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The purpose of the study was to examine the potential outcomes of consumers' intention to engage retail store community. The research question focused on: what impact will intention to engage retail store community have on store satisfaction, store commitment, shopping enjoyment and store employee trust?

Survey data were collected from a national panel of 232 adult consumers in the USA. The theoretical model and hypotheses were tested using path analysis in AMOS.

The model was supported. Intention to engage retail store community had a significant impact on store employee trust, shopping enjoyment, store satisfaction and store commitment. In addition, store employee trust and store satisfaction had a significant impact on store commitment.

The study identified a breadth of outcomes that result from an intention to engage with retail store community. Furthermore, the study is limited to a grocery shopping retail store context and only outcomes are identified.

Managerially, retailers want to find innovative ways to compete in the marketplace, and the findings of this study highlight the benefits that can accrue to retailers who want to pursue a community strategy.

Few papers have examined retail store brand communities, and none has identified the outcomes of intention to engage with retail store community.

A mail survey of 428 Nebraska and Kansas businesses from five towns in which Wal‐Mart opened stores between 1989‐1994 resulted in 191 returns regarding retailer response and subsequent performance impact. Less than one third of the businesses with $1 million or more in sales reported a negative impact. In contrast, nearly one half of the businesses with less than $1 million in sales reported a negative impact, with the effect most felt among those retailers located in the central business district. An inverse relationship was observed between changes in retail strategy and store performance.

The different dimensions of the online engagement behaviors exhibited by omnichannel shoppers, who mainly rely on the online channel for information search, are still understudied. This study aims to investigate how service journey quality (SJQ) has an impact on the overall omnichannel customer experience leading to customer identification (CI) with the store, subsequently leading to their exhibition of online engagement behaviors (writing online reviews, blogging, rating products and service online and indulging in customer-to-customer online interactions.

The research is cross-sectional, quantitative and descriptive. Purposive sampling was used to choose the research's participants. Data were collected from 591 Indian omnichannel customers who had previously made an omnichannel purchase that included the concurrent usage of various channels of a retailer using a verified self-administered survey. Using the Smart PLS 4.0 software, the proposed conceptual model has been evaluated.

The results indicate that omnichannel customer experience mediates the relationship between SJQ and CI with the store, subsequently leading to their exhibition of online engagement behaviors (writing online reviews, blogging, rating products and service online and indulging in customer-to-customer online interactions). The perceived customer gratitude toward the store significantly and positively moderated the direct relationship between SJQ and different online engagement behaviors (writing online reviews, blogging, rating products and service online and indulging in customer-to-customer online interactions).

The study relied upon the omnichannel shoppers of only Indian population and relied on a cross-sectional data collection procedure for this research.

Post-pandemic, with highly dynamic shifts in customer preferences, the need for channel-agnostic shopping leading to the unpredictability of purchase patterns has made SJQ the only dimension to achieve sustainable loyalty intentions through value co-creation in an omnichannel retail context. Emphasizing post-purchase behaviors like different online engagement behaviors (writing online reviews, blogging, rating products and services online and indulging in customer-to-customer online interactions), this study is the first to show that SJQ might affect four different online customer engagement behaviors through omnichannel shopping experience and CI with the store. The moderating effect of customer-perceived gratitude toward the retailer on a few proposed hypotheses was also tested to give managerial recommendations. The study also answers the call to investigate the moderating role of customer gratitude in determining service quality-driven engagement behaviors.

The aim of this study is to investigate the psychographic factors of shopping enjoyment, market mavenism and consumer innovativeness and their influence on hedonic and utilitarian values, attitudes and patronage intentions of the small concept luxury department (SCLD) store.

The researchers utilized a quantitative method. An online survey was created and distributed over a three-week period to a representative sample of US luxury consumers. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypothesized relationships among variables.

The theory of reasoned action (TRA) theoretical framework provided an effective model to investigate the perspectives and behaviors of luxury consumers within the SCLD. The findings of this study suggest the SCLD is an effective store format for consumers who are characterized as market mavens, are considered innovative and enjoy shopping.

The findings from this research are beneficial to luxury department store retailers looking to invest resources into a new experiential format to appeal to their consumer base.

The research extends the literature in a rapidly evolving area of retail formats and consumer perception by exploring psychographic factors, including shopping enjoyment, market mavenism and consumer innovativeness, and their impact on the beliefs regarding retail formats' hedonic and utilitarian value.

In today’s retail environment, retailers’ leadership skills can make the difference between the success and failure of their retail stores. Despite the acknowledgment that retailers’ leadership skills and behaviour are important, treatment of the topic within the retail marketing and management literatures is still very limited. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to focus on the relationship between the retailers’ charismatic leadership and frontline employee outcomes.

For the purpose of this study, the authors develop hypotheses about the influence of the retailers’ charismatic leadership on frontline employee job satisfaction, self-efficacy, organizational identification and turnover intentions. Using structural equation modelling, hypotheses are tested using a sample of 208 frontline employees from the Finnish retail industry.

As a first main contribution, the findings of this study indicate that charismatic leadership has a very strong positive impact on job satisfaction. As a second contribution, this study shows that there is strong positive link between charismatic leadership and the self-efficacy of frontline employees. As a third contribution, this study indicates that charismatic leadership is positively related to organizational identification. And finally, this study indicates that charismatic leadership has a very strong negative impact on employee turnover intentions.

This study contributes to retail management and services marketing literature by broadening the current understanding of the leadership behaviour of retailers and its effectiveness and demonstrating how frontline employees respond to charismatic leadership in the retail setting.

The growing complexity of consumer engagement (CE) due to the impact of Internet of things (IoT) has been attracting significant attention from both academics and industry practitioners especially in recent times. Hence, understanding this phenomenon remains very crucial to the body of knowledge. This study conducted a systematic review on IoT and CE with the aim of proposing future research opportunities using the TCCM model.

Extant literature studies were systematically examined by sourcing high ranking ABS journals from EBSCO, ScienceDirect and Emerald. A total of 58 articles were included in the final analysis of this research.

The analysis established the need to conduct more research on CE due to the impact of new technological implementation in retail. The results further suggest the need for extensive research across African countries and emerging markets to enable broader empirical generalizations of research outcomes. Using the TCCM framework, the authors indicated directions for future empirical research.

This study exposes the current trends in CE and IoT. The results and analysis are both compelling and verifiable, hence, establishing a firm base of reference for future research in related fields.

In a consumer-driven world, captivating experiences are increasingly vital and retailers prioritise them for consumers. This study aims to develop a comprehensive theoretical framework that explores the impact of a consumer's multi-sensory and atmospheric experiences on their intention and commitment to a mall, with perceived value acting as a mediating factor.

The study employed a descriptive quantitative research approach and utilised a self-administered mall-intercept survey. A total of 380 shoppers participated in and responded to the survey administered at the mall. The collected responses are analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

Study findings show that experiences significantly influence consumers' intentions to patronise shopping malls, leading to their commitment. The study reveals a strong impact of atmospheric experience on multi-sensory experiences. Furthermore, perceived value mediates the relationship between consumers' experiences and their mall patronage intention.

The research sheds light on the significance of atmospheric elements in creating sensory experiences for consumers. Additionally, the study introduces the concept of “props” as essential components of the atmospheric experiences in retail stores and malls. Furthermore, the study advances inference theory by exploring the effects of these sensory and atmospheric experiences within the shopping mall environment.

The role of retailers in influencing consumer attitude during a brand scandal is quite complex, as retailers are in direct contact with both marketers and consumers. The purpose of the exploratory research is to propose a theoretical model to capture the influences retailers exercise on consumers during brand scandals.

A qualitative approach has been adopted in the study. The study employs the grounded theory approach on the data collected by conducting in-depth interviews with 25 retailers.

Four contextual conditions and six behavioral antecedents of the retailer's role in the context of the brand scandal were identified. Then, the study finds that companies tend to follow two broad approaches during a brand scandal to address retailers' queries and apprehensions. On these bases, the study proposes a six-pronged typology to better understand retailers' role in shaping consumers' brand perception.

Existing literature has not paid adequate attention to this aspect of retailers' role in influencing consumer choices during brand scandal. To the best of the authors' knowledge, there is no prior research which investigates the role and influence of retailers in shaping consumer attitude during brand scandals. It is important to underline that the current research advocates retailers' significant role during a performance-based brand scandal. Specifically, the authors explored a health-related defective scandal of a well-known food brand. In addition, the study focuses on traditional grocery retailers, which already have special relationships with their consumers. Based on retailer perspectives, the authors' contribution is also updating the discussion of branding theory in case of scandals. The identified variables and constructs may be used for empirical investigation on the role of retailers in shaping consumer attitudes toward the scandalized brand.

The topic of customer engagement has been growing in relevance and complexity in the last decade. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to systematically review and critically analyse the research about customer engagement and address the research question: “What marketing research has been conducted on customer engagement until now and what could be future avenues for research?”

A systematic review of the existing literature is performed based on the Web of Science and Scopus electronic databases. A total of 144 articles are included in the final analysis.

Customer engagement is perceived as a multidimensional concept with different definitions and sub-forms associated. There is an increasing number of authors studying the concept in different industries and geographies, with empirical studies being widely used. The concept emerges from specific theoretical pillars. Different constructs are associated with customer engagement, being studied as antecedents and/or outcomes. This study presents 8 major paths for future research.

This type of approach has a certain level of subjectivity, associated to the methodological process for choosing the articles to be included in the final analysis and the applied filters.

Through this study, readers become aware of the state of the art on customer engagement and associated constructs, the gaps found in past research, the research contexts and also have a glimpse about what can be the future of this field of research, as well as research questions to be addressed.

This chapter examines the phenomena of third places as institutions that provide social interaction outside of home and work. The study explores the different types of third places and the opportunities and challenges offered by each. This is a conceptual paper that examines different conceptualizations of third places using brand examples to highlight the ways in which organizations try to benefit from society's need for a neutral gathering place. The chapter highlights the growth of organizations seeking to benefit from the phenomena of third places and the opportunities for them to profit further. The chapter also highlights the potential for virtual third places to enhance opportunities for increasing brand awareness and sales of products and services at other third places. The chapter identifies ways in which hospitality organizations can capitalize on the public's need for third places. The study moves the discussion beyond the rather limited perspective Oldenburg presented and shows how the needs of a new generation may require more flexibility and excitement than other generations. The study also highlights the ways in which organizations use a combination of third places to their benefit. Third places create opportunities for social interaction and community building and benefit organizations once they position themselves to achieve the status of third places. This chapter compares different conceptualizations of third places and shows the similarities and differences between them. It shows how organizations may position themselves to appeal to different generations seeking a third place.