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An enjoyable shopping experience enhances store loyalty
Abstract
Nowadays, the increasing number of people travelling for business and holiday has brought marketers to identify an emerging and interesting target of consumers, defined as “On the Move”, willing to make their purchases in the travel context. This new shopping trend is driving managers of concessions of services areas on the motorwaysto extend their business from Food and Beverage (F&B)to grocery retailing. The main contributionthis paper aims to provide is the conceptualization and validation of a structural model in which Store Loyalty is explained through its main antecedents:Trustand Satisfaction, as well as less studied constructs: Enjoymentand Convenience, in the dual meaning of Search Convenience and Transaction Convenience.
606 questionnaire were collected from a sample of “On the Move” consumers.The Structural Equation Modelexhibits a good fit, and explains almost the 66% of store loyalty.
Findings show that a pleasant and enjoyable shopping experience positively affects store loyalty. Furthermore, search convenience shows a positive effect on loyalty, while the transaction convenience negatively affects loyalty. Finally, results showthat theeffect of satisfaction on loyalty is completely mediated by trust. Retailers in their pursuit of retaining customers should look forward in implementing strategies that allow an enjoyable shopping experience, easy and quick to perform. Furthermore, satisfied customers would trust the retailer’s core offer positively, affecting their store loyalty level.
... Moreover, in the Italian market, MSAs are located at half the average distance of European MSAs (Mercurio and Martinez 2015). Italy is an interesting country, where grocery retailers are investing to enter the fuel market both through the opening of fuel stations close to their grocery stores (Martinelli and De Canio 2017) and with the opening of convenience stores in MSAs (De Canio et al. 2016). Carrefour Express in MyChef service areas, convenience stores such as Mar-ket24 for Autogrill, Chef Store for Chef Express and Elite travel retail and duty-free group Airest, are widespread. ...
Due to the emergence of new shopping trends in alternative retailing formats, the paper aims at exploring the role of assortment levers to increase customer loyalty to the retailer’s brand in an on-the-go retailing format, such as motorway service areas (MSAs). Specifically, the paper investigates how the grocery assortment perception (GAP) of MSAs influences shopping satisfaction and shopping enjoyment, generating customer loyalty to the MSA. A mobility proxy, measured in terms of the number of kilometres driven in a month, was included as an antecedent of consumers’ loyalty to MSAs. Survey data were collected from 526 respondents during their stop in three MSAs. The covariance-based structural equation model was computed to estimate the direct and indirect effects. The findings show that the perception of assortment is a significant driver of loyalty to the MSA retailing format. Most remarkably, the results show a positive relationship between the customer’s mobility and his/her loyalty to the MSA brand. The paper focuses on an emerging, although poorly investigated retail context, MSA, in which companies are enlarging the grocery assortment to offer the opportunity to shop during the consumption. Implications in terms of competition between incumbent grocery retailers and companies operating MSAs are derived. Moreover, a new conceptualisation of consumers’ mobility in influencing the retailer’s brand loyalty is prosed when shoppers are on-the-go.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to classify and organize the accumulated knowledge about mobile shopping (m-shopping) as revealed in the present literature regarding retail. A classification framework has been applied, consisting of three categories: online distribution channels, advanced technology for in-store shopping, and technology perspectives.
Design/methodology/approach
– A term-based search method was applied in which the literature was restricted to peer-reviewed articles in English-language journals of a certain date and specific online databases. Finally, 81 peer-reviewed articles, published between 2000 and 2012 around the world, were taken into account.
Findings
– Considering the retail environment, the interest in m-shopping for both advanced technology for in-store shopping and for the online distribution channel has increased continuously over the last decade. Moreover, while studies have mostly explored the consumers’ acceptance and reactions to m-shopping themes, the technology perspective is still being researched.
Research limitations/implications
– Due to the selected term-based search method, the number of identified publications is limited. Additionally, the selected framework requires a corresponding assignment to an explicitly stated topic, which was not always possible.
Originality/value
– As far as the author knows, this paper provides the first systematic review of m-shopping literature, which not only helps to organize retail-based literature, but also investigates significant gaps on this topic, thus facilitating future research.
L’articolo si propone di comprendere le logiche di scelta della domanda relativamente al consumo di pasti e bevande nei luoghi di transito (stazione/aeroporto) e sui mezzi di trasporto (a bordo treno/aereo). Le domande di ricerca a cui il contributo vuole rispondere sono le seguenti: le tipologie di locali che i consumatori scelgono per consumare pasti e bevande quando sono in movimento sono le stesse che costoro utilizzano nella loro quotidianità? E relativamente ai consumi extradomestici effettuati durante il viaggio, i criteri di preferenza di servizio differiscono a seconda della motivazione di viaggio e a seconda si effettuino nei luoghi di transito piuttosto che on board? Nello specifico si vuole indagare l’esistenza di modelli di acquisto differenziati - in termini di formato ed attributi di servizio di somministrazione ricercati - tra utilizzo quotidiano e consumo nei luoghi di transito e on board, indagando inoltre le eventuali differenze emergenti in relazione alla diversa occasione di consumo (pranzo, break, cena) e di viaggio (lavoro vs piacere). Si intende così contribuire a colmare il gap di analisi nel contesto osservato, finora trascurato dalla letteratura (Geunes et al. 2004) e focalizzato sulla strutturazione dell’offerta e la relazione aeroporto-retailer (Freathy e O’Connel, 1999), mentre inadeguata è la conoscenza delle esigenze della domanda che gravita in questo contesto. Solo alcuni contributi (Dresner 2006; Castillo-Manzano 2010) volti ad indagare eventuali differenze tra viaggiatori business e leisure hanno evidenziato similarità di comportamento rispetto alla scelta ed utilizzo dell’aeroporto e dei suoi servizi (es.: parking facilities). Inoltre, non si ravvisano studi rivolti al contesto del traffico ferroviario. Il comportamento d’acquisto nei luoghi di transito richiede poi maggiore conoscenza in quanto presenta delle specificità (Crawford e Melewar 2003) rispetto ai contesti retail “tradizionali”. Tali obiettivi conoscitivi sono conseguiti somministrando in stazione ferroviaria ed aeroporto un questionario strutturato ad un campione di 438 intervistati. I dati così raccolti sono stati elaborati applicando la tecnica del t-test per campioni indipendenti ed appaiati.I risultati evidenziano che i viaggiatori usano i formati di ristorazione con una diversa intensità rispetto a quanto effettuato quotidianamente. Inoltre, li utilizzano diversamente in relazione al motivo di viaggio (lavoro vs turismo). Valutazioni differenti sugli attributi di servizio richiesti quando il viaggiatore acquista alimenti e bevande nei luoghi di transito (in aereoporto/in stazione) piuttosto che on board sono ulteriormente emerse. Le implicazioni scientifiche e manageriali vengono attentamente discusse, così i limiti del lavoro.
In this article, we provide guidance for substantive researchers on the use of structural equation modeling in practice for theory testing and development. We present a comprehensive, two-step modeling approach that employs a series of nested models and sequential chi-square difference tests. We discuss the comparative advantages of this approach over a one-step approach. Considerations in specification, assessment of fit, and respecification of measurement models using confirmatory factor analysis are reviewed. As background to the two-step approach, the distinction between exploratory and confirmatory analysis, the distinction between complementary approaches for theory testing versus predictive application, and some developments in estimation methods also are discussed.
The authors present a unified strategic framework that enables competing marketing strategy options to be traded off on the basis of projected financial return, which is operationalized as the change in a firm's customer equity rel- ative to the incremental expenditure necessary to produce the change. The change in the firm's customer equity is the change in its current and future customers' lifetime values, summed across all customers in the industry. Each customer's lifetime value results from the frequency of category purchases, average quantity of purchase, and brand-switching patterns combined with the firm's contribution margin. The brand-switching matrix can be esti- mated from either longitudinal panel data or cross-sectional survey data, using a logit choice model. Firms can ana- lyze drivers that have the greatest impact, compare the drivers' performance with that of competitors' drivers, and project return on investment from improvements in the drivers. To demonstrate how the approach can be imple- mented in a specific corporate setting and to show the methods used to test and validate the model, the authors illustrate a detailed application of the approach by using data from the airline industry. Their framework enables what-if evaluation of marketing return on investment, which can include such criteria as return on quality, return on advertising, return on loyalty programs, and even return on corporate citizenship, given a particular shift in cus- tomer perceptions. This enables the firm to focus marketing efforts on strategic initiatives that generate the great- est return.
The subject of service convenience is important in service economies, yet little is known about this topic. The consumer convenience literature-strong in certain respects, underdeveloped in other respects-gives insufficient attention to service convenience. The prevailing pattern is either to treat service convenience generally or to lump services and goods together into an overall convenience construct. The authors seek to stimulate a higher level of research activity and dialogue by proposing a more comprehensive and multidimensional conceptualization of service convenience and a model delineating its antecedents and consequences. The authors build their case by systematically examining the convenience literature, explicating the dimensions and types of service convenience, developing the overall model and related research propositions, and presenting directions for further research.
Scholars have questioned the effectiveness of several customer relationship management strategies. The author investigates the differential effects of customer relationship perceptions and relationship marketing instruments on customer retention and customer share development over time. Customer relationship perceptions are considered evaluations of relationship strength and a supplier's offerings, and customer share development is the change in customer share between two periods. The results show that affective commitment and loyalty programs that pro- vide economic incentives positively affect both customer retention and customer share development, whereas direct mailings influence customer share development. However, the effect of these variables is rather small. The results also indicate that firms can use the same strategies to affect both customer retention and customer share development.
Several theories of relationship marketing propose that customers vary in their relationships with a firm on a continuum from transactional to highly relational bonds. Few empirical studies have segmented the customer base of an organization into low and high relational groups to assess how evaluations vary for these groups. Using structural equation analysis, the authors analyze the relationships of satisfaction, trust, and commitment to component satisfaction attitudes and future intentions for the customers of a New York off-Broadway repertory theater company. For the low relational customers (individual ticket buyers and occasional subscribers), overall satisfaction is the primary mediating construct between the component attitudes and future intentions. For the high relational customers (consistent subscribers), trust and commitment, rather than satisfaction, are the mediators between component attitudes and future intentions.
The existing literature of brand loyalty has been essentially focused on the roles of perceived quality, brand reputation and especially satisfaction, due to the fact that they summarise consumers’ knowledge and experiences, guiding their subsequent actions. In this context, the shifting emphasis to relational marketing has devoted a lot of effort to analyse how other constructs such as trust predict future intention. The fact that there are conceptual connections of trust to the notion of satisfaction and loyalty, and thatthis effort is especially lacking in the brand-consumer relationship, moves the authors to focus on analysing the relationships existing among these concepts. Research methodology consisted of regressions and multivariable analysis with a sample of 173 buyers. The results obtained suggest the key role of brand trust as a variable that generates customers’ commitment, especially in situations of high involvement, in which its effect is stronger in comparison to overall satisfaction.
Relationship marketing-establishing, developing, and maintaining successful relational exchanges-constitutes a major shift in marketing theory and practice. After conceptualizing relationship marketing and discussing its ten forms, the authors (1) theorize that successful relationship marketing requires relationship commitment and trust, (2) model relationship commitment and trust as key mediating variables, (3) test this key mediating variable model using data from automobile tire retailers, and (4) compare their model with a rival that does not allow relationship commitment and trust to function as mediating variables. Given the favorable test results for the key mediating variable model, suggestions for further explicating and testing it are offered.
Our empirical research investigates the impact of dimensions of shopping convenience (decision, access, search, transaction, and after-sales convenience) on customer retention, including customer behavioral loyalty (shares of wallet and visits) and attitudinal loyalty (exit intention). Our findings show that for utilitarian shopping, behavioral and attitudinal loyalty are partly affected by different dimensions. Decision and access convenience, dimensions that come into play prior to the purchase, are most important for share of visits and share of wallet. Apart from decision convenience, exit intention is very much affected by transaction convenience, which is an in-store dimension. Furthermore, comparing our results with results of hedonic shopping purposes shows that major differences exist.
In this research, the authors propose that the relationship between satisfaction and repurchase behavior is mod-erated by customer, relational, and marketplace characteristics. They further hypothesize that the moderating effects emerge if repurchase is measured as objective behavior but not if it is measured as repurchase intentions. To test for systematic differences in effects, the authors estimate identical models using both longitudinal repur-chase measures and survey measures as the dependent variable. The results suggest that the relationship between customer satisfaction and repurchase behavior is contingent on the moderating effects of convenience, competitive intensity, customer involvement, and household income. As the authors predicted, the results are sig-nificantly different for self-reported repurchase intentions and objective repurchase behavior. The conceptual framework and empirical findings reinforce the importance of moderating influences and offer new insights that enhance the understanding of what drives repurchase behavior.
As customers have demanded greater convenience in service exchanges, researchers have responded by incorporating the convenience
construct into their conceptual models and empirical studies, but a comprehensive, formally validated measure of convenience
remains lacking. This study conceptualizes service convenience as a second-order, five-dimensional construct that reflects
consumers’ perceived time and effort in purchasing or using a service. Service convenience dimensions are salient at different
stages of the purchase decision process. Given this conceptualization, the study presents the development and validation of
the SERVCON scale, a comprehensive instrument for measuring service convenience. The five dimensions are independent within
a nomological network that illustrates distinct antecedent and consequent effects, and the results reinforce the multidimensional
representation, offering insight into the distinctive relationships between each service convenience dimension and its antecedents,
such as competitive intensity, and consequences, such as repurchase behavior. The findings help researchers and managers understand
a fully conceptualized convenience construct and facilitate the measurement of convenience in future empirical studies.
Given the increasing importance of entertainment as a retailing strategy, this study identifies a comprehensive inventory of consumers’ hedonic shopping motivations. Based on exploratory qualitative and quantitative studies, a six-factor scale is developed that consists of adventure, gratification, role, value, social, and idea shopping motivations. Using the six-factor hedonic shopping motivation profiles, a cluster analysis of adult consumers reveals five shopper segments, called here the Minimalists, the Gatherers, the Providers, the Enthusiasts, and the Traditionalists. The utility of the proposed scale is discussed both for future research and retail strategy.
Motivations to engage in retail shopping include both utilitarian and hedonic dimensions. Business to consumer e-commerce conducted via the mechanism of web-shopping provides an expanded opportunity for companies to create a cognitively and esthetically rich shopping environment in ways not readily imitable in the nonelectronic shopping world. In this article an attitudinal model is developed and empirically tested integrating constructs from technology acceptance research and constructs derived from models of web behavior. Results of two studies from two distinct categories of the interactive shopping environment support the differential importance of immersive, hedonic aspects of the new media as well as the more traditional utilitarian motivations. In addition, navigation, convenience, and the substitutability of the electronic environment to personally examining products were found to be important predictors of online shopping attitudes. Results are discussed in terms of insights for the creation of the online shopping webmosphere through more effective design of interactive retail shopping environments.
For journal editors, reviewers, and readers of research articles, structural equation model (SEM) fit has recently become a confusing and contentious area of evaluative methodology. Proponents of two kinds of approaches to model fit can be identified: those who adhere strictly to the result from a null hypothesis significance test, and those who ignore this and instead index model fit as an approximation function. Both have principled reasons for their respective course of action. This paper argues that the chi-square exact-fit test is the only substantive test of fit for SEM, but, its sensitivity to discrepancies from expected values at increasing sample sizes can be highly problematic if those discrepancies are considered trivial from an explanatory-theory perspective. On the other hand, suitably scaled indices of approximate fit do not possess this sensitivity to sample size, but neither are they “tests” of model fit. The proposed solution to this dilemma is to consider the substantive “consequences” of accepting one explanatory model over another in terms of the predictive accuracy of theory-relevant-criteria. If there are none to be evaluated, then it is proposed that no scientifically worthwhile distinction between “competing” models can thus be made, which of course begs the question as to why such a SEM application was undertaken in the first place.
Researchers have previously examined the technology acceptance model (TAM) in many contexts, including the Internet. More recently TAM has been enhanced to include a hedonic component of enjoyment but the effect has rarely been investigated in a mobile commerce context. In addition, specific antecedents of TAM related to design aesthetics have not been examined within the mobile domain. Our research filled these gaps, and discovered that visual design aesthetics did significantly impact perceived usefulness, ease of use, and enjoyment, all of which ultimately influenced users’ loyalty intentions towards a mobile service.
The mobile communication revolution has led to pervasive “connectedness—as evidenced by the explosive growth of instant messaging in the home, and more recently, the enterprise–and, together with the convergence of mobile computing, provides a basis for extending collaborative environments toward truly ubiquitous “immersion.” Leveraging the true anytime/anywhere access afforded by mobile computing, it becomes possible to develop applications that not only are capable of responding to users whenever/wherever, on demand, but that also may actively “seek out” and engage users when the need arises. Thus, immersive environments need no longer be thought of strictly in terms of physical immersion with clearly discernable “enter” and “exit” events, but rather they may be extended, through mobile-enabled computing, toward ubiquity in terms of both time and space. Based on Media Synchronicity Theory, potential benefits are envisioned, particularly in the case of collaborative learning environments, from shortened response cycles and increased real time interaction opportunities. At the same time, a number of challenging issues must be addressed in designing such an environment to ensure user acceptance and to maximize realization of the potential. Third Generation (3G) Threaded Discussion has been conceptualized as an environment, well suited to mobile learning (m-learning) that could leverage mobile-enabled ubiquity to achieve a degree of extended immersion and thereby accrue the associated collaboration benefits. Exploring this conceptualization serves to help surface both the opportunities and the challenges associated with such environments and to identify promising design approaches, such as the use of intelligent agents.
In this paper the authors investigate enjoyment of the shopping experience, its influence on consumers’ intention to repatronise a regional shopping centre and the effect of gender differences on shopping enjoyment. Four dimensions of shopping enjoyment are proposed and a 16-item measure is developed to assess 536 consumer perceptions of the shopping experience across five counties in the United Kingdom. Findings indicate that shopping experience enjoyment has a significant positive influence upon customers’ repatronage intentions. Furthermore, men are found to have a stronger relationship of enjoyment with repatronage than women. The implications of these results are discussed, together with managerial implications, study limitations, and future research directions.
Although the relationship metaphor dominates contemporary marketing thought and practice, surprisingly little empirical work has been conducted on relational phenomena in the consumer products domain, particularly at the level of the brand. In this article, the author: (1) argues for the validity of the relationship proposition in the consumer-brand context, including a debate as to the legiti- macy of the brand as an active relationship partner and empirical support for the phenomenological significance of consumer-brand bonds; (2) provides a framework for characterizing and better understanding the types of relationships consumers form with brands; and (3) inducts from the data the concept of brand relationship quality, a diagnostic tool for conceptualizing and evaluating relation- ship strength. Three in-depth case studies inform this agenda, their interpretation guided by an integrative review of the literature on person-to-person relationships. Insights offered through application of inducted concepts to two relevant research domains—brand loyalty and brand personality—are advanced in closing. The exercise is intended to urge fellow researchers to refine, test, and augment the working hypotheses suggested herein and to progress toward these goals with confidence in the validity of the relationship premise at the level of consumers' lived experiences with their brands.
This article describes a program, PRODCLIN (distribution of the PRODuct Confidence Limits for INdirect effects), written for SAS, SPSS, and R, that computes confidence limits for the product of two normal random variables. The program is important because it can be used to obtain more accurate confidence limits for the indirect effect, as demonstrated in several recent articles (MacKinnon, Lockwood, & Williams, 2004; Pituch, Whittaker, & Stapleton, 2005). Tests of the significance of and confidence limits for indirect effects based on the distribution of the product method have more accurate Type I error rates and more power than other, more commonly used tests. Values for the two paths involved in the indirect effect and their standard errors are entered in the PRODCLIN program, and distribution of the product confidence limits are computed. Several examples are used to illustrate the PRODCLIN program. The PRODCLIN programs in rich text format may be downloaded from www.psychonomic.org/archive.
Marketing theory and practice have focused persistently on exchange between buyers and sellers. Unfortunately, most of the research and too many of the marketing strategies treat buyer-seller exchanges as discrete events, not as ongoing relationships. The authors describe a framework for developing buyer-seller relationships that affords a vantage point for formulating marketing strategy and for stimulating new research directions.
Relationship marketing—establishing, developing, and maintaining successful relational exchanges—constitutes a major shift in marketing theory and practice. After conceptualizing relationship marketing and discussing its ten forms, the authors (1) theorize that successful relationship marketing requires relationship commitment and trust, (2) model relationship commitment and trust as key mediating variables, (3) test this key mediating variable model using data from automobile tire retailers, and (4) compare their model with a rival that does not allow relationship commitment and trust to function as mediating variables. Given the favorable test results for the key mediating variable model, suggestions for further explicating and testing it are offered.
The statistical tests used in the analysis of structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error are examined. A drawback of the commonly applied chi square test, in addition to the known problems related to sample size and power, is that it may indicate an increasing correspondence between the hypothesized model and the observed data as both the measurement properties and the relationship between constructs decline. Further, and contrary to common assertion, the risk of making a Type II error can be substantial even when the sample size is large. Moreover, the present testing methods are unable to assess a model's explanatory power. To overcome these problems, the authors develop and apply a testing system based on measures of shared variance within the structural model, measurement model, and overall model.
Our research purpose was to identify and test variables that contribute to customer's willingness to continue to shop in brick and mortar stores, hereafter referred to as store loyalty. Specifically, we examined interrelationships among store attributes, shopping enjoyment, place attachment, and store loyalty with apparel shoppers. Significant store attributes that predicted shopping enjoyment included atmosphere, price, leisure, design, and service. Shopping enjoyment was a significant predictor of both place attachment and store loyalty. In turn, place attachment was found to be a significant predictor of store loyalty. The implications for store retailing are discussed as well as limitations and areas for future research.
While mobile shopping (m-shopping) is convenient in the age of mobile commerce, many people still discontinue their shopping using mobile devices even though they have the experience. Therefore, it is important for the m-shopping providers to understand the determinants of m-shopping continuance. This study extended Expectation-Confirmation Model (ECM) to examine the determinants of m-shopping continuance by incorporating trust. There were 244 effective questionnaires obtained for survey analysis. The results showed that trust can overcome the limitations of ECM on predicating m-shopping continuance and improve the explanatory power of initial ECM.
Purpose
This study aims to examine mobile shoppers' shopping motivations compared with those of non‐mobile shoppers (i.e. potential adopters) and to identify driving motivations for consumers to use the mobile shopping channel.
Design/methodology/approach
A sample of 400 mobile service users was drawn from a purchased consumer panel who completed a web‐based survey. Multiple discriminant analysis was used to analyze the data.
Findings
The results indicate that idea, efficiency, adventure, and gratification shopping motivations are significant determinants of mobile shoppers, implying that those shopping motivations are push factors of mobile shopping.
Research limitations/implications
The sample of this study consists primarily of US consumers with the largest group of respondents aged 19 to 30 years old; thus, the result may have a limited application to other countries and other age groups. Future research is encouraged to categorize mobile shopping service characteristics into shopping motivations and value.
Practical implications
The results suggest that idea, efficiency, adventure, and gratification shopping motivations need to be incorporated into the development of mobile shopping service functions and features to satisfy consumer needs and wants for the mobile shopping channel.
Originality/value
Due to the infancy stage of mobile shopping, there is minimal research comparing the two shopper segments' (mobile shoppers versus non‐mobile shoppers) motivations. This study contributes to generating multi‐dimensional mobile shopping motivation in explaining why consumers use the mobile shopping channel.
Le imprese si trovano oggi ad operare in un contesto di crescente complessità ambientale, caratterizzato da una velocità, intensità e varietà di cambiamento nell’attività di business mai affrontate precedentemente. Evoluzione tecnologica continua e fortemente impattante; incertezza del quadro economico e generalizzata maturità settoriale; concorrenza sempre più aggressiva; de-regolazione accentuata; repentina evoluzione e mutevolezza nelle preferenze di consumo ed acquisto della domanda sono i principali fattori che stanno cambiando radicalmente le modalità di fare business, di profittabilità e di crescita di impresa. In questo scenario, la ricerca di nuove opportunità oltre il settore tradizionalmente presidiato sta divenendo una strategia di sviluppo attrattiva, portando a forme di ibridazione di prodotti, di offerte e di esperienze. Tra i neologismi utilizzati per definire questo fenomeno, il termine “convergenza” trova concorde una parte autorevole della letteratura e della pratica manageriale. Si tratta di un processo generato dalla crescente tendenza di interi settori e/o di imprese di settori originariamente separati e ben distinti ad entrare in business comuni, originando così dei metamercati, ovvero nuovi ambiti competitivi. La promiscuità settoriale comporta la configurazione di arene competitive molto più estese e popolate di attori variegati e non convenzionali: la competizione, conseguentemente, si intensifica, acquisendo forme complesse, ibride ed inter-industry. La convergenza si propone pertanto come fenomeno altamente pervasivo e fortemente impattante per l’attività d’impresa e la riflessione scientifica, dando vita ad un dibattito quanto mai aperto. Data la recentezza e la complessità di analisi, lo studio del fenomeno è stato finora trattato principalmente dal punto di vista teorico, alla ricerca di nuovi modelli interpretativi di analisi competitiva e con specifico riferimento alla convergenza inter-industry di produzione, accentuando la prospettiva tecnologica di analisi. Nel millennio in corso, il processo di convergenza si sta diffondendo, facendo emergere la necessità di riflettere non solo su possibili nuovi paradigmi di business e modelli concettuali capaci di interpretarne le logiche e guidarne l’evoluzione, ma anche su nuovi ambiti di studio del fenomeno. In questa prospettiva, l’opera focalizza l’attenzione sul tema della convergenza distributiva, prendendo spunto dalla recente tendenza dei distributori grocery ad offrire un crescente numero di prodotti/servizi extra-core. E’ infatti sempre più usuale recarsi in ipermercati e/o supermercati che oltre al tradizionale assortimento di prodotti di largo e generale consumo offrono parafarmaci, automobili, carburante per autotrazione, servizi finanziari, di prenotazione, di telefonia mobile e altri, con il proprio brand. La distribuzione despecializzata è un ambito di attività particolarmente interessante da studiare per la crescente importanza all’interno del sistema economico e per l’intensità che questi fenomeni stanno assumendo, giustificando pertanto il focus dell’analisi. Nello specifico, il presente lavoro analizza driver, obiettivi, logiche di implementazione ed implicazioni strategico-organizzative derivanti dall’estensione d’offerta a categorie extra-core da parte delle insegne della distribuzione despecializzata, evidenziando i business in convergenza distributiva ed individuando i fattori di successo nel nuovo orientamento strategico. Al fine di conseguire tali obiettivi conoscitivi, è stata svolta una ricerca articolata su un duplice livello. Da un lato, si è condotta una dettagliata analisi longitudinale volta ad individuare le aree e le modalità di convergenza attivate dai distributori grocery raccogliendo materiale e informazioni da fonti di natura secondaria (riviste economiche e di settore, analisi desk sui siti internet dei principali retailer nazionali ed internazionali, report e comunicati aziendali, ecc.), nonché primaria, coinvolgendo le principali insegne del settore. Dall’altro, si è svolta un’analisi qualitativa tramite la tecnica dei casi di studio, somministrando una serie di interviste semi-strutturate a manager delle principali insegne distributive operanti a livello nazionale e coinvolte in processi di estensione dell’offerta a prodotti/servizi extra-core.
The authors investigate the effects of loyalty programs on loyalty to packaged goods brands. Findings from a series of experiments indicate that the incentive that is offered in a loyalty program is important to whether the program succeeds or fails at building brand loyalty. The data reported suggest that incentives that have overlap with brand associations, which the authors term cue-compatible incentives, can prompt rehearsal that increases the accessibility of favorable brand associations. This, in turn, helps boost postprogram loyalty. At the same time, incentives that are tangible or concrete can undermine postprogram loyalty. This seems to occur because elaboration is attracted to the incentive at the expense of the brand. Incentive associations may thus gain in accessibility and interfere with access to brand associations.
Two experimental studies (a lab experiment and a study involving a real usage experience over time) reveal the existence of a strong, positive impact of customer satisfaction on willingness to pay, and they provide support for a nonlinear, functional structure based on disappointment theory (i.e., an inverse S-shaped form). In addition, the second study examines dynamic aspects of the relationship and provides evidence for the stronger impact of cumulative satisfaction rather than of transaction-specific satisfaction on willingness to pay.
Purpose
This study sets out to replicate Garbarino and Johnson's paper, where the effects of trust, commitment and satisfaction towards service provider loyalty were examined. However, whereby Garbarino and Johnson tested their model in a relationship prone environment, i.e. a theatre company, this study was set in a retail context where transactional customers are more likely. Personality traits as a means to identify customers who are prone to forming relationships with their service providers were also investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, customers of two fast food independent stores in Melbourne, Australia completed 202 questionnaires.
Findings
The findings in the paper showed that in this transactional context, only trust and commitment had a significant direct effect on store behavioral loyalty. Satisfaction did not offer any unique explanatory power but was a significant predictor of both trust and commitment. Further, trust, commitment and satisfaction all had significant direct effects on store attitudinal loyalty, with satisfaction displaying the strongest effect. There was little evidence to support the claim that certain consumer personality traits are more conducive to relationship formation in this low involvement retail context.
Originality/value
The paper shows that retailers need to be aware that even in a transaction prone retail environment, trust and commitment and not just satisfaction, play a significant role in both store behavioral and attitudinal customer loyalty.
In this article, the authors study the role of a store brand in building store loyalty through a game theoretic analysis. In a market in which a segment of consumers is sensitive to product quality and consumers' brand choice in low-involvement packaged goods categories is characterized by inertia, the authors show that quality store brands can be an instrument for retailers to generate store differentiation, store loyalty, and store profitability, even when the store brand does not have a margin advantage over the national brand. In addition, this loyalty argument does not apply for the "cheap and nasty" private label strategy. Such a private label policy, on the contrary, reinforces rather than reduces price competition among stores. Indeed, the quality of the store brand must be above a threshold level to create this opportunity. It also follows that quality store brands, when carried by competing retailers, can be an implicit coordination mechanism that enables all the retailers to become more profitable. Finally, a quality store brand policy is profitable only if a significant portion of shoppers buys the national brand. This surprising result establishes the complementary roles of store brands and national brands. The former create store differentiation and loyalty, whereas the latter enable the retailer to raise prices and increase store profitability. The authors provide empirical support for their thesis by using evidence from Europe and house-hold-level scanner panel data from the United States and Canada.
Are there economic benefits to improving customer satisfaction? Many firms that are frustrated in their efforts to improve quality and customer satisfaction are beginning to question the link between customer satisfaction and economic returns. The authors investigate the nature and strength of this link. They discuss how expectations, quality, and price should affect customer satisfaction and why customer satisfaction, in turn, should affect profitability; this results in a set of hypotheses that are tested using a national customer satisfaction index and traditional accounting measures of economic returns, such as return on investment. The findings support a positive impact of quality on customer satisfaction, and, in tum, profitability. The authors demonstrate the economic benefits of increasing customer satisfaction using both an empirical forecast and a new analytical model. In addition, they discuss why increasing market share actually might lead to lower customer satisfaction and provide preliminary empirical support for this hypothesis. Finally, two new findings emerge: First, the market's expectations of the quality of a firm's output positively affects customers' overall satisfaction with the firm; and second, these expectations are largely rational, albeit with a small adaptive component.
This paper empirically examined the role of emotional satisfaction in service encounters. Specifically, this study seeks to: investigate the relationship between emotional satisfaction and key concepts, such as service quality, customer loyalty, and relationship quality, and clarify the role of emotional satisfaction in predicting customer loyalty and relationship quality. In doing so, this study used the relationship between emotional satisfaction, service quality, customer loyalty, and relationship quality as a context, as well as data from a sample survey of 1,261 Australian retail customers concerning their evaluation of their shopping experiences to address this issue. The results show that service quality is positively associated with emotional satisfaction, which is positively associated with both customer loyalty and relationship quality. Further investigations showed that customers' feelings of enjoyment serve as the best predictor of customer loyalty, while feelings of happiness serve as the best predictor of relationship quality. The findings imply the need for a service firm to strategically leverage on the key antecedents of customer loyalty and relationship quality in its pursuit of customer retention and long-term profitability.
The authors examine two aspects of brand loyalty, purchase loyalty and attitudinal loyalty, as linking variables in the chain of effects from brand trust and brand affect to brand performance (market share and relative price). The model includes product-level, category-related controls (hedonic value and utilitarian value) and brand-level controls (brand differentiation and share of voice). The authors compile an aggregate data set for 107 brands from three separate surveys of consumers and brand managers. The results indicate that when the product- and brand-level variables are controlled for, brand trust and brand affect combine to determine purchase loyalty and attitudinal loyalty. Purchase loyalty, in turn, leads to greater market share, and attitudinal loyalty leads to a higher relative price for the brand. The authors discuss the managerial implications of these results.
A. Satorra and P. Bentler . . . developed an approach to the asymptotic behavior of covariance structure statistics that rather naturally yields corrections to the goodness-of-fit statistic of the scaling and Satterthwaite types / present these results and . . . illustrate how they improve upon the uncorrected statistics that are now implemented in the field of covariance structure analysis / [show] that the proposed corrections not only encompass the ones advocated by A. Shapiro and M. Browne (1987) in case of elliptical data but do not suffer from the drawback of Browne-Shapiro's corrections of lack of robustness against deviations from the assumption of an elliptical distribution / provides a theory for correcting the standard covariance matrix of the vector of parameter estimates (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A model of the precursors of impulse buying is presented and empirically tested with data drawn at two points in time (during pre- and post-shopping interviews) from a regional shopping mall setting. Analysis of the data, utilizing LISREL 8, supported most of the predictions. Situational variables (time available and money available) and individual difference variables (shopping enjoyment and impulse buying tendency) were found to influence a set of endogenous variables, including positive and negative affect, browing activity, felt urge to buy impulsively, and ultimately, whether or not an impulse purchase occurred. Future research and managerial implications are addressed.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore a conceptual model for analyzing customers' perceptions of using mobile commerce services for online shopping. This paper provides insights into consumer behavior, and the results have important implications for designers, managers, marketers, and system providers of mobile shopping (m‐shopping) web sites.
Design/methodology/approach
An empirical investigation was carried out to test the hypotheses. The samples include 369 professional participants. For testing the relationships of the model, structural equation modeling (SEM) is used.
Findings
The results demonstrate that anxiety, which is an affective barrier against using innovative systems, is a key negative predictor of a customer's intentions to use mobile phones. Also, the consumer's self‐perception of mobile skillfulness significantly affects anxiety, enjoyment, and usefulness. Furthermore, enjoyment, usefulness, and compatibility have an impact on a customer's behavioral intentions.
Practical implications
The findings of this study help to understand what hinders or encourages the m‐shopping intention of online customers.
Originality/value
The results not only help develop a sophisticated understanding of mobile commerce theories for researchers, but they also offer useful knowledge to those involved in promoting m‐shopping to potential purchasers. The value of the paper is that the results could be applied to other portable information technology service adoptions, such as personal digital assistants (PDA), smart phones, advanced mobile phones, and portable global positioning systems (GPS).
Le Aree di Ristoro Autostradali in Europa: Laboratori di Imprenditorialità
- R Mercurio
- M Martinez
Mercurio, R. & Martinez, M. (2015) "Le Aree di Ristoro Autostradali in Europa: Laboratori
di
Imprenditorialità,
Innovazione
e
Qualità".
Available
to:
http://www.confimprese.it/attivita/studi-ricerche/modelli-affidamento-servizi-ristoroautostrade/