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1 – 10 of over 28000Min Zhang, Lin Sun, Fang Qin and G. Alan Wang
In recent years, more and more e-retailers have adopted live streaming services to attract customers. Although the extant literature has mostly examined the motivations for live…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent years, more and more e-retailers have adopted live streaming services to attract customers. Although the extant literature has mostly examined the motivations for live streaming usage, it remains unclear how to enhance customers’ purchase behaviour. Based on the social exchange theory, in the context of live streaming platforms (LSP), this study aims to investigate the impact of information quality and interaction quality on swift guanxi and customers’ purchase intention.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducted an online survey to conduct two rounds of data collection and analyses the data using SPSS and SmartPLS softwares.
Findings
The results show that information quality (believability, usefulness and vividness) and interaction quality (responsiveness, real-time interaction and empathy) are positively related to swift guanxi, which may influence customers’ online purchase intention on LSP.
Originality/value
Prior service quality studies tend to focus on traditional physical stores and e-commerce websites context. This study offers the description of key dimensions of service quality on emerging LSP context. The study also confirms the importance of swift guanxi in an online marketplace.
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This paper aims to comprehensively analyse the sustainability reporting practices of Australian electricity retailers in comparison with global sustainability reporting indicators…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to comprehensively analyse the sustainability reporting practices of Australian electricity retailers in comparison with global sustainability reporting indicators outlined in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the GRI G4 sector-specific guidelines, the paper investigated Australian electricity retailers’ reporting in three broad areas of sustainability, namely, economic, environmental and social. The 2018/2019 annual reports along with websites, corporate social responsibility reports and standalone sustainability reports of the major electricity retailers listed on the Australian Energy Regulator were analysed and coded using a content-based technique.
Findings
The findings inform that electricity retailers’ disclosures are substantially varied between and within the three categories of sustainability reporting, and the majority of the retailers have failed to address over two-third of the GRI indicators. This study also shows that positive information is the dominant form of the disclosures, and reporting with declarative information without providing any quantifiable data is a common practice of the retailers who fail to address an indicator that requires information in numerical terms.
Originality/value
Electric utilities provide essential services to society and have a significant influence on sustainable development. This study contributes to the social disclosure literature, in particular in a developed countries energy sector context, and captures insights about the sustainability reporting and accountability behaviour of the major electricity retailers operating in Australia.
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Achchuthan Sivapalan and Charles Jebarajakirthy
Enhancing retailing service quality (RSQ) serves as a basic strategy for gaining competitive advantage in the retailing industry and enables retailers to make a loyal customer…
Abstract
Purpose
Enhancing retailing service quality (RSQ) serves as a basic strategy for gaining competitive advantage in the retailing industry and enables retailers to make a loyal customer base. The purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically investigate a comprehensive mechanism for enhancing customer loyalty to retail stores via service quality practices. This study suggests information on retailers can be the antecedent of the RSQ and its dimensions, thereby proposing a comprehensive mechanism for enhancing customer loyalty to retailers.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected using questionnaire surveys from 2,375 customers of three main supermarkets in Sri Lanka. After testing the measurement model, two structural models were run to test hypotheses.
Findings
The findings showed that the RSQ positively influenced customer loyalty. From all the RSQ dimensions, the store’s physical aspects, personal interaction and policy had a significant influence on customer loyalty. The findings also demonstrated that information on retailers contributes to enhancing a customer’s favorable evaluation of the supermarket’s physical aspects, personal interaction and retailing policy.
Research limitations/implications
This study was conducted with supermarket customers in one country using the cross-sectional data. Hence, the model should be replicated among retail customers in other countries with the longitudinal data.
Practical implications
Practically, this study recommends to retailers which dimensions of service quality they need to focus to enhance customer loyalty to their business. The study furthermore recommends certain dimensions that need to be emphasized while retailers design their promotional and communication programs.
Originality/value
Information on retailers has been suggested as an antecedent for enhancing supermarkets’ service quality practices. Thus, this study proposes a comprehensive mechanism for enhancing customer loyalty to retailers via service quality practices.
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Sarah Amsl, Iain Watson, Christoph Teller and Steve Wood
Online shoppers make product purchase decisions based on product information shown on a retailer's website and potentially in comparison to that seen on competitors' websites…
Abstract
Purpose
Online shoppers make product purchase decisions based on product information shown on a retailer's website and potentially in comparison to that seen on competitors' websites. Insufficient, poor quality or missing information about a product can lead to reduced retailer sales. Measuring online product information quality (PIQ) is therefore an essential element in helping retailers maximize their potential success. This paper aims (1) to identify directly quantifiable PIQ criteria, (2) to assess the effects of PIQ and (3) to evaluate the moderating effect of product involvement.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a scenario-based experiment within 3,544 do-it-yourself (DIY) online shoppers from the United Kingdom (UK). Within an 8 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design, the authors manipulated the factors PIQ criteria (8), PIQ level (2) and product type (2).
Findings
The findings support that poor PIQ has a negative impact on consumers online shopping outcomes. The authors also found that the effects of PIQ differ between the various criteria, the product category and the level of consumer involvement in the selling process. In the context of product depiction, title readability and product attribute comparability with other retailers' websites a high level of PIQ is required. Moreover, high involvement products need a higher level of PIQ than low involvement products.
Originality/value
This research expands website quality and service failure literature by introducing PIQ criteria and its effects in the context of online retailing. The authors also establish actionable managerial recommendations to assist retailers to embrace and utilize PIQ to better understand their own potential website and thus business improvements.
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Sandra Hogarth‐Scott and Stephen T. Parkinson
Changes in the European retailing marketplace are having an impacton relationships between retailers and their suppliers. Concentration ofsales to fewer, larger and more powerful…
Abstract
Changes in the European retailing marketplace are having an impact on relationships between retailers and their suppliers. Concentration of sales to fewer, larger and more powerful retailers, the growth of own label brands, and the operational and marketing benefits of retailer information technology, all affect the relationship between retailers and their suppliers. These trends are seen at their most extreme in the UK market, which is seen by many as a model for the future of the rest of Europe. In this emerging trading environment, the issues of collaboration versus conflict, documented in research in retailing since the 1950s, take on a particular focus and importance. Looks at these issues from the perspective of 11 manufacturers, each of which deals with the same significant retailer in the UK. Examines the relevance of the constructs of power, conflict and co‐operation in the UK food channel from the supplier′s perspective; the manufacturer′s response to powerful buyers in the channel; and the impact of information technology on channel relationships. Concludes with recommendations to manufacturers on managing key accounts in the new environment.
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The purpose of this paper is to report on exploratory research that aims to contribute to knowledge on online branding, and the way in which the online channel is being used to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on exploratory research that aims to contribute to knowledge on online branding, and the way in which the online channel is being used to support brands. The focus of this research is the top multi‐channel UK fashion retailers.
Design/methodology/approach
Content analyses were performed on the web sites of a number of top fashion and clothing retailers, plus three supermarket chains with a strong presence in clothes retailing. An analysis of the extent to which the retailers were using their web site to provide online services and information provided a context for a more detailed analysis of online branding strategies, including communicating brand identity and presence, and building brand relationships.
Findings
Most top “non‐value” fashion retailers offer transactions through their web site, offering extended opportunities for brand engagement and experience. While all fashion retailers achieve consistency of visual identity between the online and other channels, their use of the online channel to communicate brand values, and to promote brand relationships is underdeveloped. There is evidence of some innovative practice, but also scope for considerable further development of the notion of online branding. Research into online and multi‐channel branding has a role to play in supporting this process.
Originality/value
This study makes an important contribution to the under‐researched area of online branding, through a study of the online branding activities of top multi‐channel UK fashion retailers.
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One lesson of the 1970s was that the power and influence of retailers and distributors is a highly significant factor in many practical marketing situations. Currently, however…
Abstract
One lesson of the 1970s was that the power and influence of retailers and distributors is a highly significant factor in many practical marketing situations. Currently, however, the nature of retailer power is in the process of changing as a result of new information technology, which has the effect of increasing dramatically the existing structural advantages of retailers in access to marketing information. This article considers the sources of informational power for retailers, predicts the nature of retailer information strategies and develops a model of the marketing information system which transcends the organisational boundaries of a single firm — the channel marketing information system. The objective of this discussion is to attempt to clarify the possible responses to retailer information advantage, both tactically in the short term, but also rather more importantly at a strategic level in the longer term.
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Peter Jones, David Hillier and Daphne Comfort
– The purpose of this paper is to offer an exploratory case study of how the UK’s leading retailers are addressing sustainable consumption.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer an exploratory case study of how the UK’s leading retailers are addressing sustainable consumption.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper begins with a discussion of the growing awareness of the importance of sustainable consumption and of the role that retailers can play in promoting more sustainable patterns of consumption. This is followed by a short literature review of current thinking on sustainable consumption. The paper draws its empirical information from the top ten UK retailers’ corporate websites and from an observational survey conducted in these retailers’ largest stores in the town of Cheltenham in the UK. The paper concludes with some reflections on how the UK’s leading retailers are addressing sustainable consumption and on how the concept fits into their business models.
Findings
The findings reveal that the UK’s top ten retailers make very limited public corporate commitments to sustainable consumption and that while some of these retailers were offering customers some information which might encourage more sustainable shopping behaviour, such information was systematically undermined by marketing messages which were designed to encourage rather than restrict consumption. More critically the paper concludes that the leading retailers’ commitments to sustainable consumption are couched within existing business models centred on continuing growth and that as such they are effectively ignoring the fact that present levels of consumption are not sustainable.
Originality/value
This paper provides an accessible review of the extent to which the UK’s leading food retailers are addressing sustainable consumption and communicating sustainable consumption agendas to their customers within stores, and, as such, it will be of value to academics, practitioners, consumer organizations and policymakers interested in the role retailers can play in promoting sustainable consumption.
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Kim Hongyoun Hahn and Jihyun Kim
The purpose of this research is to examine the influences of consumer trust and perceived internet confidence on consumer apparel shopping intention via the online retailer…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to examine the influences of consumer trust and perceived internet confidence on consumer apparel shopping intention via the online retailer operated by a multi‐channel retailer.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 261 students in a large US Midwestern University participated in the paper‐based survey and provided usable responses. Structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses.
Findings
Consumer trust in an online retailer was a significant predictor of perceived internet confidence and search intention for product information via the online retailer. Search intention for product information via the online store and perceived internet confidence were significant and strong predictors of consumers' behavioral intention toward the online retailer.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations of the present study include sampling, which prevents the generalization of the results to all multi‐channel shoppers.
Practical implications
The findings of the study suggest that retailers offer an internet channel as part of a multi‐channel retail strategy and provide consistent service throughout their various channels.
Originality/value
The paper finds that there are significant influences of consumer trust and perceived internet confidence on consumer apparel shopping intention via the online retailer operated by a multi‐channel retailer.
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Sanjit Kumar Roy, Vaibhav Shekhar, Ali Quazi and Mohammed Quaddus
The purpose of the study is to investigate the role of service convenience in the relationship between organizational characteristics (such as brand equity, store ambiance, store…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the study is to investigate the role of service convenience in the relationship between organizational characteristics (such as brand equity, store ambiance, store layout, customer information and employee responsiveness) on customer engagement behaviors (CEBs), including service improvement, customer cooperation, positive word-of-mouth and customer helping customers. It examines two research models, with service convenience as a separate antecedent of CEBs (model A) and as a mediating variable between organizational characteristics and CEBs (model B).
Design/methodology/approach
Using a positivist paradigm, data were collected from 384 respondents representing the existing customers of grocery retailers based in India via a survey instrument. Data were analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) path modeling.
Findings
Results demonstrate service convenience as a motivational driver of CEBs. Results also show that the organizational characteristics significantly influence service convenience which in turn impacts CEBs.
Practical implications
The findings have important implications for store managers in effective management of customers' time and effort in terms of saving customers' time and effort as well as motivating customers to elicit their engagement behaviors.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper lies in identifying the impact of organizational characteristics in helping customers to save time and effort in their shopping activities and thereby elicit various types of CEBs. The paper also adds to knowledge by examining the role of service convenience in the nexus between organizational characteristics and CEB types.
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