Exploring the effect of retail sector and firm characteristics on retail price promotion strategy

This study examines why retail price promotion strategies vary across retail sectors and across firms within sectors. Using hierarchical linear modeling and a sample of 38 firms from 11 retail sectors, the authors investigate how two sector-level characteristics, related to product assortment perishability and heterogeneity, and three firm-level characteristics, related to retailer differentiation, number of stores, and average store size, influence price promotion decisions. The results indicate that assortment heterogeneity moderates the positive influence of perishability on price promotion activity; scale and scope also have significant effects. These results offer fresh insight into the ongoing debate surrounding stable versus promotional pricing, suggesting that the benefits of a particular strategy are driven largely by a complex interaction between sector-level characteristics as well as firm-level cost advantages.     

业态战略、企业规模、资本结构与零售企业成长——以零售上市公司为样本

作为零售企业成长中同时存在的两种战略,多业态战略和单一业态战略本身各有其利弊。在企业规模与资本结构的共同作用下,单一业态战略相较于多业态战略对零售企业成长的影响较大;企业规模与零售企业成长显著正相关;资产负债率对零售企业成长有显著的正向作用,而长期负债率对零售企业成长则有显著的负向影响;企业年龄与零售企业成长之间存在负向关系,但关系强度较弱,且在统计上不显著;区域类型对零售企业成长没有显著影响。为了促进零售企业成长,零售企业要发展自己的主力业态,使之成为企业成长的支柱,然后在时机成熟时向多业态的盈利模式转化;要进行适度的规模扩张;要确定资本结构的合理水平,并从根本上降低长期负债率。     

Retailer Categorization: How Store-Format Price Image Influences Expected Prices and Consumer Choices

Prior research indicates that consumers may base their retail decisions (e.g., store choice, purchase quantity) on price image, which has been defined as consumer perceptions “of the aggregate price level of a retailer” (Hamilton and Chernev 2013, p. 2). The present research shows that consumers associate different price images not only with specific retailers, but more broadly with various store formats — such as grocery stores, convenience stores, and specialty stores. Six studies provide evidence that store-format price image exerts influence on consumer price expectations and store choice decisions, and that these retailer categorization effects are distinct from the effects of retailer price image.     

Joint Optimization of Product Price, Display Orientation and Shelf-Space Allocation in Retail Category Management

We develop a model that jointly optimizes a retailer's decisions for product prices, display facing areas, display orientations and shelf-space locations in a product category. Unlike the existing shelf-space allocation models that typically consider only the width of display shelves, our model considers both the width and height of each shelf, allowing products to be stacked. Furthermore, as demand is influenced by each product's two-dimensional facing area, we consider multiple product orientations that capture three-dimensional product packaging characteristics. That enables our model to not only treat shelf locations as decision variables, but also retailers’ stacking patterns in terms of product display areas and multiple display orientations. Further, unlike the existing studies which consider a retailer's shelf-space allocation decisions independent of its product pricing decisions, our model allows joint decisions on both and captures cross-product interactions in demand through prices. We show how a branch-and-bound based MINLP algorithm can be used to implement our optimization model in a fast and practical way.     

Determinants of retail patronage: A meta-analytical perspective

The retail patronage idea includes such key concepts as store choice and frequency of visit. In this study, the authors synthesize previous empirical studies through a formal, critical review of retailing literature. The meta-analysis suggests that various predictors (e.g., service, product selection, quality) are strongly related to shoppers’ retail choice, whereas others (e.g., store attitude, store image) are important antecedents of shopping frequency. However, the relationships between the predictors and retail patronage vary according to the study characteristics (e.g., experimental vs. other designs). The authors offer implications for retailing research and practice.     

Quantifying barriers impeding the diffusion of supermarkets in China: The role of shopping habits

The present study contributes to the literature on supermarket diffusion by incorporating shopping habit factors, beyond socioeconomic factors and store characteristic factors, into a framework for predicting consumers' choice to shop in traditional versus modern retail formats. Further, this study aims to estimate the relative importance of these variables compared to other factors. Our results show that socioeconomic factors have minimal impact on consumer choice. Shopping habit factors have as great or even larger impact as market-relevant and product-relevant attributes, especially for fresh-food and cooked-food shopping.     

Fraudulent Return Proclivity: An Empirical Analysis

While many frameworks of service dynamics assume that consumers will not intentionally disrupt service encounters, a growing body of studies argues that dysfunctional customer behaviors are far from rare. Although a number of studies have explored such behaviors, deliberate fraudulent returning by consumers is relatively under-researched. Fraudulent returning refers to consumers taking back goods to a retailer knowing that such a return is contrary to the firm or legal rules and regulations governing such returns (including returning functional but used or consumer-damaged goods). This article is structured in the following way. First, in order to clarify the nature of demographic control factors, we briefly outline existing research into the demographic characteristics of complainers and fraudulent returners. Thereafter, we present the findings of a study designed to identify which demographic factors are linked to fraudulent returning. Second, we present a conceptual model of the psychographic antecedents of fraudulent returning proclivity. After describing the research design, methodology, and the approach adopted to test this model, we present the results of a second study developed to model the predictors of fraudulent proclivity that also controls for the demographic factors identified in Study 1. We conclude with a discussion of the contributions and limitations of these studies.     

Understanding Retail Managers’ Role in the Sales of Products and Services

This research investigates the influence of retail chain-level activities (e.g., district supervisor directives and policies) and store manager behaviors on the sale of physical products versus services. Using data gathered within a U.S.-based retail automotive parts chain, the authors discover that to sell services, especially in competitive environments, store managers should focus on sales planning and transformative leadership behaviors, which accentuate both the long-term planning horizon and the effects of managerial actions. In less competitive environments though, a more transactional approach (e.g., selling orientation) can be effective for selling services. Alternatively, to sell products, store managers’ selling effort appears to be the most important driver of success, and a transformative leadership approach may be detrimental when the retailer faces a high level of direct competition. In total, the findings suggest that corporate chain activities, such as the level and clarity of store managers’ goals and supervisor monitoring, influence store manager behaviors, which in turn affect the sale of physical products and services.     

Understanding the Determinants of User Acceptance of Enterprise Instant Messaging: An Empirical Study

As modern organizations increasingly depend on information systems (IS) to enhance work productivity and seek new business opportunities, communication effectiveness has become one of the key factors that underlie the effective performance of IS implementations and applications. Instant Messaging (IM) presents a revolution in enterprise communication. As more organizations are findings ways to utilize this near-synchronous computing communication technology to enhance communication effectiveness in the workplace, there is a compelling need to understand the factors that are important for the adoption of enterprise IM. We have developed an integrative model based on constructs of the existing IT adoption models as well as theories on motivation, innovation diffusion, and critical mass. Using responses from 140 intended subjects, we have found the results of survey data support the contentions that perceived usefulness, compatibility, enjoyment, and security are significant predictors of intention to use enterprise IM. Although perceived connectivity did not predict the intention directly, it did indirectly through perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Implications and future research are discussed.     

An Investigation of Consumer Brand Choice Behavior Across Different Retail Formats

There has been a blurring with respect to the retail formats because of competition and proliferation of different types of formats. In this research, we use a unique scanner panel dataset to investigate how brand choice behavior varies for the same consumer shopping for the same brand across different retail formats. We develop hypotheses pertaining to promotion sensitivity, price sensitivity, package size preference, and effects of demographic and shopping variables on consumer brand choice behavior and test them using a multi-format probit choice model that allows for the estimation of the cross-format differences with respect to the above. We find that consumers exhibit different promotion and price sensitivities in brand choice behavior between the mass merchandise format and supermarkets. Discussions and insights are provided.     

The effects of in-store themed events on consumer store choice decisions

Retailers are increasingly using in-store events to provide shoppers with unique experiences that will enhance shopping value and help differentiate their stores from competitors. However, relatively little is known about how consumers respond to experiential retail events in terms of their store choice decisions. The purpose of this research was to find out how in-store retail events affect consumers in terms of their store choice decisions. The paper presents findings from a discrete choice experiment that manipulated the presence of different types of in-store themed events in a do-it-yourself (DIY) category. Participants were 312 randomly recruited residents of Melbourne, Australia, who had recently shopped at a hardware store. The experiment was implemented as a mail-back survey. Using logit models the authors assess the effects of the in-store events along with those of various traditional store attributes, including store appearance, price image and distance, on consumer store choice decisions.     

The Choice of Exclusive Dealing: Economic Rationales and Evidence from French Retail Chains

As one of the most common business practices in retailing, exclusive dealing (ED) restrictions are of great importance for business participants, academics and policy makers. Despite the rich theoretical analysis of this type of vertical restraint, evidence on the rationales of ED remains scarce. This paper uses a simple model to survey the vast theoretical literature on ED, and identifies two opposing motivations for ED contracts: anti-competitive versus efficiency-enhancing motivations. The theoretical predictions are subject to empirical investigation using unique French cross-sectional data encompassing diverse retail sectors. Our estimations provide evidence for both types of motivations for ED contracts, manifesting in different contexts. In particular, we find that the efficiency-enhancing motivation is more likely to explain the choice of ED when suppliers are less concentrated, whereas the anti-competitive motivation is present in highly standardized product markets. Moreover, our results reveal a positive linkage of ED and different types of investments, as part of branding strategy, with important retailing and marketing-related implications. In particular, we show that retailers have to be meticulous regarding the conditions of the retail contract before accepting the ED restriction, which may dampen their business efficiency in the long run.     

Healthy Profits: An Interdisciplinary Retail Framework that Increases the Sales of Healthy Foods

Disruptive layouts, smart carts, suggestive signage, GPS alerts, and touch-screen preordering all foreshadow an evolution in how healthy foods will be sold in grocery stores. Although seemingly unrelated, they will all influence sales by altering either how convenient, attractive, or normal (CAN) it is to purchase a healthy target food. A Retail Intervention Matrix shows how a retailer’s actions in these three areas can be redirected to target shoppers based on whether the shoppers are Health Vigilant, Health Predisposed, or Health Disinterested. For researchers, this review offers an organizing framework that integrates marketing, nutrition, psychology, public health, and behavioral economics to identify next generation research. For managers, this framework underscores how dozens of small, low cost, in-store changes are available to each that can surprisingly increase sales of entire categories of healthy food.     

消费行为与企业战略的融合——不同零售业态的价格定位及其市场细分战略

现代零售业态发展趋于多元化,零售企业针对不同消费者的价格敏感程度来定位零售商品的价格,从而选择不同的销售渠道即经营业态,通过不同产品线的组合来满足不同层次消费者的需求。以此来体现企业的市场细分战略,形成顾客忠诚,实现其经济效益的最大化。     

中韩产业内贸易的实证分析与促进策略

文章运用Bergstrand双边产业内贸易指数和GHM分析方法,对2001年至2009年中韩双边产业内贸易指数和贸易结构情况进行计算和分析。结论认为,中韩双边初级产品以传统的产业间贸易为主,工业制品产业内贸易指数呈现波动上扬趋势;劳动密集型产品主要进行低质量的垂直型产业内贸易,资本和技术密集型产品则是低质量的水平型和垂直型产业内贸易并存,两国仍然处于低水平的贸易合作层次。为提升中韩产业内贸易水平,从企业和政府两个层面提出促进产业内贸易发展的举措。     

The Impacts of Retail Promotions on the Demand for Orange Juice: A Study of a Retail Chain

This study examined the impacts of retail promotions on the demand for five brands of orange juices for a retail chain (referred to as Retailer X) and its competitors using the Rotterdam model. Results show that the combination of feature ads and displays had the largest impacts on retail revenue among the four promotional tactics considered, whereas temporary price reductions had no advertising impacts on retail revenue. Results also show that when Retailer X promotes an orange juice (OJ) brand using any of the tactics, a larger portion of the increased demand for the promoted brand comes from reduced demand for other brands of OJ in the same store or chain.A smaller portion comes from the decreased demand in Retailer X's competing stores in the same trading area.     

Retail Shelf Allocation: A Comparative Analysis of Heuristic and Meta-Heuristic Approaches

This research presents a retail shelf-space decision model that incorporates a nonlinear profit function, vertical and horizontal location effects, and product cross-elasticity. We propose a linear programming formulation of the nonlinear profit function that can solve the shelf-space problem optimally. We describe potential advances in heuristic and meta-heuristic algorithms and compare the approaches through simulations and a field experiment. We discuss the impact of the number of item facings, vertical location, and horizontal location (e.g., we find the vertical location effect is approximately double the size of the horizontal location effect on profit performance).     

Retail Integration Strategies in the EU: Scandinavian Grocery Retailing

Until recently, restructuring activity in the EU retail industry has primarily been domestically oriented and focused upon growth opportunities in the retailers' home market. Alongside the on-going harmonization and integration of European markets, grocery retailers have become increasingly interested in cross-border integration activity. Although a salient feature of Scandinavian grocery retailing, this (r)evolution of the industry has attracted only minor attention in academic literature. This paper examines the motives and strategies underlying the intensified integration activity of Scandinavian grocery retailers in general and their integration across national as well as industry boundaries, in particular. The analysis of recent integration events displays a fairly balanced distribution between proactive and reactive motives, albeit the former motive tends to dominate in the case of grocery retailers' integration activity across industry borderlines. Above all, the proactive motive has been apparent in many of the recent partnerships established laterally between Scandinavian grocery retailers and other companies.     

Retail Image as Seen through Consumers' Eyes: Studying International Retail Image through Consumer Photographs of Stores

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explore how retail store image is perceived by consumers from different cultural backgrounds and with different degrees of awareness and experience of the retailer. The subject is IKEA, a retailer recognized as having a global approach to the markets in which it operates, resulting in a highly standardized approach to store branding. However, rather than employing traditional methodologies to elicit consumer perceptions of store image, we attempt to capture consumer perceptions through interpretations of the visual images generated by the participants themselves. The photo-elicitation method employed captured the different interpretations and meanings attached to commonly identified elements of store image and reinforced the central role played by the store itself in retail image formation.     

从国外实践看零售国际化对东道国的影响及应对策略

本文从供应链效力、水平竞争、消费者文化意识、东道国公共政策及社会文化价值等几方面,建立起零售国际化对东道国影响的分析框架,并且结合许多发展中国家与新兴市场的实例,对东道国政府与本土零售商的应对策略进行了分析.研究表明,政府的策略重点在于通过有效的政策设计适度保护民族零售商业,本土零售商则应通过塑造独特的竞争优势、重新定义市场区域、改变所有权结构等方式,积极应对外资的挑战.