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This paper aims to study how retailers moving from a multi- (in-store and online) to a single- (online) channel impacts consumers’ retailer and channel choices.

The authors conduct two scenario-based experimental studies to examine consumers’ in-store and online channel shopping preferences and behavioural intentions (i.e. channel and retailer choices) when their preferred focal retailer’s physical store closes.

The findings show that when a focal retailer removes its physical store location, consumers with a strong preference for shopping online have a greater likelihood of shopping online. Their loyalty towards the retailer explains this relationship but is conditional on low levels of reactance. When reactance is high, consumers with a strong preference for shopping online are more likely to switch to a competitor.

This research paper bridges the intersection between B2B and B2C literature to understand how retailers’ channel-related supply chain decisions affect downstream consumer shopping behaviour.

With channels of distribution changing rapidly and multi‐channeling becoming increasingly widespread, studies of consumers will need to focus not just on understanding product choice, but also on understanding the reasons for channel choice. Although the choice of individual channels and the adoption of new channels has been researched, there is little to suggest that we have a more general understanding of why consumers, although purchasing essentially similar products, use some channels rather than others. Using the example of financial services, where multi‐channeling has been the norm for some time, this paper reports on an exploratory study to identify those factors which influence channel choice. Based on the results of focus group discussions, the paper argues that channel choice in financial service can usefully be conceptualised as being determined by consumer, product channel and organisational characteristics, with product‐channel interactions and consumer‐channel interactions being particularly important.

Improved indigenous chicken is considered a sustainable agricultural practice with social, economic and environmental indicators. Therefore, the analysis of the choice of market channels is of considerable importance to farmers with reference to improved livelihoods and poverty alleviation in developing countries. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence market channel choices among improved indigenous chicken farmers in Baringo County and to rank the determinants according to their level of importance in influencing farmer's choice of marketing channels.

A multistage sampling technique was employed to collect data from 209 households for the study conducted between April and July 2019, out of which, 198 useful responses were obtained. Multinomial logit regression and neural network models were used to analyze the factors influencing market channel choice based on socioeconomic, demographic and farm characteristics.

It was established that group membership, education, market distance, transport costs, farm size, cost of information and bargain costs were statistically significant in the choice of market channels (wholesaler, brokers, processors and supermarkets). With the direct consumer as the base market choice. The cost of transport had the highest normalized importance in the prediction of a farmer's selection of market channels for both radial basis function (RBF) and multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural networks. However, flock attributes and age of household head had the least normalized importance in MLP and RBF, respectively.

Due to the insufficiency of resources and time, this study only focused on a small part of the country (Baringo County). However, improved indigenous chicken farming is widely practiced in Kenya. Further studies can be carried out in other counties to validate the results of this study.

The outcome can be used in policy implementation involving improved indigenous chicken production in Kenya.

This study suggests the methods aimed at enhancing poultry sector in other counties in Kenya as well as other developing countries.

This paper aims to examine the factors that can predict citizen-initiated contact with e-government as an attempt to identify important differences between service channel selections. Although more than two decades have passed since the initiation of e-government, digital channel choice is still being questioned, compared to traditional channels, and the level of selection with channels is being investigated.

This study states three research questions that are answered through a literature review and statistical analysis of a survey in a developed country. More specifically, it identifies the factors that impact channel choice and validates them with survey results. To this end, this paper utilizes data from a national Canadian survey, where citizens empirically evaluated their channel choice – e-government, new digital media and traditional service channels – for government contacts.

Statistical analysis over this data return valuable findings such as that the e-government channel is more appropriate for information collection, whereas traditional service channels are more likely to establish individual problem solving. Moreover, the digital divide appears to have an impact on citizen channel choice. Furthermore, digitally literate citizens who are aware of privacy issues are more likely to use new digital media. Finally, citizens are quite satisfied from their new digital media experience, but are not as satisfied with their traditional contact experience.

These outcomes show that e-government obstacles regarding digital divide, trust and efficiency remain active and have to be addressed more carefully by governments. This study shows that e-government and new digital media are not simple channel choices, but are complex in public service delivery. These outcomes confirm the significance of channel choice for transforming government, as e-government appears to be a part of a broader channel choice agenda.

Farmers’ selection of vegetable marketing channels directly affects their income and is important to stable vegetable supply and food control. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the farmers’ selection behavior of vegetable marketing channels, and to determine the key factors which affected farmer’ decision making.

A total of 191 valid questionnaires were collected from 50 villages in seven main vegetable production districts in Beijing urban areas from September to December 2015, yielding a response rate of 86.8 percent. The multinomial logit model was used for analysis in this study.

The results revealed that the farmers mainly selected farmers’ market, cooperative, and wholesaler to sell their vegetables, which comprised 96.57 percent of total vegetable sales. Estimation results showed that cooperative, vegetable acreage, price satisfaction, and slow sales were most important factors which influence positively the probability of opting to sell vegetables at a cooperative rather than at the farmer’s market. For wholesalers, gender of the household head and cooperative had most significantly negative effect, and age had a positive impact on farmer’s choice of market channels.

The results and implications obtained in the present study could help policymakers to establish a scientific-based and reasonable policy to encourage vegetable producers to participate in the circulation of vegetables in Beijing and guarantee their income in vegetable supply chain. The suggestions of this study could also be used for the improvement of the vegetable sector in other cities facing similar issues.

This study aims to explore consumers' motives for their choice of complaint channel in the context of self‐service technology (SST) failure. Traditional and evolving communication channels are considered.

Qualitative self‐report data from consumers who had recently experienced dissatisfaction with SSTs were collected via an open‐ended survey question. Three independent coders used a deductive and inductive iterative process to code the data.

The findings suggest that both consumer complaint behaviour (CCB) theory and media richness theory (MRT) help to explain consumers' motivation for channel choice. However, consumers' choice appears to be motivated to a greater degree by convenience rather than task‐medium fit.

This study was set solely in the SST context and explored consumers' hypothetical complaint channel choice, not actual channel use. Future research could examine the actual performance of complaint channels as perceived by consumers. Consumers' motivation to choose other emerging electronic complaint channels, such as complaint blogs and forums, could also be explored.

Understanding consumers' complaint channel choice is important for organisations to enable them to provide effective and efficient ways for consumers to complain. As complaint channels proliferate, it is difficult for organisations to know which channels to offer.

Choosing an appropriate channel for resolving a complaint is an important consumer decision, which the study of CCB needs to be broadened to include. The current study addresses this gap by, for the first time, integrating CCB theory and MRT. This is valuable because it is common for consumers not to voice their complaints to organisations. To facilitate voiced complaints, organisations need to determine which complaint channels will be most effective and efficient and in which situations.

This paper aims to investigate customers’ motivations and the decision-making process when choosing a channel in a “social” multichannel environment that includes social media channels, and the complementary and competitive effects compared to traditional channels within the multichannel strategy of a major European telecoms provider. A conceptual framework of multichannel customer behaviour in a “social” multichannel environment is proposed.

The study adopts an exploratory approach through 74 semi-structured interviews with customers of a major European telecoms provider who have also used social media channels to contact the company (customer-initiated contact, CIC).

Users of distinct social media channels are driven by different motivations. For instance, the social motivation for using social media is evident for Facebook users, while Twitter users are mainly driven by utilitarian considerations. Although users of different social media channels represent distinct segments in terms of behaviours and motivations, complementary effects among channels (new and traditional) are generally detected in the sense that a better customer experience is driven by the presence of multiple channels.

Data collection was performed for only one company in one industry and should be extended to other industries, although our results were confirmed by discussions with social media managers of other companies.

The research offers suggestions to develop multichannel strategies in a “social” multichannel environment.

This study advances knowledge in the multichannel management field by investigating why and how customers utilize channels in a multichannel environment that includes social media channels. The authors develop a conceptual framework of multichannel customer behaviour for CIC in a “social” multichannel environment.

A reconciliation of channel theory with the observed practice of one sector of UK industry

The purpose of this research is to propose and validate a theoretical framework explaining web-rooming and showrooming as a multi-stage decision-making process. The authors have used consumer purchase decision-making theories to propose a model that identifies showrooming and webrooming as a combination of two decisions, channel choice during information search and channel choice during actual purchase. Further, the authors explored how various antecedents of showrooming and webrooming have differential effects on various stages of a purchase decision-making process and how product type moderates the relationships.

The authors have conducted empirical research, whereby 243 responses were obtained from a cross-sectional survey. The authors have used structural equation modeling and multiple regression analysis to validate our theoretical model.

Webrooming or showrooming is a multi-stage decision-making process for the consumers. First, consumers decide whether to search online or offline and then whether to buy online and offline. Different individual, purchase context-related and channel related factors impact these decisions. Product type governs which variables will be more important than others.

The research looks to enhance the understanding of the consumer's decision-making process during showrooming and webrooming while also helping retailers design and implement appropriate strategies that could affect consumers during information search and actual purchase.

This paper aims to examine the influence of user characteristics on preference for government service delivery channels. Preferences are understood as citizen use of and satisfaction with digital and traditional government contact modalities. User characteristics are represented by three constructs encapsulating the key elements of citizen features and attitudes.

The constructs are tested on data from a survey of 30 cities in China, resulting in 3,000 respondents, which asked questions on respondents’ use of and satisfaction with traditional modes (hotlines and service center channels) and digital modes (e-government and m-government channels) as well as respondents’ sociodemographics, technological capacity and view of government.

The results showed two important findings. First, service channel use was related to the first and second constructs (sociodemographics and technological capacity). Second, service channel satisfaction showed strong evidence of relation to the third construct, view of government.

The results of this study make an empirical contribution to understanding the features of citizens that influence channel choice for public service contacts.

This study contributes to the understanding of channel choice in three areas. First, it is an empirical study using survey data and so adds to a largely case-based and conceptual literature. Second, by looking at the impact of citizen attitudes about government and not just their sociodemographic features. Third, by examining channel choice in the context of a fast-developing country like China.