Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services最新文献_第3页

Exploring the impact of targeted communication on customer experience: A natural experiment

IF 11 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

Pub Date : 2025-02-10 DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104240

Rocco Caferra , Dario Antonio Schirone , Paola Tiranzoni , Andrea Morone

The decision-making process of consumers often remains a "black box," influenced by a myriad of factors driving their choices. This paper shows how well-targeted communication can enhance customer experiences. By utilizing specific intercom announcements to encourage customers to seek staff assistance, the study assesses how this proactive engagement might improve the perceived quality of the shopping experience. The experiment specifically explores whether targeted communication can mitigate customer dissatisfaction arising from product unavailability or lack of suitable alternatives, a common issue known as the "out of stock" problem.

Our findings reveal that this communication strategy significantly enhances customer experiences, demonstrating its effectiveness across diverse consumer segments. This research contributes to the existing body of literature on consumer decision-making and communication by offering a practical approach to elevate customer experiences through strategic communication. The experimental design and methodology employed in this study provide a nuanced understanding of how communication impacts customer satisfaction, presenting valuable insights for marketers and businesses focused on boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty.

By bridging the gap between theoretical frameworks and practical applications, this study underscores the critical role of targeted communication in resolving common retail challenges and improving overall customer engagement. The implications of these findings suggest that businesses can substantially benefit from implementing such communication strategies to foster a more satisfying and loyal customer base.

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引用次数: 0

Financial services mistreatment, financial access, and financial well-being: A causal mediation analysis

IF 11 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

Pub Date : 2025-02-10 DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104253

Julie Birkenmaier , Yingying Zhang , Jin Huang

Consumers interacting with mainstream financial services encounter mistreatment and unfair treatment. Significant knowledge gaps exist regarding the consequences of such mistreatment on consumer financial well-being. This study investigates whether financial access—defined as the ownership of financial products and services—mediates the relationship between consumer experiences of mistreatment and their financial well-being. Employing the National Financial Well-Being Survey (NFWS) data from 6171 respondents, the research utilizes causal mediation analysis to assess the impact of financial services mistreatment on individuals' access to financial services and, subsequently, their financial well-being. Results reveal that mistreatment within financial services significantly impairs individual financial access, and further exacerbates consumers’ financial well-being. Research findings emphasize the need for interventions that not only address mistreatment directly but also enhance financial access to mitigate its negative effects on financial well-being.

{"title":"Financial services mistreatment, financial access, and financial well-being: A causal mediation analysis","authors":"Julie Birkenmaier , Yingying Zhang , Jin Huang","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104253","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104253","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Consumers interacting with mainstream financial services encounter mistreatment and unfair treatment. Significant knowledge gaps exist regarding the consequences of such mistreatment on consumer financial well-being. This study investigates whether financial access—defined as the ownership of financial products and services—mediates the relationship between consumer experiences of mistreatment and their financial well-being. Employing the National Financial Well-Being Survey (NFWS) data from 6171 respondents, the research utilizes causal mediation analysis to assess the impact of financial services mistreatment on individuals' access to financial services and, subsequently, their financial well-being. Results reveal that mistreatment within financial services significantly impairs individual financial access, and further exacerbates consumers’ financial well-being. Research findings emphasize the need for interventions that not only address mistreatment directly but also enhance financial access to mitigate its negative effects on financial well-being.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"84 ","pages":"Article 104253"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143377905","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Green influencers and consumers’ decoupling behaviors for parasocial relationships and sustainability. A comparative study between Korea and Vietnam

IF 11 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

Pub Date : 2025-02-10 DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104256

Hoang Tran Phuoc Mai Le , Phuong Van Nguyen , Peter Stokes

This study develops a comprehensive model of green social media influencers (GSMIs) to examine their role in shaping consumer green behaviors through parasocial relationships (PSRs). Particularly, it investigates the interrelationships between trust in GSMIs, perceived risk, and PSRs, as well as the connections among PSRs, perceived guilt, environmental decoupling, and consumer green behaviors. It also aims to identify the key determinants of retail consumer green behavior and explore the moderating effects of perceived greenwashing and follower density. Addressing the limited exploration of these dynamics in the Asian context, the research compares conceptual models of developed and emerging GSMI markets through cross-country surveys conducted in South Korea (n = 306) and Vietnam (n = 309), focusing on national retail consumers. The findings largely confirm the proposed relationships, except for the links between PSRs, environmental decoupling, and perceived guilt, which showed significant variations between the two countries. Furthermore, perceived greenwashing and follower density emerged as critical moderators, significantly shaping the relationships within the model. This study enhances the theoretical understanding of consumer decoupling and influencer marketing while providing practical insights for designing effective green marketing strategies that utilize GSMIs to promote sustainable consumer behavior.

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引用次数: 0

Predicting retail shop number against roadside tree canopy shade: A national wide demonstration across 148 cities of China 根据路边树冠遮荫情况预测零售店数量：中国 148 个城市的全国性示范项目

IF 11 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

Pub Date : 2025-02-08 DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104255

Yifeng Liu , Xinyu Wang , Hongxu Wei , Zhanhua Cao

Roadside tree canopies may obstruct storefront visibility and impair sales; however, the reverse is also argued to make sense. Disputation occurs because of the unclear relationship between retail shop number (RSN; units/km²) and tree canopy shade at sector-specific locations. In this study, 11.52 million points of interest were extracted from 148 Chinese cities to specify RSNs in food, shopping, life services, hotels, and entertainment sectors in neighborhoods where canopy shade was rated with a green view index (GVI) in 1.29 million streetscapes. Negative RSN-GVI relationships were plotted for shops distributed along expressways and alleys in the hotel and entertainment sectors. When GVI ranged from 10.01 to 11.42%, RSNs in the food and life service sectors were maximized along streets and roads. It was predicted high RSN in food retailing over 4.61 units/km² and low in entertainment sector (≤2.91 units/km²) against the most recent records of GVI. Our research deepens the managerial implications of verifying venue environment theory by predicting the suitability of newly planned locations for retail against canopy shade.

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引用次数: 0

Consumers' questions as nudges: Comparing the effect of linguistic cues on LLM chatbot and human responses

IF 11 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

Pub Date : 2025-02-04 DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104250

Qian Wu , Han Zheng

Large Language Models (LLMs) enable natural language interactions, offering much potential for personalized consumer engagement in e-commerce. While prior studies have explored how chatbot expressions influence consumers, they often overlook the role of consumers as communicators who shape interactions through strategic language use. Additionally, evidence suggests that question cues can nudge humans to respond differently, but whether LLM chatbots adapt similarly to these cues remains underexplored. Informed by nudging theory, this study proposes that consumers can strategically use question cues to nudge LLM chatbots in response generation. Through a semantic analysis of 5676 responses to 1419 consumers' questions, we investigate the effects of cognitive and socio-emotional question cues on the informational and socio-emotional responses from humans and three LLM chatbots: ChatGPT, Claude and GLM. Findings suggest that, despite differing processing mechanisms, the nudging effect of question cues on LLM chatbots is similar as that on SNS users. Unlike humans, LLM chatbots exhibit a more pronounced tendency to focus exclusively on either informational or socio-emotional responses, rarely combining both aspects as seamlessly as humans do. This research underscores the importance of question formation in shaping consumer-chatbot interactions, suggesting that chatbots outperform humans in providing consistent informational responses regardless of question specificity and emotionality, while SNS users handle complex emotional queries more adeptly, showing their complementary roles in e-commerce.

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引用次数: 0

Artificial intelligence in live streaming: How can virtual streamers bring more sales?

IF 11 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

Pub Date : 2025-02-03 DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104247

Yaping Chang , Han Wang , Zhenjiang Guo

Virtual streamers are gaining traction in the thriving live streaming commerce with the support of artificial intelligence technology. While virtual streamers have excellent interactive capabilities, effectively leveraging them to enhance sales remains a significant challenge for companies. This research analyzes 1,960,444 real live streaming comments from 30 brands and conducts three experimental studies and half-structured interviews for this dilemma. The findings reveal that consumers exhibit a higher tendency to seek promotional information (vs. product information) when engaging with virtual streamers (vs. human streamers). This unique shopping mentality is mediated by consumers' motivation inference about the company. Consequently, aligning virtual streamers with promotional products and human streamers with new products can be beneficial in driving sales by catering to diverse consumer information preferences. These findings provide valuable insights into effectively adopting virtual streamers, optimizing recommendation strategies, and understanding consumers' subjective perceptions.

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引用次数: 0

Endorsing alone or with humans: Investigating the impact of virtual influencers’ presentation formats on endorsement effectiveness

IF 11 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

Pub Date : 2025-02-03 DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104248

Guangkuan Deng , Jiayi Kang , Lijuan He , Ying Xu

As virtual influencers (VIs) become increasingly prominent in digital marketing, identifying the most effective presentation formats is essential. This study investigates the impact of VI presentation formats on endorsement effectiveness. Through five comprehensive experiments, we find that co-endorsements with real influencers significantly enhance endorsement effectiveness compared to VIs endorsing alone, with perceived credibility serving as a mediator. Furthermore, the research reveals that sensory cues and future cues moderate these effects. Co-endorsements are more effective when proximal sensory cues (e.g., haptic and olfactory cues) are emphasized, while solo endorsements are as effective as co-endorsements when distal sensory cues (e.g., visual and auditory cues) are highlighted. Additionally, the presence of future cues in advertisements enhances the impact of solo endorsements, whereas their absence increases the effectiveness of co-endorsements. This research contributes to the literature by elucidating the mechanisms and boundary conditions through which VI presentation formats influence endorsement effectiveness. The findings provide actionable insights for marketers on optimizing VI endorsement strategies to maximize consumer engagement and brand impact.

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引用次数: 0

Behind the screens. Privacy and advertising preferences in VoD —the role of privacy concerns, persuasion knowledge, and experience

IF 11 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

Pub Date : 2025-02-01 DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104233

Michał Paliński, Bartosz Jusypenko, Wojciech Hardy

This study explores stated preferences for privacy and advertising in the Video on Demand (VoD) context, focusing on Netflix subscribers in Poland. We investigate how privacy concerns, persuasion knowledge, and consumer experience affect these preferences. The study design involved a hypothetical regulatory scenario that mandated platforms to either guarantee minimal data usage or offer compensation for data sharing. Within a discrete choice experiment framework, study participants were presented with hypothetical scenarios and asked to choose between three types of subscription plans, varying in the extent of personal data sharing and ad support. Additionally, a treatment was introduced in which respondents interacted with a mock Netflix environment to enhance their recognition of data practices and increase familiarity with hypothetical outcomes through a simulated experience. Responses from 2087 participants were analyzed using hybrid choice modeling. The results reveal that users are sensitive to the disclosure of personal information in the context of VoD, yet they are open to accepting monetary compensation for a certain degree of sharing. Users with greater persuasion knowledge are more willing to exchange data for discounts, provided the plans do not include personalized ads. Conversely, users with higher privacy concerns prefer plans with minimal data sharing, even when discounts are offered. We observe direct effects of the treatment on both privacy valuation and advertising preferences, particularly regarding time, with the treatment group being significantly more sensitive to ad length. In addition, the treatment group exhibits reduced privacy concerns and no significant difference in persuasion knowledge. Our findings suggest that VoD providers could enhance user control over their data and emphasize transparency, aligning with the increasing reliance on data-driven business models.

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引用次数: 0

“Planting” meat substitutes in the meat shelf: An online and two supermarket field experiments to explore the effect of placing meat substitutes next to meat

IF 11 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

Pub Date : 2025-01-31 DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104223

M. van der Meer , E.M. Schruff-Lim , M.C. Onwezen , A.R.H. Fischer

Positioning of retail assortments is a powerful way to create a choice architecture that facilitates consumers’ sustainable product choices, for example the shift from animal-derived to plant-based proteins which benefits both planetary and public health. From the perspective of categorisation theory, we investigate whether changing choice architecture, specifically positioning meat substitutes in the meat shelf, increases purchases of meat substitutes and decreases meat sales, in two field experiments in two large supermarket chains in The Netherlands and a lab experiment. In field Study 1a, we positioned all meat substitutes in the meat shelf, which backfired and led to a decrease in meat substitute sales. In lab Study 1b, we explored the effect of merging meat substitutes into the meat shelf which shifted meat substitutes towards the meat category in the mind of consumers. In field Study 2, we placed a selection of meat substitutes in the meat shelf, while maintaining a separate vegetarian shelf. Positioning a selection of meat substitutes in the meat shelf led to an increase in meat substitute sales over the long term, especially amongst meat-eaters and flexitarians. However, meat sales did not decrease in both field studies. Maintaining a separate vegetarian shelf is important to keep serving meat reducers (i.e., vegans, vegetarians, and flexitarians). Altering choice architecture in the supermarket is an effective tool in enhancing sales of meat substitutes and sustainable alternatives in general.

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引用次数: 0

A new social media programme for brands? A study of the relationship between virtual influencers and brand followers

IF 11 1区管理学 Q1 BUSINESS

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

Pub Date : 2025-01-31 DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104241

Zhiwei Guo, Hongtao Yang, Wang Yang

The use of virtual influencers has become a crucial component of brand marketing strategies on social media platforms. This approach offers a novel form of marketing that enables deep engagement, high controllability, and cost-efficiency. Nevertheless, the phenomenon has not been sufficiently studied by researchers. To further examine the relationship between a brand's virtual influencers and its followers, we created a comprehensive dataset comprising 30,090 pieces of content posted by brands using virtual influencers on TikTok between September 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024. The findings of our study yield several important insights into the ways in which brands utilize virtual influencers. Firstly, previous studies have concentrated on the potential positive or negative effects of virtual influencers on their follower numbers. Our findings indicate that the impact of a brand's utilization of virtual influencers on its social media follower count does not adhere to a straightforward, linear trajectory. Instead, it exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship. Secondly, user behavior acts as a mediator between brand virtual influencers and brand followers. Specifically, affected U-shaped relationship exists between brand virtual influencers and social media user engagement behaviors and user repost behaviors, which in turn affect the number of brand followers. Furthermore, it was determined that virtual influencer interaction behaviors moderated the inverted U-shaped relationship between virtual influencers and user engagement behaviors and user repost behaviors. This study innovatively incorporates the perspective of ‘the uncanny valley effect’ to reveal the complexities of the relationship between virtual influencers and brand followers and provides a comprehensive framework for brands to develop effective strategies utilizing virtual influencers.

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