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The authors sought to examine how nostalgic feelings influenced purchase intentions of sport fans towards branded merchandise. Additionally, the goal was to test the childhood brand nostalgia (CBN) scale to see if it was an effective measure in this context. This was an important early step in understanding the way nostalgia may influence sport fan's merchandise preferences.

Surveys were completed by 601 fans of two professional sport teams in the USA. These consumers were targeted geographically through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and half given a modern branded t-shirt and the other half a retro branded t-shirt. To examine brand nostalgia in this context, the CBN measure was evaluated and examined to see its impact on each group, using hierarchical regressions.

The results demonstrated that CBN positively impacted consumers purchase intentions in the retro logoed t-shirt group. However, in the modern logoed t-shirt group, CBN did not significantly influence purchase intentions.

The findings of this study suggest that retro merchandise is working as expected, as it is attractive to those who feel nostalgic about their team. Secondarily, this study's findings suggest it may be vital for marketers to be conscious that their retro materials are connecting to the past.

This study was an early examination of a measure of nostalgia and its impact on purchase intentions in sport. The findings suggested that this CBN instrument may be appropriate in retro marketing research, especially regarding sport merchandise. Further, the findings suggest that nostalgic feelings may be influential toward retro merchandise, but not modern merchandise.

While some football clubs are recognised as popular brands, little is known about the way they leverage their brand in their merchandise retailing. To address this gap the purpose of this paper is to investigate retail branding strategies used by professional football clubs through brand equity and supply chain management. In particular, it analyses the type of product merchandised, the reasons for selling certain products and the ways through which football clubs merchandise, including their partners in distribution channels.

A qualitative approach was undertaken involving content analysis of 22 Scottish professional football clubs’ websites and annual reports, and semi-structured interviews with seven football clubs retail managers and four supply chain partners. Transcribed data were coded and thematically organised through an inductive process using the qualitative data analysis software NVivo 10.

Three types of merchandise have been identified: basic, fashion and short season. Building brand equity is considered the main motive for retailing merchandise. Some football clubs use intermediaries or outsourcers to respond to sudden consumer demands and to ensure high levels of service, whereas others have an integrated supply chain which allows for greater control.

This paper contributes to the discussion on the role of retailing in football club brand equity. It suggests initiating intermediaries in the distribution channels to build brand equity thus enabling clubs to become more responsive to consumer demand.

This is the first paper to look at retail branding strategies of professional football clubs.

Describes the winning formula at Neiman Marcus that has made it the No. 1 luxury retailer in the United States in terms of sales per square foot and profitability. Highlights Neiman Marcus' efforts to define who its customers are and are not and to achieve superior focus on its customers by aligning location, price, service, and merchandise to fulfill these customers' every need. Describes ways in which Neiman Marcus prevents typical silo behavior between merchandising and selling and how it ensures that the right merchandise gets to the right customer, despite the challenge of doing this in 36 micromarkets.

To show how a company integrates two strong high-performance functions—merchandising and sales—to get the right merchandise to each customer in more than 30 diverse selling locations while consistently providing exceptional customer service.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between consumers’ purchase motivations to show support for university programs and the influence of merchandise quality cues on their purchase decision, and examine how one's affiliation with a university (official or non-official) moderates this relationship.

This research utilized a mail survey of university bookstore customers from the USA and Canada. The university, located in the USA, has an international reputation for its academic programs, its athletic teams, and its religious affiliation.

Our findings demonstrate the significance of athletic programs over academic programs and religious values in motivating purchases of licensed university merchandise.

These findings have significant implications for several stakeholders in the business of retailing licensed merchandise. In particular, university licensors and their bookstore retailers may consider managing their inventory of licensed products to reflect the greater relative importance athletic teams have in the purchase decision process.

This paper adds to our understanding of customer motivations to purchase university licensed merchandise, and the conditions when merchandise quality is a key decision driver.

The purpose of this paper is to explore consumer decision-making factors related to purchases of licensed merchandise, while focussing on how consumers’ identification with the 2009 World Games (WG), perceptions of quality and attitudes toward collecting, affect the decision-making model with regards to purchasing intention.

The research model is based on the study of Kwak and Kang (2009), but also includes an assessment of consumers’ collecting attitudes. A purposive sampling method was adopted and data were collected from 1,985 valid samples via questionnaire surveys during the 2009 WG in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Structural equation modeling was used to test the decision-making model presented in this study.

The results reveal that consumers’ intentions with respect to purchasing licensed merchandise are influenced most by their attitudes toward collecting, followed by the perceived quality of the merchandise. The findings also suggest that the greater the perceived quality of licensed merchandise, the more positive the consumer attitude toward collecting. Lastly, the study finds no direct effect between respondent WG identification and intention to purchase licensed merchandise.

An exploratory concept proposed in this study, WG identification, is quite different from either event or place identification. In this study, due to its influence on at least two other relationships, the effects of one's attitude toward collecting prove to be much more complicated than the previous literature suggests. Since all data were collected in Taiwan, the research findings may have been influenced by particular local cultural and political factors, and therefore might not be well informed by inferences drawn from western populations.

It was found that emphasizing the collectability of licensed merchandise is the most effective strategy for increasing consumer purchasing intention and promoting sales of merchandise at similar international events and competitions. This finding should encourage those interested in increasing consumers’ purchasing intention to pay more attention to the importance of licensed commemorative merchandise.

Due to a lack of first-hand data on the consumption of licensed merchandise at major international events and competitions, little direct empirical research has been done in Taiwan. This study is the first attempt to explore this issue.

The purchase drivers of merchandise sales rank in professional sport are examined at both a conceptual and an empirical level. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A database was constructed for all 30 clubs in the National Hockey League based on a conceptual model of relevant variables. Both public and private data sources were accessed, covering an extensive 12-season period (1999-2011), including the 2004-2005 lockout when the season was cancelled. Principal-components analysis was used to reduce the number of variables for regression analysis to distinguish relatedness and to gauge the influence of those variables on merchandise sales rank.

The results reveal that six club-based factors impact merchandise sales rank: Overall Fan Satisfaction, Media Exposure, On-Field Performance, Strength of a Club’s Brand, Local Market Dynamics, and Fan Capacity to Pay. These six categories of purchase drivers form a strong predictive model of merchandise sales rank in the National Hockey League.

The resulting model could be extended in future research by adding extra categories to the conceptual framework and by developing alternative or better measures of the variables the authors use. It could also be tested with other sales data as the dependent variable since the study was limited to ranking data on merchandise data for the National Hockey League clubs for each year. Future research could use the actual merchandise dollars for each club in a league to test the model. A further extension would be to model subparts of merchandise (such as jersey sales, impacts of brand changes, etc.). A similar area of future research would be to look at the role of individual athletes as opposed to clubs in driving merchandise sales rank or volume.

For managers in professional sport, the results suggest that there are steps that can be taken to improve merchandise sales rank (and, by extension, merchandise sales volume). Practitioners can develop and follow strategies in this regard. Results also suggest that practitioners should put the achievement of high Regional Television Ratings – the strongest influencing variable on merchandise sales rank – as a priority.

The results confirm that brand is important when attempting to increase merchandise sales rank. Club managers need to be cognizant of their brand and its impact on merchandising in all decisions.

The business of professional sport is evolving globally with new sources of revenue, including merchandising increasing in prominence. This research explores the drivers of merchandise sales rank in professional sport and provide direction on key antecedents. The study proposes and tests a conceptual model.

The purpose of this study is to examine the ability of supply chain merchandise replenishment strategies to minimize merchandise plan errors when assortments are diverse.

Sourcing Simulator 2.1, a computer simulation of the merchandising process, was used. Sourcing Simulator generated a total data set of 4,320 and determined financial outcomes of the merchandising processes based on multiple scenario inputs.

The impact of supply chain merchandise replenishment strategies on merchandising performance outcomes significantly differed, depending on assortment diversity and merchandise plan errors. The ability of supply chain merchandise replenishment strategies was limited in minimizing problems inherent in diverse assortments and over‐volume errors.

Sourcing Simulator does not necessarily simulate merchandising processes and performance in real retail stores but principles developed through simulation can be applied in retail stores. Future research based on real information is suggested for additional realistic understanding.

The study suggests that apparel and retail firms should develop both up‐front assortment planning and replenishment strategies, considering the level of assortment diversity.

Based on Behavioral Theory of the Apparel Firm, the study contributes to understanding the importance of merchandising functions in an apparel firm. In addition, the study illuminates assortment diversity as an important factor of merchandise planning, especially when apparel and retail firms plan replenishment strategies to minimize merchandise plan errors.

This paper aims to address the following questions: is good liner shipping connectivity a requisite for merchandise imports plus exports? What is the average of merchandise imports plus exports of the countries neighboring China? Do the merchandise imports plus exports of these countries correspond to each country’s own merchandise imports plus exports or liner shipping connectivity index (LSCI)?

The authors spatially analyze liner shipping connectivity and merchandise imports plus exports using 2016 data and a common framework for linear regression to establish the relationship amongst a country’s LSCI and its merchandise imports plus exports and between its merchandise imports plus exports and those of its neighbors. Merchandise imports plus exports of countries are not necessarily independent of each other, and countries that are contiguous may produce similar observations.

North America and Western Europe comprised clusters of countries that participated more actively in the international trading system, while Africa’s countries had less international trade than average. The study identifies and quantifies the geographical ripple of transport infrastructure on merchandise trade from a national perspective. Notably, a spatially lagged term improved the model’s ability to account for variations in merchandise imports plus exports across countries.

The spatial lag of merchandise imports plus exports can contribute to specifying the spread of merchandise imports plus exports beyond what the authors would anticipate from a country’s network of liner shipping.

The primary purpose of this study is to examine how fan attendance at team special events and player appearances impact fan consumption (as measured by merchandise sales). Insights obtained could shed light on opportunities for professional soccer teams to expand revenues through enhanced fan consumption of goods and services.

A sample of 499 season ticket holders were used to assess fan consumption by measuring merchandise sales. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions were run for merchandise sales as the dependent variable of fan consumption. The control variables were age, gender (male = 1, 0 otherwise), and whether an individual has children.

The key independent variables of attending special events and fan–player bonding were both found to have a statistically significant impact on merchandise sales. Results show that each additional special event attended generates up to $33.71 in merchandise sales for the club. Similarly, each fan–player bonding experience attended also has a direct impact, increasing merchandise consumption by $23.00.

The results of this study provide insights that can help fan consumption grow within the professional United States soccer industry and better allow team managers to make decisions about the possible benefits of holding more special events and fan–player bonding experiences. The findings also confirm the impact personal relationships with fans can have on the bottom line of sport franchises.

Though this study adds to the body of literature by expanding previous work on fan consumption, there are limited studies on the social aspects of consumption which are examined and analyzed within this study, particularly of note is the study of merchandise sales as proxy for fan consumption.

This paper aims to develop supply chain strategies for the fashion retail supply chain (FRSC), likely to be disrupted by the current pandemic (COVID-19) under physical and online retail stores. The resilient retail supply chain design is proposed under budget allocation and merchandise capacity constraints.

This paper utilises the theory of constraint (ToC) and goal programming (GP) to address the COVID-19 impact on FRSC. The budgetary and capacity constraints are formulated with a constraint optimisation model and tested with six different priorities to deal with the physical and online stores. Next, all priorities are developed under different FRSC business scenarios. The ToC-GP-based optimisation model is validated with one of the Indian fashion retail supply chains.

The proposed optimisation model presents the optimal retailing strategies for selling fashion goods over physical and online platforms. The multiple scenarios are presented for developing trade-offs among different strategies to maximise the retailer's merchandise performance. This paper also highlighted the strategic movement from high merchandise density stores to low merchandise density stores. This implies a reduction of sales targets and aspiration levels of both online and physical fashion stores.

The proposed model is validated with one of the fashion retailers in India. Other nations or multiple fashion retailers might be considered for more generalisation of findings in the future.

This research helps fashion retail supply chain managers deal with consumer demand uncertainty over physical and online stores in pandemic times. Limitation: Other nations or multiple fashion retailers might be considered for more generalisation of findings in the future.

This is the first study that considered the impact of COVID-19 on the retail fashion supply chain. The effect of physical and online platforms is mainly discussed from consumer marketing perspectives, but an inventory and resilience perspective is missing in earlier studies. The role of merchandise planning is highlighted in this study.