Consumer Patronage Research Articles

Antecedent factors for supermarket visits of Vietnamese consumers: A proposal for store image dimensions

This study aims to discuss a practical set of store image dimensions in a supermarket format to understand the relationship between store image and consumer patronage behaviour. A quantitative approach was applied to 506 datasets obtained from a survey conducted in Ho Chi Minh City. Using a structured equation modelling (SEM) approach, an analytical framework with practical dimensions is proposed to measure consumers’ perspectives and attitudes. Five dimensions have been validated, resulting in consumers’ intentions to visit supermarkets: store atmosphere, merchandise, store location, customer service and promotional tools. The SEM results reveal that the most significant impact comes from store atmosphere, followed by merchandise dimension as a merged dimension based on product price. The findings imply that Vietnamese consumers perceive store image through a more holistic and interrelated view of newly boosted retail formats in the transitional market. The study's examination of the factors that determine supermarket image in Vietnam – a leading retail market in a booming, medium-developed country – provides guidelines that contribute to the development of strategies to win consumers’ support. The study is expected to be a valuable reference for research on retail markets in other emerging countries and to provide helpful information for winning consumer support and ensuring business sustainability beyond the impact of COVID-19.

Influence of Product Branding on Consumers Patronage of Fast Moving Consumers Goods in Anambra State, Nigeria

Influence of Product Branding on Consumers Patronage of Fast Moving Consumers Goods in Anambra State, Nigeria

Revisiting the Big Middle: an fsQCA approach to unpack a large value market from a product specialist retailer's perspective

PurposeIdentifying the patterns of retail institutional change has piqued the interest of retail academics for nearly a century. The Big Middle hypothesis is one of the most recent and hybridized versions of similar theories. According to it, retailers seeking a dominant position in retailing can migrate into the Big Middle, the largest market segment, by specializing in a large market with a broad product assortment or by focusing on a specific product category and simultaneously catering for multiple segments at the same time. This study provides empirical evidence for the latter proposition by employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on the case of UNIQLO, a Japanese clothing specialist retailing giant.Design/methodology/approachThe authors devised a survey to assess (1) consumers' perceptions of UNIQLO's store attributes and (2) their perceived distance between the UNIQLO and potential competitors. The authors used fsQCA procedures to identify multiple confluences of causal conditions that led to a high level of consumer patronage for UNIQLO from various market segments.FindingsThe findings show that UNIQLO's dominance in the Big Middle stems not only from capturing a sizable homogeneous market but from aggregating multiple heterogeneous market segments with disparities of various types. This finding explains how a specialty store retailer achieves its Big Middle position.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings gleaned from fsQCA are not statistically generalisable. It, therefore, is essential to ensure whether similar phenomena are observed under different spatiotemporal settings. Concerning the scope of the research, this study's finding is pertinent to only one part of the Big Middle hypothesis. Future studies are required to cover other dimensions of the Big Middle, including the generalist retailer's cases of the Big Middle.Practical implicationsThe results of this study may present a valuable tool to deepen retailers' understandings on; (1) the multiple causal recipes of customer patronages to their retail offerings, (2) who the pure fans of their stores are, (3) who their principal rivals are in the mind space of the consumers, and (4) their overall market position upon aiming to realise the Big Middle. It will give retail managers an insight into how to design, implement, and churn an efficient and effective RBM.Originality/valueThe study's originality is in empirically scrutinizing and elaborating a part of the mechanism of retail change heralded by the Big Middle hypothesis.

Determinates of consumer patronage of a street food vendor in Nigeria

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that influence the patronage of street food vendor in Nigeria. The data for this study was collected from 385 street food customers in northwest Nigeria, and was analyzed using multiple regression. Also, composite reliability and Average Variance Extracted were used to test the reliability and validity of the instrument. The finding shows that patronage of street food vendor is taken as a function of quality food, value for money and familiarity of the food contents. Since the industry is one of the sources of employment generation, understanding what makes people patronize them can be a contribution to the development of the literature and an important step in designing a more effective policy mechanism for economic growth. Informal sectors are under researched and most researchers delved more on formal economy.

Bajaj Auto (a) – catering to the African market

Learning outcomes After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to: understand how product markets in a given global region are to be analysed and assessed; assess various dimensions of consumer behaviour that would impact the strategies of a firm under consideration; identify how a firm can create its brand image and value proposition in a given international market; and evaluate and categorize various threat dimensions that a firm would experience in an international market. Case overview/Synopsis Bajaj Auto (BA) was India’s largest two-wheeler exporter, with ongoing exports to more than 75 countries worldwide. Besides being in other regions of the world, BA’s foray into the African market had been very successful, and it was growing from strength to strength in this market. BA’s motorcycles, three-wheeler rickshaws and small commercial vehicles had been successfully plying the roads of many countries in Africa such as Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya. Rakesh Sharma (Sharma), the Executive Director of BA, knew very well that Africa was a high-risk-high-gain market for BA. Intense competition from Indian and international two-wheeler and three-wheeler manufacturers, global supply chain and logistics issues, various economic and legal challenges, and the threat of losing African consumer patronage were the challenging issues that Sharma was facing in this market. Would Sharma be able to effectively assess the market environment and consumer behaviour prevalent in the African countries? Would he be able to recognize BA’s brand and value-propositions and identify the international marketing challenges threatening BA’s smooth ride in this market? Complexity academic level The case can be taught in advanced undergraduate, MBA or executive-level programs. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 5: International Business.

A Study of the Buying Behaviour of the Customers towards Online Shopping: A Special Reference to Myntra

This study aims to investigate consumer behaviour towards online shopping, which further examines various factors This research aims to find the users “Attitude towards MYNTRA online shopping towards digital marketing to analyse the perception and awareness of the consumers towards online shopping. The sample required for the study has been collected through structured questionnaire. The sample size for the study taken is 60. So as per technology development all the consumers are moving towards online shopping through the digital marketing. The findings of the study showed that online marketing is a viable marketing communication channel which has significant effect on the regularity of visits and consumer patronage of online stores. Based on the findings, it was recommended that companies should ascribe to market their goods and services via online shopping stores and/or develop and launch indigenous websites where customers can make purchases. For further testing of the impact of shopping websites on behaviour of electronic devices buyers, further studies should replicate the theory and methodology used in this study, with other products and websites.

Omnichannel retailing: does it empower consumers and influence patronage?

PurposeThis study analyzes how omnichannel integration influences customer patronage intention, highlighting the moderation effect of consumer service experience consciousness. Additionally, it also examines the sequential mediating role of consumer empowerment and satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a survey method to collect data from 336 young Indian consumers, having experienced omnichannel retailing. Data were analyzed using SPSS PROCESS macro to examine both the mediating and moderated relationships.FindingsThe results confirm that a customers' perceived online–offline channel integration increases their patronage intention directly and through the mediating role of consumer empowerment and satisfaction. Additionally, as a moderator, consumer service experience consciousness does not necessarily impact consumer patronage interest through the mediating role of consumer empowerment. Nevertheless, it does have a negative impact through the mediating role of consumer satisfaction.Practical implicationsThis study provides insights into designing online–offline retailing integration, based upon which, proposes several recommendations for increasing customer satisfaction and patronage intention.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is among the first studies to highlight the theory of consumer empowerment in the context of omnichannel retailing. Thus, it contributes to the extant literature on omnichannel retailing while investigating the moderating role of consumer service experience consciousness.

Mechanism Linking AR-Based Presentation Mode and Consumers’ Responses: A Moderated Serial Mediation Model

The technological development of online product presentation modes (e.g., augmented reality, virtual reality) will greatly impact the future of e-retailing. The potential benefits of applying these new technologies for e-retailers need further investigation. Based upon the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model, this study examines the effect of AR-based presentation modes on consumer patronage intention, with the mediating role of immersion, enjoyment, perceived product risk and attractiveness of the online store. Furthermore, it explores the moderating effect of technophilia that reflects consumers’ positive attitude towards technology. A single factor between-subject experiment study was conducted with a sample of 420 university students. Results suggest that the serial indirect effects of AR presentation on patronage intention through immersion/enjoyment/perceived product risk and attractiveness of online store are conditional upon the level of technophilia. Technophilia is a critical factor that explains consumers’ psychological and behavioral responses when they are using new technologies. The study provides new knowledge for e-marketing practitioners, as well as AR literature by indicating how and when new technology-based presentation works in evoking consumers’ patronage intention.

Shop-hop till you drop! The effect of the image gap on spillover patronage within retail agglomerations

Despite strong evidence for the existence of spillover effects in consumer patronage between anchor stores and other less dominant stores in shopping malls, research on spillover patronage antecedents and its underlying formation mechanisms appears to be sparse. The current study explores the effect of the difference between perceived store image for anchor versus non-anchor stores on cross-shop consumer behavior drawing from theories of spillover shopping and retail patronage. Employing a questionnaire survey and laboratory experiments to obtain data on shopping experiences, this study shows that the smaller the image gap between an anchor store and non-anchor stores, the greater the likelihood of non-anchor store patronage by customers originally attracted to the anchor store. This study also finds that when customers attracted by the anchor store experience greater self-image congruity with non-anchor stores, the extent of spillover patronage increases, while this happens irrespective of whether they engage or do not engage in purchase in the anchor store. This study provides a viable theoretical basis for facilitating decision-making in both planning and design of effective retail agglomerations.

E-marketing Practices and Consumer Patronage: A Conceptual and Extant Literature Approach

The study examined e-marketing practices and consumers patronage using conceptual and extant literature approach, The objectives of the study are to; examine how website pattern influence consumer patronage, how internet security relates to consumer patronage, ascertain the relationship between Search Engine Marketing and consumer patronage and examine the influence of social media marketing on consumer patronage. The study carried out an extensive and in-depth review of extant literature on existing relationships amongst the independents and the dependent variables of the study to establish if a relevant relationship exist. The results showed that website pattern, internet security, Search Engine Marketing and social media marketing are positively related to consumer’s patronage. The study concludes that all the independent variables examined in the study relate to consumer patronage positively. Website’s visitors need to complete the task efficiently so as to obtain information or conduct a transaction in an appropriate manner. Also, Social media marketing is one essential technique in electronic marketing because it enables firm to use social media to disseminate their messages to their target audience without paying for the distribution.

Packaging Attributes and Consumer Patronage of Cosmetics in Calabar Metropolis, Cross River State

The research examined packaging attributes and consumer patronage of cosmetics in Calabar Metropolis, Cross River State. It was conducted to determine how packaging attributes influenced consumer patronage of cosmetic products in Calabar Metropolis. The study specifically explored the effect of brand name, packaging information and design of packaging wrapper on consumer patronage of cosmetics in Calabar Metropolis, Cross River State. Cross sectional survey research design was adopted and primary data were collected from 139 cosmetic consumers in Calabar Metropolis using structured questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed using multiple linear regression in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 23). The findings revealed that brand name, packaging information and design of packaging wrapper had a significant effect on consumer patronage of cosmetics in Calabar Metropolis, Cross River State. Hence, it was concluded that packaging attributes had a significant effect on consumer patronage of cosmetics in Calabar Metropolis, Cross River State. Therefore, the following recommendations were made: manufacturers of cosmetics in Calabar should strive to build strong brand names for their products by maintaining the highest level of product quality in order to enhance consumer patronage; adequate product information should be displayed on the packaging of cosmetics in order to enable consumers make informed purchase decisions; , and manufacturers of cosmetics in Calabar should consistently ensure that attractive designs are displayed on the packaging of their products in order to entice consumers to patronize.

The Effect of Corporate Philanthropy on Consumer Behavior: Open Innovation in the Operating Mechanism

The aim of this study was to highlight the effect of corporate philanthropy (CP) on consumer patronage behavior. For this purpose, reciprocity was taken as the key mechanism which determines consumers’ willingness to participate in and buy goods or services of a company performing philanthropic activities. The moderating effect of trust and vicarious licensing was also studied. Considering the importance of CP to society and its residents, it is essential to recognize its effect on consumer patronage behavior. To accomplish this objective, data were collected from 340 respondents via a questionnaire. The results of this research revealed that reciprocity shows a statistically significantly positive association with both participation intention (R = 0.729, R2 = 0.531, p = 0.000, b = 0.740) and purchasing intention (R = 0.71, R2 = 0.534, p = 0.000, b = 0.878). Similarly, trust strengthens the relationship of reciprocity with both participation intention (b = 0.250) and purchasing intention (b = 0.310). However, vicarious licensing weakens the relationship of reciprocity with both participation intention (b = −0.175) and purchasing intention (b = −0.187). The mediation effect of participation intention was also examined in this study. The results of this research will contribute to the benefit of society, since philanthropy plays a vital role in society’s progress. The greater response of consumers towards companies performing philanthropic activities justifies the importance of CP.

Assessment of the Relationship between Sponsorship and Consumer Patronage of GSM Service Providers in Kano Metropolis

This study attempts to explore the relationship between event sponsorship and consumer patronage of GSM service providers. A survey questionnaire was used to gather data from 395 consumers of GSM services in Kano metropolis, Nigeria. Pearson?s Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient test was conducted. Weighted average was also used to analyze the relative influence of each element of sponsorship on consumer patronage. Contrary to priori expectation, it was found that sponsorship engagements by GSM service providers has no significant relationship with consumer patronage of their services. On the basis of this finding, measures needed to improve return on investment in sponsorship are recommended.

Effect of Billboard/Poster Advertising on Consumer Patronage of Home Video in Awka Metropolis, Anambra State

This study examined the effects of Billboard/Poster advertising and consumer patronage of home videos in Awka. The study focused on determining the effects of the dimensions of location, content, size and model of Billboard/Poster advertising on consumer patronage of home-videos in Awka. In order to achieve this objective, a descriptive research design was adopted with survey as a method for collecting primary data. The population of the study comprises students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Campus. Accordingly, sample size of 395 respondents was statistically determined as adequate from the population of 33,400 students using Taro Yamane’s formula. Stratified random sampling was adopted and research instrument was structured questionnaire. The reliability of the research instrument was tested using Factor analysis. Results were presented in tables and hypotheses were tested using Multiple Linear Regressions (MLR). The result of the study revealed that location and contents of billboards/posters have significant positive relationship on consumers’ patronage of home videos. It was also found out that sizes and models have positive effect but no significant relationship with consumer patronage of home-video. In conclusion billboards/poster remains effective tool of outdoor advertising. Keywords: Billboard/Poster Advertising, Consumer Patronage, Home Videos, Advertising Media DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-36-06 Publication date: December 31 st 2020

Quality as Determinant for Long Shelf Life and Consumer Loyalty in Nollywood Productions

Nollywood, is the Nigerian film industries that had evolved without state support, and was ranked as as the world’s second largest producers of movies by UNESCO Institute of Statistics. However, the industry has continued to incur the negative consequences of poor quality production on consumers’ patronage and shelf life of produce, in spite of abiding growth propensity. It is against this backdrop that this research was conducted to examine production quality as determinant for long shelf life and consumers’ loyalty in Nollywood movies. The study, which focuses on grassroots, employs the mixed methods research, combining interview, survey, and content analysis as methods for data collection. It argues that the abiding problem of quality in the industry, which is grounded on colonial cinematic legacies, was perpetuated by the failure of Government to align the industry as a viable sub-sector for economic growth. Thus, the study establishes that there is a direct correlation between the poor production quality, diminishing consumer loyalty and a trifling shelf life of Nigerian movies amidst the increasingly high volume of movie produce. The study concludes that piracy is the fundamental problem that militates against quality investment, which engenders compromise in production quality, and grounds poor consumer patronage and low shelf life. Therefore, the study recommends the need for Government to harness the viability of the industry by engaging needful interventions for the structuring and the development of a bankable movie industry, through legislation and implementation of policies that can stimulate, protect and sustain quality productions of the Nigerian video films.

English

English

Impact of website design features on experiential value and patronage intention toward online mass customization sites

PurposeTo examine the relationships among website design features, consumer experience responses and patronage intention toward online mass customization (OMC) apparel websites.Design/methodology/approachA total of 312 useable online surveys were obtained from Mainland China consumers. Multi-item scales were adopted to measure eight constructs: visual design; information quality; entertainment, aesthetic, educational, escapist experiences; flow; and patronage intention. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to determine factor structures and to test the hypothesized relationships among website design features, 4Es (entertainment, aesthetic, educational and escapist experiences), flow and consequent purchase intention toward OMC apparel websites.FindingsAll hypotheses, but one, were supported. OMC website visual design; information quality; and entertainment, aesthetic and educational experiences had a positive effect on consumer patronage intention.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations include using a sample of consumers from major cities in China; results cannot be generalized to all Chinese consumers. Websites were not actively navigated. Additionally, the present study examined only two dimensions of OMC website quality, visual design and information quality; more tangible and specific features could be considered in future research.Practical implicationsThe findings provide website designers and marketers with insights into experiences that may lead to an increase in patronage intention toward OMC websites.Originality/valueThe study provides evidence that flow helps explain the impact of experiential value (i.e. 4Es) from website design features on patronage intention.

Consumer Communication Deployment Tactics: An Integrated Framework for Lifestyle Brands and Retailers in India (CCF-LS)

Though consumer communication and orientation is a collective responsibility of all the departments/functions across the organization, a majority of lifestyle brands and retailers in India believe that the consumer communication is the deliverable of a single department/function that is widely and erroneously tagged as Marketing Department. This belief is distracting them from understanding the long-term positive impact on consumer patronage and they continue to use high-cost advertisements as one of the major tactics for consumer communication. A single theory, model and framework of consumer behavior from the existing literature available across perspectives, paradigms, and areas of study (Economics, Behavioral Economics, Psychology, Social Psychology, Anthropology, Marketing and so on) is not entirely applicable that could be adopted to suit lifestyle brands/retailers in India and designing a framework without empirical pieces of evidence is also not appropriate. In this study, i) we have studied over 28 consumer behavior theories, models and frameworks; ii) analyzed 24 months’ of actual data of a few select organized lifestyle brands and retailers in India; iii) borrowed experimental findings and insights from previous studies relevant in this context, to identify 50 factors influencing the outcomes of each stage of the consumer decision-making process and selected a few of them that have indicated the high scope of influencing capability by a lifestyle brand/retailer to design an economical and effective framework that is useful in designing consumer communication deployment tactics by a lifestyle brand or retailer in India. The framework is named as CCF-LS.

Consumer Communication Deployment Tactics: An Integrated Framework for Lifestyle Brands and Retailers in India (CCF-LS)

Though consumer communication and orientation is a collective responsibility of all the departments/functions across the organization, a majority of lifestyle brands and retailers in India believe that the consumer communication is the deliverable of a single department/function that is widely and erroneously tagged as Marketing Department. This belief is distracting them from understanding the long-term positive impact on consumer patronage and they continue to use high-cost advertisements as one of the major tactics for consumer communication. A single theory, model and framework of consumer behavior from the existing literature available across perspectives, paradigms, and areas of study (Economics, Behavioral Economics, Psychology, Social Psychology, Anthropology, Marketing and so on) is not entirely applicable that could be adopted to suit lifestyle brands/retailers in India and designing a framework without empirical pieces of evidence is also not appropriate. In this study, i) we have studied over 28 consumer behavior theories, models and frameworks; ii) analyzed 24 months’ of actual data of a few select organized lifestyle brands and retailers in India; iii) borrowed experimental findings and insights from previous studies relevant in this context, to identify 50 factors influencing the outcomes of each stage of the consumer decision-making process and selected a few of them that have indicated the high scope of influencing capability by a lifestyle brand/retailer to design an economical and effective framework that is useful in designing consumer communication deployment tactics by a lifestyle brand or retailer in India. The framework is named as CCF-LS.

Locating collection and delivery points for goods’ last-mile travel: A case study in New Zealand

Collection and Delivery Points (CDPs) have been proved to be efficient in terms of decreasing the occurrence of first-time failed deliveries and delivery costs of goods bought online in European countries. However, CDPs have only recently been introduced in New Zealand, and service providers are trialling with a few CDPs established in larger cities, such as Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Selection of CDP locations on an ad-hoc basis is likely to be expensive for service providers and the adopted location configuration may not be able to attract the desired consumer patronage. Thus, selection of locations and the density of CDPs needs to be done on the basis of considering factors, such as consumers’ distribution pattern and accessibility to potential CDP locations. This study aimed to identify the optimal density and locations for establishing CDPs, using Christchurch as a case study. A set-covering problem approach to locating facilities was adopted, taking city demographics and travel distances between population centres and potential facility locations into consideration. Non-conventional CDPs, such as dairies and supermarkets were found to be more accessible, and thus may well prove to be efficient for locating CDPs than traditional post shops. The results also suggest the spatial location of facilities forming an optimal configuration of CDPs.