Bad behavior and conflict in retailing spaces: Nine suggestions to ease tensions

This article builds on years of work studying territoriality and conflict issues between customers and employees in retail and service settings. The key contribution of this research is to illustrate the bad behaviors and conflicts that take place in retail spaces between customers, between customers and employees, and between employees. Using multi-methods of data collection—critical incident technique, interviews, mystery shoppers, and surveys—the authors outline these bad behaviors and conflicts for managers and offer nine solutions to help retailers handle these behaviors and conflict in retail spaces.     

Sources of Customer Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction with Information Technology Help Desks

As the use, development, and control of information systems diffuses through organizations and society, the importance of the information technology help desk in effective management and use of information resources increases. This study examines service encounters with help desks to understand the events and behaviors that cause customers to distinguish very satisfactory from very dissatisfactory service. While considerable research has investigated the determinants of customer satisfaction with service encounters in retail industries such as airlines, restaurants, and hotels, there has been little work investigating the dimensions of professional service encounters. Using the critical incident technique, the authors analyzed over 500 incidents from customers of information services. Help desk critical incidents were classified into three broad categories which were further subdivided into 12 categories which lead to satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The three broad categories, core service delivery failures, customer situation, and helper characteristics and behavior, were consistent with categories found in previous service encounter research, while the subcategories were different in several ways. This suggests that some dimensions of service encounter satisfaction are consistent across service industries, while others are context specific.     

Bank ethics: An exploratory study of ethical behaviors and perceptions in small,local banks

This article addresses five research questions: What specific behaviors are described in the literature as ethical or unethical? What percentage of business people are believed to be guilty of unethical behavior? What specific unethical behaviors have been observed by bank employees? How serious are the behaviors? Are experiences and attitudes affected by demographics? Conclusions suggest: There are seventeen categories of behavior, and that they are heavily skewed toward internal behaviors. Younger employees have a higher level of ethical consciousness than older employees. The longer one works for a company, the more one may look to job security as a priority; this can lead to rationalizing or overlooking apparently unethical behaviors. More emphasis is needed on internal behaviors with particular attention on the impact that external behaviors have on internal behaviors.     

Mobile-assisted showroomers: Understanding their purchase journey and personalities

Over the last decade, the retail sector has undergone a dramatic transformation, driven by rapid advances in consumer and retail technologies, an evolution of omnichannel environments, and changing consumers who increasingly use their smartphones inside brick-and-mortar retail stores as personal shopping assistants. In this context, showrooming has become a common practice for omnichannel mobile consumers (Flavián et al., 2020). The present study investigates the under-researched phenomenon of mobile-assisted showrooming behavior. Adopting an exploratory qualitative research approach, 31 semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with consumers in a metropolitan city in Queensland, Australia. The authors propose a shopper journey framework that challenges the sequential consumer decision-making process. Influenced by showrooming predispositions, mobile-assisted showroomers pursue a hybrid product evaluation phase that encapsulates both physical and mobile activities during the brick-and-mortar retail visit. In addition, the research identifies four unique personas of mobile-assisted showroomers. The results contribute to extant literature on omnichannel and showrooming behavior by identifying predispositions, behaviors, and segments of mobile-assisted showroomers. The study provides retailers with new strategies to segment mobile-assisted shoppers more effectively and understand their needs and shopping motivations.     

Consumer resistance and inertia of retail investors: Development of the resistance adoption inertia continuance (RAIC) framework

Consumer resistance and inertia related behaviors are as important as adoption behaviors. Resistance can lead to unwillingness on the part of the investors to invest in a particular financial product. On the other hand, inertia can potentially lead to loyalty, despite dissatisfaction with a financial product. Consequently, an understanding of the antecedents and outcomes of retail investors’ resistance and inertia toward investments is valuable for firms selling investment products. Although the literature on resistance and inertia is around three decades old, empirical research related to retail investment decision making has only recently gained momentum, resulting in limited but interesting findings. The current study utilizes a systematic literature review (SLR) methodology to review prior studies in this domain. The SLR presents research profiling and an extensive content analysis of the studies selected by applying a robust search protocol. The study findings highlight numerous aspects of retail investment behavior, underscore research gaps in the prior literature, and offer recommendations for future research. Furthermore, a comprehensive framework, labelled resistance adoption inertia continuance (RAIC), is proposed to investigate the behavior of retail investors. The study concludes with meaningful theoretical and practical implications that can help counter resistance and inertia toward different financial products.     

Identity,Ethnicity and Gender: Using Narratives to Understand their Meaning in Retail Shopping Encounters

This paper examines the ways in which two women (Sweetie and Desiree) experience a dissatisfying retail encounter. Citing data derived from memory-work methodology, we illustrate how stories can be used to gain a detailed insight into the complexity of consumption experiences and give voice to women consumers. By allowing women to write about, and critically reflect on their experiences, we show how consumers attach meaning to retail encounters and how we, as researchers can offer alternative interpretations of consumer behavior to those commonly reported in the literature. In this paper we use memories of "nasty" retail encounters to illustrate how social constructs related to identity, such as ethnicity and gender, have meaning in shopping experiences. Because of the new understandings possible via this method, we argue for using reflexivity in our research and analyses informed by feminism.     

The Impact of Spiritual Leadership on Organizational Citizenship Behavior: A Multi-Sample Analysis

This study investigates and compares the impact of spiritual leadership on organizational citizenship behavior in finance and retail service industries to determine the possibility of generalizing and applying spiritual leadership to other industries. This study used multi-sample analysis of structural equation modeling. The results show that values, attitudes, and behaviors of leaders have positive effects on meaning/calling and membership of the employees, and further facilitate employees to perform excellent organizational citizenship behaviors, including the altruism of assisting colleagues and the responsible conscientiousness toward organization. The effect of altruism toward colleagues is especially stronger. Finally, the effect of leaders’ values, attitudes, and behaviors on the spiritual survival of employees is stronger in retail than that in finance.     

Can sales leaders with humility create adaptive retail salespersons?

Although humility in leadership has been recognized as vital in leading salespeople to cope with unpredictability and unknowability in customers, the role of sales leader humility in promoting sales behaviors has remained underexplored. Our research aims to unfold how and when sales managers’ leadership humility nurtures retail salespersons’ adaptive selling behavior. Grounded on the dataset from managers and employees working in retail shops of a large telecommunication and computer company in Vietnam, the results reveal the role of retail salespersons’ customer knowledge, adaptive self-efficacy, and customer-oriented harmonious passion as the mediation paths for the linkage between sales leader humility and retail salespeople's adaptive selling behavior. The findings further provide evidence for the role of sales managers’ adaptive selling as an enhancer for the impacts of sales leader humility on these mediators.     

Crowding in the time of COVID: Effects on rapport and shopping satisfaction

Decades of research in marketing has established that crowding (human and spatial) in retail contexts significantly affects shopping satisfaction. Prompted by the profound changes in retail supply and demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this study expands knowledge in two ways: uncovering new relationships and replicating some of the critical findings previously demonstrated in the pre-pandemic context. Two studies (Study 1 scenario and Study 2 actual shopping trip) show that higher levels of human crowding results in lower levels of shopping satisfaction, and this effect is mediated by a new construct introduced into the crowding literature, namely, customer rapport with employees, emerging as a significant factor in the pandemic era. Importantly, the results show that these relationships differ according to customers’: a) perceptions about the appropriateness of retailer precautions, b) beliefs about the severity of threat that the pandemic presents, and c) perceived vulnerability to Covid-19, all of them new to crowding dynamics during the time of Covid. Finally, with Study 2, we replicate and extend selected findings from prior research on crowding. Overall, the results expand our understanding of crowding effects and provide novel insights in the “new normal” retail context.     

Sensory Aspects of Retailing: Theoretical and Practical Implications

Sensory elements are an important aspect of both offline and online retail stores and can non-consciously influence consumer judgments and purchase behavior. In offline settings, ambient factors like scent, lighting, and music have been shown to influence customers’ shopping experiences and their buying behaviors. For online retail outlets, sensory factors related to color, display patterns, and layouts can have significant effects on consumer behavior. Sensory elements have strong managerial relevance since they can non-consciously influence behaviors and because they are relatively easy to change; for example, it requires minimal effort to change the lighting or the music at a physical retail store or the display pattern for an online store. The eight papers in this special issue address theoretical and practical issues related to how different sensory elements can strongly influence retail practices. These papers focus on underexplored topic areas and also on emerging technologies, which stimulate thoughts for further research in these areas.     

How uncivil customers corrode the relationship between frontline employees and retailers

This study investigates the effects of customers’ uncivil treatments on frontline retail employees’ emotions, deviant behaviors and relationship with the retail organization. Our theoretical model is based on both marketing and personnel management literatures. 415 frontline retailing American employees answered our questionnaire. Employees treated uncivilly by customers feel angry but have to hide their negative emotions, which leads them to emotional exhaustion and deviant behaviors. Paradoxically, employees’ strong commitment to their retailing organization brings about more deviant behaviors. We propose some managerial strategies to cope with uncivil customers, as well as future research on this important and under-researched topic.     

The Influence of Moral Philosophy on Retail Salespeople's Ethical Perceptions

The relatively minimal literature on ethics in a retail selling context indicates that retail sales personnel perceive that their job creates ethical dilemmas. However, what drives those beliefs is virtually unknown. Investigations in non‐retailing venues have found that employees’ moral philosophy (or ideology) influences whether they view a particular situation, action, or behavior as unacceptable (ethically inappropriate). The present study extends previous retail sales ethics research by examining the impact of retail salespersons’ moral philosophy on their perceptions of situations that are potentially ethically troublesome. Findings reveal some evidence that moral philosophy does indeed have an effect on retail salespeople's ethical beliefs. The impact of these results on the consumer is brought out through a discussion of the various implications from the vantage point of consumer welfare.     

Perceived Omnichannel Customer Experience (OCX): Concept,measurement, and impact

Efforts to measure customer experiences (CX) in multifaceted, omnichannel, retail contexts are crucial but lacking research guidance. Prior service quality literature has established methods for measuring CX in traditional, single-channel contexts but not adapted such measures to omnichannel contexts. With a mixed method research design and studies in eight phases, the authors propose a comprehensive measurement instrument that incorporates a schema- and categorization-based theoretical conceptualization of how customers assess omnichannel retail experiences; they also integrate means–end chain theory to explain perceived omnichannel customer experience (OCX) as a construct. This construct captures multiple omnichannel evaluation dimensions: social communications, value, personalization, customer service, consistency of both product availability and prices across channels, information safety, delivery, product returns, and loyalty programs. Multiple applications of the measurement model empirically confirm the suitability of this instrument in consumer goods omnichannel retail settings. Its 36 items reflect nine first-order quality dimensions that combine to form the overall, second-order OCX construct. The measurement instrument offers sound psychometric properties, as confirmed by several reliability and validity tests, and predicts customer behavior reliably across studies. Thus, the OCX measurement instrument offers utility for theory, management practice, and further research.     

Multiple psychological climates and employee self-regulatory focus: Implications for frontline employee work behavior and service performance

Frontline employees (FLEs) play a critical role in shaping customer experiences and purchase intentions in retail settings. Yet not all FLEs display the same work behaviors or motivational tendencies. Adopting person-environment fit theory, this research investigates whether multiple work climates can coexist within a workplace to support FLEs with different work behaviors. Using multisource data from 285 FLEs and 31 supervisors in the retail banking sector, this study examines whether a quality-focused climate and an initiative-focused climate positively influence FLE service performance via different FLE behaviors. It also examines the moderating effect of FLE self-regulatory focus on the relationship between work climate and FLE behaviors. The results demonstrate that when FLEs are willing to innovate and take risks, a work climate that supports initiative-taking will encourage them to go beyond prescribed job roles to satisfy customer needs. In contrast, when FLEs seek to minimize or avoid risks, a work climate that reinforces rule adherence will support them in using standardized procedures to satisfy customer needs. Managers should not assume that one climate fits all or that one climate is better than the other as this study shows that a quality-focused and an initiative-focused climate can operate in tandem to enhance FLE service performance.     

Currency of Search: How Spending Time on Search is Not the Same as Spending Money

Search theories suggest that a decline in search costs increases search behavior. This relationship has been well supported by prior experimental research but not by studies conducted in retail settings. Our review of the literature suggests that this discrepancy might be driven by the fact that prior experiments typically involve money-based search whereas actual search in retail settings is usually time-based. We argue that the currency of search plays a moderating role. We find that when participants spend money on search, a decrease in search costs has a significant effect on search decisions but, when they spend time on search, a decrease in search costs either has a relatively weak effect (Experiment 1) or no effect at all (Experiment 2). Furthermore, this insensitivity in time also emerges for search payoffs (Experiment 3). We also offer evidence for the processes underlying these effects. Our results provide a new lens to examine inconsistencies in the search literature, and present a view of search that is more applicable to the retail context.     

Exploiting consumer–employee–retailer interactions in technology-enriched retail environments through a relational lens

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationships between consumer, frontline employees and retailer (organization) subjected to the disruptive force prompted by the adoption of innovative technologies in retail settings. Starting from qualitative data involving 43 frontline employees with different experiences, our analysis revealed that the way for building and maintaining organizational relationships changes differently considering consumer–employee and employee–retailer perspective. In particular, the emergent computer-mediated relationships seem to produce beneficial effects, while combining employees׳ existing capabilities with new competencies, thus resulting in an improvement of the entire retail process. Similarly, they are more satisfied and appreciated organization effort in supporting their jobs through the innovative technologies. Hence, the study provides an empirical contribution to the emerging literature on consumer–employee–retailer (organization) relationships in the innovative scenario through the in-depth investigation of these relationships of four case firms.     

The authentic service employee: Service employees' language use for authentic service experiences

This study analyzes how service employees' language use influences the authenticity of a service. The extant service literature on language use remains exclusively focused on the customer's perceptions of first language use in direct communication. Shifting the focus to the service employee, this paper posits that language could exert a wider influence, contributing both to how customers perceive the authenticity of the service and the entire service experience. Analyzing language use in service encounters, the paper addresses this research gap in the literature from the perspective of the service employee. In many service settings, authenticity is an important part in customers' construal of their experience. The study analyzes how service employees in British pubs outside the UK may use English with local customers who frequent these pubs to get a taste of Britain and British culture, contributing to the service literature by introducing a typology to align the service employees' language use with authenticity to strengthen the customer experience. The paper further contributes to service theory by extending the understanding of service sabotage by showing how, why, and in which circumstances service employees may use a language switch to sabotage the customer experience. Finally, the study extends the extant human resources literature on the effects of allowing service employees to be themselves to show that this managerial practice not only benefits the service employees also results in a more authentic customer experience.     

Exploring phygital omnichannel luxury retailing for immersive customer experience: The role of rapport and social engagement

Omnichannel retailing has revolutionized the way retailers create strategies for engaging customers in making purchase decisions. Phygital is a new-age transformative form of omnichannel retailing that emphasizes combining the physical and digital elements, with a particular focus on the human touch to satisfy social and symbolic consumer needs. Extant research has not fully addressed the role of phygital in luxury fashion retail. We explore the research question regarding how human interactions with experienced salespeople add value to the phygital experience. In doing so, we contribute to the luxury marketing literature by addressing the research gap by elucidating the role of phygital functionality in enhancing rapport building, social engagement, and developing trust and commitment, which results in a seamless customer experience, along with enhanced loyalty and patronage. Through 18 in-depth qualitative research interviews conducted with luxury retail managers and senior retail leaders, we provide guidelines to managers and practitioners at retail firms, to create actionable growth-oriented strategies focused on leveraging phygital capabilities.     

The evolving direct-to-consumer retail model: A review and research agenda

The substantial growth of e-commerce sales, driven by digital advancements, has enticed brands to sell direct-to-consumers (DTC) online. Despite the growth of the DTC online retail model in practice, academic literature remains fragmented. This systematic review is timely as it meets the need for a comprehensive understanding of the evolution of DTC over two decades of research to 2023. A SPAR-4-SLR protocol combined with a Theory–Context–Methods (TCM) approach examines the extant literature through a marketing lens. An analysis of 81 articles reveals a need for consumer behavior theories to underpin research on the DTC retail model. We conclude the review by identifying areas for further development, such as the need for research on the technology-driven balance of power between brands, retailers, and consumers. Contextually, the authors highlight research opportunities on SME brands' internationalization and the DTC online luxury experience. Methodological directions include empirical qualitative studies and experiments on the emerging topics of technology-enabled retail services and the experiential e-commerce impact on customer experience. These future research undertakings will help us to better understand the DTC retail model.