Segmenting multichannel consumers across search,purchase and after-sales

While bricks-and-mortar stores and the Internet are dominant retailing channels, mobile and social media have rapidly emerged and challenge traditional retail models and consumer behavior. However, researchers have yet to account for how consumers integrate mobile and social channels throughout the various stages of the buying process. Using Latent-Class Cluster Analysis segmentation, we examine consumer behavior in store, Internet, mobile, and social media channels across the search, purchase and after-sales buying stages in the aggregate and specific to the clothing, holiday travel and consumer electronics categories. We find five multichannel consumer segments on the basis of perceived channel importance across the buying process, as well as psychographic and demographic characteristics. Interestingly, we find a polarization in perceived importance of mobile and social media channels, with two consumer segments rating mobile and social media channels as unimportant in the buying process. Furthermore, and compared to prior segmentations of multichannel consumer behavior, we do not find an aggregate store-focused segment. However, a store-focused segment exists in the context of buying clothing and represents 28.6 per cent of consumers. The findings show multichannel consumer preferences and behavior continues to evolve in line with new and emerging retailing channels. Further, this study confirms that there is no ‘one-size fits all’ approach to multichannel retailing.     

Is the system reliability profitable for retailing and consumer service of a dynamical system under cross-price elasticity of demand?

Retailing strategy is one of the most crucial factors for industries. A proper retailing strategy can help to enhance consumer service and increase the industry's profit. An improved approach to retailing is suggested in this research to deliver superior customer service while maximizing profits in a dynamic system. The study analyzes a retailing strategy for a demand with cross-price elasticity upon the retail price. A product's cross-price elasticity and the system reliability are critical factors in retailing. Understanding the cross-price elasticity of demand between products helps retailers to make pricing decisions that maximize profits by maintaining demand. Imperfect products are produced due to an imperfect production system. The imperfect ones must be adjusted with some costs to make them perfect for better retailing. The system failure rate is crucial for retailing under cross-price elasticity of demand patterns. Production system reliability, cross-price elasticity of demand, and consumer service are all essential factors that can impact a company's success in the market. The production rate is considered time- and system failure rate-dependent. Contradictory to the literature, a dynamical system is proposed for improved retail management, which is solved using the Euler-Lagrange theory. Finally, one can achieve the expected maximum profit for this retail system with optimum selling prices for different products by reducing the system failure rate. Some numerical illustrations with graphical representations are provided to validate the current study. Numerical examples show that applying cross-price elasticity of demand for more than two identical products provides 35% more profit for the retail industry than a single type of product.     

Why Country of Origin Still Matters in Food Retailing: Implications for Promotion Management Research

ABSTRACT

Despite considerable focus on the role of country image (CI) and country of origin (COO) in international marketing and consumer behavior research over the past fifty years, several meta-analyses suggest that knowledge of the impact on consumer decision-making is limited. Even though they are among the most commonly traded items, food products (have not received as much attention from researchers as other product categories (i.e. consumer electronics, cars, apparel and footwear). Further, most of the research that focuses on food was conducted prior to the introduction of mandatory labelling requirements in many major retail markets. This critical review contributes to the literature examining the role that this information plays in food retailing within the context of international trade in food. From this critical review, a research agenda is developed, highlighting several major avenues and methodological approaches with the aim of enhancing the relevance and validity of COO research in food retailing and promotion management.     

The changing consumer in the Netherlands : Recent changes in environmental variables and their consequences for future consumption and marketing

Changes in many environmental (exogenous) factors during the eighties and early nineties affect marketing management and consumer behaviour in the Netherlands. Some of these factors relate to the effects of the economic recessions in the early eighties and the early nineties. Other factors are autonomous trends in a number of economic, demographic, and cultural factors. These factors determine a “macro marketing mix” for marketing management decisions of companies. In this article, we discuss the changing consumer environment and its impact on production and retailing of consumer goods and services in the Netherlands for the last decade of this century. This information on the Netherlands, as well as on the other nations of the European Community, is relevant for marketers operating in, or considering entering, the Dutch market. For governmental decision makers and scientists this information on future consumption and marketing is relevant for their policy and research.     

Retail formations: tracing the fluid forms of an online retailer

ABSTRACT

Change has often been said to characterise retailing, and research on retail change is extensive. However, though much of that research has focused on retail formats, it has not sufficiently addressed the fluid nature of retailing and how its formats emerge. This paper offers a more dynamic conceptualisation of retail format change by introducing the concept of retail formation. Taking a constructivist market studies approach and drawing upon an ethnographic study of a Swedish consumer electronics retailer, the paper shows how retail formations are continually being made in a dynamic process that can be initiated by various actors, does not necessarily follow a logical order, and commonly produces unexpected results. The concept of retail formation allows us to better understand the increasing fluidity of retailing enabling us to trace complex market processes, examine multiple actors simultaneously, and taking into account the socio-historical and socio-cultural dynamics involved in shaping retail markets.     

A causal analysis of the role of institutions and organizational proficiencies on the innovation capability of Chinese SMEs

We attempt to advance the existing narrative about the role of local institutions vis-à-vis the organizational capabilities of Chinese SMEs, and the influence of such linkages on the innovation capability of these firms. Specifically, we complement recent work by investigating the impact of macro- as well as micro-level aspects of Chinese institutions (Government support; Guanxi) on the ‘Improvisation’ and ‘Learning’ capabilities of Chinese SMEs and, ultimately, these firms’ innovation capability. Our conceptual arguments are embedded in Institutional, Organizational learning, and Resource-based theories. We isolate, unpack, and discuss several inter-related, yet distinct, causal mechanisms that ultimately influence Chinese SMEs’ innovation capability development. Based on a Partial Least Squares analysis of more than 200 firms, we find empirical support for all six hypotheses which represent the above-mentioned relationships. Our findings offer insights pertaining to: (1) the relative impact of institutional versus firm-specific factors in developing organizational proficiencies, (2) the mapping of macro- and micro-level institutional effects on organizational proficiencies, and (3) the relative effect of organizational proficiencies on innovation performance.     

Product survival analysis for the App Store

We empirically analyze both free and paid products on the top 100 Free and Grossing charts in the Korea App Store using Weibull parametric survival analysis on the product level. The findings are as follows: First, influences of ranking, customer ratings, and contents size on product survival are different for free and paid products. Customer ratings and contents size critically affect product survival when the price is zero. Second, the early entrant advantage exists in App Store, which results from a ranking system in the App Store and consumer learning. However, the effect of early entrant advantage differs between the Free and Grossing charts; the benefit of early entrant advantage is greater on the Free chart than that on the Grossing chart. Finally, we provide a competitive profit model that is related to free products.     

Consumer decision-making of slow moving consumer goods in the age of multi-channels

Currently, consumer decision-making is influenced by the spread of technology that has made multi-channel retailing possible. Multi-channel retailing can be defined as a retailer using a combination of separate and independent channels without any overlap for promoting and selling products and services. This study contributes to three research streams: consumer decision-making, multi-channel retailing and slow-moving consumer goods (SMCG). A theoretical framework is developed to examine the decision-making processes of two groups of consumers, Millennials and Mothers. As the aim of the study was to gain insight into consumer decision-making in the context of multi-channels it was designed to be exploratory and used an abductive approach. The empirical material was mainly collected via interviews in store and consumers’ homes. The interview data are complemented by in-store observations. Our findings show that multi-channels influence consumers’ decision-making and that there are differences between Millennials and Mothers. Different devices and channels are used at different stages of the decision-making process and we claim that they complement, rather than conflict with each other. Retailers need to understand that customers expect omni-channelling, which has a positive impact on brand and sales. We argue that retailers who want to remain competitive will need to move toward omni-channelling.     

Enhancing value-in-use in the FinTech innovation context

The contribution of this study is its investigation of the engine driving consumer value-in-use through a resource—integration capability—value framework from the perspective of a resource-based view and a capability-based view. We analyze how business resources and consumer resources influence individual and collective value-in-use via the causal mechanisms of resource integration capability and relationship integration capability. The study surveys 511 respondents in the greater Taipei area and employs a structural equation model to examine eight hypotheses. The results show that the main causal path was that consumer resources had a positive impact on relationship integration capability. Relationship integration capability showed a primarily positive impact on collective value-in-use.     

Causal mechanisms of COVID-19 disruptive effects on liability of foreignness and the emergence of new firm-specific advantages

There is the need for comprehensive research on the disruptive effects of COVID-19 on international business (IB) in preparation for future disruption. However, we know little about the causal mechanisms of the phenomenon which impacted IB. Based on a case study of a Japanese automotive firm in Russia, we investigate how firms tackle institutional entrepreneurship with firm-specific advantages to overcome the disruptive effects. Consequently, the pandemic increased institutional costs due to greater uncertainty in Russian regulatory institutions. To manage this, the firm developed new firm-specific advantages to deal with the increasing uncertainty of regulative institutions. The firm united with other firms to motivate public officials to advocate for semi-official debates. Our study contributes to extending intersecting studies on the liability of foreignness and firm-specific advantages through the lens of institutional entrepreneurship. We propose a holistic conceptual process model of the causal mechanisms and a novel construct for new firm-specific advantages.     

Is online-to-offline customer care support essential for consumer service?

Customer satisfaction is the main pillar for convenient and profitable retailing. The retail sector continuously tried to develop new strategies to improve consumer satisfaction. It is impossible to provide each service directly to the consumer by the retailer. In this direction, the retailer establishes customer care to provide the best service to consumers. Consumer care can provide promotional or prevention services, increasing the consumer's satisfaction level. This study is developed to show the impact of retailers' customer care service for an offline-to-online retailing strategy. The demand is consumer support, advertisement, and selling price dependent. For maintaining consumer service, some free home delivery policies are offered, when consumers ordered more than a certain percentage of the amount. Finally, the total profit of this O2O retailing system is calculated by the classical optimization technique. Some special cases are discussed in the numerical section to prove the impact of customer care services. Numerical results prove that customer care support enhances the profit by 48.20%, whereas investment in the advertisement and home delivery strategy helps the retail industry to earn 44.80% and 16.74% more profit, respectively. Finally, from this study, it is clear that customer care activities are essential to increase the profit of the retailing sector.     

Propensity to plan,financial capability,and financial satisfaction

Propensity to plan is an indicator of financial capability that contributes to consumer financial well‐being. Previous research has shown that propensity to plan is positively related to objective financial well‐being but little research was found to examine its association with subjective financial well‐being. Using financial satisfaction to measure subjective financial well‐being, this study addressed this research gap and had three objectives: (1) to explore factors associated with propensity to plan, (2) to examine the association between propensity to plan and financial capability factors, and (3) to examine the association between propensity to plan and financial satisfaction. Using data from the 2015 US National Financial Capability Study, the results showed socioeconomic differences in propensity to plan. The results suggest consumers with more economic resources had higher scores in propensity to plan. In addition, propensity to plan was positively associated with financial capability factors, suggesting financial planning is a desirable financial behavior. Finally, propensity to plan made unique contributions to financial satisfaction after controlling for socioeconomic and other financial capability factors.     

Does innovation-orientation lead to retail industry growth? Empirical evidence from patent analysis

Competitiveness and complexity in the retail industry are increasing due to rapid technological changes and diffusion. Patent analysis is largely used in innovation studies to assess and monitor technological changes in different sectors. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive view of the innovative forces affecting the retailing sector, by focusing on the evaluation of innovation levels through the classification and analysis of patented innovations. The findings show that retailers might shift to more innovation-oriented strategies in order to propose innovative consumer solutions, due to the support of the technology advancements highlighted by the strong patent track record. Our study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence of critical areas for innovation in retailing and by offering bibliometric and patent analytical methods measures relative to the innovative forces affecting retailing, which might push the sector to be increasingly an innovation-oriented one. Finally, the high level of property rights (defined by the huge amount of patents) pushes retailers to invest more on acquiring patented technologies to achieve advantages over competitors or to adopt novel management practices as substitutes for patents.     

Moderators of the negativity effect: Commitment,identification, and consumer sensitivity to corporate social performance

Numerous studies have identified constructs such as commitment and brand familiarity as moderators of negativity effects. However, boundary conditions for this moderation have yet to be identified within a retailing context. This study tries to rectify this gap in the literature. This study finds that three factors (commitment, consumer–company identification, and consumer sensitivity to corporate social performance) moderate attitude change toward a retailer following exposure to moderately negative (vs. positive) publicity. However, given extremely negative information, the buffering effects of the moderating factors disappear, and attitude changes are significant for all consumers. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Advertising-Operations Interaction Effect on Promotion Success in the United States during the Early Stage of a Retailing Innovation

ABSTRACT

It has been shown that while promoting a retailing innovation, the stronger a retailer's operations capability, the more successful the retailer's promotion in its early stage. The current study is intended to be an empirical exploration of a new research question. While promoting a retailing innovation in the U.S.A., is it possible that the stronger a retailer's capability-based advertising efficiency, the stronger the positive effect of the capability-based operations efficiency on promotion success in the early stage of the innovation? Our results showed that the interaction between efficiency in advertising function and that in operations function did not appear to play any significant role towards success in the USA while promoting a retailing innovation.     

Are privacy concerns still relevant? Revisiting consumer behaviour in omnichannel retailing

Omnichannel retailing is a new retail norm that focuses on providing a seamless interaction between retailers and consumers. Although the effect of omnichannel retailing on business is increasingly recognised, privacy concerns remain a subject of debate and a delicate issue which could potentially inhibit its growth. Grounded in the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S–O–R) model, the current study investigates consumer behaviour in omnichannel retailing and uses Psychological Reactance Theory (PRT) as the theoretical basis to examine the moderating effect of privacy concerns. A quantitative approach was adopted by means of self-administered questionnaires. 736 consumers were sampled, and the data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings show that consumer perception of channel integration (CPCI), consumer empowerment (CE), and trust significantly affect patronage intention in omnichannel retailing. In addition, when privacy concerns are low, the effects of CPCI and CE on trust are found to be stronger. It underscores the need to synergize channel integration, retailer-consumer relationship empowerment and effective mitigation of privacy concerns in the omnichannel retailing context. Implications of the study are provided.     

The influence of firm-specific and country-specific advantages in the internationalization of emerging market firms: Evidence from Turkey

This paper examines the role of institutional factors that enable firm- and country-specific drivers of emerging market (EM) firms’ internationalization based on case-based research conducted in one EM, Turkey. Findings indicate that 10 major factors comprised of firm-specific and country-specific advantages drove the focal case study firms abroad: the firm-specific factors ranged from financial and operations supremacy; excellence in value chain activities; inexpensive human resources; rapid learning capabilities in production and technology development; and adaptability to foreign markets; while the country-specific factors included home-government policies supporting internationalization; logistical advantages arising from geographical position; adaptability capabilities resulting from former survival through institutional voids; strong social ties formed through networks; and availability of low cost resources. These findings are discussed and future research questions are offered.     

Consumer Behavior in a Multichannel,Multimedia Retailing Environment

Over the past decade, multichannel, multimedia retailing environments have grown in variety, scope, and sophistication. However, research regarding the implications of this trend for consumer behavior is rather scarce. We seek to address this need by providing a comprehensive yet flexible approach for formulating promising consumer behavior-related research questions based in multichannel, multimedia retailing environments. This approach adopts a consumer-centric view of multichannel, multimedia retailing and identifies a number of important dimensions of this environment. We then illustrate how this approach could be applied via specific examples involving consumer memory, product assortment, and information acquisition. We conclude by considering the managerial implications of our proposed approach.     

E-satisfaction: a re-examination

E-satisfaction as a construct has gained increasing importance in the marketing literature in recent times. The examination of consumer satisfaction in an online context follows the growing consensus that in Internet retailing, as in traditional retailing, consumer satisfaction is not only a critical performance outcome, but also a primary predictor of customer loyalty and thus, the Internet retailer's endurance and success. The current study replicates the initial examination of e-satisfaction within the U.S. by [Szymanski, David M., & Richard T. Hise (2000). E-satisfaction: An initial examination. Journal of Retailing, 76(3), 309-322] among a sample of online consumers drawn from Germany. The replication was extended to two contexts—consumer satisfaction with Internet retail shopping and consumer satisfaction with Internet financial services sites. The results yield rich insights into the validity of extending the measurement and predictors of e-satisfaction to a trans-national context.