammara’s interdisciplinary expertise spans AI, machine learning, data science, applied human sciences, and behavioural research, complemented by professional experience in coaching, sports management, and organisational roles. She has worked as a research and statistical officer, lecturer, and sports administrator, and has coordinated national and international sports programmes.
Department of Marketing, Tourism and Analytics University of Nottingham Business School
2025 Cohort
Email:
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Supervisory Team:
Dr James Goulding
Dr Evgeniya Lukinova
Dr Arkady Konovalov