Liangchao Xue, Christopher J. Parker and Cathy Hart
Fashion retail has faced immense changes in the rapid development of e-commerce, creating significant uncertainty about physical stores’ future. To improve the consumer shopping…
Abstract
Purpose
Fashion retail has faced immense changes in the rapid development of e-commerce, creating significant uncertainty about physical stores’ future. To improve the consumer shopping experience and increase sales revenue for fashion retailers, this paper investigates how Augmented Reality (AR) can be implemented within high-street fashion retail by exploring leading UK retailers’ reactions to pragmatic future scenarios.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducted qualitative research through 13 interviews – eight retail staff from high-street and high-end markets and five AR/UX designers regarding their insights into how AR can enhance consumer engagement at each market level.
Findings
The results showed that the fashion retail market is ill-prepared to use AR. AR could help high-street brands offer a seamless shopping experience for consumers by prioritising the functional purpose but exciting AR animation. This would offer consumers an efficient and enjoyable shopping experience. While implementing AR, high-end stores should tell stories through hedonic engagement, letting consumers efficiently engage with brand messages, since building an AR ecosystem is cheaper than creating the story flow physically.
Originality/value
The study devises 16 retailer-supported guidelines for designing AR for Fashion Retail levels to guide innovators and retailers.
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Majd AbedRabbo, Cathy Hart and Fiona Ellis–Chadwick
The purpose of this study is to explore the role played by digital channel integration in the town-centre shopping experience. It also explores how customers perceive the role of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the role played by digital channel integration in the town-centre shopping experience. It also explores how customers perceive the role of digital in the town-centres shopping journeys, improves shopping experiences and encourages positive future patronage behaviour. Ultimately, the aim is to identify the likely implications of a connected shopping experience on patronage intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative research design using focus groups to explore customers' perceptions of connected town-centre shopping experiences was deployed. Then, data were analysed using thematic analysis to identify overarching themes.
Findings
Digital integration has the potential to serve discreetly different functions in the town-centre context: create interconnected information channels, facilitate improved connected shopping experiences, generate positive perceptions of a town, which subsequently shape future patronage intentions. The study also revealed expectations of digital integration are yet to be fully realised in the town-centre context and there are tensions between physical and digital domains to be overcome if digital integration is to positively influence patronage intentions.
Research limitations/implications
The nature of exploratory research tends to pose questions and open out a problem rather than provide definitive answers. This study has sought to highlight key issues and also provide points of departure for future studies. The significance and generalisability of the results are limited by the size and nature of the sample.
Originality/value
This study provides theoretical contribution to the town-centre literature by expanding the understanding of consumers' perceptions of the role of digital integration in shopping journey experiences and unlocks insights into its potential impact on future patronage intentions. Practical considerations for integrating digital in the town centre to create more connected shopping experiences.
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Liangchao Xue, Christopher J. Parker and Cathryn A. Hart
To develop compelling augmented reality (AR) experiences, this paper aims to examine AR value to physical fashion retail, defines the most effective form (e.g. app vs magic…
Abstract
Purpose
To develop compelling augmented reality (AR) experiences, this paper aims to examine AR value to physical fashion retail, defines the most effective form (e.g. app vs magic mirror) and assesses AR’s impact on consumer behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
This study comprises two phases. Phase one conducted three co-design workshops with 15 participants (aged 18–34) to evaluate current shopping modes and discover design opportunities. Phase two designed two AR prototypes (AR Branded App and Magic Mirror) and evaluated the prototypes through experience prototype experiments with 42 participants.
Findings
Participants have a positive attitude towards AR shopping adoption, improving consumer satisfaction and boosting purchase intention. AR technology can be the value in enjoyment to make the shopping experience more fun. However, no participants thought entertainment would trigger their intention to use AR. Therefore, designing useful AR apps that provide substantial functional benefits with enjoyment-oriented elements will encourage consumers to engage in high-street physical retail. In this way, consumers can interact with products and receive more information. AR can help luxury brands tell a story from a hedonic perspective, enabling consumers to engage with the story while maintaining human interaction to ensure an elevated level of service quality.
Originality/value
This study devises six design requirements to guide innovators and retailers in creating AR retail environments that satisfy their customer’s desires.
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Cross‐cultural studies show that most, but not all, human societies engage in warfare. Some non‐warring societies cluster as peace systems. The existence of peace systems, and…
Abstract
Cross‐cultural studies show that most, but not all, human societies engage in warfare. Some non‐warring societies cluster as peace systems. The existence of peace systems, and non‐warring societies more generally, shows that warfare is not an inevitable feature of human social life. This article considers three peace systems in some detail: Brazil's Upper Xingu River basin tribes, Aboriginal Australians, and the European Union. A primary goal is to explore features that contribute to peace in each of the three non‐warring systems. What do these peace systems suggest about how to prevent war? Provisionally, key elements would seem to be the promotion of interdependence among the units of the peace system, creation of cross‐cutting links among them, the existence of conflict resolution procedures, and belief systems (including attitudes and values) that are anti‐war and pro‐peace.
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Cathy Hart and Belinda Dewsnap
In contrast to outer apparel, academic research has neglected consumer behaviour for intimate apparel or lingerie. It is argued that within this category the bra deserves singular…
Abstract
In contrast to outer apparel, academic research has neglected consumer behaviour for intimate apparel or lingerie. It is argued that within this category the bra deserves singular research attention. This paper presents the results of exploratory research designed to explore in depth the bra consumer decision process. The key findings indicate a highly involved consumer who is motivated by a complex range of interlinked factors, and a consumer who desires to be brand loyal in order to enjoy a less extensive decision process, but who is prevented from doing so by high levels of perceived risk and “obstructive” marketing. The authors offer directions for future empirical research based on the consumer behavioural constructs of involvement, perceived risk and the self‐concept. Implications for marketing management are also discussed.
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Liangchao Xue, Christopher J. Parker and Cathy Hart
High-street fashion retail faces an uncertain future because of fluctuating consumer shopping habits. To revive fashion retailers, adopting disruptive technologies such as virtual…
Abstract
Purpose
High-street fashion retail faces an uncertain future because of fluctuating consumer shopping habits. To revive fashion retailers, adopting disruptive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) becomes important to offer highly valued consumer experiences. Yet v-commerce designers still lack sufficient guidance to create effective retail environments. This paper establishes the v-commerce experience that targets fashion consumers’ desire and presents 13 specific design guidelines.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, 22 participants, 20 consumers and two VR developers were interviewed regarding attitudes towards VR, motivation to shop through v-commerce and the moderating variables that influence virtual environment perceptions.
Findings
Consumers expect a vivid shopping environment with authentic product features instead of the more common simulated environment. Hedonically motivated consumers are more open to v-commerce than utilitarian consumers and consumers aged 18–34 years regard interactivity, personalisation and social networking as critical to offer a cost-efficient shopping experience.
Research limitations/implications
This paper explored the ways v-commerce delivers creative experiences to facilitate consumer purchase behaviour, contributing to the high street's regeneration. Yet consumers have too high expectations of lifelike interaction in v-commerce, which is beyond contemporary VR's capabilities. Future research should focus on developing authenticity of v-commerce environments, i.e. vivid interaction with product and people.
Originality/value
This paper establishes the fundamental design rules for v-commerce platforms, enabling designers to create effective retail environments, sympathetic to the consumer's cognitive desires.
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Timothy C. Hart and Paul A. Zandbergen
The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of reference data, input address quality, and crime type on completeness and positional accuracy of street geocoded crime…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of reference data, input address quality, and crime type on completeness and positional accuracy of street geocoded crime events.
Design/methodology/approach
Existing data were analyzed using ArcGIS, including crime incident information, street network reference data, and address point and/or parcel reference data. Geocoding completeness was determined by the overall match rate. Positional accuracy was determined by comparing the Euclidian distance between street geocoded locations of crime events to the corresponding address point/parcel geocoded location.
Findings
Results indicate that match rates vary by reference data, input address quality, and crime type. Local street centerline files consistently produced match rates that were as good as – and in many cases superior to – other types of reference data, including commercial data. Greater variability in positional accuracy was observed across reference data when crime type and input address quality was considered, but results were consistent with positional accuracy analysis conducted using data from other disciplines.
Practical implications
Results provide researchers and practitioners with valuable guidance and insight into one of the most basic – albeit fundamental – procedures related to the spatio‐temporal analysis of crime, suggesting that reference data required to produce geocoded crime incidents successfully and of high quality does not necessarily mean a large financial investment on the part of law enforcement agencies or researchers interested in the geospatial analysis of crime.
Originality/value
Prior to this investigation, a comprehensive examination of the impact of data quality on geocoded crime events was absent from the literature.
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Pat Dudgeon, Angela Ryder, Carolyn Mascall and Maddie Boe
In partnership with the University of Western Australia (UWA), the strengths-based National Empowerment Project (NEP) brought together researchers from across Australia and began…
Abstract
In partnership with the University of Western Australia (UWA), the strengths-based National Empowerment Project (NEP) brought together researchers from across Australia and began to address issues surrounding Aboriginal wellbeing and, in particular, the high rates of Aboriginal deaths by suicide. The NEP utilised participatory action research (PAR) and was concerned with promoting positive cultural, social, and emotional wellbeing (CSEWB) and building capacity and resilience within Aboriginal communities. Throughout the NEP, consultations with 11 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities led to the development of a CSEWB program. The program seeks to increase self-determination and empowerment, developing participants’ awareness of a variety of issues relevant to wellbeing. This enables participants to gain a greater understanding of the holistic nature of CSEWB and the complex influences on Aboriginal wellbeing at individual, family, and community levels. This chapter is concerned with the development and delivery of the CSEWB program within three community sites in Perth, Western Australia. Shared philosophical approaches of the CSEWB program, between UWA and Aboriginal communities were human rights and social justice, community ownership, community capacity building, a strong focus on resilience, empowerment and partnerships, respect for local knowledge, and the delivery of community consultations. Investigation into the impacts of the program are based in an anti-colonial space, employing Indigenous Standpoint Theory and PAR approaches. This chapter demonstrates the success of the CSEWB program, links this success to the vital importance of Indigenous research ethics, and positions the research within an empowering and capacity-building context.
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N.F. Doherty, F. Ellis‐Chadwick and C.A. Hart
A myriad opinions have been propounded to explain how “cyberspace” can be exploited by commercial organisations. For the most part they are speculative, visionary or promotional…
Abstract
A myriad opinions have been propounded to explain how “cyberspace” can be exploited by commercial organisations. For the most part they are speculative, visionary or promotional. This work seeks to redress the balance by focusing on the utilisation of the Internet within the UK retail sector and examining its potential as a new retail channel. The paper presents an exploratory study using qualitative and quantitative methods: an on‐line survey of retail Web activities followed by in‐depth interviews. This approach provides a framework of current retail usage of the Internet and explores retailers’ perceptions of the inhibitors and facilitators to its development. It concludes with an emerging model that explains why current levels of retailing on the Internet are low and provides guidance for retailers wishing to increase their level of Internet activity.
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Max Hart, Craig Kelly and Adam Lynes
Over the past 50 years, dark tourism has seen exponential growth in terms of both physical and digital contexts. Dark tourism is primarily a concentration around documented…
Abstract
Over the past 50 years, dark tourism has seen exponential growth in terms of both physical and digital contexts. Dark tourism is primarily a concentration around documented accounts of physical violence, and theorizations centered on dark tourism studies have generally fallen within either behavioral or interpretivist perspectives. Such perspectives are indicative of the continually evolving nature of dark tourism and its receptiveness to new definitions, conceptual frameworks, and theorizations. Taking this into consideration, this chapter seeks to develop and broaden the notion of “dark tourism” within the era of late capitalism by presenting fresh theoretical perspectives stemming from critical criminological frameworks. Specifically, in drawing upon critical notions of violence and the emerging deviant leisure framework, this chapter will aim to instigate fresh academic enquiry into the nature of dark tourism, expand its theoretical underpinnings, and subsequently provide a means in which to examine how banal forms of tourism play an integral part in the proliferation of some of the most serious harms that populate the contemporary neoliberal landscape.