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Retailers may respond to a manufacturer discontinuing a brand or product range in three ways: not offering an alternative, thus reducing the assortment size; replacing it with a substitute; or introducing a rebranded product by the same manufacturer, if such an option is available. This study aims to evaluate all three scenarios and assess the extent to which total category sales are affected; how these discontinuations affect alternative offerings within the product category; and whether usage levels moderate within category switching behaviour. Shoppers did not have the option of switching stores to acquire the discontinued brand – their preferred brand/product range ceased to exist.

All three studies are quasi-experiments using scanner panel data. The product discontinuations examined are real events that took place within the major supermarket chain in New Zealand.

In all the three scenarios, average category sales decreased for the three-month period following the discontinuation. In Study 1, where a preferred brand of milk was discontinued with no replacement, overall category sales decreased but competing brands gained sales; introducing a replacement corn chip range (Study 2) successfully captured the spend on the discontinued range, but other brands lost sales; and rebranding a cereal (Study 3) decreased both brand sales and category sales. With the exception of Study 1, near-substitute product offerings did not capture a greater proportion of the spend from the discontinued brand as compared to less similar substitutes. Expectations were that heavy users would have a greater propensity to shift to near alternatives than would medium/light users; however, none of the studies lend support.

This is the first research effort to use scanner panel data to explore the reactions by brand loyal customers to three different brand discontinuation scenarios initiated by the manufacturer.

The purpose of this study is to address two issues relevant to those managing product returns: (1) how customers perceive the returning process and assessing the extent that these perceptions have on satisfaction with the organization, loyalty and word-of-mouth (WOM) and (2) are these outcomes moderated by whether customer returns were planned or unplanned?

The data consisted of 21 semi-structured interviews (pilot study) and a quantitative survey (n = 384; main study) targeted at consumers who had bought fashion items online.

Qualitative insights revealed that perceptions of the returning experience are driven by monetary costs, convenience, stress and guilt. Quantitative findings showed that the returning experience explains return satisfaction for both planned and unplanned returners, and returning satisfaction explains overall satisfaction and WOM. The noteworthy difference concerns loyalty: although customers that planned to return items are more loyal to the organization, it is the unplanned returners whose loyalty can be significantly increased by better managing the returning process.

Returning products online is increasingly common and thus forms an important part of the customer's overall experience with an organization. Returns management can therefore drive key customer outcomes. Understanding the dynamics between the product return experience, return satisfaction and customer outcomes will help practitioners design and implement more informed returns management strategies. Measures are also presented that assess the cognitive and emotional aspects associated with returning products.

Returning products is an increasingly important challenge for online retailers. Understanding what kinds of returning behaviors occur allows companies to design and execute better informed decisions to manage this phenomenon, not only for the sake of firm performance but also for societal and environmental benefits – the triple bottom line.

While scholars have investigated the relationship between return policies (e.g. free vs fee) and profitability, no prior literature has examined the returning experience: how consumers perceive the returning process; motivations for their returns (whether returns were planned or not) and subsequent customer outcomes.

This paper aims to examine how activating an abstract versus concrete construal as a retrieval cue – prior to providing estimates but after exposure to the stimulus – affects retrospective duration estimates of a hedonic experience, the kind of experience one might wish to repeat. Recent research has examined the effect of construal mindsets on prospective time perceptions (Hans and Trope, 2013) as well as the prediction of future durations (Kanten, 2011; Siddiqui et al., 2014).

Two experiments are presented to test four hypotheses. The effect of construal level on time perceptions, confidence in duration judgments and future preferences using two different construal level manipulation techniques and a range of measures for the dependent variables is demonstrated.

This research found that compared to a neutral experience, time perceptions of an enjoyable event are not explained by differences in the level of attention paid to the stimuli; that duration estimates elicited under abstract construals are shorter than those produced by concrete construals; and regardless of construal mindset, memory decay due to time delay appears to be at work. Hence duration estimates shorten. Moreover, abstract construals decrease confidence in duration judgments, but positively affect future preferences compared to a concrete mindset.

This paper expands current knowledge by showing that construal mindsets can be used as retrieval cues to affect evaluations of past experiences and consumers’ experience-based future preferences.

This paper aims to examine a chain of relationships running from self-congruity with a brand – that can stem from the actual, ideal or social self – to brand attachment and from there to consumer engagement on social networking sites (SNS), specifically liking, sharing and commenting. It further advances self-extension tendency (SET) as a moderator affecting the self-congruity -> brand attachment link.

Two studies were conducted to test four hypotheses. Study 1 (n = 282) engaged a self-administered survey with students at a large Australian university. Study 2 (n = 342) was conducted amongst the members of an Australian online panel and thus, enhances generalizability.

Activated self-congruity orientations are brand-specific. Both studies reveal that two of the three self-congruity orientations affect brand attachment, which, in turn, influences consumers’ proclivity to like, share and comment on Facebook. Moreover, the self-congruity -> brand attachment relationship is moderated by SET. When SET is high, it strengthens the relationship between a self-congruity orientation and brand attachment.

Accepted methodological approaches were used to improve the veracity of the findings. Nevertheless, further research should consider a wider area of focal brands (e.g. store brands, mundane brands, luxury brands) and other SNS.

SNS are widely acknowledged as a key marketing channel affecting both pre- and post-purchasing behaviours. Discussed here are means to trigger pro-brand advocacy behaviours.

These findings extend existing theory in three ways as follows: they show social self-congruity affects brand attachment in online contexts, brand attachment is a mediating variable affecting pro-brand social networking behaviours and SET moderates the self-congruity -> brand attachment relationship. SNS are widely acknowledged as a key marketing channel affecting both pre- and post-purchase behaviours; hence, these insights have theoretical and practical relevance.

The purpose of this paper is to test whether individuals possess personal consumption norms and idiosyncratic reference points to which they target behaviour. These personal consumption norms are related to the amount of food consumed independent of industry influences, specifically the size of the package offered and the perceived healthiness of the food. We also examine the extent to which one’s commitment to adhere to their personal consumption norm (referred to as “commitment to norm”) influences food consumption volume.

Three experiments are presented, two involve estimates of food consumption and the third examines actual food consumption.

All studies demonstrate that participants can provide a personal consumption norm for how much food they would typically consume that is independent of manipulated industry influences and that actual consumption is significantly related to their personal consumption norms. Furthermore, commitment to norm is negatively related to the absolute difference between their personal consumption norm and the amount of food consumed; however, supporting evidence was only realized in the case of actual food consumption, suggesting that commitment to norm does not have an effect on the formation of intentions.

The authors demonstrate that at a point in time, personal norms are fixed. However, it is possible that norms may be shaped by industry influences over time. The authors suggest further research into how these personal norms evolve over time, as well as assessing how these norms affect the likelihood of going from zero consumption to some positive amount.

Many studies indicate that marketers can easily influence food consumption volume. However, their ability to influence actual consumption volume is circumscribed by factors beyond their control, namely idiosyncratic personal consumption norms.

Over time, it is likely that personal consumption norms have emanated from a variety of antecedents, almost certainly including prior industry experience and situational/social influences. Repeated exposure to external influences is likely to shift the personal norm reference point over time.

Personal consumption norms are carefully disentangled from industry influences and are shown to significantly relate to food consumption volume, independent (but not to the exclusion) of industry influences.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of expertise on prechoice decision processes and final outcomes. By decomposing verbal protocols collected from 90 individuals who made one complex, mortgage loan decision, we could compare the frequency and type of elementary information processes evoked. We found that experts, relative to less knowledgeable decision makers, made a greater number of problem framing statements; made more references to why an option was being retained for further consideration; and used more compensatory decision rules. In addition, we found that misunderstanding externally provided information mediates the expertise‐choice relationship. Novices were significantly more likely to misunderstand information than were more knowledgeable decision makers. As a result, there was greater variance in novices’ final choices than was the case with experts’. The deleterious effect of mis‐understandings is disconcerting because consumers frequently miscomprehend print communications.

Most of the growth in casino expansion for the foreseeable future will take place in Asia. Western casino operators appreciate the immense opportunities afforded by the Asian markets, but judging by their performance abroad some have not adapted in ways necessary to survive and prosper. The purpose of this paper is to expose key differences between Asian and Western gaming jurisdictions. In light of these differences, it is a serious mistake for Western casino executives to follow an ethnocentric approach when planning marketing activities and customer service initiatives for Asian customers. To rectify this situation, a framework is advanced that will assist Western operators to adapt to Asian markets.

Differences between Asian and Western gamblers in both their game preferences and behaviours are based upon cited data sources and upon the authors' observations during flied trips to various casino jurisdictions. When appropriate, insights gleaned from a series of informal interviews conducted with senior executives in Macau as well as gaming‐related consulting conducted by the authors in both Asia and North America are shared, albeit for legal reasons the sources are confidential. The TROPICS framework presented herein was developed by the lead author and presented to senior gaming executives at the University of Nevada, Reno 2008 executive development program. The seven elements of this framework – now refined – are targeting, retention, organization, people, incentives, culture, and systems.

This paper concludes that in order to better serve Asian markets, there is an urgent need to empirically assess patron behavior and the attendant casino marketing adaptations that will be required to succeed in these markets.

A series of questions and issues related to each of the seven elements in the TROPICS framework are raised. The proposed framework is equally applicable to firms operating in Western countries as well as those in Asia; however, when put into practice, the outcome will be different marketing strategies adapted to each casino's market structure and macro‐environment. Regardless of context, this systematic approach to strategy formulation will ensure consistency and alignment across various elements of strategy.

The paper identifies the differences between Asian and Western gamblers to assist Western operators to adapt to Asian markets.

The purpose of this paper is to decompose total customer value as perceived by department store shoppers into utilitarian, hedonic and social dimensions, and empirically test this conceptualization in a Finnish department store shopping context.

Data were collected by a questionnaire administered over three days at a department store that generates the second largest turnover in Finland. A total of 364 shoppers completed the questionnaire.

Empirical evidence supports our tripartite conceptualization of total customer value. In particular, social value is an independent construct. Further, social value varies by day‐of‐week, with a significant increase on Saturday (versus weekdays) when the store is more crowded, whereas no such differences in utilitarian and hedonic values were detected.

The principal contribution is a tripartite conceptualization of total customer value that incorporates utilitarian, social and hedonic value dimensions in a department store shopping context. Individually these dimensions are all well rooted in streams of consumer behavior literature, albeit mostly at the product or brand, not the store, level. Increasing our understanding of these softer aspects of shopping, particularly the social dimension, is important because they represent possible differentiating factors in the highly competitive and often commoditized retail markets.

Consumption situations can be emotionally charged. Identifying the cause(s) of emotions has clear practical import to the understanding of consumer behaviour. Cognitive appraisal theory serves this purpose; however, a consensus has not yet emerged concerning terminology, number of relevant concepts and concomitant construct measurements, and theoretical linkages between constructs. This paper attempts to rectify this shortcoming.

This conceptual paper provides an extant review of emotions literature as it pertains to cognitive appraisals and consumption behaviours. Based on this review an integrative cognitive appraisal theory is advanced that is parsimonious and incorporates similarities across the various appraisal theory perspectives to date.

Four appraisals are proffered that appear capable of implicating specific emotions and their effects on consumer behaviour. The appraisals advanced are outcome desirability that encompasses pleasantness and goal consistency, agency which includes responsibility and controllability, fairness, and certainty. Sample propositions concerning how cognitive appraisals affect information processing extensiveness have also been provided.

First, the paper provides an extant review of cognitive appraisal theories of emotions, which makes transparent the looseness in terminology and differences in theoretical perspectives that currently exist. Second, based on this review the paper advances a unifying theory of consumption appraisals and explore their relevance to marketers. The theory proposed could explain inconsistent findings in the current literature. Third, directions for future research highlighting confounds that should be considered in study designs complete the paper.

The purpose of this paper is to present findings from an experiment designed to test the impact of crowding perceptions (both human and spatial), emotions (positive and negative) and shopping values (utilitarian and hedonic) on shopper satisfaction. Culture is explored as a moderating variable with the expectation that it systematically affects perceptions and values, which, in turn, influence the shopper's experience with the store.

Data were collected via a 2×2×2 full factorial between subjects design with two variables, one manipulated and one measured. The two manipulated variables were spatial density (high versus low) and human density (high versus low). The measured variable was country of origin, where subjects were coded as either American or Australian.

Culture moderates the effects of perceived spatial crowding as well as both hedonic and utilitarian shopping values on shopper satisfaction. Specifically, the adverse effect of perceived spatial crowding on shopper satisfaction is less pronounced for Australians than is the case for Americans. With respect to both utilitarian and hedonic shopping values, the positive relationship between shopping values and shopper satisfaction is greater for Australians than for Americans.

Shopping has been generally described by Rintamaki et al. as “relativistic, because it involves preferences among objects, it varies among people, and it is specific to the context”. This paper demonstrates that culture clearly affects shopper's perceptions and shopping values, which in turn affect shopper satisfaction. It is reasonable to speculate that these effects would be even more pronounced had countries with greater cultural distance been examined.