Managerial bias in anticipated images of competing shopping areas

Several dimensions of consumer retail patronage decisions that affect the firm's marketing program are investigated. In particular, the focus of the research extends previous research in the area to investigate the images held by consumers of shopping malls rather than individual stores. Second, the ability of store managers to accurately predict the image held by consumers both of their own shopping area and of a competitor's shopping area is investigated. This is designed to evaluate the ability of managers to predict consumer perceptions irrespective of their own beliefs. Finally, differences in the perceptions of two potential market segments are compared. Manager ability to differentiate between segments is noted. The implications for marketing programming decisions and the contribution the research makes to the body of literature on image measurement are discussed.