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The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of customer’s value to the retailer (CVR) from a marketing perspective. CVR is a broad concept that has two components: loyalty intentions to the retailer and intentions to try new products or brands that the retailer offers. This study proposes a theoretical model and considers the effect of three sources of CVR in consumer goods retailing: customer’s perceived functional service value, customer’s perceived private label brand (PLB) equity and customer’s perceived relationship value. The effects of the proposed antecedents are applied to two groups of customers: variety-seeking and non-variety-seeking consumers.

The questionnaire surveys were administered to customers of five retail firms with a nationwide presence in Spain (Carrefour, Auchan, Eroski, Mercadona, and El Corte Inglés). A total of 742 valid questionnaires was obtained.

The results show that the key differences between variety seekers (VS) and non-variety seekers (NVS) are imposed by PLB equity, which has a stronger relationship to both components of CVR for VS than for NVS. Relationship value has a stronger relationship to intention to try new products or brands for NVS than for VS. Finally, functional service value has a stronger relationship to intention to try new products or brands for VS than for NVS.

The results obtained for both groups have significant implications for segmentation and management of differentiated marketing strategies based on consumers’ characteristics (variety-seeking tendency).

This study establishes a new concept and measurement of CVR as determined by the customer him/herself. The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of how the relative importance of service, PLBs and relationships affect CVR. Finally, despite the fact that contemporary consumers tend to seek variety, the variety-seeking profile has not been used to date as a moderating variable in studies of CVR.

The study aims to examine the moderating role of variety-seeking behaviour between customer engagement and its antecedents (customer satisfaction and customer value). Further, this study also tests the existence of the value-satisfaction-engagement behaviour chain.

The perception of 262 respondents was used to examine the hypothesis using the structural equation modelling approach.

The moderation effect of variety-seeking behaviour between customer satisfaction and customer engagement was found to be significant. Also, customer satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between perceived value and customer engagement, hence, empirically validating the value-satisfaction-engagement model in the retailing context.

The findings draw managers' attention towards the segment of consumers who are more likely to be engaged, thus helping managers develop a more efficient and focussed strategy to achieve customer engagement. The result also suggests that variety-seeking buyers may not get engaged even after satisfaction.

This paper is among the first to empirically test the moderating role of variety-seeking behaviour to achieve customer engagement.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the range of explanations for why wine club members defect and move on.

This quantitative research study uses data from US wine consumers, gathered through an online survey of 399 former wine club members who had quit their membership in the recent past. Consistent with literature on customer churn rates in subscription markets, data are analyzed using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, hierarchical multiple regression and analysis of variance.

The results reported by respondents indicate that higher levels of perceived product quality, fair value in pricing, variety seeking and commitment to customer service at the beginning and at the end of a wine club membership lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction and a desire to recommend the club to others even after quitting. Though variety seeking is more commonplace among experienced wine drinkers, the good news for wineries is that consumers are more likely to recommend a wine club to others if at least a year has passed after they decided to quit.

The results provide implications for wine club managers seeking to improve wine club retention with suggested means for mitigating the rate of customer attrition.

This paper presents original research addressing a variety of reasons why wine club members quit. The extant research has found that factors such as product quality, fair pricing, service commitments and variety-seeking behavior affect members’ satisfaction with their wine club, as well as their desire to recommend it to others. The authors have attempted to combine all these factors into a single study to gain insight into wine club members’ switching behavior, and to find out what the wineries can do to improve customer loyalty.

Recent research has shown that personality traits such as sensation seeking, and product‐induced effects such as evocation of involvement, influence variety seeking by food consumers. Considers the additional factor of consumers′ early purchasing of new food brands/products. Three studies highlight the relationships between patterns of initial consumers′ purchasing both of general and “healthy” food innovations and their consumers′ cognitive styles. The findings generally corroborate other research but show that sensation seeking and other traits often associated with early adoption are not, in fact, linearly related to variety seeking. In particular, consumers who show the greatest level of variety seeking are those who score low on these “innovative” traits but are highly involved with the product field, i.e. personally interested in and likely to think a great deal about it.

Research conducted over the last decade, on the influence of brand inertia or variety seeking on promotional response, has yielded mixed results. Variety seekers have been found to be more price‐sensitive by one set of researchers, while another stream of work finds them to be less sensitive. Reconciling the two findings, the current study empirically addresses the proposition that variety seekers use price promotions strategically, as a way to experiment with different brands over time. Although consumers evaluate price promotions differently according to whether the promoted brand is more or less intrinsically favored than a reference brand, high and low variety seekers respond to brand comparisons differently, leading to differences in evaluation and responsiveness to price promotion offers. The empirical results confirm that high variety seekers are less sensitive to the preference order of considered brands, but only within a limited range of intrinsic brand favorability. Once differences in brand favorability are accounted for, moreover, finds that high variety seekers are more sensitive to promotional effort. This is compatible with the notion that, within an acceptable set of brands, variety seekers use price promotions as a low‐cost strategy for experiencing different brands over time. This understanding of the relationship among promotional offers, specific brands and consumer segments, provides valuable insights to brand managers as they consider their strategic promotional options, and design an effective promotional strategy.

The aim of this paper is to introduce and evaluate an expanded model approximating variety‐seeking behaviour (VSB), which is defined as the phenomenon that consumers switch between brands because of the utility gained from the switch itself.

As a theoretical basis, two existing approaches, the switch (S) and the successive switch (SS) models, were examined and adjusted. The integration of both approaches led to the expanded “switch of brands” (SB) model. SB was tested empirically using panel data for a highly developed food market (the Austrian food market for three product categories, i.e. fruit juice, fruit yoghurt, and chocolate, with data for 2007 and 2008).

The integration of S and SS into the expanded SB model succeeded. Based on an annual comparison, the reliability of the SB model was tested. Since the results can be reproduced, it can be determined that the SB model is reliable. To test the explanatory power, a variable assessing brand loyalty (“brand purchase frequency”) was introduced. Correlation analyses showed that the expanded variety‐seeking model is more appropriate for approximating VSB than either S or SS.

The SB model is still very basic, integrating only three variables. Other influencing variables have to be considered to further improve the significance of the SB model.

The expanded VSB model can be applied in all product categories and markets where panel data are available. It helps to analyse panel data in view of consumers' variety seeking and brand switching behavior.

The expanded variety‐seeking model (SB) is easy to implement and gives valid information on VSB. It can be used for marketing decisions, especially in connection to brand management.

Customer loyalty is a focal concern for marketers who seek to identify its antecedents and causal structure with the aim of better understanding, predicting and managing loyalty. The purpose of this paper is to model both current behaviour (measured as share of wallet) and future intentions as measures of customer loyalty, to quantify the link between current and future behaviour.

A hybrid model, combining reflective and formative constructs, was developed, moving away from the traditional “reflective only” approach to explain customer loyalty. New predictors such as variety seeking, “resistance to change” and risk taking behaviour were tested to explain loyalty.

While “risk” is traditionally viewed as a key variable in financial services, this study finds that variety seeking and “resistance to change” predicted current behaviour and future behavioural intentions better than risk. Higher explanatory power and better model fit was found for a hybrid model combining formative and reflective constructs; in contrast to the more common fully reflective approach.

This study adds to the emerging debate on whether concepts such as loyalty should be treated as reflective and/or formative. The implications from this study suggest that future research can usefully model current behaviour as formative and future intentions as reflective. Future research should test the extent that these findings apply across products and services beyond banking.

This study establishes that variety seeking and “resistance to change” can usefully explain and predict loyalty. The examination of “formative” and “reflective” concepts in explaining loyalty is also novel.

This paper aims to examine how consumers make choices when they are faced with a fixed set of available options, consisting of both preferred and less-preferred choices, in the domain of food consumption. Specifically, the paper offers a novel perspective to predict repeated choice decisions in food consumption, which is termed as “pattern-seeking” – a consumption choice pattern that involves a coherent repetitive sequence of sub-groupings or coherently concentrated sub-groupings of options.

Eight experimental studies that contrast the existing theoretical predictions regarding repeated choices (e.g. primacy effect, recency effect, variety vs consistency) against pattern-seeking were conducted using hypothetical and actual food choices.

The results of experimental studies show that an explicit decision pattern (i.e. pattern-seeking) emerges as the most significant predictor of repeated choice in the food consumption domain.

This study offers a novel perspective on how consumers make repeated choices in the domain of food consumption.

The results show that consumers prefer food consumption with a pattern (vs non-pattern). Thus, it would be better to generate marketing activities that allow customers to satisfy their pattern-seeking more easily.

This study advances the literature on repeated food choices by demonstrating that people possess an inherent preference for patterns in food consumption.

Eating out behaviors vary from one individual to another. However, there is no conceptually underpinned typology to explain this phenomenon effectively. This paper aims to develop a conceptually underpinned typology of eating out attitudes and to distinguish differences based on demographics and actual eating out behaviors.

This study proposes a typology using a 2×2 matrix (high and low levels of involvement and variety seeking) and uses multinomial logistic regression to examine differences between the four groups.

Age, education, the breadth of culinary exposure, and the extent of eating out are significant differentiators between the four eating out attitudes.

The typology can be investigated in cross‐cultural contexts to expand the understanding of eating out behaviors underpinned by involvement and variety seeking. Both restaurants and destination marketing organizations can use the typology to better understand their customers and build effective communication and product mix strategies.

The paper is the first in the restaurant marketing literature to examine and explain the roles of two important and highly relevant consumer behavior constructs: involvement and variety seeking. Additionally, the study provides key insights pertinent to the fast growing Indian market.

The purpose of this paper is to gain insight regarding the impact of consumer regret on shopping in mall kiosks and its relationship with consumer variety‐seeking tendencies.

Two experimental studies are carried out with students and consumers.

Findings of the two studies show that variety and regret play an important role in mall kiosk shopping. Both studies show that individual variety‐seeking tendencies naturally stimulate consumers' search for retailers that allow them additional options (i.e. kiosk retailers that provide higher perceived variety) in comparison with those who only offer minimal assortment sizes.

Mall kiosks are becoming an increasingly common avenue for the release of innovative products and quick entry into the retail market. These outlets have not been studied through academic research and experimentation, and this paper introduces the importance of consumer decision making in such environments.

Considering the findings of this research, it is in the best interest of retailers to minimize the perception of risk involved in purchases at mall kiosk retailers. For example, kiosk retailers should work toward creating service environments where consumers feel a sense of control, as this should help mitigate some of the perceived risks in those retailers.

This paper relates two constructs (regret and variety), which have proven to be very important in e‐tail and retail shopping, to show how they can minimize consumer's perceived risk during a shopping experience.