The Impact of Coupons on Service Quality Evaluations,Risk, and Purchase Intentions

Abstract

To attract customers, restaurants will often use coupons. This research examined the impact of a promotional coupon on service quality expectations, perceived purchase risk and purchase intentions. It was found that the use of coupons does increase purchase intentions and reduce perceived purchase risk. However, coupons were found to negatively influence service quality expectations. Implications of these findings for restaurant managers are discussed.     

A COMPARISON OF ACTUAL AND INTENDED CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN RESPONSE TO RETAIL STOCKOUTS

Studies of consumer response to stockouts typically capture intended behavior. After a stockout experience, consumers are asked what they intend to do. In contrast, this research measured both intended and actual behavior. Consumers were interviewed twice; once immediately following the stockout experience to gauge intended behavior and a second time 30 days later to ask what they had actually done in response to the stockout. Accordingly, the goals of this research are to (1) compare consumer actual and intended behavior in response to stockouts and (2) examine product characteristics, consumer characteristics and situational variables that may explain the consumer's response. Key results suggest that indicated behavior is a good indicator of actual behavior in situations where the consumer intends to quit the search and a rather poor indicator when the consumer intends to delay the search. Finally, of the several product characteristics, consumer characteristics and situational variables examined, store loyalty, pre‐visit agenda and product uniqueness have shown most promise to help managers understand consumer actual and intended response to stockouts.     

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.     

Using product sampling to augment the perceived quality of store brands

Two experiments test the ability of in-store sampling to enhance a store brand's perceived quality (Study 1) and whether such an outcome is contingent on quality level (Study 2). Study 1 revealed for two distinct grocery products that the perceived quality of store brands benefited significantly when participants tried these brands prior to judging their quality, but that no such benefit accrued to national brands. Study 2 found that sampling enhanced quality perceptions of a store brand only when the brand was of high (vs. low) quality. Implications for retailers’ store brand practices are discussed and suggestions for additional research are offered.     

Is gold an efficient store of value?

Summary. Gold and tobacco have both been used as commodity money. One difference between the two is that gold yields utility, on account of its beauty, without diminishing its quantity. Tobacco yields utility when it is consumed. If this were the only difference, Received: January 2, 2001; revised version: February 22, 2002 Correspondence to: J. Geanakoplos     

奥运网店正式运营的几点思考

"北京奥运网店"作为奥运特许商品销售的一个重要渠道,它有效地弥补现有特许零售店的地域局限,同时奥运网店已经成为奥运特许商品品种最全的展示平台。虽然目前奥运网店运营中还存在如担心货物配送中的损耗而引起售后服务保障(退换货等)、不能及时收款;物流配送;付款方式;诚信体系的建立等一些问题,但网上零售作为一种发展趋势,奥运商品的网上零售也将取得更加快速的发展。     

从市场绩效看日本"大店法"的作用

"大店法"是日本特有的对大型店铺进行阶段性规制的法律,该法的设置旨在协调各种规模流通企业之间的利益冲突.虽然"大店法"增加了中小零售企业的生存空间;但也给日本零售业发展带来了很多负面影响,导致其发展速度缓慢,市场绩效较差,国际竞争力相对较弱.给我们的启示是我国目前不应设立"大店法".     

Patterns of store patronage in urban China

Reported is a formal investigation of store patronage in urban China. Using consumer panel data for sales of packaged goods through store types and named store chains, patterns of sales, loyalty and duplication are examined. Observed patterns are benchmarked against predictions from the NBD-Dirichlet model. Findings are generalized across six product categories in the packaged-goods retailing sector of Shanghai. Crucial aspects of store type/chain patronage are shown to be regular and predictable: patronage levels co-vary with market shares, average frequencies of patronage do not vary as much, few consumers are exclusively loyal, a majority of consumers are divided in their loyalty, and they patronize other store types/chains in line with market shares. Special groupings of store types/chains are not found. All these results occur for the buying of both contemporary and traditional products.     

Gender differences in the interpretation of web atmospherics: A selectivity hypothesis approach

This paper sets out to explore the role of gender as a moderator of the relationship between web atmospheric cues and virtual visitor's attitudes. In a laboratory experiment, the web atmospherics of a museum website – conceived as high and low task relevant cues – are manipulated so as to assess their impact on attitude toward the website and attitude toward the brand. The findings indicate that low task relevant cues are associated not only with higher attitude toward the website but with more positive evaluations of the brand as well. Gender has a moderating effect on both relationships of interest: In the absence of low task relevant cues, males develop less favorable attitudes toward the site and the brand, while females' attitude remains consistent across both experimental conditions. The findings are interpreted from a Selectivity Hypothesis viewpoint, which attributes gender differences in cognitive evaluations, to differences in information processing style. The study underscores the value of web atmospherics for service branding, elucidating the benefits for webpage design. It also supports the relevance of the Selectivity Model in the Internet context and highlights its significance in the sphere of online attitude development.     

Polygamous Store Loyalties: An Empirical Investigation

Grocery store loyalty has been traditionally viewed as a trait of consumers toward a particular store for their overall shopping needs. In this study, we argue that store loyalty shall be regarded as category specific trait, that is, a consumer could be loyal to store A in category one while at the same time be loyal to store B in category two. We name this consumer behavior polygamous store loyalties.We use an in-home scanning panel dataset that tracks purchases of 1,321 households in 284 grocery categories across fourteen retail chains over a 53-week period in a large US market. First, we provide model free evidence of polygamous store loyalties in the data, even though the overall store loyalty based on the traditional view is low. Next, we propose a model to separate category specific effects from overall store level effects. Finally, we discuss how retailers can use the results to gain a new perspective on store attractiveness to improve overall store patronage.