Retail Store Managers Research Articles

Transcending Food-Miles: Unpacking the Drivers of In-Store Vertical Farming Adoption Among Food Retailers in France

This paper examines the potential of in-store vertical farming technologies in urban food retail as a solution to the increasing demand for fresh, locally sourced food. By enabling a “sell where you produce” model, vertical farming can reduce food miles, enhance traceability, and lower carbon emissions. The study applies the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to analyze factors influencing the adoption of these technologies among food retailers in Rouen, France, with a particular focus on the role of risk aversion in shaping attitudes and decisions. The findings highlight that performance expectancy and facilitating conditions are the key drivers of adoption intentions among retail store managers. However, perceived risks, such as high investments and operational costs, pose significant barriers, while social influence appears to have little impact on their decisions. The study underscores the importance of conducting economic evaluations and risk assessments of vertical farming practices to ensure their long-term viability. As vertical farming holds the potential to boost fresh food production in urban areas, reduce food miles, and create sustainable supply chains, it is crucial to carefully weigh its benefits and risks to support its successful adoption in urban food retail.

Measuring Vietnamese Retail Service Quality: The Retail Service Quality Scale (RSQS) Validation and Application

Vietnam’s retail market has been viewed as one of the most attractive retail markets in the world with a high annual growth rate (Deloitte, 2019; World Bank, 2023). However, Vietnamese retailers have been perceived to lack a comprehensive understanding of both customer’s expectations and the quality of services delivered to customers. Therefore, it is imperative that academics and Vietnamese retail store management endeavor to develop the most suitable scale to measure and then to improve retail service quality. This paper examines the well-constructed scale, the Retail Service Quality Scale (RSQS) in the Vietnamese retail sector. With 618 customers’ responses, the retail service quality at the two stores were comprehensively measured and, the RSQS reliability and validation is confirmed in the Vietnamese retail context. Consequently, the weak points and dimensions in service quality perceived of each stores are identified, that can be considered as the firm basis for improving service quality in Vietnamese retail stores.

Presenting Innovative Solutions in Response to Variety-Seeking Behavior in Online Retail Customers

Objective: Owners and managers of online retail stores, along with researchers, consistently strive to identify success factors in the online retail domain. One significant factor in the success of online retail stores is attention to consumer behavior. The aim of this research was to present innovative solutions for recognizing variety-seeking behavior in online retail customers. Methodology: This study was applied-descriptive and of the survey type. The research was conducted in two stages. Initially, innovation criteria were extracted from the literature, followed by an examination of the criteria's impact intensity and the causal relationships between them using the DEMATEL technique and MATLAB software, with the tool of pairwise comparison matrices. Findings: The results of the study demonstrated that product innovation, service innovation, process innovation, innovation in online services, and innovation in tools play an effective role in the variety-seeking behavior of online retail customers. Furthermore, the results specified that product innovation, tools and equipment, processes, online services, and after-sales services have the most significant impact on the variety-seeking behavior of customers, in that order. Conclusion: Given the results of the study, it seems that the use of ideation, innovation, creativity in production, presentation, and sale in online retail is essential. In other words, it is necessary for manufacturers of goods and service providers to use new and innovative ideas in the production and presentation of goods and services to be an appropriate response to the needs and variety-seeking behavior of customers.

Strategic Managerial Shift at Retail Stores to Boost Positivity Among Employees in Post-Pandemic Scenario

Retail is one of the most severely impacted sectors by the COVID-19 pandemic. The end of a pandemic is no relief for managers as the recovery phase is all the more challenging. In the 'new normal,' consumers' reluctance to visit stores adds to retail store managers' global challenges. Store managers had to rethink their business plans to innovate for sustenance. The article demonstrates a novel approach to discovering the strategic shift of the managers of the retail stores for apparel to boost positivity from the employees' subjective perspective in the post-pandemic era. Dynamic, ingenious, and morally stable leadership styles help to draw insights for exploring the mechanism with which the managers of the retail stores of apparel brands induce positive organizational behavior—the links of the constructs of a theoretical model frame into hypotheses. The sample is of 300 employees in apparel retail stores. Structural equation modeling empirically validated the approaches. The findings revealed that only an ingenious leadership style could induce positivity among the current employees in apparel retail stores. The study will give valuable insights into the applications of store managers to implement novel strategic decisions in their leadership styles.

Sustainability ambassadorship - the role of the store manager in development of in-store sustainability communication

ABSTRACT The food industry, in general, and the retail grocery sector, in particular, have gone through an extensive transformation regarding sustainability communication. The retail grocery store is the stage on which in-store sustainability communication is triggered and incentivized. This paper focuses on the role of the store manager and is guided by the purpose to explore what roles and functions a store manager may perform as sustainability ambassador, and in what ways the dynamics between the central and store level may influence how sustainability is reflected and communicated in the retail store. The study draws on a qualitative and interpretative approach. The empirics are based on interviews with retail store managers in three Swedish grocery retailers. Through our empirical investigation, six different actions have been identified that both separately and in combination contribute to the field by giving a more nuanced view of what role and functions a store manager may perform as sustainability ambassador.

How does channel integration quality promote omnichannel customer citizenship behavior? The moderating role of the number of channels used and gender

PurposeBuilding on stimulus organism response theory, the current study examines the influence of channel integration quality dimensions (channel service configuration and integrated interactions) on the omnichannel retail store's shoppers' satisfaction, trust and commitment, subsequently leading to customer citizenship behavior (CCB). It examines the relationships proposed against boundary conditions, the number of channels used during the purchase and gender.Design/methodology/approachThe research is descriptive, quantitative and cross-sectional investigation. It was conducted using data from 451 Indian omnichannel shoppers using a validated self-administered questionnaire. The proposed conceptual model was tested using PLS-SEM and PLS-MGA.FindingsThe results indicate that channel service configuration positively impact the dimensions of relationship quality of the omnichannel shoppers. However, integrated interactions influence trust and commitment directly but affect satisfaction indirectly through trust. Subsequently, relationship quality significantly explains CCB. The model results show r2 = 0.402 for CCB; that is, 40.2% of CCB is explained by channel integration and relationship quality. The moderating effect of the number of purchase channels used and gender on all proposed relationships were tested. PLS-MGA results revealed channel service configuration led to shopper commitment, subsequently impacting CCB. The effect was more among shoppers who used more than 2 channels. The impact of channel service configuration on commitment was seen more among female shoppers. Male and female shoppers exhibited satisfaction-driven and trust-driven citizenship behavior, respectively.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is carried out in the Indian population, where omnichannel retailing is still in the nascent stage.Originality/valueThis is the first study to demonstrate channel integration quality may influence customer citizenship behavior through relationship quality dimensions, tested against boundary conditions, the number of channels used during the purchase and gender. The findings from this research would help retail store managers design their omnichannel operations to encourage firm-beneficial value co-creation behaviors among omnichannel shoppers.

Pantry direct: A transformative supply chain for reducing food insecurity

AbstractThe food bank, a nonprofit, humanitarian organization, recovers charitable food donations from retail stores via collaborative relationships. We demonstrate that decentralized supply chains enable local partnerships and drive value creation via increased exchange of products and services that also better align with community needs. Our supply chain intervention resulted in a reduction in waste disposal costs for the retailer and a greater supply of food for the food bank. We study the private–public partnership (PPP) in retail food recovery in two successive phases. The first exploratory phase incorporates qualitative data from key informants at multiple Feeding America partners across the United States. The second phase was a researcher‐led supply chain intervention involving multiple stakeholders and executed with our partner food bank. Our intervention, Pantry Direct, represents a transition in the PPP to a decentralized, community network. It shifts the pickup responsibility for retail food recovery to a purely volunteer workforce at the pantry. Retail store management noticed lower pickup service reliability; however, more frequent interactions between food pantry volunteers and retail store employees improved communication, which overshadowed the limitations of the volunteer workforce. Owing to several factors, the gain in PPP performance was not universal. Among the five retail stores that participated in the supply chain intervention, two increased food donations and two others decreased food waste. The Pantry Direct model is transformative in the fight against food insecurity, as increased volume (and quality) of retail food donations enabled downstream pantries to provide end clients with more adequate, consistent, or appropriate access to food.

The impact of reverse logistics process coordination on third party relationship quality: A moderated mediation model for multichannel retailers in the fashion industry

Multichannel retailing is a widely adopted strategy in the fashion industry. Companies in this industry find it a source of competitive advantage to invest in reverse logistics infrastructure. However, limited empirical studies investigate the enablers of the relationship quality between the retailers and their reverse logistics service providers. This study quantifies the impact of reverse logistics process coordination between retailers and logistics service providers on relationship quality. Moreover, it tests the mediating role of reverse logistics service quality and the moderating role of conflict frequency in this relationship. Data were collected through a survey using a purposive sample of 241 retail store managers from the fashion retail industry of Pakistan. For this purpose, a self-administered questionnaire was developed using a five-point Likert Scale to gauge the responses. Conditional process analysis was used to evaluate the moderated mediation model. The findings showed a significant positive impact of reverse logistics process coordination on the relationship quality with a logistics service provider, a significant positive mediation effect of reverse logistics service quality, and a significant moderation effect of conflict frequency on the indirect relationship. However, conflict frequency, contrary to the hypothesis in the study, strengthened the indirect relationship. Furthermore, the moderation effect of conflict frequency on the direct relationship was insignificant. This study will help managers better understand the best practices leading to effective management of reverse logistics processes, particularly product returns.

Will you speak up for me? Inducing retail store managers’ engagement with MNCs’ brands across cultures

Will you speak up for me? Inducing retail store managers’ engagement with MNCs’ brands across cultures

Analysis of the Decision-Making Process as a Supplier of Fresh Vegetable and Fruit Raw Materials in Modern Retail Store

This research is entitled analysis of the decision-making process of business cooperation as a supplier of raw materials for fresh vegetables and fruits in supply chain management of modern retail stores. The decision-making process is important process for the entire business field especially for them that want to develop their business in marketing and modern retail. Analysis in the decision-making process in this collaboration from several stores are very helpful directly by businesspeople, the analysis object of this study is from several stores in Malang city such as Lai-lai, Hypermart and Superindo. The analytical method that used in this study is a descriptive qualitative approach with the analytical tool used is the triangulation method. The collaborative of decision-making process can be taken from 2 (two) aspects in food supply chain networking, namely chain management and value chain business processes. Based on the results of the research, it is known that the decision-making process of business cooperation is seen from chain management by sending product samples and providing organic certification which are as the main thing of cooperation agreements. Meanwhile, the value of chain business process contains activities carried out when a cooperation agreement has been entered into, starting from ordering, shipping, storing, checking, to repeat orders. Those are highly regulated with neat and scheduled details so that the management is more organized than traditional markets.

An Analysis of Management by Competencies in Grocery Retail Distributors

Competency-based management models are models through which the specific competencies for each job position are evaluated. This contemplates the development of additional competencies necessary for the personal and professional growth of employees. Therefore, in this research, a model is analyzed from theoretical and methodological bases, with the aim of knowing the skills of retail store managers so that they can keep their businesses at the forefront of this sector. The inductive scientific method was used with a methodology of two steps. The first stage consisted of carrying out a systematic study of the literature from the critical point of view of hermeneutics. In the second step, the core competency analysis approach is applied to generate a list of ten core competencies. It is concluded at the end of the study that in the retail economic sector, which consists mainly of various products such as food and groceries in general, many of the managers of this type of business currently focus their attention on customer orientation and decision-making through assertive communication. However, it was revealed that this technique can be enhanced by expanding the digital and computer skills of these managers, which will allow them to position their micro-businesses in the first place soon since in this sector they do not use the latest technologies because they do not master digital and computer skills.

Modelling retail inventory pricing policies under service level and promotional efforts during COVID-19

Most supply chain and production systems faced multiple manufacturing and delivery challenges during COVID-19 and transformed their supply chain for improved customer service. These challenges are mostly related to stocking and managing the inventory flow throughout the supply chain (from manufacturer to end consumer). Due to the COVID-19 travel and movement restrictions, inventory reorganisation is necessary for fulfilling consumer demand with adequate service facilities. The safety and serviceability of inventory consumption is the primary concern of many retail grocery stores and consumers. Maintaining the supply of groceries items during and post COVID-19 time without disruption is a real operational and policy challenge. Therefore, this research tries to solve an inventory pricing mechanism and retailer's profit under the optimal service level and retailers' promotional efforts. The proposed optimisation model is validated in the grocery retail sector. The grocery retail market situation is modelled when the demand for the grocery product (which may be essential items) and selling price depending on the investment in item promotional effort and consumer serviceability. The retail grocery store's investment in the product promotional efforts, such as awareness of the item availability and no-contact delivery which, may attract consumers. Therefore, the proposed inventory consumption is modelled with an optimisation problem to maximise the store profit with the optimal investment in promotional activities and service facilities to the consumers and maintain an optimal replenishment cycle. The optimisation model is tested with three different cases (no investment in promotional efforts, no investment in service facility, and investment in both) of investment to maximise the retailer's profit and stock availability. The optimality results depicted that investment in promotional efforts and service facility givens higher profit to the retailer. The proposed optimisation model's policy implications would help grocery retail store managers to develop operational strategies for maximising profit with the optimal service level and promotional efforts.

When do group incentives for retail store managers work?

Retail stores are geographically dispersed as a part of a multiunit organization. In such a setting, store managers play an important role in driving store performance. To motivate them to exert effort, retailers have provided group incentives for store managers. Using data from 75 stores of a U.S.‐based retail chain that changed its incentive plan for store managers from being purely dependent on store performance to being dependent upon both store and corporate performance, we investigate the effect of this change on store performance. We also examine the moderating role of geographical proximity among stores and past performance of the focal store. To establish a causality, we identify a control group from a matched store of another retail chain in the same industry and perform a difference‐in‐differences analysis. We find that making managers' bonus dependent on corporate goals has resulted in overall worsening of store performance. However, such an effect is contingent upon both geographical proximity among stores and past performance of the focal store. The impact of the incentive change on store performance is positively moderated by the increase in stores within close geographical proximity, while it is negatively moderated by the past performance of the focal store. This paper broadens our understanding of how incentives work in practice, and more importantly, documents how firms can design more effective incentive schemes for managers by considering relevant conditions, such as stores' geographical networks and their past performance.

The challenges in employing digital marketing as a tool for improving sales at selected retail stores in the transkei region

During the last decade, the internet has introduced the information age and electronic commerce (e-Commerce) to millions of individuals worldwide, even those living in rural places, thus providing companies with an alternative platform for customer contact than brick-and-mortar stores. Therefore, businesses must alter their conventional marketing techniques and develop new approaches to engage consumers on the platforms where they want to connect and make purchases. This study assessed the perceived challenges in using Digital Marketing to boost sales at retail stores in the Transkei region. A qualitative and exploratory research design was used to collect data from store managers through face-to-face interviews. A non-probability sampling technique, known as purposive sampling, was employed to identify 14 store managers based on their knowledge of the subject matter. The findings of this study show that several factors, such as government legislation [the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act of 2016], which states that customers cannot be contacted without their express consent; customers' perceptions; poor connectivity in rural areas; costs and angry customer responses are some of the retailers'challenges in employing Digital Marketing. This research could assist the management of retail stores to comprehend the company's challenges and facilitate the implementation of Digital Marketing initiatives to improve service quality, especially during this period of the Covid-19 pandemic. This study has contributed to the Digital Marketing literature in developing countries and laid the groundwork for future research.

Influence of Autonomy, Skills, and Knowledge: Role Efficacy on Discretionary Effort of Indian Retail Managers

The purpose of this study was to explore the relation among role efficacy, discretionary effort, autonomy and skills, and knowledge. A structured questionnaire was administered to 480 retail store managers from Bengaluru City. The proposed research hypotheses were evaluated using the PLS-SEM model. Role efficacy was significantly linked to discretionary effort. In addition, the evaluation of discretionary effort reported a significant positive impact of autonomy and skills and knowledge. The study empirically supports the impact of role efficacy on discretionary effort of retail store managers. Further, there is a practical utility of the findings in support that clear definition of role will spontaneously evoke discretionary behavior, which is further supported by manager’s skills and knowledge, and autonomy they experience at work.

Assessing an on-site customer profiling and hyper-personalization system prototype based on a deep learning approach

• This article examines the perceptions of early adopters of an AI-based on-site customer profiling and hyper-personalization system (OSCPHPS). • The article employs a qualitative comparative analysis to outline the causal recipes clustered in three categories: facial expression recognition, automatic age and gender recognition and in-store customer tracking, enabling a high intention to test OSCPHPS prototype. • The findings offer strategic guidance to marketing managers of retail stores in order to capture the great hyper-personalization opportunities created by AI technologies. • We prove that deep algorithms and neural convolutional networks are highly valuable in analyzing customer profiles and offering hyper-personalized products and services to customers. The development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is proceeding fast across many fields. Based on a deep learning approach, we propose a prototype of an on-site customer profiling and hyper-personalization system (OSCPHPS) targeted at marketing professionals. We propose an AI platform to create customer profiles during their physical presence in stores. The idea of the OSCPHPS prototype is to automatically detect and gather customer data directly from the store, essentially completing customer profiles containing gender, age, personality, emotions, and products they interacted with or bought, irrespective of where they are in the store. Each buying operation could generate an anonymous customer profile. Therefore, for every product sold, the system will track multiple customer-generated profiles of the people who bought that product. These kinds of data offer endless further possibilities for the business. Through a configurational study conducted via fsQCA methodology, we assessed the interest in the OSCPHPS prototype on the part of marketing managers of clothes & fashion stores located in different European countries. Based on these live generated profiles, we could further enhance the OSCPHPS system by adding support for customer segmentation, strategic product campaigns, live product recommendation, analysis of emotions toward a product or a category of products, sales forecasts, and personalized store space enhancements based on augmented reality, customer exploratory statistics and customer purchasing patterns.

The Mediating Role of Brand Engagement and Store Image on Relationship between Brand Identification and Purchase Intention: a Study of Omani Retail Market

Based on the convergence of social-identity and theory of reasoned action (TORA), the purpose of this research is to investigate the mediating effect of brand engagement and store image on the relationship between consumer brand identification and purchase intention. The study empirically investigates a theoretical framework developed from literature evidence using partial-least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling (SEM) to test hypotheses. A structured questionnaire, measuring items on a Likert seven scale, was used to collect data from 344 participants among shoppers of famous retail chains in Muscat. The results indicated that store-brand identification (SBI) alone is a weak predictor of purchase intention (PI). The results revealed that brand engagement (BE) and store image (SI) fully mediate the relationship between SBI and PI. Intrinsically, the study serves to enhance the insight into customers’ attitudes towards private-labeled store brands with a focus on the Omani retail market. The findings contribute a valuable insight on retail marketing strategies, and an interpretation into branding literature related to retail marketing and provide an understanding of marketing strategies and guidance for retail store management in Oman both at a strategic and tactical level.

Impact of Retail Service Quality and Store Service Quality on Patronage Intention towards Organized Retail Industry

Purpose: A proper service increases the customer satisfaction and positive word of mouth. The aim of this paper is to find out the impact of retail service quality and store service quality on patronage intention and word of mouth towards organized retail industry.
 Design/methodology/approach: The study data were collected from [location masked for blind review] using a structured questionnaire. A sample of 419 was used. A structural model was developed for analysis to find out the linkage between study variables.
 Findings/results: Findings reveal that retail service quality and store service quality are increasing the customer satisfaction. The findings showed that retail service quality, store service quality, and customer satisfaction significantly impact patronage intention and word of mouth. Problem solving is the major issue faced by the retail stores. Hence they have to take immediate action towards it to maintain their loyal customer base
 Practical implications: Problem-solving is not having significant relationships with customer satisfaction. Store managers have to create a pleasant experience and amplify the strength factors to create a bond between the store and the customers
 Originality/value: This paper is helpful to the retail store managers as well as new entrepreneurs who are going to start a new venture in the retail business.

Supply chain risks, technological and digital challenges facing grocery retailers in South Africa

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the risks, innovations and technological enablers or barriers to the efficiency of the supply chain risk management (SCRM) implementation in the retail sector of South Africa. Design/methodology/approach This study applied a qualitative research approach by conducting interviews with grocery retail store managers. Through convenience sampling, 12 representatives from 12 stores (1 representative per store was interviewed at each of the 12 stores) were interviewed. Findings This study mainly found that most of the grocery retail stores experience late deliveries, damaged stock, theft, high fuel costs and expired stock from their respective suppliers. It was found that firms are faced with similar supply chain risks. In addition, innovations and technologies such as the internet of things (IoT) and social media are making an impact in wider industrial change. Practical implications Adaptation of efficient and effective SCRM has had implications for practice related to improvements in the retail stores’ supply chain, the profitability of retail stores, marketing, promotions and consumer experiences. Originality/value This study is unique as it provides new insight into variables that affects the quality of service in the retail sector; customer service in the retail sector; innovations and technology help mitigate SCRM experienced in the retail sector from a developing country perspective.

Brand and quality effects on introduction of store brand products

This paper considers a supply chain with a single manufacturer selling a national brand product via a single retailer. The retailer has the option to introduce a product under his own brand into the market with the same functionality as the national brand product. We simultaneously consider the consumer bases of the national brand and store brand along with consumers' willingness to pay for quality and the supply chain control (centralized vs. decentralized). By analyzing the game-theoretic models, we offer managerial insights about the influences of brands' consumer bases on the quality and pricing decisions of the retailer, and on the manufacturer's willingness-to-collaborate when the retailer introduces the store brand product. We find that, although it is usually easier for the retailer to introduce a product under a store brand with a large consumer base, doing so with manufacturers of well established national brands can be difficult, when the retailer often has to greatly mark down his store brand product's quality and price. We also find that a store brand product with a small consumer base shall be launched only when the supply chain is switched to a centralized control and when the manufacturer's national brand has a large consumer base. These important findings offer guidance to both national brand manufacturers and retail store managers regarding the launch of store brand products.