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Linking retailing experiences with life satisfaction: The concept of story-type congruity with shopper’s identity

Stephan Grzeskowiak (Department of Marketing, NEOMA Business School, Rouen, France)
M. Joseph Sirgy (Department of Marketing, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA)
Thomas Foscht (Department of Marketing, University of Graz, Graz, Austria)
Bernhard Swoboda (Department of Marketing, University of Trier, Trier, Germany)

International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management

ISSN: 0959-0552

Article publication date: 8 February 2016

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Abstract

Purpose

A common assumption holds that retailers generally contribute to customer life satisfaction – retailers offer products and services that solve consumer problems – large and small. However, some retail experiences have been found to generate dissatisfaction, stress and unhappiness for some customers but not for others. Research is needed to not only demonstrate how retail experiences impact customer life satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to address the question: why does satisfaction with various store types impact customer life satisfaction differently?

Design/methodology/approach

The research context of this study is grocery retailers (neighbourhood convenience stores, super markets, and grocery discounters) in Austria. Using stratified random sampling across store types, a total of 379 personal interviews with grocery store customers were conducted. OLS regression analysis was conducted to test the research model.

Findings

The study results suggest that satisfaction with a store type impacts customer life satisfaction depending on store-type congruity with shoppers’ identity. That is, satisfaction with a store type (e.g. neighbourhood convenience stores, super markets, and grocery discounters) is found to influence life satisfaction if the store type is congruent with the shoppers’ self-image and lifestyle.

Practical implications

An emphasis on store-type congruity with shopper’s identity allows retailers to shift their attention towards creating more meaningful shopping experiences. Such a shift in focus may not only benefit retailers due to increase in customer loyalty for that store format. It also benefits shoppers themselves – the shopping experience contributes to shoppers’ life satisfaction.

Originality/value

This research introduces store-type congruity with shopper’s identity as a key concept that connects shopping experiences to customer life satisfaction. This contributes towards building the hierarchical theory of shopping motivation. It demonstrates under what conditions shopping experiences impact consumer life satisfaction – a research topic that has received little attention in the retailing literature to date.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Ms Loewenberg, Graduate Assistant to Professor Bernhard Swoboda, for reviewing a draft of this manuscript.

Citation

Grzeskowiak, S., Sirgy, M.J., Foscht, T. and Swoboda, B. (2016), "Linking retailing experiences with life satisfaction: The concept of story-type congruity with shopper’s identity", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 44 No. 2, pp. 124-138. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-07-2014-0088

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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