Phase transitions in retailing: Modeling retail fashion tipping points as complex systems

Tipping points occur in many natural and socio-economic systems, and may have serious implications when they occur. Changes in retail market structure and the development of new markets, we argue, can also be studied from the perspective of complex systems using insights from biology and physics. In this review, we discuss the theory of tipping points, or more accurately, phase transitions and how they may be identified and predicted both mathematically and by pattern recognition.