The effect of mobile application-driven customer participation on bakery purchase behavior: Evidence from a field experiment

This paper empirically examines individual and joint effects of two types of customer participation (CP)—mandatory and replaceable—within a mobile app on bakery purchase behavior. This research conducts a field experiment to track customer decisions on whether to participate in in-app CP events—store loyalty program enrollment and store satisfaction survey—and whether to change their purchasing amount and frequency. After controlling other influencing factors, the authors performed ANOVA with the sample of 19,065 bakery customers’ behavioral decisions. The results confirm that mandatory CP has a positive effect on purchase behavior, while replaceable CP has mixed effects across stores. In addition, the results confirm that customers who engaged in both types of CP increased their purchase amount and frequency, compared to customers who engaged in one type or neither. The study suggests hospitality firms should motivate customers to engage in mandatory and replaceable CP to enhance customer loyalty cost-effectively.     

Reinterpreting the theory of planned behavior and its application to green hotel consumption intention

The main aim of this paper was to understand a guest’s decision to stay at a green hotel by using the theory of planned behavior (TPB) developed by Ajzen (1991). The population for this study was green hotel customers in Taiwan. A total of 425 usable responses were received from the willing participants around the parking area of green hotels. This study performed a PLS-SEM to examine the proposed model. The results of this study showed that social pressure has very little direct impact on behavioral intention to stay at a green hotel. The results of the estimated standardized regression coefficients and t-values indicated that perceived behavioral control has a slightly higher impact on behavioral intention than attitude. This study also verified the proposed mediating relationships between the first-order and second-order antecedents. This study provided theoretical and managerial implications for understanding respondents’ decision to stay at a green hotel.     

How social distance affects the intention and behavior of collaborative consumption: A study based on online car-hailing service

In recent years, advances in mobile communications technology have enabled collaborative consumption or product sharing between consumers on a large scale. Unlike traditional consumption, collaborative consumption is based on collaboration among individuals, so that the decision-making mechanisms of individual consumers may be different from those in traditional consumption scenarios. The current study focuses on how the social distance between consumers and drivers affects collaborative consumption intention in the case of online car-hailing services. In this study, the theory of planned behavior (TPB) is used as the foundational framework, and we innovatively add the concept of social distance to the TPB to form a new, and integrated model. We test the model based on data collected from 315 online car-hailing users. The results shows that behavioral attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, positively influence collaborative consumption intention and behavior. More interestingly, we find that social distance has both direct and indirect impacts on collaborative consumption intention: The greater the social distance, the lower the collaborative consumption intention. Moreover, social distance also moderates the influence of subjective norms and perceived behavioral control on collaborative consumption intention. To be specific, the influence of subjective norms and perceived behavioral control on collaborative consumption intention is weakened when consumers perceive less social distance. The results suggest that the integrated model has a stronger explanatory power on collaborative consumption behavior. This study enhances the traditional TPB model and offers insight into promoting collaborative consumption in the context of the sharing economy.     

Longitudinal analysis versus cross-sectional analysis in assessing the factors influencing shoppers’ impulse purchase behavior – Do the store ambience and salesperson interactions really matter?

Numerous studies in the marketing literature focused on consumer behavior in general, but relatively few studies have examined Impulse purchase behavior (IPB). Although few studies examined IPB, the vast majority of the studies were conducted using the cross-sectional design. These studies suffer from certain limitations like random measurement error, common method bias, causality & validity-related issues that are inherently associated with the cross-sectional design. Despite these limitations, very few studies have examined the IPB using the longitudinal design. Multilevel structural equation modeling (ML-SEM) is conducted in the study to analyze the longitudinal data for examining the changes in the causal effects of the factors influencing the shoppers' IPB over a period of time. Additionally, structural equation modeling (SEM) is conducted to examine changes in the causal effects of the factors influencing IPB at each time point of data collection. Drawing upon the stern's model and stimulus-organism-response model, the study examines the causal effects of the factors influencing the IPB. The results of ML-SEM indicate significant fluctuations in the factors influencing IPB over time. Similarly, the results of SEM indicates that few factors (like store ambience and salesperson interactions) have shown a significant influence on IPB in the initial time points (i.e., during the initial store visits of shoppers), but became insignificant over a period of time in their subsequent store visits. The findings suggest that the store crowd, secondary customers influence, and in-store promotions show a significant influence on the IPB, compared to the store ambience and salesperson interactions.     

Violation behavior in vertical restraint: Empirical analyses in the case of retail price maintenance

An extensive body of work within the marketing and economics literature has been devoted to studying vertical restraints, yet only a few researchers have investigated the violation behavior of retailers. In this paper, we investigate violation behavior in the context of retailer price maintenance. We investigate this behavior using a unique data set from a subsidy program in China, which includes transaction-level information that shows retail price maintenance (RPM) practices in multiple product categories by multiple manufacturers across multiple markets. The results from our fixed effects regression show that retailer violations are more likely to occur when intra-product competition is high. However, how retailer violation likelihood varies with inter-product competition may depend on the product category. We find that inter-product competition, is negatively associated with the likelihood of violation, for “less popular” product categories in the program such as washing machines, air conditioners, etc., but is positively associated with the likelihood of violation for “popular” product categories such as refrigerators, televisions, and cell phones. Our research provides some of the first empirical evidence about retailer violation behavior under RPM in the world’s largest emerging market by focusing on the relationship between violation behavior and market structure. We discuss the implications for monitoring efforts of manufacturers and regulators.     

Using word of mouth data from social media to identify asymmetric competition in food retailing

Competition between food retailers is often assumed to be asymmetrical, whereby one retailer may compete with another retailer but not vice versa. Little is known about how (a)symmetric competition among retailers currently is. One way to investigate this is to use word of mouth data. A mixed methods analysis of customer comments on social media confirms the existence of asymmetric competition among German food retailers, mainly between supermarkets and discounters. Overall, consumers compare competitors frequently on the basis of their assortments, the price-performance ratio as well as quality and freshness. The results have implications for competition policy and strategic management.     

Refining e-shoppers’ perceived risks: Development and validation of new measurement scale

Due to the rapid expansion of perceived e-shopping risks, and highly isolated and inconsistent presentation of literature about this concept, understanding e-shopper's behavior has become more difficult. In this regard, this study brings together different views, evidences and facts about perceived e-shopping risks from both scholars and practitioners of South-East Asian and Western countries. It then interprets the information in the form of a new scale which offers more adequacy, assemblage and uniformity than the existing models of perceived risks of e-shoppers. The new scale of construct has 11 dimensions comprising a pool of 38 items, which has been empirically validated through the data collected from 537 Malaysian e-shoppers. The dimensions are: high price risk, deception risk, transaction failure risk, dissimilar product risk, incapable service risk, illegitimate product risk, isolation risk, unease risk, displeasure risk, prior-purchase time delays risk, and post-purchase time delays risk. The theoretical and managerial implications and research limitations have also been discussed.     

Assessing the influence of goal pursuit and emotional attachment on customer engagement behaviors

This study draws on customer-dominant logic and self-expansion theory to examine the drivers of customer engagement behaviors in the context of emerging online interest communities. The engagement behaviors seen in online communities are operationalized into four types: augmenting, co-developing, influencing, and mobilizing. Goal pursuit (gratifying-the-self, enabling-the-self, and enriching-the-self) and emotional attachment to the community are found to be the key antecedent factors of these behaviors. The attainment of gratifying-the-self has a direct influence on these behaviors, whereas the attainment of enabling-the-self and enriching-the-self influences them via emotional attachment to the community.     

How do empowered employees engage in voice behaviors? A moderated mediation model based on work-related flow and supervisors’ emotional expression spin

The study examines the impact of empowerment on promotive and prohibitive voice behaviors in a moderated mediation model, suggesting work-related flow as a mediator and supervisors’ emotional expression spin as a moderator for hospitality employees based on affective event theory. The proposed model was tested using longitudinal matched data collected from 142 restaurant employees and their supervisors across multiple time stages in China. Analysis found that work-related flow mediated the relationships between empowerment and employee promotive and prohibitive voice behaviors, and supervisor emotional expression spin moderated these mediation links. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings for hospitality researchers and industry practitioners are discussed.     

Effects of employees’ opportunities to influence in-store music on sales: Evidence from a field experiment

The effects of in-store music on consumer behavior have attracted much attention in the marketing literature, but surprisingly few studies have investigated in-store music in relation to employees. By conducting a field experiment in eight Filippa K fashion stores in Stockholm, Sweden, we investigate whether it is beneficial for store owners to give employees more opportunities to influence the in-store music. We randomly assigned the stores into a treatment group and a control group, with the employees in the treatment stores having the opportunity to influence the in-store music through an app developed by Soundtrack Your Brand (SYB). The experiment lasted 56 weeks and sales data were also gathered 22 weeks before the experiment, resulting in a total of 4626 observations. Our results show that sales decreased by 6% when the employees had the opportunity to influence the music played in the store, and the effect is driven by a reduction in sales of women's clothing. Interviews with the employees revealed that they had diverse music preferences, frequently changed songs, and preferred to play high-intensity songs. Employees thus seem to make choices regarding the in-store music that reduce sales, implying that store owners might want to limit their opportunities to influence the background music.