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A series of research has focused on how virtual reality (VR) technology itself influences consumers' perceptions and attitudes. However, little is known about consumers' unique perceptions and behaviours that can be generated by the specific factors of the virtual stores that they visit. Therefore, the authors examine how the specific aspects of the virtual stores that consumers see on screens – namely, the opacity of virtual stores' exterior design can impact consumer perceptions and behaviours.

Across three studies, the authors employed 3D modelling software (Rhino 6 and Unity) and 3D architectural visualisation software (Twinmotion) to create 360° VR videos for the manipulation of the virtual store exterior design. The authors performed ANOVA and regression analyses with three studies, a total of 858 responses.

Results showed that virtual stores' opaque exterior design can promote product preferences, and this link is serially mediated by store prestige perceptions and product quality perceptions. In addition, this effect is particularly prominent among those with higher involvement in design elements.

By suggesting important design variables to virtual stores, it advances the emerging literature on VR. Furthermore, to our knowledge, this research is the first to highlight the importance of exterior opacity of a virtual store, and it deepens our understanding of how the opaque exterior of virtual stores influences store perceptions and consumer behaviours.

This research aims to investigate the factors which contribute to the power of luxury brands in the stores and the means through which brand power meaning transfers to the clients.

The research protocol follows a phenomenological approach, through analyses of narratives of customers with lived shopping experiences in luxury stores. Data were collected in two phases: first, a collection of experiences from clients with different cultural backgrounds in the same store; second, a comparison of experiences for the same client in thirty-three luxury stores around the world. This cross-examination procedure enhances the trustworthiness of the findings.

Although French and Raven ' s typology of power (referent, reward, coercive, legitimate, expert) is relevant when studying the luxury brand-client relationship, it is not sufficient to explain entirely the sources of the luxury brand power. Through the brand cathedral (the flagship store), the brand ambassadors (sales representative), the brand protocol (rituals and selling ceremony) and the brand treasures (the products), the luxury brand exerts an auratic power which achieves the sacralization of the brand.

These marks of power are difficult to transfer virtually through internet websites. To establish this power, luxury brands need a control over their operations, at least the visual merchandising and the customer relationship. This reinforces the importance of retailing in the luxury industry and the strategic role of company-owned-stores, particularly in “new luxury markets” where the auratic power of the brand is not necessarily established. Additionally, when there is power asymmetry in a service encounter, the customer becomes “hyper-vigilant” regarding the service provided. In luxury stores, the salespersons should be trained to deliver a luxury service, personalized to the very needs of the client.

To the authors ' knowledge, this research is the first to investigate consumers ' perception of luxury brand power.

Reports on a study in which 265 consumers were asked to assign price and quality estimates to women’s sweaters. Uses a 4 x 3 factorial design which incorporates four country cues – the USA, Italy, Japan and Taiwan – and three groups relating to store prestige, which were manipulated. Found that country of origin significantly influenced Taiwanese consumer perceptions of sweater quality. The sweater labelled “Made in Japan” received the highest evaluation and the sweater labelled “Made in Taiwan” the lowest. The cue of store prestige was not significantly related to price estimates and quality evaluations of sweaters. Neither of origin nor store prestige was found to have an effect on price estimates.

Investigates ethnocentric tendencies of Polish and Russian consumers and whether tendencies vary by country, demographic characteristics and store type (formerly state owned or private). Examines whether ethnocentrism affects product selection decisions. Poles are significantly more ethnocentric than Russians. Ethnocentric Poles are older, more likely to be female, less educated, and have lower incomes than less ethnocentric consumers. For Russians, the more ethnocentric consumers are less educated. Degree of ethnocentrism is not related to purchase intention for Poles but is related for Russians. Consumers who shop at formerly state‐owned stores are significantly more ethnocentric than private store shoppers for both countries.

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the literature regarding the effect of country of origin on consumer perceptions of products and services. Results reveal that consumer perceptions differ significantly on the basis of product/service and country of origin. The country of origin may be an important element in the perceptions consumers have of products and services especially where little other information is known. However, the question of how much influence the country of origin provides in product and service evaluations remains unanswered and a number of other major issues have yet to be resolved. Directions for future research are developed.

Consumers consider retailers' standard private labels (PLs) as relevant choices, compared to national brands (NBs), and their demand for private label products has increased significantly over the past decade. At the same time, PLs have undergone a profound transformation as retailers have enhanced their quality. The goal of this research is to investigate the impact of claims used to highlight the enhanced quality of standard PL products on consumers' perceptions and behaviours.

A between-subjects experiment, set in a store laboratory, was used to study consumers' perceptions and behaviours. The impact of six non-nutrition claims – linked, according to the self-other trade-off, either to concern for consumers' health (internal to the self) or for the environment (external to the self) – on consumers' reactions has been studied. Then, the data collected were analysed with partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

This research indicates that health claims retailers make to echo consumers' own concerns have positive impacts at three basic levels: the brand, the retail chain and the store. It also highlights the central role of trust in standard PLs, which, once activated by the non-nutrition claims made by retailers and the increase in the quality of standard PLs thus inferred by consumers, can improve consumers' attitude toward the food retailers' stores and reinforce their intentions to visit again and recommend them.

From a theoretical perspective, this research supplements cue utilisation theory as it applies this framework to standard PLs and establishes that consumers use extrinsic cues (i.e. communications on non-nutrition claims) to infer the quality of standard PL brand products. It also complements scant studies on retailers' corporate social responsibility (CSR) with quality aspects of their own labels as it specifies the levers (i.e. the claims) to use to improve retailers' CSR image and consumers' behaviours.

From a managerial perspective, this research highlights the superiority of retailers' claims related to consumer health and, more specifically, of claims highlighting the natural origin of ingredients. For this specific assertion, trust in the standard PL and the CSR image of the brand have direct and indirect impacts, via attitude toward the stores, on consumers' intentions to return to and to recommend these stores.

Despite the increasing importance of products as effective tools for communicating companies' CSR policies, scant research has been conducted on consumers' reactions to non-nutrition claims, which are increasingly prominent in the marketplace.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the conservation and contemporary management of three nineteenth‐century shopping passages: the Galleries Saint‐Hubert in Brussels, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan and the Passage in The Hague. The submission of the Galleries Saint‐Hubert to the World Heritage Tentative List in 2008, presents a unique opportunity for studying this typology in its contemporary environment.

The authors’ research questions are: what are the characteristics of passages? what are their authentic values? and how can the authenticity of these buildings be conserved by their contemporary management? The applied methodology is a cross‐case‐comparison, based on the definition of authenticity as presented in the Nara Document on Authenticity. The analysis is presented in the form of a matrix.

The findings show that the significant value of passages does not only include the architecture of the building but also the versatility of its program and its present urban role. It is only by conserving this combination that these buildings can be conserved in their full richness of authenticity.

Criteria for transnational inclusion in the World Heritage List of several nineteenth‐century passages are suggested as the matrix used for cross‐case‐comparison may be applied to analyse other case studies of passages, as well as for other types of heritage where authenticity of the site is threatened by uncontrolled retail development.

Although passages have been studied extensively within the field of architectural history, retail history and socio‐cultural studies, hardly any previous research had focused on the preservation and contemporary management of this building type.

The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, to examine the relationship between the retailer’s innovativeness and sustainability from the customer standpoint. Second, to assess the impact of the retailer’s innovativeness and commitment toward sustainability as perceived by the consumer on store image and store equity.

To achieve this objective, a theoretical model is proposed based on the literature that is tested through an empirical study conducted on a sample of 510 customers of three grocery retail formats – i.e. hypermarkets, supermarkets and discount stores.

The results obtained confirm the hypotheses proposed and, consequently, both innovation and sustainability emerge as key elements in the development of store equity through store image.

This study allows to draw a set of managerial recommendations for food retailers based on the benefits of investing in innovative processes, that boosted by the implementation of innovative solutions, assist in the development of sustainable practices, thus allowing improvements in store image and store brand equity.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of the consumer’s emotional shopping experience on the perception of benefits and on the corporate reputation of a department store.

This study was applied to a non-probabilistic sample survey proportionally distributed among the main department stores in Chile and Mexico.

The findings show for both countries that the functional and symbolic benefit perceived by consumers significantly influences the reputation of department stores. However, the hedonic benefit perceived by the consumer had a negative effect on the reputation of the store.

The companies could redirect their marketing and commercial management strategies based on the variables and relationships of the model proposed in this study. For instance, managers should implement strategies to improve the emotional experience of their clients. In addition, future studies also could use other variables inherent to the consumer’s purchasing behavior to evaluate their effects on the corporate reputation of the department store.

This research contributes with the proposal of an explanatory model for decision making, using structural equations that suggest that the affective evaluation of the shopping experience is a key antecedent of the functional, hedonic and symbolic benefits perceived by the consumer. Moreover, the emotional experience plays a key role as an antecedent for the corporate reputation of a company.

El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar el efecto de la experiencia emocional de compra del consumidor en la percepción de los beneficios y en la reputación corporativa de una tienda por departamentos.

Este estudio se aplicó a una muestra no probabilística a través de una encuesta distribuida proporcionalmente entre las principales tiendas por departamentos de Chile y México.

Los resultados muestran para ambos países que el beneficio funcional y simbólico percibidos por los consumidores influye significativamente en la reputación de las tiendas por departamentos. Sin embargo, el beneficio hedónico percibido por el consumidor tuvo un efecto negativo en la reputación de la tienda.

Las empresas podrían redirigir sus estrategias de marketing y gestión comercial en función de las variables y relaciones del modelo propuesto en este estudio. Por ejemplo, los gerentes deben implementar estrategias para mejorar la experiencia emocional de sus clientes. Además, los estudios futuros también podrían usar otras variables inherentes al comportamiento de compra del consumidor para evaluar sus efectos en la reputación corporativa de las tiendas por departamentos.

Esta investigación contribuye con la propuesta de un modelo explicativo para la toma de decisiones, utilizando ecuaciones estructurales que sugieren que la evaluación afectiva de la experiencia de compra es un antecedente clave de los beneficios funcionales, hedónicos y simbólicos percibidos por el consumidor. Además, la experiencia emocional juega un papel clave como antecedente de la reputación corporativa de una empresa.

In an era of burgeoning activity in online retail in India, the role of web-store design is paramount. Web-store design elements such as website functionality, brand assortment and product quality are expected to generate customer loyalty.

Using data collected from 553 students from two universities in north India, the present study investigates the indirect effect of web-store dimensions (through website functionality, brand assortment and product quality) on online store loyalty via an enjoyment state (flow) and customer satisfaction. Serial mediation has been analysed through PROCESS macro developed by Hayes version 3.0. In addition to this, the moderating role of gender and purchase frequency has also been investigated.

The present study renders support to serial mediation between website functionality, flow, customer satisfaction and loyalty. However, the path between brand assortment and loyalty is more strongly mediated by customer satisfaction only. Males experience less flow as compared to females while handling brand assortment on websites. The three-way interaction between brand assortment, gender and purchase frequency is also statistically significant.

The study examines the manner in which online retailers can choose to build customer loyalty when they try to build retail image using web store functionality and /or product/brand assortments. The study offers insights to retailers about how and when to focus on hedonism versus customer satisfaction or both of them in conjunction to enhance customer loyalty. This study is important as it investigates the relationships in Indian scenario witnessing a high rate of growth in online retail which can tremendously affect these relationships.