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The effects of social density on consumers’ channel selection

Jing Zhao (School of Economics and Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China)
Rui Huang (School of Economics and Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China)
Xiangxi Chen (School of Economics and Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China)

Journal of Consumer Marketing

ISSN: 0736-3761

Article publication date: 30 September 2022

Issue publication date: 17 November 2022

329

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how crowding without violating personal space influences consumers’ channel selection and the underlying mechanism of this process. Crowded environment is ubiquitous and affects consumers’ behaviors. However, less attention has been paid to whether and how crowding influences consumers’ preference for purchasing channels.

Design/methodology/approach

There were three studies to test the validity of the theorized model, including two laboratory experiments and a field study. The variance analyses and mediation analyses were used to give more insights into the analytical process.

Findings

This study proposes that crowding makes consumers lose their perceived control, leading them to form certain compensatory behavior through the conversion between online and offline purchasing channels – the type of goods moderates the process of compensatory behavior.

Practical implications

The results of this study are helpful for retailers to design effective strategies to allocate resources into online or offline channels and to choose the appropriate types of product to promote.

Originality/value

Environmental clues have been widely studied in previous marketing research. Crowding, as a common environmental clue, has only been noticed in recent years. This study examines the impact of crowding on consumers’ channel preference. The results of three studies have confirmed that consumers have higher preference for offline shopping when they are in a crowded environment and found the intrinsic mechanism and the marginal scenario of this process.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, (NSFC72072134).

Citation

Zhao, J., Huang, R. and Chen, X. (2022), "The effects of social density on consumers’ channel selection", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 39 No. 7, pp. 769-778. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCM-12-2020-4322

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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