PurposeThis study explores the psychological determinants of buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) use in the UK and reviews the efficacy of existing payment constructs.Design/methodology/approachA total of 533 BNPL users engaged in story stem completion. Template analysis was used, supported by the identification of four BNPL sentiment groups to enable comparison.FindingsWhilst positive attitudes towards BNPL dominate, other psychological determinants are apparent to a varied extent. Psychological distance and ownership of borrowed money are redolent, while transparency and transaction convenience are less appreciable. BNPL users understand temporality beyond its current conceptualizations. Some users construe BNPL as a “savings” product, and hence payment format conceptualizations may be erroneous. Those with a positive sentiment foreground BNPL’s consumption and budget management benefits. However, the potential for unintended consequences is manifest across all users.Research limitations/implicationsThe potentially unwanted consequences, or dark side, of BNPL use in the UK are highlighted. The specified constructs, whilst helpful, do not particularize the complex interconnected nature of the psychological determinants of BNPL use. Improved conceptualization offering richness and clarity is needed – temporality specifically requires consideration.Practical implicationsUsers’ sophistication and misunderstanding are both evident, necessitating fuller conversations among various stakeholders, including, providers, policymakers, consumers and advocacy groups.Originality/valueThis research advances the scarce literature exploring consumers’ BNPL use determinants and challenges current conceptualizations surrounding payment format perceptions.

Purpose/research questions. The purpose of this study is to understand more fully individuals’ conscious and unconscious lived experiences with font consumption. More specifically, this research asks how relationships with mundane products like typefaces can be described analytically and how individuals consume fonts to construct their identities. Design/methodology/approach. The study employs an inductive, multimethod qualitative research design. It uses an interpretative phenomenological approach (IPA) (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009) to generate and analyse 48 data sets from 16 diverse typeface users, who were purposefully recruited to reflect the increasingly diverse font user. Data comprise visual (collage), written (narrative) and verbal (interview) texts. Results. Consumers form (parasocial) relationships with typefaces that are shaped by their degree of ‘connoisseurship’. This is a new temporally dynamic and multi-layered concept comprising five facets: Apprehending, involvement, hunting and gathering, knowing, and gatekeeping. Ultimately, the study suggests that fonts must be apprehended as commodities in their own right to become part of identity construction processes and to facilitate the creation of person-object relationships. Originality/value. This study makes several theoretical and methodological contributions. First, it reconceptualizes connoisseurship by employing a rhetoric device and offers an integrated model of the construct. Second, it extends marketing literature on consumer-object and parasocial relationships by proposing a connoisseurship trajectories framework. Third, it enriches methodological literature by introducing the collage construction method in multimodal IPA research. Practical implications. The need for identifying dynamic segments in the typeface market, establishing competitive positioning and co-creating value are highlighted. Future research. This study encourages further research that, for example, applies the connoisseurship trajectories framework to other contexts like polymorphic person-object relationships or explores font consumption from alternative perspectives (e.g. brand and sales managers).