One way to generate more traffic in a mall is to build a strong mall image perceived by shoppers as delivering a unique bundle of benefits. Such effort has to be guided by a performance metric, ...namely a comprehensive measure of mall image. We hypothesize that mall image can best be conceptualized in terms of five major dimensions
a la Ailawadi and Keller Ailawadi K.L., Keller K.L. Understanding Retail Branding: Conceptual Insights and Research Priorities. J Retail 2004; 80 (Winter):331–342. retail branding dimensions: access, store atmosphere, price and promotion, cross-category assortment, and within-category assortment. The predictive (nomological) validity of the mall image measure was tested in relation to mall attitude, mall patronage, and word-of-mouth communications. We validated the mall image measure using data generated with mall-intercept surveys in two different malls in a large city in Canada (
N
=
861). The data provided support for the predictive validity of the mall image measure. Managerial implications of the mall image measure are also discussed.
We argue in this paper that research on housing preference and choice focusing on functional aspects of the home may be enhanced by incorporating social and psychological determinants such as the ...stereotypical image of the homeowner. Based on self-congruity theory, we posit that homebuyers are likely to take into account both functional and symbolic aspects in their housing choice. In addition, functional aspects of the home may be interpreted in light of the symbolic aspects -perceived consistency with the homebuyer's self image. Managerial, policy, and research implications are discussed.
Linking retailing experiences with life satisfaction Grzeskowiak, Stephan; Sirgy, M. Joseph; Foscht, Thomas ...
International journal of retail & distribution management,
02/2016, Volume:
44, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Purpose
– A common assumption holds that retailers generally contribute to customer life satisfaction – retailers offer products and services that solve consumer problems – large and small. However, ...some retail experiences have been found to generate dissatisfaction, stress and unhappiness for some customers but not for others. Research is needed to not only demonstrate how retail experiences impact customer life satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to address the question: why does satisfaction with various store types impact customer life satisfaction differently?
Design/methodology/approach
– The research context of this study is grocery retailers (neighbourhood convenience stores, super markets, and grocery discounters) in Austria. Using stratified random sampling across store types, a total of 379 personal interviews with grocery store customers were conducted. OLS regression analysis was conducted to test the research model.
Findings
– The study results suggest that satisfaction with a store type impacts customer life satisfaction depending on store-type congruity with shoppers’ identity. That is, satisfaction with a store type (e.g. neighbourhood convenience stores, super markets, and grocery discounters) is found to influence life satisfaction if the store type is congruent with the shoppers’ self-image and lifestyle.
Practical implications
– An emphasis on store-type congruity with shopper’s identity allows retailers to shift their attention towards creating more meaningful shopping experiences. Such a shift in focus may not only benefit retailers due to increase in customer loyalty for that store format. It also benefits shoppers themselves – the shopping experience contributes to shoppers’ life satisfaction.
Originality/value
– This research introduces store-type congruity with shopper’s identity as a key concept that connects shopping experiences to customer life satisfaction. This contributes towards building the hierarchical theory of shopping motivation. It demonstrates under what conditions shopping experiences impact consumer life satisfaction – a research topic that has received little attention in the retailing literature to date.
The current debate on demographic change often revolves around seniors (over 65-years-old), their housing preferences, and their spatial mobility. Our study contributes to this discussion by ...examining how seniors make evaluations concerning retirement homes guided by concepts such as functional congruity, self-congruity, and lifestyle congruity. An experimental study was conducted involving 325 Austrian and 546 French seniors (60+). The results were supportive of the hypotheses that seniors evaluate retirement homes positively when they (1) perceive the retirement home to have high service quality (high functional congruity), (2) identify with the occupant residents (high self-congruity), (3) believe that living in the retirement home is consistent with their own lifestyle (high lifestyle congruity), and (4) anticipate feeling satisfied with their social life, leisure life, health, love life, and life overall (high anticipated life satisfaction).
Consumer well-being (CWB) refers to the extent to which a particular consumer good or service creates an overall perception of the quality-of-life impact of that product. We developed a model that ...posits that CWB related to a specific product is heavily influenced by self-image congruence and brand-community belongingness. Self-image congruence is also hypothesized to influence CWB moderated by brand loyalty. Similarly, brand-community belongingness is hypothesized to influence CWB moderated by consumption recency. Our survey data of 275 undergraduate students reporting on their coffee consumption showed the following: (1) CWB was significantly predicted by brand loyalty and brand-community belongingness; (2) the effect of brand loyalty on CWB was moderated by self-image congruence, and (3) the effect of brand-community belongingness was moderated by consumption recency.
Materialism can influence life satisfaction both positively and negatively. We build on the dual model of materialism (Sirgy et al.
Social Indicators Research, 110
(1), 349-366,
2013
) to make the ...case that two dimensions of materialism—success and happiness—may influence life satisfaction differently. Success materialism (wealth and material possessions is a sign of success in life) may influence life satisfaction positively, whereas happiness materialism (wealth and material consumption is a sign of happiness in life) may influence life satisfaction negatively. Success materialism contributes to life satisfaction because it serves to boost economic motivation and causing a rise in future satisfaction with their standard of living, which in turn contributes to future life satisfaction. Happiness materialism, in contrast, influences life satisfaction adversely through two paths. One path involves dissatisfaction with standard of living, which in turn influences life satisfaction in a negative way. The other negative path involves dissatisfaction with other life domains; that is, happiness materialism detracts from life satisfaction by undermining satisfaction in other life domains such as financial life, family life, social life, etc. Data from a large-scale representative survey of 7599 German adults provided good support for the hypotheses and more.
This paper reports a study designed to develop and validate a measure of quality of college life (QCL) of students. Using a theoretical model based on a build-up approach to QCL, the authors provide ...an empirical examination of various hierarchical components and their properties. The method is executed in two stages. The first stage is used to clarify the particular elements for inclusion in the model. The second phase uses a sample of students drawn for the campuses of three major universities in the United States. These samples were used to test several hypotheses regarding the model and its components. The results generally provide support. Finally, the discussion centers on the value of the model in application by both university officials and public policy officials in the at-large community.
Linking retailing experiences with life satisfaction Grzeskowiak, Stephan; Sirgy, M. Joseph; Foscht, Thomas ...
International journal of retail & distribution management,
02/2016, Volume:
44, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Purpose
– A common assumption holds that retailers generally contribute to customer life satisfaction – retailers offer products and services that solve consumer problems – large and small. However, ...some retail experiences have been found to generate dissatisfaction, stress and unhappiness for some customers but not for others. Research is needed to not only demonstrate how retail experiences impact customer life satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to address the question: why does satisfaction with various store types impact customer life satisfaction differently?
Design/methodology/approach
– The research context of this study is grocery retailers (neighbourhood convenience stores, super markets, and grocery discounters) in Austria. Using stratified random sampling across store types, a total of 379 personal interviews with grocery store customers were conducted. OLS regression analysis was conducted to test the research model.
Findings
– The study results suggest that satisfaction with a store type impacts customer life satisfaction depending on store-type congruity with shoppers’ identity. That is, satisfaction with a store type (e.g. neighbourhood convenience stores, super markets, and grocery discounters) is found to influence life satisfaction if the store type is congruent with the shoppers’ self-image and lifestyle.
Practical implications
– An emphasis on store-type congruity with shopper’s identity allows retailers to shift their attention towards creating more meaningful shopping experiences. Such a shift in focus may not only benefit retailers due to increase in customer loyalty for that store format. It also benefits shoppers themselves – the shopping experience contributes to shoppers’ life satisfaction.
Originality/value
– This research introduces store-type congruity with shopper’s identity as a key concept that connects shopping experiences to customer life satisfaction. This contributes towards building the hierarchical theory of shopping motivation. It demonstrates under what conditions shopping experiences impact consumer life satisfaction – a research topic that has received little attention in the retailing literature to date.
In an empirical study of the North American lodging industry, we investigate the efficacy of influence strategies for managing opportunism in marketing channels. We posit that the effects of ...influence strategies upon opportunism are moderated by the extent to which relational norms characterize the channel exchange. The results support this moderating effect. In particular, we find that relational norms have an asymmetrical effect across coercive and noncoercive influence strategies. With high relational norms in the relationship, a channel member's use of noncoercive influence strongly limits partner opportunism whereas the use of coercive influence exacerbates partner opportunism. In contrast, noncoercive influence intensifies and coercive influence mitigates partner opportunism under conditions of low relational norms. These findings offer first insights for curbing opportunism in marketing channel relationships with the simultaneous use of different socialization mechanisms.
Purpose - Marketing channels are changing dramatically as the world economy becomes networked. Buyers who are likely to only have limited insight into a wholesaler's sourcing decisions may be ...uncertain about product and or service quality. This paper aims to show that a credible quality signal provided by the wholesaler, the wholesale brand, can effectively reduce buyer uncertainty.Design methodology approach - Using structural equation modelling methodology in the context of 569 buyers across 52 locations of a home improvement wholesaler the authors investigate the key mediating role of transaction costs for the effect of wholesale brand knowledge on buyer loyalty.Findings - The results suggest that wholesaler brand knowledge effectively reduces ex-post transaction costs incurred by the buyer. These lower quality control costs and price verification efforts increase buyer loyalty. Interestingly, however, the data show that this bonding effect of the wholesale brand may not affect buyer search costs.Research limitations implications - The research on the role of supplier brands for supply network management is an early effort. Clearly more research is needed to fully explore the role of wholesale brand knowledge for wholesaler selection.Practical implications - The findings are important to marketing channel managers because they provide a viable alternative to ever-increasing relationship marketing costs. They suggest that a close wholesaler-retailer relationship may not be necessary to realize the benefits of a trusting exchange environment. In fact, they show that high wholesale brand knowledge may act as a substitute and reduce uncertainty effectively.Originality value - This paper is the first to introduce a transaction cost perspective on the relationship between wholesale brand knowledge and wholesale loyalty. It demonstrates how wholesale brand knowledge can reduce uncertainty in the wholesaler-retailer dyad and substitute for more costly relationship building efforts.
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