Malaika Brengman

Vrije Universiteit Brussel | VUB · Department of Business (BUSI)

Purpose To date, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the use of implicit measures in the service research domain is limited. This paper aims to introduce implicit measures and explain why, or for what purpose, they are worthwhile to consider; how these measures can be used; and when and where implicit measures merit the service researcher’s cons...

Humanoid robots can serve as in‐store communication medium, providing functional as well as hedonic value. Previous studies have demonstrated their proficiency in providing functional value, such as guiding customers, advertising products, or carrying groceries. However, in a retailing context, engaging customers often requires more than meeting th...

This study highlights the relationship between brand personality (BP) and customer-based brand equity (CBBE) regarding brand commitment and preference by examining the mediating role of self-image congruence and perceived product quality in the beer market. Thus, we make some significant contributions to the existing literature on BP by applying th...

There needs to be more research on how self-image congruence affects consumer outcomes concerning social network site (SNS) brands. As SNSs like Facebook continue to grow, they must position themselves effectively to stand out from their competitors. This study aims to contribute to our understanding of this topic by exploring the mediating effect...

This study investigates shopper behavior when interacting with an employee-robot team (vs. both actors in isolation), along the metrics of the POS conversion funnel. An unobtrusive field study was conducted using video observations, evenly spread over four conditions: (1) a control condition (i.e., no stimulus), (2) a frontline employee, (3) a huma...

Experts and industry reports agree that the COVID-19 crisis spurred the adoption of new retail technologies, like mobile payment. However, empirical academic evidence that compares their adoption and usage before, during, and after the crisis remains scarce. So far, academic mobile payment research has focussed almost entirely on the different buil...

Purpose Service robots have increasingly been utilized in retail settings, yet empirical research on how frontline employees (FLEs) might deal with this new reality remains scarce. This mixed-methods study aims to examine how FLEs expect physical service robots to impact job characteristics and affect their job engagement and well-being. Design/me...

Background: So far, research investigating the effect of Social network Sites (SNS) usage and addiction on life satisfaction has been inconclusive while the evidence on problematic use shows a negative effect. In the current study, we examine the effect of Facebook usage and duration on life satisfaction by introducing Facebook addiction (negative...

A great deal of research has been carried out on adoption of mobile payments, focusing on user intentions. However, little is known about the actual users and what circumstances trigger mobile payment. Mobile payment is of particular interest to retailers, as it can facilitate and thus encourage finalization of the sales transaction. In this Belgia...

This study explores the effect of customers motive attributions that is, the motives customers ascribe to a retailer for introducing interactive kiosks into the store, on their expectations of the technology and usage intentions. We study two types of motive attribution: (1) to self-serve the retailer's own economic goals or (2) to better serve cus...

Despite the power of VR in immersing viewers in an experience, it generally only targets viewers via visual and auditory cues. Human beings use more senses to gather information, so expectedly, the full potential of this medium is currently not yet tapped. This study contributes in answering two research questions: (1) How can conventional VR ads b...

Per capita meat consumption in post-industrial countries is higher today than it has been ever since the transition of hunter-gathering to agriculture, while attitudes toward meat production and animal killing have become increasingly characterized by moral ambiguity and disgust. To contribute to our understanding of the genesis of this meat parado...

Food labelling is a tool to inform consumers about the specifications and characteristics of a product. Additionally, labels display information about traditionality and naturalness, of which the meaning is highly subjective. There is a paucity of research examining attributes both of tradition and naturalness. In this study, traditionality was ass...

It is believed that due to quarantine regulations during the covid-19 crisis, more people are attracted to social media. Especially TikTok seems to be linked to this crisis, given its rise to fame during the same period. However, to date, very little is known about TikTok regarding the number of users or usage characteristics. While considered a So...

This study investigates the effectiveness of a humanoid service robot (HSR) versus a tablet service kiosk (TSK) along the stages of the point-of-sale (POS) conversion funnel. The observational data gathered by means of a field experiment show that the HSR elicited 26 times more interactions (i.e., passersby touching the screen) than the TSK and tha...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the role of the placement (i.e., location) of humanoid service robots (HSRs) for entertainment applications in retailing by inspecting a multitude of performance metrics along the point-of-sale (POS) conversion funnel. Design/Methodology The study was conducted using unobtrusive obs...

The current COVID-19 pandemic and containment regulations bring unseen challenges to service organizations. The physical and social servicescape are heavily impacted by government regulations on social distancing and people’s fear of contamination. Retailing has traditionally predominantly been a ‘game of people’, yet faced with the consequences of...

This study examines under which circumstances customers are more likely to process in-store digital display ads. An exploratory field study is conducted (n = 296), with a between-subjects, 2 (value-expressive versus utilitarian messages) by 2 (entrance versus register location) by 2 (low versus high goal relevance) quasi-experimental design, in a r...

Most research on Social Network Sites (SNS) has focused on Facebook. Some scholars have argued to abandon the focus on a single platform in favor of studying SNS in general (GSNS). Others call for more comparative research of different SNS. With this study, we contribute to both approaches by taking a multi-cross platform approach comparing specifi...

This chapter provides a literature overview on service robots in retailing and their impact on customers. Our search stems from a Scopus database search, resulting in 18 relevant studies (2009-2019). Current research trends are discussed and future research opportunities are provided. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=9209559&ca...

The announcement of beacon technology in 2013 created a wave of excitement among pioneering retailers and marketing leaders, allowing them to send location-based messages to customers in-store. However, until present, the technology has not yet established a strong foothold in retailing. The present paper adopts a multi-method approach with the obj...

Introduction - This paper analyses the cross-cultural website design strategy of a division of a single multinational company, namely Honda Cars. Method - We conducted a content analysis of sixty-one Honda Cars websites, each targeted at a different country. Analysis - We perform t-tests and compute Pearson correlations to verify and quantify the c...

The rise of augmented reality (AR) technology presents e-retailers with new opportunities. According to previous research, it is a technology that can positively affect engagement, brand recall and purchase confidence. Mobile-enabled augmented reality differs from regular mobile phone use as the technology virtually overlays images or information t...

As new advertising formats emerge, research regarding their effectiveness is called for. Since the emergence of virtual reality (VR) technology, several brands have started implementing VR advertising in their communication strategies. The research objective of this study is to examine whether mobile VR advertising can positively impact manageriall...

The authors are grateful to the Journal of Global Fashion Marketing for awarding this “JGFM Achievement Certificate for High Scholarly Impact” to their 2011 “Fashion Store Personality” article. The present paper first provides a retrospective review that examines how subsequent research extended the 2011 findings. In particular, the retrospect focu...

Purpose As online travel marketing is evermore gaining importance, in particular regarding the pre-purchase presentation of travel destinations, it is imperative to examine how various media can engage consumers. The purpose of this paper is to identify how three prominent virtual representation media in tourism marketing differ regarding their pot...

robots; retailing; shopping; consumer; humanoid service robot; pepper

robots; kleinhandel; consument; humanoïde service robots; Pepper

Since the emergence of social virtual worlds (SVW) as a potential business platform, several authors and marketing managers are raising questions about avatars' shopping behavior. Millions of real dollars are being spent on virtual items in-worlds. Gender issues have received quite a lot of attention with regards to shopping behavior and shoppers a...

Humanoid robots hold potential to offer customer experience for bricks-and-mortar stores. Participants took part in a quiz on the topic chocolate in an experimental field study at »The Belgian Chocolate House» in Brussels airport in which a tablet kiosk and a Pepper robot were compared. The experiments showed that offering the quiz on a humanoid ro...

The debate on meat's role in health and disease is a rowdy and dissonant one. This study uses the health section of the online version of The Daily Mail as a case study to carry out a quantitative and qualitative reflection on the related discourses in mass media during the first fifteen years of the 21st century. This period ranged from the fall-o...

Mobile Virtual Reality provides a gateway for marketers to innovatively reach consumers. This study examines the impact of Virtual Reality in the context of transformational brand experience appeals, focussing specifically on the determining role of vividness. A three-dimensional conceptual framework is presented, offering a systematic review of th...

Purpose We present an exploratory study on the effectiveness of in-store marketing communication appeals via digital signage applying the Construal Level Theory (CLT) in a field experiment. According to this theory, we hypothesize that shoppers will on the one hand respond more favorably to messages focusing on the desirability of the offering, wh...

Purpose A major factor hampering the continuing and explosive rise of e-commerce, particularly for experience goods, is the lack of tactile information that could help to reduce uncertainty in consumer purchase decision making online. The purpose of this paper is to identify the specific touch-related properties worthwhile to enable in online retai...

Crowding is largely associated with negative consumer outcomes such as shopping irritation and lower levels of shopping pleasure, less positive attitudes and less satisfaction toward the crowded store or mall. While previous research demonstrated the alleviating effect of slow music and greenery on this negative impact of high perceived crowding, t...

The purpose of the current study is to examine whether VR advertising can positively impact managerially relevant brand outcome variables, such as brand personality perceptions, consumer attitudes toward the brand and purchase intentions.

This study focuses on innovative ways to digitally instrument the servicescape in bricks-and-mortar retailing. In the present digital era, technological developments allow for augmenting the shopping experience and capturing moments-of-truth along the shopper's path-to-purchase. This article provides an encompassing inventory of retail technologies...

Retailing in 3D virtual environments, including social virtual worlds (SVWs), is considered an evolution of the traditional web store, offering advantages and an improved shopping experience to the customer. Although studies concerning retailing and store design in SVWs are starting to emerge, only one thus far dealt specifically with virtual store...

This paper investigates the different trust assurances adopted by internet retailers and tries to identify a link between the characteristics of an online vendor (i.e., cost of merchandise sold, reputation, offline presence, etc…) and the specific types of trust assurances applied. The findings demonstrate that e-retailers with a relatively stronge...

Research has established that colors can influence a person's attitude toward an ad. In this article the knowledge about the effects of colors on the perception of ads is linked to a specific type of ads, namely threat appeals. The objective of this study is to examine whether the color used in the background of such a threat appeal can influence i...

Background and aims: The growing concern over compulsive buying (CB) among consumers has led to vast amount of research examining the antecedents of this maladaptive behaviour. The focus of previous research was, however, mainly on examining the internal, psychological factors contributing to CB. The current research, on the other hand, sheds ligh...

In the online environment, the absence of social presence may prevent consumers from purchasing online, while it can enhance their trust, loyalty and enjoyment toward the e-retailer. Thus, today many online retailers try to create social presence by adopting media-rich technologies. In this paper, the authors assess to what degree social media cues...

The article presents a study which examines the processing of threat appeal messages in the prevention of obesity. Differences in the perception of consumers about experiencing obesity are highlighted. A meta-analysis demonstrating the influence of the degree of invoked fear on the behavioral intention of consumers is provided.

The incorporation of greenery in retail areas has scarcely been explored in environmental psychology studies. In a 2 × 2 experimental design, the effect of in-store vegetation on consumer emotions and responses toward the store was studied, considering the moderating role of the information rate of the retail setting. While introducing foliage in t...

Compulsive buying (CB) - an uncontrolled urge to buy unneeded products - though not yet officially recognised as a mental disorder, causes significant impairments in financial, legal, social and occupational areas of functioning of an affected person. The goal of the current research was twofold: first, to investigate the link between CB and lookin...

Fine fashion and fast fashion are ever converging. Just as consumers buy luxury fashion brands to express or enhance their self-image, so also can they patronize fashion stores with a self-congruent personality positioning. This article addresses the following research question: Do people use store personality traits to infer store patron personali...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test the effectiveness of the mere integration of social network applications to provide a signal concerning the “trustworthiness” of an unfamiliar e‐vendor in order to enhance subsequent purchase intentions. Design/methodology/approach To investigate the impact of web communities on consumers' initial trust...

Purpose – The ultimate aim of this study is to assess the extent to which sources of store personality inferences are generalizable across different retail sectors. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative exploratory study was undertaken with a convenience sample of Belgian adult respondents in order to systematically assess the connotations in...

The Internet, in its 2D form, offered answers to some of the internationalization barriers of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and has questioned the available internationalization models. Virtual worlds (VWs) have recently emerged as a promising platform for conducting various business and marketing activities. The current article is the...

Like consumers buy luxury fashion brands to express or enhance their self-image, so can they be expected to patronize fashion stores with a personality positioning that matches their self-concept. This paper first presents a store personality scale development, tailor-made for fashion retailing, in order to account for the phenomenon of “concept-sc...

In the online environment, the absence of social presence may prevent consumers from purchasing online, while it can enhance their trust, loyalty and enjoyment toward the e-retailer. Thus, today many online retailers try to create social presence by adopting media-rich technologies. In this paper, the authors assess to what degree social media cues...

This paper aims to provide an integrative review of the experiment-based literature on the antecedents of initial trust in a business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce setting. To that end, we present a framework that classifies trust-inducing website features according to three broad dimensions, namely visual design, social cue design and content desig...

Avatars are spending millions of dollars yearly on shopping for virtual items in free-form Virtual Worlds (VWs), such as Second Life. Some studies explaining Virtual World users‟ motivations to spend real money on virtual items from a consumer point of view are only available for game-oriented VWs and not for the free-form type. By means of conduct...

Over the last three decades solid empirical evidence for the positive influence of greenery on human psychological and cognitive functioning has been steadily accruing. Based on this evidence, researchers and practitioners increasingly realize the importance of urban greening as a strategic activity to promote human wellbeing. Although commercial a...

The current paper reviews all high quality studies investigating the impact of the cultural congruency of websites on measures of website effectiveness. In order to be able to present a comprehensive overview of the findings, the various performance measures included in the different studies are integrated within the WEBQUAL framework [Loiacono et...

As more than 70% of individuals in Western societies can be categorized as sedentary and inactivity has been recognized to lead to a series of serious physical and psychological disorders, the importance of physical activity promotion is ever more emphasized. Many social marketing campaigns use threat (or fear) appeals to promote healthy behaviors....

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the main determinants of fashion store personality, as perceived by the shopper. It aims to discover factors that are responsible for specific store personality trait perceptions in order to understand how these humanlike personality traits are induced in a retailing context. Design/methodology/appr...

Although many environmental psychology studies have investigated retail settings and green environments separately, the incorporation of greenery in retail areas is barely explored. By means of a 2 by 2 experimental design, we empirically studied the effect of in-store vegetation on consumer emotions and responses towards the store, considering the...

Human beings increasingly come to inhabit urban settings, where there are often less opportunities to experience nature. Based on (environmental) psychological research, scholars and policymakers therefore plead for inserting more green in urban contexts. Research has not only demonstrated that vegetation is aesthetically preferred, it also appears...

While ‘store image’ typically involves the functional properties of a store (merchandize, price/quality, service, …), ‘store personality’ essentially refers to the more psychographic or humanlike personality characteristics of a retail outlet (such as enthusiasm, sophistication, etc…). Since human nor brand personality are directly transferable to...

Store image is one of the explanatory variables of store patronage. However, store image is not a one-dimensional construct, but consists of several dimensions. These image dimensions may vary for different types of stores due to the variety in products they carry. Since recycle stores are very different from the traditional retail outlets to which...

In this study Internet users are profiled based on their propensity to adopt online shopping. Five Internet shopping adopter groups are distinguished by classifying online shoppers into two adopter groups based on their time of adoption and non-adopters into three groups based on their intended use of online shopping. The resulting segments are pro...

The current research investigates whether cultural differences between Belgium and the Netherlands are actually reflected in their respective commercial websites. With this purpose e-commerce websites from both countries have been subjected to an elaborate content analysis. Results indicate that Belgian transaction-oriented websites reflect a hi...

The status of the CRM literature is investigated for the period of 2000 to 2005, in order to provide an overview of academic research on the subject and to identify gaps in the current literature. To provide as complete picture of CRM as possible, the Information Systems (IS) as well as the Marketing literature was systematically reviewed. From bot...

Online surveys in the United States and Belgium were conducted to cross-culturally validate the Internet shopper lifestyle scale [S.M. Smith, W.R. Swinyard, The identification of shopping behaviors among Internet users. World Marketing Congress, Cardiff Business School, 2001]. Special attention was devoted to sample, construct, and measurement equi...

The status of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) literature is investigated for the period of 2000 to 2004 in order to provide an overview of academic writing on the subject and to identify blind spots in the present literature. The top ten MIS journals and proceedings of four international conferences were systematically screened. Selected...

In view of the interrelationship between shopping and tourism, the increasing number of travellers, and the rising amount of shops and sales at the airport, insight in airport shopping motivations and airport shopper types is crucial to work out an optimal marketing strategy for airport shops. Because traditional shopping motivations and shopper ty...

Some predict that electronic shopping will account for 15–20% of the retail market by 2004, others hold a more conservative opinion. The objective of this study is two-fold. A first question pertains to how consumers perceive current grocery shopping. A second question deals with the consumers’ preferred future grocery shopping alternative. The res...

The PAD-scale has extensively been used in consumer research. Since studies on the impact of store interior color on affective responses are scarce and have focussed solely on color hue, neglecting color brightness and saturation, and furthermore only investigated a maximum of four hues, the research objective was to validate the PAD scale by means...