Retailing evolution research: Introduction to the special section on retailing research

Five articles were selected from studies presented at the Ninth Society for Marketing Advances Retailing Research Symposium. The following article introduces their themes and main findings, along with the process of selection.     

Beyond the world of packaged goods: assessing the relevance of integrated marketing communications for retail and consumer service marketing

Product and packaged goods marketers have responded to changing consumer and media environments by adopting integrated approaches to marketing communication. The value and utility of such approaches likely extend to a wide range of marketers, but there have been few published attempts to examine the viability of the integrated marketing communication concept in retail and service marketing. This study addresses this void by using a seven-stage model of integrated marketing communications to examine the media and message delivery practices of national and regional retailers and consumer service marketers. The results of a national mail survey found many of these marketers using such key integrated marketing communication elements as multiple media, databases, individual-level consumer information and behavioural response measures in their media and message delivery practices. Few, however, were using these elements in a strategic or coordinated fashion. Integrated approaches thus appear to have much value in retail and service marketing, particularly as a means for coordinating media and message delivery elements in a fashion that provides a way to link behavioural responses to media vehicles and advertising messages.     

Unravelling the intellectual discourse of implicit consumer cognition: A bibliometric review

Consumer judgement, decision-making, and behavior largely rest on mental processes that reside outside of conscious awareness. Indirect measures and accompanying theoretical developments contributed to a better understanding of unconscious processes and produced a thriving stream of literature. More or less interrelated schools of thought emerged, yet the knowledge of the research field lacks full integration. This study aims to unveil the hidden structure of the discourse, condense knowledge, and stimulate further research. To this end, 446 research articles with 16,684 unique references serve as a database. A factor analysis on the co-citation patterns of the top 156 articles identified seven research streams. Social network analysis revealed intellectual connections within and between research streams. The temporal development of research streams shows that the main focus shifted from implicit memory to implicit attitude research after the emergence of the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Implicit theories, although relevant, are isolated from the rest of the research field. This gap holds potential for further knowledge integration.     

Marketing research in Korea: Special joint issue of journal of business research and journal of the Korean academy of marketing science

This special joint issue of the Journal of Business Research with the Journal of the Korean Academy of Marketing Science contains nine articles that were originally presented at the Fall 2005 Korean Academy of Marketing Science (KAMS) International Conference and the Spring 2006 KAMS International Conference. After a blind review process, 120 papers were accepted for conference proceedings. Of these papers, the conference selection committee selected 20 papers as outstanding contributions to the marketing literature. A board of review members blind reviewed these 20 papers and accepted 9 of them for this special issue. Contributions to marketing literature are discussed.     

International marketing research: A global project management perspective

As organizations continue to pursue more global strategies, the need to be able to understand consumers in far away places is increasing. Marketing research is the primary mechanism through which companies understand their current, as well as potential, customers. As companies contemplate the global marketplace, they must consider how domestic market research differs when conducted in international markets. In an effort to help internal client side marketing research managers design and implement improved international research studies, we briefly discuss the context for international market research and provide a framework for conducting international market research projects. Additionally, we present several factors that should be considered by marketers who engage in global market research studies. These factors represent the variety of challenges that must be addressed in order to conduct research across national borders. Particular attention is paid to the nuances related to primary data collection and questionnaire construction.     

Segmenting consumer decision-making styles (CDMS) toward marketing practice: A partial least squares (PLS) path modeling approach

The way consumers make decisions across online and offline channels according to their perceptions of retailers׳ marketing practices is not well understood in the current literature. A few empirical studies have examined consumer decision-making styles (CDMS) and marketing practice among online and shopping mall consumers. This research endeavors to understand CDMS as market segments on the perception of marketing practice across retail channels. A total of 315 online and paper–pencil-questionnaires were collected to conduct the statistical analysis for the measurement and structural model using the partial least squares (PLS) path modeling approach, a structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. Six consumers׳ characteristics–perfectionist, brand consciousness, price conscious, fashion conscious, recreational and impulsive shoppers–were assessed in respect of retail products, price, advertising and retailing across-channels. The study contributes to retailing management by enabling it to implement effective retail segmentation and cross-channel strategy according to CDMS. The study limitations and implications are discussed.     

Gains and losses of exclusivity in grocery retailing

Conventional wisdom dictates that convenience goods should be distributed as intensively as possible. Still, exclusivity arrangements are rapidly gaining way in grocery retailing. We discuss the possible performance outcomes of exclusivity deals, and propose a unified framework (i) to quantify the gains and losses of such arrangements in consumer-packaged-goods markets, and (ii) to decompose the total monetary gains and losses into a variety of sources. Our framework considers both the manufacturer and the retailer granted the exclusivity right, and accounts for the fact that both dyad parties may be active in multiple, inter-related, categories.     

The role and management of product innovation in retailer assortments: evidence from the Italian FMCG market

This paper relocates the recent wave of internationalization in retailing in a much longer historical context. Utilizing a newly compiled database of all foreign entrants into British retailing since 1850, the paper reviews trends in overall entry patterns before considering the entry patterns in different retail trades. New empirical data on the branch counts of foreign entrants from 1850-1991 are presented. These data clearly indicate that what was new about the 1980s was not their number per se but the concentration of large numbers of relatively small entrants in clothes retailing. This analysis of the very long term developments of international retailing in Britain therefore concludes that any account of the upsurge in foreign entrants into British retailing in the 1980s needs to take the concurrent developments of high street demand for clothing more fully into account.     

Creating and consuming experiences in retail store environments: Comparing retailer and consumer perspectives

This article investigates the substance of arguments about an experience-oriented economy and experience-seeking consumption in retailing. Employing a case study research approach (n=7) and the Critical Incident Technique (n=252), we show how retailers as well as consumers relate to in-store experiences. The results point out that retailers’ use ever more advanced techniques in order to create compelling in-store experiences to their consumers. In contrast, the depiction given by consumers reveals that their in-store experiences to a large extent are constituted by traditional values such as the behavior of the personnel, a satisfactory selection of products and a layout that facilitates the store visit.     

Retailing in the 21st century: reflections and prologue to research

Retailing in the 21st century will no doubt be very different from retailing in the 20th century, just as retailing in the 20th century was very different from retailing in the 19th century. To understand and explain current retailing phenomena and retailing-related phenomena, and accurately predict such phenomena, it is necessary to have a coherent and consistent definition of retailing as well as comprehensive retailing theories based on this definition. This introduction to the special issue argues for such a definition and related comprehensive theories.     

Identifying the critical factors of customer behavior: An integration perspective of marketing strategy and components of attitudes

The purpose of this empirical study is to operationalize the relationship of green marketing's influence on consumer attitudes via the mediating role of marketing mix towards green products to validate the proposed research model in the Taiwanese context of explaining consumers' willingness to be environmentally friendly. The model is based on structural equation modeling (SEM) from data collected from 977 online consumers. The findings revealed that green consumption intention was significantly and indirectly driven by attitude to green products. Additionally, the effect of perceived quality on marketing mix and consumer willingness in environmental concern is both significant and positive. However, when a restaurant has high consumer social responsibility (CnSR) for marketing mix, the consumer attitudes of cognitive, affective, and behavioral model (C-A-B model) is less effective. These findings have contributed to the revival of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and offer a comprehensive understanding of consumer attitude, consumer social responsibility, marketing mix and perceived quality impact that a restaurant has on the ability to raise consumer willingness to purchase green products or food. We provides valuable suggestions to marketers to design from the perspective of green marketing policies and strategies in order to accommodate Taiwan's indigenous green restaurants.     

Sustainabilty and retail marketing: Corporate,product and store perspectives

This paper investigates sustainability in retailing based on three different perspectives: i) the overall corporate management, ii) the development of an attractive product range, iii) the daily in-store management and activities. The purpose is to identify a set of main themes for each perspective, investigate contradictions and areas of conflict, and discuss how to bridge the perspectives. A qualitative case study approach is applied investigating the global retailer IKEA. The study includes Sweden, Germany and the UK. The research showed that the corporate, product and store perspectives are complementary but also involve contradictions and barriers to giving a higher priority to sustainability. These concern the time perspective, the set of stakeholders considered and the overall priority. Developing goals and benefits linked to sustainability, using effective arenas for interactions and linking sustainability to the legend and culture are suggested as three bridges that may overcome the contradictions.     

Multicollinearity in marketing models: Diagnostics and remedial measures

The problem of multicollinearity in linear models is reviewed. Diagnostic measures for detection, analysis of the effects, and localization of multicollinearity are presented. It is recommended that OLS estimates should not be used without a proper diagnostic. The traditional remedial measures, i.e., omission of variables from the model and principal component regression, are critically discussed along with more recent methods. Ridge regression is presented, and several methods for selecting the biasing parameter in ridge regression are introduced. The procedures are illustrated with data taken from the marketing literature and evaluated for their potential usefulness in handling multicollinearity.     

Issues in fitting theoretical and measurement models in marketing

This article reviews the applications of linear structural equation modeling in business. It further examines the extent to which measurement models are constructed to fit theory models. The consensus appears to be that modelers intuitively use congeneric models without considering the appropriateness of such use. The other measurement models, such as tau equivalent or parallel form models are used very little in the literature. In addition, there is no use of common factor measurement models. The article also examines the extent to which various indices of fit are used in modeling marketing phenomena. Although chi square tests of model fit are used most frequently, the study documents increasing use of yet other indices, which perhaps more accurately reflect the extent to which the model fits.     

Current issues in retailing: Relationships and emerging opportunities: Introduction to the special issue from the American Collegiate Retailing Association 2005 and 2006 conferences

Retail innovation impacts the entire marketing channel, from manufacturers to retail employees, franchisors to international distributors, and Internet marketers to final consumers. Increased global expansion, a re-emphasis on relationship building, and the explosive growth of e-commerce have transformed all facets of retailing. The papers appearing in this special issue, consisting of the best papers from the Spring and Winter conferences of the American Collegiate Retailing Association held in 2005 and 2006, capture these cutting-edge issues. The papers have gone through two rounds of a double-blind review process and been screened by one of two selection committees.     

'One brand,three ways to shop': situational variables and multichannel consumer behaviour

To counter the growth in online retailing, high street retailers are increasingly adopting multichannel distribution strategies, seeking to target individual consumers via both physical and electronic channels as multiple routes to purchase. In order to develop successful marketing strategies within this environment, however, an understanding of consumer selection between available purchase channels is clearly needed. This paper explores the issue of shopping mode selection from an environmental psychology perspective, applying a traditional Belkian analysis of situational variables in a longitudinal study of consumer channel selection decisions. Preliminary findings from an empirical study of consumers of a leading UK fashion retailer are reported which reveal significant differences in the prevalence of different Belkian variables between shopping modes, suggesting a major role for situational influence during the channel selection process.     

Commentary: advancing marketing strategy in the marketing discipline and beyond

ABSTRACT

Shelby Hunt provides an insightful, precise essay on the nature and contribution of the field of marketing across five distinct periods and concludes with a discussion of the potential for the field of marketing, both within marketing and across allied fields of management. This ‘promise’ of marketing’s academic future is followed by a discussion of the key factors likely to play a significant role in lessening the contribution of the field. The purpose of this commentary is to focus on Hunt’s key question regarding Era V: Is the future of the marketing discipline promising or problematic? As such, this commentary addresses four issues: (1) the ‘promising’ assets that the discipline has in play; (2) the slide towards academic irrelevance and, thus, the ‘problem’; (3) Hunt’s observations on how the slide might be reversed; and (4) my viewpoint on what can be done to reverse the slide.     

Utterly fresh perspectives on consumer research and advertising: Introducing the special issue from the 2013 La Londe conference

This article provides an overview of the papers from the 40th La Londe Marketing Communications and Consumer Behavior Conference that were selected for this special issue of the Journal of Business Research. The La Londe conference is a biennial event that attracts top researchers from across the world. A small and selective conference, its intimacy combined with high-quality presentations serves as an incubator for new ideas and fresh perspectives on consumer research, and does so through an international lens that is reflected in the diversity of countries represented on the conference program, the co-chairs of the conference, and the La Londe Conference Scientific Committee.     

Regional and Categorical Patterns in Consumer Behavior: Revealing Trends

We offer a method of analysis that allows for an “unbundling” of the data to a disaggregate household level, and then “rebundling” it in a manner designed to identify patterns and relationships which are otherwise masked. Applying the method in the context of ‘healthy’ products and using census block group level data, we study consumption over several categories in two locations. The analyses show that studies involving geographically dispersed data must test for, and take into account when required, conceptually sound spatial effects in order to accurately assess impact. We also show that while both location and the product category have a significant impact on the proportion of healthy products purchased, the degree to which consumers choose healthier alternatives is a function of the category as well as the location. Finally, we provide preliminary evidence from survey data that supports the variations we find, and further explores attitudinal differences as well. There are rich implications for retailers in that new products introduced to benefit from popular trends (such as ‘healthy’ alternatives) may not succeed for all categories or locations. Retailers would benefit from understanding the spatial, demographic and attitudinal effects that play into consumption behavior, and such effects can be better understood when studying choice at the category and region level. Finally, public policies aimed at promoting healthier purchasing habits may have greater impact if special attention is given to specific categories and regions.