Editorial

Citation

Towers, N. (2016), "Editorial", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 44 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-05-2016-0072

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Volume 44, Issue 6.

The focus of this issue is predominantly towards brand and retail. These include e-tail brand experience on e-brand trust and e-brand loyalty, large donations in cause-related marketing towards the retailer, website quality perceived usefulness relationship, a retailer's corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and image influence consumer perceptions, and multi-channel retailing.

The first paper by Khan and Rahman examines the influence of e-tail brand experience on e-brand trust and e-brand loyalty. The study also tests whether gender moderates this influence. Over 400 responses were collected using both offline and online survey methods. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques were performed to test the measurement and structural models using SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 20.0 statistical software. The empirical results confirm the impact of e-tail brand experience on e-brand trust and e-brand loyalty. Gender was found to moderate the relationships. It was further found that e-tail brand experience developed almost same levels of e-brand trust in both males and females. However, males became more loyal to e-tail brands when they received positive e-tail brand experiences. Examining the phenomenon of brand experience in the context of online retail, while considering gender as moderator highlights the originality and contribution of the present study to existing retail and brand experience literature.

Drawing on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), the second paper by Mimouni Chaabane and Parguel examines whether large donations in cause-related marketing can produce consumer scepticism and reduce the warm-glow effect and positive attitude towards the retailer. An experiment varying the donation size (large, medium, small) in a cause-related marketing offer run by an office equipment retailer is set up. Hypotheses are tested using bootstrapping regression analyses. The negative route has the greater effect: scepticism towards the offer mediates the relationship between donation size and the warm glow. When using cause-related marketing, retailers should choose their features and target audience carefully in order to reduce scepticism, e.g., small donations should be offered in promotions targeting consumers who are familiar with cause-related marketing and show low altruism.

The third paper by Wang investigates whether consumer characteristics (i.e. gender and utilitarian orientation) moderate the Online Group Buying (OGB) website quality perceived usefulness relationship. A total of 658 OGB website consumers participated in this study. Data were analysed by employing hierarchical moderated regression method. The primary ndings show that the effect of system quality on consumer PU of the OGB website was stronger for male consumers than for female consumers. Also, the effect of information quality on PU was stronger for high-utility-orientated consumers than for low-utility-orientated consumers. Because of the increasing importance of e-commerce and the growing number of shoppers purchasing from OGB websites, the finding provides enhanced understanding of OGB consumers for segmentation strategies.

The fourth paper by Elg and Hultman investigates how a retailer's CSR activities and image influence consumer perceptions regarding the firm's social responsibility, and how CSR aspects influence consumers buying decisions in store for a specific product. A qualitative case study method is used including interviews, document studies and observations. The CSR approach of a Swedish retailer is investigated at corporate level and in the store, and how, this interacts with the views of consumers as they make decisions regarding the purchase of a disposable product. The authors propose the concept of CSR identity to capture the internal efforts and positioning that a retailer attempts to achieve. Store activities and external independent stakeholders will have a main influence on whether the identity is regarded as credible by consumers. Furthermore, factors such as self-image and influences from the social network will influence whether a consumer will be committed to prioritize CSR aspects in the store.

The fifth paper by Fornari, Fornari, Grandi, Menegatti and Hofacker investigates the topic of multi-channel retailing. The research intends to determine to what extent the opening of physical stores by a former web-only retailer reduces or extends overall retail sales, and whether such effects tend to change over time. Empirical analysis focuses on data elaboration from a retailer who has passed from the initial mono-channel model (pure online), to a multi-channel one with the opening of stores. Through the analysis of an internal data set of a leading consumer electronics retailer applying Probit and Logit estimation techniques, we extract information about actual customers' purchases (or rather retail sales) in three newly opened stores and about online purchases (through an e-commerce website managed by the same retailer with the same store brand) by people living in the new store service areas before and after the openings. The paper shows that, for the single customer the probability of purchasing online is reduced by the store opening in the short term, but tends to increase in the long term. Besides, results indicate that long-term synergy between the two channels depends mainly on indirect influence due to the mere presence of the store brand in the area rather than on the direct experience of shopping in the store.