Australasian Marketing Journal

With the shift in paradigm occurring for retailing, this paper puts out a call for academics researching in the area to take up the challenge of novel research rather than the more typical incremental research of the past and present. A thematic analysis of current retail research is presented from the four leading retail journals to identify and illustrate the incremental nature of current research and the standard retail area themes considered by academics. Following this, through seeking what is not in the current incremental research, a series of potential research areas and questions are posed, creating a novel research agenda for the field of retail marketing.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between multiple store patronage (MSP) and information source usage both online and offline. In particular, this study investigates the detailed effects of information sources on MSP rather than considering whether consumers choose online or offline sources. In prior studies, MSP has been conceptualized using the consumer cost–benefit framework and relates to consumer multiple store usage. However, even though prior studies have emphasized the importance of information sources in the cost–benefit framework, those that consider MSP have not tested the sources’ effects. This current study conducts empirical count data analysis in the Japanese sports shoes retail market. The results reveal that consumers evaluate information sources using more detailed divisions than simply online and offline. This study contributes to studies on MSP because it is the first to identify the impact of information source usage on MSP.

Sustainability in retail often looks at retail supply chains and the effects of retail outputs on people and the planet. Sustainable retail strategy then, in the main, retains this focus. Taking an interpretive approach, this study instead focuses on a successful sustainable retail brand to explore the characters that make up its image. The sustainable New Zealand store and product brand, the Ecostore, is seen by consumers as an Eco-warrior: A legitimate, trustworthy and authentically sustainable store and store brand. Its image is composed of Guardian, Catalyst and Paragon qualities that allow consumers to be healthy and protect themselves, their families, and friends, while also exhibiting and teaching sustainable values to them. Implications of this research for retailers regard not only their branding and positioning, but points to the importance of an authentically sustainable retail orientation – one that has sustainability at its core.

Lifestyle segmentation, used to explore consumer attitudes, interests, opinions and values, is applied to a local farmers’ market (the Otago farmers’ market, in New Zealand) in order to build a profile of consumer motivations and behavioural drivers beyond simple demographic data. Prior research indicates a growing need for studies that seek to understand the intangible aspects of food selection and consumption. Farmers’ market consumers are often treated as a homogenous group, with purchase and consumption decision making assumed to rest with tangible aspects of produce on offer, such as its organic nature or lower cost. The overall experience of the consumer within the food purchase environment is often overlooked. The current study finds that three distinctly different consumer segments exist within the farmers’ market context, with those concerned with the tangible aspects of produce being the smallest group of consumers. Two consumer segments driven by differing experience-related motivations give the greatest insight into consumer behaviour in a farmers’ market context, with committed, loyal consumers being concerned with relationships with sellers and producers, and experience orientated consumers motivated by the opportunity to interact with other farmers’ market attendees.

Competition is intensifying amongst shopping malls. In response scholars have advanced various perspectives regarding how to differentiate shopping malls to gain competitive advantage, such as adding or expanding the level of entertainment available (Sit et al., 2003). Others suggest malls satisfy non-functional wants, which stem from associations one has with the mall (Rintamaki et al., 2006). Herein, a reflective measurement model is tested that explores the relationships between the latent constructs shopping mall image and congruity on customer behaviour. A high-end shopping mall in Indonesia is the context. As hypothesized, shopping mall image had a strong effect on customer behaviour, namely, the likelihood of purchasing, returning to the mall, and spreading positive WOM. However, congruity – captured by the indicator variables ‘self-image congruity’ and ‘congruity with other shoppers’ – had no effect on customer behaviour. We attribute this unanticipated finding to Indonesians scoring low on Hofstede's dimensions of Individualism and Indulgence. Survey participants indicated that there was high self-image congruity as well as congruity with other shoppers, but were unwilling to admit it affects their shopping behaviour – arguably, that would be self-indulgent and indicate a lack of restraint with respect to controlling their desires.

Japanese consumers are changing their consumption patterns, following those of the Europeans and Americans (Salsberg, 2010). Generally known to be brand and quality conscious, Japanese are not willing to sacrifice quality and convenience for discounted and online purchases. Japanese consumers pick and choose their products differently. In general, the modified structural equation model shows that all relationships proposed by the theoretical model were significant except for two (i.e. product towards satisfaction and distribution towards e-satisfaction). The results suggest that to determine an online repeat shopper's e-satisfaction, companies need to focus their attention on their promotional activities, pricing and shopper's experience. On the other hand, when companies are seeking to determine an online repeat shopper's e-trust, companies need to focus their attention on product, promotional pricing and shopper's experience. Most importantly, the results show that between e-trust and e-satisfaction, e-satisfaction has a more significant impact on repeat online shoppers’ loyalty.

The extant research has investigated the impact of purchase intention by reference groups in different situations. Nonetheless, a few studies have examined the roles of reference groups (private and public) in the purchase intention of distinctive types of shoppers (utilitarian, social value, and hedonic) and the degree of product involvement (high and low). Drawing from social influence theory, using experimental research, and analysing data with ANOVA, the author reveals in Study 1 that private groups may have greater impact on motivation for both high and low product involvement compared to public groups. Studies 2 and 3 reveal that utilitarian shoppers tend to have higher purchase intention when private groups are used for information cues. On the other hand, reference groups do not affect the purchase intention of social value and hedonic shoppers. This research contributes to social influence theory by revealing that reference groups have a diverse impact on purchase intention under different stimuli.

The objective of this study is to determine the shopping drivers that influence consumers to choose the night market or wet market for fresh fruit and vegetable (FFV) purchases. The study also investigates whether any differences in behavior among generational cohorts exist while purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables between two retail formats. The cluster sampling technique was applied to the entire population of Klang Valley area in Malaysia, and 700 respondents were randomly selected for this research. Perceived freshness, perceived quality and perceived safety of the fresh fruits and vegetables are the most important shopping drivers in a consumer's decision to purchase FFV in night market and wet market retail formats. The findings show that members of different generational cohorts have different perceptions about freshness, quality and safety of fresh fruits and vegetables purchased in night market and wet market retail formats.

This study investigates management control systems in retailing and examines how they connect to retail buyers’ behavior strategies and retail performance. We test hypotheses with a structure equation modeling (SEM) based on survey data from 149 merchandising division heads at Japanese supermarkets. The results reveal that outcome-based control promotes buyers’ price negotiation orientation while behavior-based control encourages buyers’ innovative behavior orientation. Moreover, both of these distinct behavior strategies yield greater retail performance. This study contributes toward the development of a generalized model of how retailers can manipulate buyers’ behavior strategies from the management perspective by applying organizational control theory in the field of retail buying.