In-Store Shopping Behavior

SUMMARY

The analysis of consumer shopping behavior is one of the most critical aspects which has to be taken into consideration in a context of retailing internationalization, where managers need to define the degree to which international firms can standardize or adapt their strategies in foreign markets. The aim of this research is to analyze and point out the main cross-cultural differences regarding in-store behavior comparing three countries: Italy, France and Poland. The study presents the results of an empirical research carried out on the household goods retail sector, which shows on a global level a positive growth trend that is predicted to continue in the next years especially through the internationalization of the retailing chains.     

The Role of Country of Origin in Celebrity Endorsements: Integrating Effects of Brand Familiarity

ABSTRACT

With the advent of globalization and open economies in the developing nations, the consumers in the same are experiencing entry of more and more foreign products. The traditional practice of having country of origin (COO) cues to influence consumer attitudes is being juxtaposed with COO cues of celebrity endorsers to influence consumers. In that context, the present study investigates whether (a) a global celebrity would be more applicable for a brand regardless of its COO (local or global); (b) a global celebrity would have a more favorable impact on the consumer attitudes for a third country (TC) brand; and (c) brand familiarity would moderate the effects of celebrity endorsements on consumer attitudes. Based on a detailed literature review, four hypotheses were developed and tested through two experimental designs using nonstudent participants. The independent variables used in study were celebrity endorser COO and brand COO. Major findings indicate a celebrity–brand COO match to create favorable impact on consumer attitudes. Findings also supported the effectiveness of a global celebrity for a brand that does not share the same COO. Brand familiarity was found to moderate the effect of the endorser on consumer attitudes. The study has implications for academia and practitioners.     

Towards a conceptual model of country market selection: Selection processes of retailers and C&C wholesalers

Abstract

International market selection is discussed in general, particularly in respect of decisions on evaluation stages, selection criteria and evaluation methods. The present analysis focuses on the configuration of country selection models, which has received little attention in international retailing research. In order to illustrate the special features of market selection in retailing, we have used an innovative approach. Following a review of general theoretical perspectives, a case study of the Metro Group addresses the process used, inter-country selection and country-specific selection, and also shows the role of corporate principles and firms' situational factors. Based on existing literature and the case study information, we propose a strategic approach in modelling country selection processes. Three steps in the construction of a selection model are discussed and related to corporate principles and situational factors of a retail firm. The analysis is a further step towards understanding the processes of retailing internationalization.     

Food Retailing and Supply Chain Linkages in the Russian Federation

Abstract

This paper focuses on the evolution of Russian food retailing and linkages between and among firms in the food supply chain. Intermediation theory is used to develop a conceptual framework. Intermediaries have played an important role throughout the Russian food supply chain fulfilling the function of matching sellers and buyers. Tighter vertical linkages between firms in the Russian food industry are becoming more prevalent, and the roles of intermediaries may be performed by agents acting on behalf of a vertically integrated principal. The food retailing sector in the Russian Federation is evolving to be a source of information from the consumer to upstream firms.     

The Moderating Role of Country of Origin on Brand Equity,Repeat Purchase Intentions,and Word of Mouth in Trinidad and Tobago

Brand equity has emerged as a critical aspect of marketing, but its effect on consumer behavioral intentions from a developing country perspective has not been sufficiently examined. This study proposes that country of origin and product type will moderate the relationships between brand equity, consumer repeat purchase intentions, and word of mouth. Data were collected from 157 customers and analyzed with regression analysis. Our results confirm the moderating role of COO such that favorable COO weakens the impact of brand equity on consumers' behavioral intentions. Product type was not significant. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are presented as well as the limitations, and future research opportunities are discussed.     

Effects of Production Location on Perceived Automobile Values

Abstract

The factors contributing to a positive brand image and the impact of a lower cost production location have typically been treated as independent. In the international arena, two streams of literature have developed around these two issues. The so-called Country-of-Origin (COO) literature has dealt primarily with consumer perceptions and evaluations of foreign-made products, while the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) literature has focused on the determinants of investments by firms operating in foreign countries. We believe that a major reason for the lack of influence of COO studies on FDI is the typical format of the results of COO research, which tend to involve average values on various psychometric-type measurement scales. This paper demonstrates a method for generating monetary values in COO research via conjoint analysis. One such result, reported herein, is that a change in the production location of a $17,000 automobile from the USA to Mexico results in a change in value of $1,952 among a particular group of consumers. Hopefully, this type of result will be more meaningful to FDI researchers and practitioners than scaled items, and lead to their consideration of the relatively consistent findings of the COO literature in the future.     

Determinants of international retail operation mode choice: Towards a conceptual framework based on evidence from French specialised retail chains

Abstract

More and more retailers have expanded internationally. Because of its impact on the success of a retailer's international operations, a critical aspect of an internationalisation strategy consists of choosing the appropriate entry and expansion modes. The phenomenon remains misunderstood as little research in international retailing has focused on this question and findings from international management literature find limited application to services.

This paper draws upon a literature review and six case-studies from French specialised retailers to provide an exploratory framework for examining key determinants of operation mode choice. It is found that retailers consider four underlying dimensions of operation modes. These dimensions are affected by situational, individual and marketing factors whose explanatory impacts are moderated by the motives for internationalisation and relationship networks.     

Broad and Narrow Country-of-Origin Effects and the Domestic Country Bias

ABSTRACT

Across three studies and three countries, this research specifies the effect of consumer ethnocentrism on domestic country bias. Extending extant research, it distinguishes the moderating effects of broad (country image, country production image) and narrow (country product category image) country-of-origin effects, demonstrating that the latter mitigate domestic country bias more strongly than the former. Moreover, nationality emerges as an antecedent of consumer ethnocentrism and domestic country bias. The findings enable international marketers to predict domestic country bias in different country markets. Additionally, this research advocates using a finer-grained, narrow view of country-of-origin effects, instead of a broad perspective.     

Going liquid: French food retail industry experiencing an interregnum

ABSTRACT

By calling the present condition of the French food retail industry an interregnum, this research considers the impact of liquid modernity on this sector and looks for signs of a new order at a designing stage. Nine experts representing large retailers and entrepreneurs using alternative modes of food retailing were interviewed. An interpretive analysis reveals a wide diversity of changes. Following Bauman’s liquid metaphor, we identify shock, transformations, and crisis in food retailing, which we describe as phases that mark the dynamics in the shift from solid to liquid retailing. We discuss how retailers are adapting and deploying tactics both to respond and belong to these liquid times and how retailers can regain some legitimacy by claiming a role in territorial sovereignty.     

Investigating Quality Perceptions of International Services by Chinese Consumers

Consumers are known to use the country of origin (COO) of a product to infer the quality of products. Products of technologically advanced countries such as the United States and Germany are known to enjoy positive country‐of‐origin effects. Conversely, products made in the developing countries typically suffer from negative COO effect. While this influence of COO is widely recognized for products, the same cannot be said about services. Only a handful of studies have empirically investigated the relationship between COO and perceived service quality. Additionally, most of these studies in this research paradigm are undertaken in developed markets; hence, their findings cannot be extrapolated to the newly industrialized countries (NICs) that offer tremendous market potential for global services. It has, therefore, become imperative for multinational companies to understand if and how consumers in the major NICs use COO and other cues to infer service quality. This insight is critical in developing effective pricing and promotion strategies for these markets. Using data collected from consumers in Beijing in the People's Republic of China, we demonstrate significant COO effect on two service categories: hotels and restaurants. We also highlight how these research findings will help managerial decisions about pricing and promotion. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Mapping moralities of food and health in marketing research literature

ABSTRACT

Inspired by a former review of four sets of moralities that orient food and health research and lead to potentially harmful consequences for consumer wellbeing, this study seeks to qualify and nuance their original arguments by mapping them in a broader (epistemological, methodological and historical) context of research agendas relevant to marketing. We do so with the help of a systematic review and content analysis methods of a corpus of marketing research articles published from 1988 until today. In addition to a quantification of the extent to which various ‘symptoms’ of moralities of health and food manifest in marketing scholarship, the study provides a critical reflection on the more nuanced expressions of the alleged moralities. Consequently, it calls for increased researchers’ awareness about moral assumptions structuring formulation of research questions and operationalisation of the studied health-related concepts.     

Consumer Knowledge of Country of Origin of Fresh Food at Point of Purchase

ABSTRACT

Store-exit interviews were used to examine knowledge of country of origin (COO) of fresh meats, fruits and vegetables, and relative knowledge of price. Shoppers were certain of COO for 38% of purchases and of price for 53% of purchases. Overall, knowledge of COO for fresh foods was greater than previously reported for durables and processed foods. However, extent of knowledge varied somewhat by food category, and more noticeably for specific food items within categories. This study has implications in terms of provision and clarity of COO labeling of fresh foods, and associated potential for competitive advantage.     

Discount Store Retailing in Korea

Abstract

This study examined the effects of consumers' internal shopping motives and external store attributes on excitement that shoppers may experience at discount stores in Korean markets and the mediating impact of excitement on selected behavior outcomes. Among three types of shopping motives (socialization, utilitarian and diversion), diversion significantly affected the level of excitement that shoppers experienced at the discount store. Store attributes of facility-related convenience and a neat, spacious atmosphere had an impact on shoppers' excitement at the discount stores. Excitement positively affected shoppers' satisfaction and repatronage intentions in discount store retailing in Korea. The empirical study results have major implications for multinational retailers as well as for future research in the area of international retailing.     

Linking Product Evaluations and Purchase Intention for Country-of-Origin Effects

Abstract

This paper reports an experimental study concerned with the observed inconsistency between evaluative and behavioral data for country-of-origin (COO) effects. This issue is addressed by specifying conceptual relationships among three criterion variables-consumer evaluations of product quality, perceived product value, and purchase intention in the context of COO effects. The results showed that COO information had a direct effect on overall product evaluation and an indirect effect (through product evaluation) on perceived product value, which in turn determined purchase intention. In addition, purchase intention was also directly affected by brand name and price factors, but not by COO. Moreover, it was also revealed that COO and brand name had a similar impact on overall product evaluation. On the whole, this study suggests that it may be premature to claim less significant importance and role of COO information in influencing purchase intentions or behaviors. Rather, the exact nature of COO effects for behavioral consequences might be much more complex than what has been assumed in most previous studies. The present investigation represents an initial effort in providing empirical evidence of how COO information may impact evaluative and behavioral variables differently in the consumer decision process. Managerial implications of this study are discussed.     

New Cultures,New Strategies,New Formats and New Relationships in European Retailing

Abstract

During the last fifteen years there has been a substantial restructuring of retailing in Europe. The implications of this reach beyond Europe. The restructuring involves not only competitive relationships amongst retailers but also involves new forms of relationships with suppliers. A new perspective of the role of retailing is emerging that places retailing in a global framework of international store operations, international sourcing of products, international flows of management and managerial know-how, and international awareness by consumers of the retailers who are becoming international brands. The aim of this paper is to place the restructuring in context, to consider the nature of it and to explore how the new global framework will begin to have effects for distribution industries in Asia.     

Representing the political consumer: liquid agencies in the production of consumer voice

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the consumer role in marketplace transformation by examining how political consumers become produced in food retailing. It attends to situated representational practices in a Swedish consumer cooperative that seeks to strengthen consumer voice in markets. Combining notions of political and symbolic representations, the paper demonstrates the production of spokespersons for the cooperatives’ owners who, in turn, work to engage other consumers to voice and enact concerns in the cooperative. Four stages of representational practices are identified: (s)electing, equipping, engaging, and enacting. These practices are conceptualised as part of processes of agencing and concerning: (s)electing and equipping work to arrange consumer agencies, while engaging and enacting refer to ways of concerning others that put agencies into motion. Agencies are proposed as liquid in character and the capacity of consumers to shape markets comes into effect depending upon how agencies continuously become connected to each other.     

Virtual store layout: an experimental comparison in the context of grocery retail

Interface design and the interaction between customer and computer are factors critical to business effectiveness over the Web. A key aspect of conventional retailing is store layout; an analogous aspect in virtual retail is virtual store layout. This paper reports on an experimental investigation into the use of three different layouts in online grocery retailing: freeform, grid, and racetrack. These three most common conventional retailing layout types were transformed into virtual layouts for computer-mediated interfaces. Subjects in Greece and the UK participated in a laboratory experiment: they were given a planned shopping task with money to spend, and performed their shopping through a virtual store with layout as the manipulated variable. The results show that layout significantly affects online consumer behavior, but that predictions generated from the literature of conventional retailing about differences in the outcome of layouts do not generally hold in a virtual setting. Some of the findings can be explained by reference to research in Human Computer Interaction (HCI).     

Understanding and Profitably Serving the ‘Close-Contact’ Consumer

Abstract

According to many recently published accounts, systems for food creation and distribution are consistently providing inferior foods. For example, at this writing prepackaged spinach distributed in the U.S. has been found tainted with E-coli bacteria. We briefly review and discuss a few of these published accounts. We define and discuss the concept of the Close-Contact consumer segment that has arisen at least partially in response to perceived weaknesses in domestic and international food creation and distribution systems. The Close-Contact consumer is termed Close-Contact because s/he seeks to have a higher than average level of knowledge about the source of his/her food and the policies of his/ her food suppliers. Thoughts about the Close-Contact consumer arose after dozens of conversations and informal small group discussions with customers. We view the characteristics of Close-Contact consumers and describe marketing programs targeted to this growing consumer group. The Close-Contact consumer responds particularly well to personalized service and full information disclosure regarding food suppliers and food products. Whether in restaurants or grocery store environments, the Close-Contact consumer expects high information availability about the food that s/he consumes.     

A review of the ‘consumer interest’ in organic meat

The study aims to provide a critical review of the literature on the consumer interest in the UK in organic food, with a particular focus on organic meat. Given that people are more likely to purchase products if they have faith in them, the regulation of organic food standards is reviewed to explore issues affecting consumers. This is followed by a review of the organic meat sector. Aspects of the consumer interest considered in this paper include consumer information, consumer access, consumer safety, consumer choice and consumer representation. As the literature on organic food/meat in the UK is extensive, it was therefore necessary to be selective with regard to the publications suitable for this review. Most of the literature selected for this paper has been drawn from UK publications, although several European and international sources have also been used. The review found that there is a considerable level of interest in the UK organic meat sector. As the regulation of organic food produced is set at varying standards across the European Union, this could lead to consumers being misled regarding the quality of products offered. It was also found that, although consumers perceive organic foods as healthier, more nutritious and tasting better than non‐organic products, the literature shows that this may have only a limited basis on fact. Contamination of organic products with pesticides and even genetically modified ingredients is always possible. Organic farmers are permitted to use other ingredients in organic meat products that may be harmful to health. Escherichia coli and Salmonella risks associated with conventional meat also appear to affect organic meat. Consumers need clear, accurate and reliable information about organic meat. They also need to be provided with safe products, a choice of organic products, access to organic products and to be represented effectively.