Sensory Aspects of Retailing: Theoretical and Practical Implications

Sensory elements are an important aspect of both offline and online retail stores and can non-consciously influence consumer judgments and purchase behavior. In offline settings, ambient factors like scent, lighting, and music have been shown to influence customers’ shopping experiences and their buying behaviors. For online retail outlets, sensory factors related to color, display patterns, and layouts can have significant effects on consumer behavior. Sensory elements have strong managerial relevance since they can non-consciously influence behaviors and because they are relatively easy to change; for example, it requires minimal effort to change the lighting or the music at a physical retail store or the display pattern for an online store. The eight papers in this special issue address theoretical and practical issues related to how different sensory elements can strongly influence retail practices. These papers focus on underexplored topic areas and also on emerging technologies, which stimulate thoughts for further research in these areas.     

We Eat First with Our (Digital) Eyes: Enhancing Mental Simulation of Eating Experiences via Visual-Enabling Technologies

This research examines how consumers’ intentions to purchase food change depending on the visualisation mode (3D vs. AR) and product format (served vs. packaged). In three studies, we demonstrate that mental simulation of eating experiences (process and outcome) mediate these effects. Study 1 shows that AR visualisation of a served food improves simulation of the eating process over 3D visualisation, with a positive effect on purchase intention. Study 2 reveals that 3D visualisation improves purchase intention for packaged products (high instrumental properties) over served products (low instrumental properties) while the opposite is true for AR visualisation. In addition, interactivity and immersion mediate the effects of 3D (vs. AR) on mental simulation of the eating process for packaged products. Study 3 extends these results by showing that 3D increases purchase intention by eliciting mental simulation of the eating outcome, when the food is visible due to transparent (vs. opaque) packaging (displaying both sensory and instrumental properties), but that no such differences emerge for AR. This research highlights the importance of using different visualisation modes to promote food depending on the product format. The findings have important implications for both offline and online retailers.     

Does price reflect emotional,structural or performance quality?

Three denim jeans products from the same manufacturer with differentiated pricing and labels (antiqued, sandblasted, and stonewashed) were used to determine the relationship between price and quality. Both qualitative and quantitative procedures were used to analyse the garments. All three jeans were made of twill weave with 3 × 1 repeat. Both structural and performance characteristics were compared using standardized tests. Analysis of variance was used to compare the selected structural and performance characteristics among the three jeans products. Tukey’s HSD tests were used for post hoc multiple comparisons for three jeans. The findings revealed that despite the fact that all three jeans products were from the same store, and that the fabrics used the same weave, degree and direction of twist, the jeans differed significantly for several structural and performance characteristics. Several possibilities for future research were explored.     

Flexibility at different stages in the life cycle of projects: An empirical illustration of the “freedom to maneuver”

Many textbooks on project management present illustrations concerning the relative size of project attributes during different project phases. The derived models all have attributes in common, such as uncertainty, significance of decisions, and degree of freedom to maneuver, that are typically high in the beginning of the project and low in the end. At the same time, variables such as the accumulated cost and available information begin at low levels and end up at a high level at the end of the project. Based on empirical data from projects, this paper illustrates and quantifies one of these attributes, the freedom to maneuver, in different project phases.     

Utilizing Printed Media to Understand Desired Leadership Attributes in the People's Republic of China

Using news media as a reliable source, we content analyzed stories on business leaders in two major official Chinese newspapers in three different time periods over the past 20 years. Results show that the reform has brought an increase in stories of business leaders, and in coverage of the desirable leadership attributes relating to Confucian virtues, communist ideologies, and modern management philophies. The results suggest that, by publicizing and adorning specific leaders in both government and business sectors in the official media, the government reinforces the traditional values that are consistent with communist ideologies, and at the same time, it also introduces Western management values to suit the current needs of the society. The results of our study echo the findings of empirical studies on Chinese values that used data collected using other methods. We therefore encourage future research to use the printed media as a potentially valuable source of data for tracking changes in social phenomena in a society over time.     

企业主体性产权理论的构建 --相关和自主统一的属性所有权

企业是市场经济活动的主体，应该具有其主体属性，并且正是其主体属性决定它的主体地位和作用，并形成主体性产权。但是，学术界缺乏对这个问题的研究，主要是因为受西方经济学传统的限制，要突破这种限制必须把经济学与管理学结合起来进行研究，以构建企业主体性产权理论。企业主体性产权是其相关属性产权与自主属性产权的统一。企业相关属性及其产权是基础和结果，主要说明企业主体性产权的共性；企业自主属性及其产权是原动力和境界，主要说明企业主体性产权的个性。它们的互补和统一突出地体现在企业家及其产权上。企业主体性产权的目的是在防止“蛋糕”缩小的同时把“蛋糕”做大，其核心是基于相互关系的约束而进行自主创造的激励，其模型的运行特点是协同一自主创造。企业主体性产权理论的应用，可以保证和促使中国企业循着超越自然历史发展。     

Effects of time pressure,type of shopping,and store attributes on consumers’ satisfaction with grocery shopping

The aim of this study is to investigate whether satisfaction with grocery stores is affected by type of grocery shopping in conjunction with time pressure, and which attributes are important for satisfaction. Fictitious grocery stores are constructed according to a fractional factorial design by varying access, price level, supply quality/range, and service quality. In an Internet survey, 1023 Swedish consumers rated satisfaction with major vs. fill-in shopping imagining they were under high or low time pressure. The results showed that satisfaction is higher for fill-in shopping than major shopping, that time pressure has no effect on satisfaction, and that price level, service quality, and product quality/range are more important for satisfaction with major shopping, whereas access is more important for satisfaction with fill-in shopping. It is also found that the importance of attributes for satisfaction depends on type of shopping more than on individual characteristics.     

Revisiting Attributes: How Important Is Green in the Consumer Selection of Hotel Rooms?

Consumers’ buying behavior is not always consistent with their positive attitude, particularly toward environmentally friendly products. In a survey of 197 travelers, the relative importance consumers ascribe to the attribute of green was assessed. Through a multi-methods study involving interviews, focus groups discussions, and forced-choice experiments that simulate market buying situation, it was found that consumers’ selection of hotel rooms is still much dictated by traditional choice factors. Through a conjoint analysis, it was found that consumers highly prioritized the price attribute. The green attribute was assigned a low relative importance of 4% among the respondents. Managerial and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Assessing recreation carrying capacity of the environment attributes based on visitors’ willingness to pay

Recreation carrying capacity (RCC) is one of the most important indictors used in measuring the usage limits for the forest park resources. However, the consensus has not been reached with respect to the RCC’s content and its measuring metrics. In this paper, we attempt to establish a new RCC theoretical framework based on the demand theory of the tourism product characteristics. In the process, the choice experiment and orthogonal design methods are used in questionnaire designs and the conditional Logit model is used for parameter estimates. More than 700 park visitors are surveyed for data collection at the Shenyang National Forest park of Liaoning province in China. The primary park attributes being considered encompass vegetation, coverage, water quality, number of rubbish on the park trail path, admission fees, and congestion. The carrying capacity threshold for each specific attribute is identified.     

Analysis of congress destinations' competitiveness using importance performance competitor analysis

To be competitive and successful in congress tourism, destinations must learn which congress tourism-related attributes are important and how they perform against their main competitors. This study identifies the importance and performance of destination attributes in Antalya, Turkey, and compares the position of these attributes to those of its main rival in congress tourism, ?stanbul. Importance performance competitor analysis results show that, according to domestic participants, Antalya has to focus on “sight-seeing and cultural attractions” and “outside entertainment.” For international participants, “climate,” “choice of meeting and housing properties,” and “suitability of conference facilities” exhibit higher performance in Antalya than ?stanbul.