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1 – 10 of over 5000Marta Frasquet, Alejandro Mollá Descals and Maria Eugenia Ruiz-Molina
The purpose of this paper is to understand loyalty in the multichannel retail context. The paper analyses the interplay between offline and online loyalty and the direct and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand loyalty in the multichannel retail context. The paper analyses the interplay between offline and online loyalty and the direct and indirect effects on loyalty of brand trust and brand attachment, in a cross-cultural study.
Design/methodology/approach
Online survey answered by 761 multichannel apparel shoppers in two countries (UK and Spain). Structural equation model multigroup analysis is performed to test the hypothesized relations and the role of culture as a moderating variable.
Findings
Online loyalty is largely driven by offline loyalty, which is also positively affected by brand trust and brand attachment. These relationships hold across the two different cultures.
Research limitations/implications
The findings confirm the validity of applying the theory of cognitive dissonance to explain multichannel shopping behaviours. The authors did not find culture that affects the relationships in the model; however, the validity of these findings should be tested considering other cultural variables different from nationality.
Practical implications
Multichannel retailers should focus on building trust and attachment towards the brand if they want to get online and offline loyalty. The efforts to build stronger bonds between the customer and the retail brand translate into higher loyalty, particularly towards the offline channels.
Originality/value
This paper extends the literature on the interactions between online and offline behaviour by focussing on the power of the brand to build strong customer bonds. The model considers the role of brand attachment together with brand trust in offline and online loyalty simultaneously.
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Yunjeong Kim and Yuri Lee
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether consumers differ in their online or offline purchase intention, depending on which channel with price promotion information…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether consumers differ in their online or offline purchase intention, depending on which channel with price promotion information they are first exposed to, and to analyse the moderating role of brand trust.
Design/methodology/approach
Overall, 174 responses were obtained via an online survey using two contact channels (online/offline) by two levels of brand trust (high/low) between-subject designs.
Findings
Spillover effects were found across channels when a consistent price promotion is executed in both online and offline channels, purchase intentions for cross-channel and contact channel increase simultaneously. Although there was a similar effect in the discrepancy of purchase intentions towards the cross-channel according to contact channels, it varied depending on brand trust. When brand trust is high, having contact with offline price-discount information has a large online spillover effect. When brand trust is low, the spillover effect from online to offline is large.
Research limitations/implications
This study expands the multi-channel research by proving the spillover effects between channels and confirming the difference according to brand trust.
Practical implications
Increasing promotion information for online contact is effective in driving offline visits for new brands, and the effective use of promotion information at offline stores can have a positive impact on online channels for well-known brands.
Originality/value
This study explores the cross-channel spillover effect of price promotion and proves that these effects depend on brand trust.
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Rafael Bravo, Eva Martínez and José Miguel Pina
This paper focuses on the multichannel strategy in the banking sector and its effects on customer engagement. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to propose a model in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper focuses on the multichannel strategy in the banking sector and its effects on customer engagement. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to propose a model in which customers’ perceptions of offline and online channels are related to brand trust and brand commitment, which ultimately lead to customer engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
An empirical study was carried out on a sample of 306 individuals and data were analysed through partial least squares.
Findings
The results show that offline experience is more important than online experience in terms of impact on trust and commitment, which are closely linked to customer engagement. Online experience does not have a significant direct influence on brand commitment and its effect on brand trust is moderated by the customer’s familiarity with the channel.
Originality/value
These findings contribute to the advance in the current knowledge of the joint role of online and offline channels with the aim of strengthening customer relationships. From a managerial viewpoint, customer perceptions formed by their experiences in bank branches are more important than customer perceptions of the website’s performance in the explanation of trust and commitment.
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Soyoung Kim and Christie Jones
The purpose of this paper is to examine how offline brand trust moderates: the relationship between consumers' general attitude toward the internet and their perceptions of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how offline brand trust moderates: the relationship between consumers' general attitude toward the internet and their perceptions of the quality of a retailer's web site and the relationship between their perceived web site quality and intention to shop from the web site.
Design/methodology/approach
Two hundred young female consumers participate in the study. Each selected one of three pre‐determined apparel retailer brands that she has either had experience with or are familiar with. Participants are then asked to keep their selected retailer in mind when completing an online questionnaire. They are also asked to browse the retailer's web site in search of a shirt or blouse. Factor and multiple‐regression analyses are conducted to test hypotheses.
Findings
Offline brand trust exerted a significant moderating effect in the relationship between the efficiency factor of attitude toward the internet and the usability and information quality factor of web site quality. Offline brand trust also played a moderating role in the relationship between the interactivity factor of web site quality and online shopping intention. Implications for multi‐channel apparel retailers are discussed.
Originality/value
While a great deal of research has been conducted to study brand trust, most has focused on product brands not on retail brands. Furthermore, none of the studies on brand trust has questioned nor investigated the moderating role of retail brand trust in the relationship between consumer characteristics and their attitudes and behaviors toward the company's new business format. This paper seeks to contribute to the extant literature on brand trust and multi‐channel retailing by exploring the role of offline brand trust in shopping at a multi‐channel retailer's web site.
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Costanza Nosi, Tommaso Pucci, Yioula Melanthiou and Lorenzo Zanni
The study tests a model that considers online brand trust in different nonbrand-owned touchpoints as a multifactorial construct constituted by: social network influencers…
Abstract
Purpose
The study tests a model that considers online brand trust in different nonbrand-owned touchpoints as a multifactorial construct constituted by: social network influencers, bloggers, online retail platforms and brand-related user generated content. Furthermore, it examines the influences that offline and online brand trust exert on consumer buying intention.
Design/methodology/approach
A convenience sample of 3,335 total individuals participated in the survey. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Online brand trust is significantly influenced by trust in all investigated nonbrand-owned touchpoints. Both offline and online brand trust positively influence buying intention.
Research limitations/implications
Whereas brand trust is considered a multidimensional construct that includes both cognitive and affective aspects, in addition to individuals' personality traits, the present study only investigated the rational dimension of the brand trust paradigm. Moreover, this study examined the influence of brand trust on consumers' buying intention and not overt behavior. In addition, even though the extant literature suggests that the relation between trust and behavioral outcomes may vary across cultures, no test of the possible influences that culture exerted on brand trust and BInt was run. Finally, given the convenience sampling method used in this research, statistically significant surveys would provide a more solid basis for the investigated phenomenon, and they would enable an appropriate generalization of the findings.
Practical implications
To build brand trust and favour buying intention, marketers should monitor and influence the online touchpoints that are partially under or totally out of their control, and reconceive and manage physical stores.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the stream of literature on online brand trust by proving that it is a multifactorial construct resulting from trust in different non-proprietary online entities and pointing out the prevalent role that physical stores play in shaping consumer buying intention. It also indicates that a trust transfer effect takes place between different online information sources and offline outlets.
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Ching-Hsuan Yeh, Hsin-Hui Lin, Yu-Ling Gau and Yi-Shun Wang
To examine the effectiveness of a multichannel strategy, this study mainly investigates two issues: (1) whether customers' five value perceptions (i.e. product quality, service…
Abstract
Purpose
To examine the effectiveness of a multichannel strategy, this study mainly investigates two issues: (1) whether customers' five value perceptions (i.e. product quality, service quality, innovation, price and store image) extend from e-stores to physical stores and (2) whether customers' five value perceptions derived from e-stores/physical stores facilitate purchase intention within and beyond the channel context.
Design/methodology/approach
This study develops a research model to elaborate on the relationships between the focal constructs and collects 177 useable responses via an online community and personal contacts survey. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) methods and mediation analyses are conducted to validate the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The results show that the values perceived in e-stores/physical stores generally motivate online/offline purchase intention, respectively. Next, based on Tversky's belief/feature matching process, the five value perceptions correlate with their counterparts across online and offline channels. The results of the mediation analyses suggest that the advantages established in online channels may be contagious to offline channels at the belief level. Specifically, four of the five online value perceptions may have different effects on offline purchase intention: (1) product quality perceived in e-stores directly (negative) and indirectly (positive) results in offline purchase intention, demonstrating cannibalization effects and (2) service quality, innovation and store image perceived in e-stores indirectly and positively contribute to offline purchase intention, indicating synergetic effects.
Originality/value
The findings of this study provide several important theoretical and practical implications for multichannel and omnichannel retailing strategies.
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Jin-Feng Wu, Ya Ping Chang, Jun Yan and De-Lin Hou
The purpose of this paper is to understand how two online marketing orientations of land-based retailers in product category and price could change retail brand attitude when…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand how two online marketing orientations of land-based retailers in product category and price could change retail brand attitude when retail brand familiarities differ.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper proposes a research model with two orientations in product category and price as antecedents of retail brand attitude change and retail brand familiarity as a moderator. Empirical data were collected from 684 shoppers across three land-based retailers to test the research hypotheses.
Findings
Both orientations in product category and price can improve customers’ retail brand attitudes. Retail brand familiarity plays a significant moderator in some of the situations. Online-offline product category congruence and online-prototypical price congruence have significantly positive effects on retail brand attitude change whether retail brand familiarity is high or low. The effect of online-offline price congruence is significant only among high-familiarity customers, while the effect of online-prototypical product category congruence is found to be significant only among low-familiarity customers.
Research limitations/implications
The study identifies the moderating effects of retail brand familiarity on the relationships between two online marketing orientations in product category and price and retail brand attitude change. Based on the moderating effects, this study will help researchers to better understand the effectiveness of two online marketing orientations subject to varying degrees of retail brand familiarity in a multichannel retailing context.
Practical implications
The findings of this study can guide land-based retailers to focus on the right orientations in product category and price to improve customers’ attitudes toward the retail brand when existing or new customers are targeted.
Originality/value
This study provides a first study to empirically assess the change in retail brand attitude prompted by homogenous and prototypical orientations in product category and price and subject to varying degrees of retail brand familiarity. Overall, the results offer insights of how land-based retailers could manage their overall performance by designing more effective online product category and pricing strategies for existing or new customers.
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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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Mohammad Ahmad Al‐hawari and Samar Mouakket
Although many studies have analysed the impact of online factors on the online behaviour of customers', there is also a need to consider the influence of offline factors on…
Abstract
Purpose
Although many studies have analysed the impact of online factors on the online behaviour of customers', there is also a need to consider the influence of offline factors on customers' propensity for online services use. The purpose of this paper is to highlight how offline factors trigger online continual usage by customers' of airline e‐ticket booking services.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper proposes a conceptual model of the relationship between offline factors and customers' online continual usage behaviour. A convenient sample consisting mainly of undergraduate students was selected. The primary data were collected through a pencil‐and‐paper survey, and AMOS 18 was used to test for the hypothesised relationships.
Findings
The results revealed that employee‐based service quality has a positive and direct relationship with pre‐existing offline trust and image, and no direct relationship with online continual usage. Surprisingly, and contrary to current literature, pre‐existing offline trust had no direct relationship with online continual usage. However, both pre‐existing offline image and subjective norms confirmed the literature and had a direct significant relationship with online continual usage.
Research limitations/implications
This study used a sample of mainly university students to test the proposed conceptual model. Thus, it might not be possible to generalise the application of the outcomes of this study to different populations.
Practical implications
The results of this study confirm the importance of offline factors as a vital tool that support organisations' attempts to encourage their customers to continue using online channels, which are both efficient and convenient. The paper also offers decision makers general guidelines on managing offline factors to stimulate customers' online continual usage behaviour.
Originality/value
The key contribution of this paper is a conceptualisation of predictors of customers' usage of online booking services, that takes into account the most researched offline factors cited in the literature.
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Unlike the traditional bricks‐and‐mortar marketplace, the online environment includes several distinct factors that influence brand trust. As consumers become more savvy about the…
Abstract
Unlike the traditional bricks‐and‐mortar marketplace, the online environment includes several distinct factors that influence brand trust. As consumers become more savvy about the Internet, the author contends they will insist on doing business with Web companies they trust. This study examines how brand trust is affected by the following Web purchase‐related factors: security, privacy, brand name, word‐of‐mouth, good online experience, and quality of information. The author argues that not all e‐trust building programs guarantee success in building brand trust. In addition to the mechanism depending on a program, building e‐brand trust requires a systematic relationship between a consumer and a particular Web brand. The findings show that brand trust is not built on one or two components but is established by the interrelationships between complex components. By carefully investigating these variables in formulating marketing strategies, marketers can cultivate brand loyalty and gain a formidable competitive edge.
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