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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?

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.

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.

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.

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 purpose of this research is to try to show the relevance of service quality in building a strong retail brand. It addresses how retailer attributes affect customer‐based retail brand equity, when considering retailers as brands. These attributes are compared with one another, and the importance of service is set in proportion to the other retailer attributes, both intersectorally and sector‐specifically. An integrated model is used here.

This is an empirical study across five retail sectors (grocery, textiles, DIY, consumer electronics and furniture retailing) based on a survey with 2,000 face‐to‐face interviews. Structural equation modelling is used to illustrate the impact of central dimensions of the perception of retailer service and of the other retailer attributes on customer‐based retail brand equity.

In retailing, service quality appears to be the most important retailer attribute in building a strong retail brand – as demonstrated in four out of five sectors. The integrated model developed in this study can make a significant contribution to a field of knowledge which at present is not well developed.

A more detailed analysis of the cross‐sectoral differences is undoubtedly necessary. Furthermore, a more exact analysis of retailer service is certainly required, but it must also incorporate other retailer attributes in order to achieve dimensions of comparison.

The importance of service in retailing is intersectorally underlined in comparison to the other retailer attributes/retail marketing instruments. Even in sectors that characteristically use self‐service, the importance of service quality and particularly of friendly and competent staff is evident. Compared to the other retailer attributes, service is one strategic element that can be used effectively by retailers of almost any size. A small or medium sized retailer usually cannot distinguish itself from its competitors by means of price, but with a service‐oriented business.

Unlike other investigations, a model is applied in this paper to five retail sectors, so both general and also sector‐specific conclusions can be drawn on the importance of customer service and the other retailer attributes. Furthermore, customer service is not analysed in isolation, thus we have dimensions of comparison, unlike many other authors who look at service alone.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the internationalisation patterns of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) quantitatively, to describe SMEs as they follow different patterns over time and to discuss the determinants of these patterns through empirical study.

The authors conducted a questionnaire survey among mature German SMEs (n=674). To identify internationalisation patterns, a latent class clustering approach was applied. Because of the large sample, a multinomial logistic regression analysis could be used to analyse the factors influencing these patterns.

The authors empirically find three internationalisation patterns: traditionals, born globals and born‐again globals. Comparing modern SMEs with the same SMEs from ten years ago, it was found that firms may change their patterns. Moreover, the patterns are determined by international orientation, growth orientation, communication capability, intelligence generation capability and marketing‐mix standardisation.

Combining elements of the Uppsala model (countries and operation modes) and born global research (time lag and foreign sales ratio), three internationalisation patterns of established international SMEs from traditional sectors were identified empirically. Because of the multidimensional nature of internationalisation, the patterns may change over time. Different firm‐level factors determine the internationalisation patterns.

Instead of applying “arbitrary” thresholds, the paper provides a quantitative approach to identifying internationalisation patterns. These patterns confirm the three main internationalisation pathways discussed in the international marketing literature. The paper further advances the field by describing the patterns, showing evidence that the patterns may cross over time and providing information on the factors that influence the patterns.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to knowledge on the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on retailers’ performance. An analysis using a comprehensive conceptualization of CSR reveals that CSR has positive implications for retailers’ firm performance and illustrates which CSR dimensions are the most important to focus on. It becomes clear that retailers must care about both downstream- and upstream-oriented CSR dimensions in the value chain. The paper highlights the impact of CSR communication activities for company success both in terms of general communication to the stakeholders and relating to in-store communications.

The authors conducted a survey among retailers. Data analysis was performed applying partial least squares structural equation modeling.

While CSR generally has positive effects on retailer performance – despite cost associated with CSR implementation, the authors show that diverse dimensions have different effects. Also, both downstream (customer-oriented) as well as upstream (suppler-oriented) activities count. Also, CSR communications, thus talking about what good a retailer does, is of high relevance.

This paper offers both theoretical implications on CSR dimensions in retailing as well as practical help for retailers on how and why to implement and communicate CSR activities.

Relatively scant attention thus far has been accorded in the marketing literature to the examination and explanation of return behaviour of consumers, especially within the mail order industry. The issues examined here consist of the nature and influence of such factors as “buying experience”, “perceived risk”, and “return frequency”. The aim of this paper is to analyse four groups of returners (“heavy returners”, “medium returners”, “light returners”, and “occasional returners”).

This paper details an empirical study of return behaviour based on a field survey that was conducted specifically focusing on the apparel category. Exploratory factor analyses and analyses of variance (ANOVA) have been employed to test the proposed hypotheses.

Results show that there exist different reasons for returns among the four groups of returners. In particular, they differ in their initial shopping motivation for mail order purchases, their group‐specific reasons for product returns, and also in their spending patterns.

These are discussed within the body of the paper.

A number of meaningful implications for mail‐order firms are developed from the empirical findings. While product returners have been thought to be an amorphous category (akin to a “black box”) in the past, this paper highlights the disparate motives for making returns. Specific prescriptions are provided regarding the management of product description, consumer return policy, and the handling of consumer perceived risk.

This paper contributes toward the evolving literature of consumer return behaviour in the context of distance purchasing and also by taking into consideration the heterogeneity of return groups. It looks at the characteristics of the return groups and how they differ in their prior motives of making their purchase decisions.

The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on corporate reputation and internationalization to identify key research theories, contexts, characteristics, methodologies, applications, limitations and opportunities for future research on the interlinks between these two complex constructs.

Elements of systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis were used to analyze theories, contexts, characteristics, methodologies and opportunities for future research based on 90 articles published in 50 journals over 27 years.

The findings suggest that this is a contemporary yet expanding research field explored from a variety of theoretical, methodological and empirical standpoints, which hinders broad conclusions and warrants further research. More specifically, this paper identifies three broad research streams that link international expansion and corporate reputation and suggests avenues for future studies: cross-national institutions, strategic decisions and corporate reputation; international marketing, consumers and brand credibility; and corporate image, international trade and investment flows.

Reputation and internationalization are constructs with multiple applications and interpretations. The way companies build, maintain and extend their reputation and legitimacy, and the drivers, motives and difficulties faced by them when expanding operations internationally have been widely studied separately. This manuscript reviews the nascent and promising linkage between these two elements that have recently drawn the attention of business practitioners and scholars alike.