‘Online Omnivores’ or ‘Willing but struggling’? Identifying online grocery shopping behavior segments using attitude theory

The landscape of grocery shopping is changing fast. Online retailing via home delivery or ‘click and collect’, convenience stores and various hybrid shopping channels are gaining popularity with some consumers, but not with others. The central premise of this paper is that focusing on the ‘average grocery shopper’ is not very helpful if the objective is to understand recent and future changes in grocery shopping. There are few recent studies that have identified groups of individuals using online and multi-channel shopping by considering both observable behavior and associated attitudes – feelings, beliefs, opinions and behavioral dispositions – and by drawing explicitly on attitude theories from social psychology. The current paper thus aims to identify and describe groups of grocery shoppers using a psychographic segmentation approach that is explicitly grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991) and its close cousin, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis et al., 1989). Primary data were collected through a self-completion questionnaire that produced a largely representative study sample of 2032 grocery shoppers across the United Kingdom, Europe's largest market for online grocery shopping. A principal component and two stage cluster analysis methodology was implemented to identify five well-defined and highly interpretable segments according to their attitudes, norms, perceptions and beliefs, then profiled by their socio-economic and grocery shopping characteristics. The segments reveal a range of different grocery shopping preference levels, from those ‘super-shoppers’ (Flynn and Goldsmith, 2016) who are clearly attracted to the online experience and want more (‘Intensive Urbanites’, ‘Online Omnivores’) to those who appear resistant and socially responsible towards the adoption of online shopping services (‘Resisting and Responsible’). The key distinguishing features of these segments suggest that shoppers might be attracted to or repelled from online shopping for reasons of convenience, perceived benefits, costs and risks, technology affect, time pressures and fit into daily schedules (perceived behavioral control), as well as social and environmental dimensions of personal norms and beliefs.     

Affective cues in persuasion: An assessment of causal mediation

This experiment examined the mediating role of affective cues in persuasion. College students were exposed to advertisements that contained or did not contain affective cues in the form of humor, and that contained or did not contain information about the advertised product. As intended the affective cues were found to influence attitudes toward the advertisement (A_ad), while the productrelevant information was found to influence attitudes toward the advertised product (A_b). By manipulating A_ad and A_b independently, it was possible to test for the causal mediation of one attitude on the other. The results showed that A_b had a significant mediating (p<.05) effect on A_ad, but that A_ad did not significantly mediate A_b.     

Friends with benefits: Behavioral and fMRI studies on the effect of friendship reminders on self-control for compulsive and non-compulsive buyers

Does the real or imagined presence of friends invariantly drive consumers to engage in disinhibited behavior, and give in to the “urge to splurge” in the face of consumption temptations? Or might there be situations in which being with friends or even merely thinking of friends or the friendships we have with them can actually improve self-control?In five studies, using a unique combination of controlled experiments examining overt consumer behavior and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we propose and show that the extent to which consumers identify a goal conflict between giving in to buying temptations on the one hand and the perceived consequences for maintaining satisfactory relationships with close friends on the other is a critical mediator of whether friendship reminders decrease or increase self-control. We further show that such a goal conflict is most likely for consumers with a chronic, compulsive tendency for uncontrolled, disinhibited acquisition and consumption—for consumers classified as compulsive buyers. For their non-compulsive counterparts, in contrast, acts of acquisition and consumption, even incidental disinhibited ones, are perceived to be less problematic in light of their friendships and hence do not induce a goal conflict to the same extent. Our findings provide insights into social influences on self-control and identify the concept of friendship reminders as a way to reduce a common type of dysfunctional consumer behavior. In addition to enhancing consumer well-being, reducing compulsive buying will substantially reduce handling costs for organizations. Hence, the findings are of academic, societal and managerial relevance.     

Who needs a reason to indulge? Happiness following reason-based indulgent consumption

While consumers and marketers perpetuate the lay theory that indulging with a reason is more pleasurable and makes everyone happier, this research identifies a condition under which indulging without a reason “feels right” and produces a more positive emotional reaction. The authors show that indulging with or without a reason and consumers' trait self-control interact to influence happiness felt following an indulgent purchase. While high self-control consumers are happier when they have a reason to buy indulgent products (e.g., when they can justify the indulgence), low self-control consumers are happier when they do not have a reason to indulge. That is, indulging with a reason is less pleasurable for consumers with low self-control. This effect on happiness has an impact on downstream judgments about the product and yields important implications for consumer welfare as well as marketing managers. Across four studies we show the effect on consumption happiness, examine consequences of the effect, and report evidence for the underlying process.     

Understanding the psychological process underlying customer satisfaction and retention in a relational service

This paper reexamines the psychological process underlying the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer retention in a relational service context. It is based on a composite model of the attitude-behavior relation, which takes both attitude toward target and attitude toward behavior into account. Data were collected from a survey with a sample of 209 clients from a major credit counseling organization in the USA. Account data indicating those clients' actual retention behavior were matched with the survey data. A two-step structural equation modeling (SEM) procedure was employed to establish the construct validity and test the hypotheses. The results revealed that the effect of customer satisfaction on retention is mediated by the more proximal determinants of the actual retention behavior. Specifically, customer satisfaction has both direct and indirect effects on customers' attitudes toward remaining in the Debt Management Program (DMP), which is the proximal predictor of customer retention. In addition, satisfaction alone cannot guarantee customer retention. Customers' perceived behavioral control exerts direct effects on their intention to remain and retention.     

消费者对“俗广告”的态度与实际购买行为的背离——基于佳仙火锅调料广告的研究

本文采取了案例研究方法,以佳仙火锅调料广告事件中所表现出来的消费者时其广告的态度与其实际购买行为的背离为例,探讨了消费者行为与其对产品广告态度的背离的原因,并从中提出了对某些特定情形下,俗广告长期存在的原因和理由。     

Person-environment fit and emotional control: Assigned expatriates vs. self-initiated expatriates

Studies exploring the difference of assigned expatriates (AEs) and self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) have recently started to emerge. However, so far few results have been connected to theory developed in this area. In the current study, we use responses from 324 business expatriates in China and take departure in the two elements of the person-environment fit theory, supplementary fit and complementary fit. We use the supplementary fit element of this theory to explain why emotional control (low dispositional anger and high self-control) increases performance and satisfaction in China. We rely on the complementary element of person-environment fit theory for understanding why this effect may vary between AEs and SIEs. Our argument is that as opposed to SIEs, AEs could add contact and knowledge from the parent company to the local organization thus complementing it. Our findings, with regard to supplementary fit, show that self-control has a positive association with both job performance and job satisfaction while trait anger has a negative effect on job satisfaction. In relation to complementary fit, also as expected, we found a buffering moderation effect of being AE, meaning that the negative effect of their trait anger on job satisfaction was diminished for this group.     

Three dimensional product presentation quality antecedents and their consequences for online retailers: The moderating role of virtual product experience

This study investigates the impact of three-dimensional (3D) product presentation quality (3D-Q) on attitude toward presented product and attitude toward website, which in turn affect users’ satisfaction. Therefore, this research developed a hypothetical online retailer website, which presents a variety of 3D laptops that allows users to control the content and form of the 3D flashes. We measured 3D-quality based on a multi-dimensional construct. In other words, we define and operationalize 3D-quality based on information quality, system quality, authenticity, and enjoyment (second-order). We employed a non-student sample (n=410) to collect the data. We find that 3D-quality determines perceptions of attitude toward presented product and attitude toward website, which in turn influence users’ satisfaction. Furthermore, we find that virtual product experience moderates the relationships between attitude toward presented product, attitude toward website and users’ satisfaction. Our study provides important implications for e-tailers.     

Demarketing tobacco through governmental policies - The 4Ps revisited

Governments in many developed countries are increasing their efforts to reduce smoking. In line with their commitment for action, governments use anti-smoking advertising to highlight the health risks of smoking and regulatory measures to dissuade consumers from consuming tobacco. In the past, governments tended to take these steps in isolation, now they are more likely to combine these strategies as part of a demarketing mix. However, relatively little is known about the differential impact of these demarketing mix elements in relation to consumers' intention to quit smoking and other important outcome variables. This article presents a conceptual model linking the 4Ps in a demarketing context with three outcome measures: consumers' attitude toward the tobacco industry, consumers' attitude toward smoking, and consumers' intention to quit smoking. The authors use empirical longitudinal data to test the model and the results suggest that the four demarketing mix elements affect smokers' attitudes toward the tobacco industry and smoking, as well as their intention to quit over time. Further, the results from structural equation modeling analysis indicate that not all four demarketing mix elements are equally effective in inducing consumer behavior change.     

Brand name suggestiveness: a Chinese language perspective

The selection of the right brand name is one of the most important marketing decisions and brand memorability has been proposed to be one of the key brand name selection criteria. Prior brand naming research has primarily dealt with word-level analysis in examining English brand name characteristics that are desirable for improving brand memorability. In this regard, this research examines the effects of suggestiveness at both the word and sub-word levels on consumer responses to Chinese brand names. Through two experiments, the findings demonstrate the ability of both character-level and radical-level suggestiveness in improving the memory for brand name and target claim. This research also extends the findings of previous studies on suggestiveness by demonstrating its favorable attitudinal effects. Based on these findings, theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Factors affecting current users’ attitude towards e-auctions in China: An extended TAM study

E-auctions have the potential to gain a larger market share of the C2C sector by increasing participation of current users. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that impact attitude towards e-auctions among current Chinese e-auction users. Variables of the extended technology acceptance model and their antecedents were examined. Data were collected from 210 current users of e-auctions in China. Using structural equation modeling, the results highlighted key antecedents, such as security, social motives, and playfulness, suggesting the importance of creating a safe, interactive, and fun e-auction platform. Connection speed and economic gain as influential factors were also identified.     

How many pictures should your print ad have?

This study examines the impact of increasing the number of images in a print advertisement on affective and cognitive responses. In advertisements with both positive and negative pictures, increasing the number of positive (negative) images increases positive (negative) affect. However, consistent with theory regarding the mechanism underpinning affect integration in a simultaneous presentation context, in advertisements with only positive or only negative images, increasing the number of positive (negative) images of similar affective intensity does not increase positive (negative) affect. For both types of advertisements, additional pictures have no effects on attitude toward the ad when they exemplify a product attribute or benefit that an existing picture(s) already depicts.