How in-store educational and entertaining events influence shopper satisfaction

While recent years have seen an increased use of educational and entertaining events within the store environment, little seems known about how consumers value such events. This study investigates how the staging of education and entertainment-focused in-store events impacts on consumers’ value perceptions, arousal levels and store satisfaction. It is hypothesized that such events have a positive effect on store satisfaction but that their effects are moderated by a shopper’s motivational orientation. Findings from a scenario-based experiment among 786 shoppers from two retail categories (hardware and computer stores) provide support for this. The findings show that task-oriented consumers derive more value and satisfaction from an education-focused event than from an entertainment-focused event, while recreation-oriented consumers appreciate either type of event. The study findings imply that providing education themed events is a safer option for retailers than providing entertainment-focused events because education satisfies a wider range of shopper needs. Shoppers overall derive pleasure from entertainment but task-oriented shoppers tend to also see it as a hindrance to the convenience of shopping, with the result that for these shoppers the hosting of entertainment-focused events may result in reduced store satisfaction levels.     

Retailer-buyer supplier relationships: The Japanese difference

The purpose of this study, which draws data from a national survey of Japanese retail buyers, is to provide insight into how culture influences channel relationships and to suggest how non-Japanese partners can facilitate long-term relationships. Results indicate that Japanese retailer long-term orientation with a supplier is an antecedent to trust, economic dependence and satisfaction with the supplier rather than an outcome of these constructs. This study implies that Japanese retailers are expected to look out for the best interests of their partners, rather than continuously seek new partners, and, further, partners learn to negotiate differences rather than seek dissolution of the relationship.     

The Role of Customer Orientation as a Moderator of the Job Demand–Burnout–Performance Relationship: A Surface-Level Trait Perspective

This study expands upon previous research on the antecedents (job demands and job resources) and outcomes of frontline employee burnout, and examines the role of customer orientation (CO) in the burnout process. Using data from frontline bank employees in New Zealand, we investigate both the direct relationships of CO to burnout and job outcomes (job performance and turnover intentions) and the buffering role of CO concerning the relationships between job demands, burnout, and job outcomes. The study results show that burnout mediates the effects of job demands and job resources on job performance and turnover intentions. Besides being directly related to burnout and job performance, CO also buffers the dysfunctional effects of job demands on burnout and job outcomes. Implications of the results are discussed and future research avenues are offered.     

Going digital? The impact of social media marketing on retail website traffic,orders and sales

Given the rapid proliferation of digital technology, social media has become a key digital marketing strategy to promote business products, with the ultimate aim of maximising profits. Yet, empirical evidence on the impact of social media as a marketing tool remains underexplored. Using unique data over a 12-month period from a major online retailer, this paper examines the impact of daily social media activity on daily business outcomes: website traffic, orders and sales. Key findings reveal that social media leads to increased web traffic, but it does not produce a significant rise in product orders and sale income. Though, larger social media campaigns tend to result in significantly higher number of orders and sale income, and Facebook emerges as the most effective channel. Our results also reveal that the effectiveness of social media marketing varies across products depending on their complexity, cost and brand status. Taken together, these results offer a better understanding of the ways social media marketing impact businesses and provide intelligence on how to allocate resources to develop marketing campaigns.     

WHY do YOU care about me? The impact of retailers’ customer care activities on customer orientation perceptions and store patronage intentions

The present research conceptualizes customer care activities as the process through which retailers satisfy consumers' needs by means of a set of interconnected services and address the role of warmth and competence perceptions, as well as consumers' inferred motives, in determining the downstream effects of care management activities on consumers' perceptions and intentions. The results from two experiments show that the number and framing of customer care activities affect customer orientation perceptions (Study 1) and that their fit with the overall retailer's image and the level of professionalism required to carry them out affects store patronage intentions (Study 2).     

How consumers as aesthetic subjects co-create the aesthetic experience of the retail environment

The consumer aesthetic experience, diverse and complex, seems to depend on the individual׳s subjective perception. Studies have questioned if this experience can be conceptualized and explained through underlying patterns. Most studies have focused on the properties of aesthetic objects, explaining their influences on consumer responses, while ignoring consumers as aesthetic subjects. Based on the view that consumers seek pleasure out of even the most mundane objects in their everyday consumption, this study explains how consumers interact and formulate aesthetic experiences in the retail environment.     

Effect of Store Brand Introduction on Channel Price Leadership: An Empirical Investigation

In this study, we conduct an empirical investigation of the impact of store brand introductions on the price leadership relations in a distribution channel between a retailer and national brand manufacturers. We analyze a multi-product category retail database from a major grocery chain, which captures both a period before and a period after the introduction of a store brand in each product category. By applying the time series approach to this data set, we show that store brand introductions frequently lead to price leadership changes, generally in a more favorable direction for the retailer than for the national brand manufacturer, evidenced by either the decay of the manufacturers’ price leadership or the rise of the retailer’s price leadership. However, such a change is not universal but tends to be concentrated among a certain quality tier of national brands, which is not always the low-tier, but sometimes the top-tier despite the low-price low-quality position of the store brand. The patterns detected in the data suggest that these changes are likely to reflect the retailer’s strategic effort to reshape the price leadership environment in a product category aided by the enhanced bargaining power and managerial sophistication that accompanied the store brand introductions.     

A relational performance model for developing innovation and long-term orientation in retail franchise organizations

A relational performance model is developed to show how innovation and long-term orientation can be evaluated and monitored within franchised retail service organizations. Using principles of justice from social exchange theory as a guide, our performance model measures how franchisee entrepreneurial passion (EP) and perceptions of fairness help to promote innovation and long-term commitment across retail franchise organizations. We test our model using data collected from one large U. S. retail service organization ($5B+ annual revenue) and its independent franchise operators. We discover that targeting distributive justice (or fairness) helps to leverage the EP of the independent operators for promoting innovation, while both procedural and distributive elements of the organizational justice climate help to enhance franchisee's long-term commitment. Moreover, we find that retail franchise operators perceive organizational justice differently than do corporate district managers, which suggests several important implications for both research and practice.     

A Time Attitude Scale for Cross Cultural Research

Abstract

The paper describes the development and testing of a questionnaire instrument designed to assess the attitudes of individuals towards time. Five constructs are identified from the literature: past, present and future orientations, time pressure (or time as duration) and planning (time as succession). Scale items were developed and tested in four countries: the UK, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Chile. In the last three mentioned countries, the questionnaire was translated into the home language from English using the back translation method. In total, 2,155 respondents completed the instrument. The scale is tested for reliability using Cronbach Alpha both as a whole and in its five constituent parts for each country. Convergent validity was tested using Structural Equation Modelling. Past and future orientations, and time pressure emerge as relatively well-defined constructs, reflecting their emphasis in the literature on time attitudes generally. The results are discussed in the context of cross-cultural research and in the context of a growing debate about the use of Cronbach Alpha as an absolute indicator for scale development.     

An Investigation of People's Time Orientation,Attitudes, and Behavior Toward Advertising in an International Context

ABSTRACT

Past studies have indicated that there are cross-cultural/national differences among people's perception of time and how they use time available for them and what factors affect their time-related purchasing and consumption decisions. It is stated that each culture or subculture could have its own dominant construct of time. The present study examines time use and orientation and time attitudes toward different activities, including advertising in an emerging economy of Georgia. Study results indicate that present orientation and consciousness of future, planning orientation, time saving, realization of present in the light of past, and action orientation are salient factors channeling time orientations of Georgian consumers.     

The changing consumer in Belgium

Centrally located at the cross-roads of the main European Cultures that constitute its roots, Belgium can in many respects be regarded as a miniature Europe. Indeed, most general economic and consumption tendencies that have a grip over Europe, also reign the Belgian society.Yet, Belgium's macro marketing mix exhibits a number of particular characteristics. The remarkably developed retail apparatus and extensive product assortments are typical of a small but rich consumption society. At the same time, promotional expenditures remain modest, and price competition in major sectors is fierce.In view of the future, the foregoing aspects characterize Belgium as a potentially attractive test market for internationally oriented firms. Conversely, it appears to be an interesting commercial arena only for marketers with high cost efficiency, or with superior targeting skills allowing them to cater to the needs of small market segments with considerable purchasing power.