Search results

Independent travelers are those vacationers who have booked only a minimum of their transportation and accommodation arrangements prior to departure on the vacation. Independent travel is an important and growing sector of worldwide tourism. Choice of vacation itinerary for the independent vacation represents a complex series of decisions regarding purchase of multiple leisure and tourism services. This chapter builds and tests a model of independent traveler decision-making for choice of vacation itinerary. The research undertaken employs a two-phase, inductive–deductive case study design. In the deductive phase, the researcher interviewed 20 travel parties vacationing in New Zealand for the first time. The researcher interviewed respondents at both the beginning and the end of their New Zealand vacations. The study compares pre-vacation research and plans, and actual vacation behaviors, on a case-by-case basis. The study examines case study narratives and quantitative measures of crucial variables. The study tests two competing models of independent traveler decision-making, using a pattern-matching procedure. This embedded research design results in high multi-source, multi-method validity for the supported model. The model of the Independent Vacation as Evolving Itinerary suggests that much of the vacation itinerary experienced in independent travel is indeed unplanned, and that a desire to experience the unplanned is a key hedonic motive for independent travel. Rather than following a fixed itinerary, the itinerary of an independent vacation evolves as the vacation proceeds. The independent traveler takes advantage of serendipitous opportunities to experience a number of locations, attractions and activities that they had neither actively researched nor planned.

This research attempts to expand the understanding of the nature of tourist shopping behavior. More specifically, this study aims to explore the influences of the components of planned behavior, impulsive behavior, and experiential consumption on tourists' intentions to shop/purchase in the tourism context.

This conceptual study reviews and investigates the major current research in the areas of planned behavior, impulse purchase, experiential consumption, as well as tourism shopping behavior/experience. By reviewing and assessing important relevant concepts, this study proposes a conceptual framework of tourist shopping behavior.

Based on the extensive review and discussion of the related literature, this study proposes that tourist shopping intention and actual purchase behavior are influenced by various indicators, including planned behavior, impulsive behavior, and experiential consumption factors. In other words, tourist shopping behavior is a mixture of planned, impulsive, and experiential consumption behavior.

The study of tourism shopping is still limited and in an exploratory stage. The resulting theoretical framework of this study is an inclusive overarching structure systematically explaining the nature of tourist shopping behavior from the perspectives of planned behavior, impulsive buying, and experiential consumption. This study is expected to provide better information and understanding of the factors influencing tourist shopping behavior, which, in turn, will lead to improved planning, marketing and management of sales, expenditures and opportunities in the tourism and retail industries.

This study explores customers' omnichannel continuance intention from the perceived value perspective and examines the differences between planned and unplanned purchases.

A survey method was used to collect data from 311 omnichannel customers. The research model was tested by employing structural equation modelling.

The results indicate that perceived values, namely, utilitarian, hedonic and social value, positively affect customers' omnichannel continuance intention through attitude. Hedonic value is the main demand of omnichannel customers. Purchase plan plays a moderating role in the relationships between perceived values and attitude. Specifically, the effect of utilitarian value on attitude is greater for unplanned purchases than for planned purchases, whilst the effects of hedonic and social value have no difference between planned and unplanned purchases.

The findings provide guidelines for omnichannel retailers' channel integration and customer value proposition. Retailers should provide more hedonic and social value in customers' entire shopping process through channel integration and consider customers' purchase plan when providing utilitarian value.

This study contributes to the literature on omnichannel customer behaviour by identifying new influential factors that impact customers' omnichannel choice. It also extends the application of the theory of consumption values to omnichannel shopping and identifies the role of purchase plan in value offerings.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents of actual purchase behavior vs satisfaction at the point of purchase and the antecedents of actual unplanned vs planned purchase behavior.

By using both survey and actual purchase data from a total of 3,300 shoppers of a Korean fast fashion brand, the multivariate regression analysis and two separate logistic regression analyses were compared to respond to the research questions.

The noticeable point of the findings is that the factors influencing the level of satisfaction and the probability to purchase were different. As common factors for both actual purchase and satisfaction, value for money, and affordable price are the first things that the practitioners have to keep in mind when developing a strategy for fast fashion stores. However, unplanned shoppers, who are over half of buyers, are negatively influenced by the affordable prices in their buying decisions.

The results of this study have implications for the retailers, especially those selling fast fashion products in South Korea.

The current study has merit because of its use of secondary data collected by a large marketing research company on Korean domestic fast fashion brand. In particular, the combination of the large sample survey data collected right after shopping and the actual receipt of purchase has its unique value.

How large should a distribution facility be initially? What size additions to the facility should be planned and when? For example, should a regional distribution centre be built to accommodate the projected inventory volume at the time of its completion or the projected volume some five, ten or fifteen years in the future? Should investments in the building and the materials handling system coincide or be planned separately? Finally, can planned expansions be economically postponed by temporarily leasing outside space or by temporarily expanding the work force to achieve above‐capacity utilisation of the existing facility?

Are your purchases planned or unplanned? A straightforward question, the answer to which can be oversimplified, ignoring the degrees to which customers can be reminded by advertising or attracted by a special offer. Concentrating on pharmacy customers, researchers at UMIST have taken an analytical look at impulse buyers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine certain aspects of the relationship between impulse buying and resulting cognitive dissonance in the context of spring break student shopping.

The paper employs exploratory analysis utilizing a quantitative approach. The sample population was drawn from college students who went on shopping trips during their spring break. The survey instrument measures the cognitive dissonance construct and the impulsive trait, among other things. Because spring break shopping by students differs from typical adult shopping, some context specific nuances are also explored.

The first hypothesis tested was that the level of cognitive dissonance resulting from impulsive buying would be significantly greater than that which occurred after a planned purchase. Additionally, informed by prior theory, it was expected that more impulsive individuals would experience a higher level of cognitive dissonance after an unplanned purchase than less impulsive individuals. However, the empirical data were found to directly contradict these hypotheses. Impulsive buyers seem to experience rather lower levels of cognitive dissonance than planned buyers. Likewise, when a typically non‐impulsive buyer makes an impulsive purchase, the cognitive dissonance experienced by him is seen to be significantly higher than when a typically impulsive buyer makes such a purchase. These findings lead to a new theory, according to which, impulse buying behavior may be a coping strategy used to avoid discomfort associated with the possible disconfirmation of expectations.

Understanding present generation college students' consumption‐related behavior may give vital clues about the changing nature of consumption, as well as offering predictors for the consumption behavior of the adult population in the near future. In addition, by testing certain so far unexplored aspects of the relationship between impulse buying and cognitive dissonance, the paper enriches consumer research literature.

Hungarian economy went through substantial changes in the past few decades and hypermarkets gained high popularity among customers, therefore profiling Hungarian hypermarket shoppers is essential to understand their behavior.

The paper investigates the profile of Hungarian hypermarket shoppers based on a wide questionnaire survey. In the presented research, Computer-Aided Personal Interviewing questionnaires were analyzed using multidimensional scaling and k-means clustering.

Results showed that Hungarian hypermarket shoppers regularly plan their shopping but they buy 8–9 items instead of the planned 4–5 items. However, only 25% of respondents reported the use of shopping list and in spite of the wide digital possibilities, they do not use their mobile devices neither for creating shopping list nor for checking coupons online.

This study explores the profile of Hungarian hypermarket shoppers, which may give additional information for the players of the retail environment about the customers' behavior and preferences.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of in-store mobile usage on purchase decision making in order to understand whether and to what extent the use of the device changes the shopper behavior in terms of planned and unplanned purchases even across different retail store formats.

Data were obtained using a structured questionnaire from 406 respondents interviewed in hypermarket and discount stores, after the checkout. Data were measured through t-tests and the analysis of variance.

The mobile intensifies a process of preparation making it popular and the same across the different store formats, confirming how the growing convergence, making store formats less distinctive in the eyes of the consumer, has somewhat flattened and standardized the pre-shopping out-of-store preparation.

The pervasiveness and the versatility of the mobile, and its ability to influence the decision-making processes, leads to important managerial questions and implications regarding the effectiveness of in-store marketing initiatives and the need to review the mix of out-of-store and in-store investments, with the knowledge that the consumer will continue to become even more prepared and well informed in the future.

Mobile devices could be used out-of-store, as a tool for shopping preparation, and in-store as a tool for self-regulation. Therefore, it becomes crucial to understand how the mobile influences the decision-making process as well as the buying behavior of shoppers.

To investigate shoppers' decision‐making behaviour under conditions of expected and unexpected in‐store price discounts, using mental accounting theory as the analytical framework.

In an experiment manipulating expected and unexpected discounts on electronic organisers and portable audio players, data collected by questionnaire from 240 first‐year business administration students at a Korean university were used to test two hypotheses predicting the ways in which the savings would be used.

Recipients of unexpected discounts tend to spend the savings in store. If a choice of two products is available, the savings are more likely to be applied to the discounted one than the other. Shoppers commit more actively to planned purchases when price discounts are known in advance. The key factor in purchasing behaviour with respect to discounts is the existence or otherwise of predictions. Shoppers' decision‐making in these conditions is, therefore, context and frame dependent.

The experimental subjects were not representative of the general shopping population, and Korea is a distinctive culture. The findings should be interpreted with caution, but are indicative within limits. Aspects of the topic not investigated by the experiment are identified, and future research directions suggested.

Unadvertised discount available at the point of sale offer several potential benefits to retailers, including reduced costs and increased patronage. Pricing strategists need to understand the theoretical basis of customers' behaviour in response to discount offers, for effective planning.

Adds to the body of knowledge relating to crucial aspect of pricing strategy, and has potential applicability beyond retailing.