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The purpose of the study was to examine the potential outcomes of consumers' intention to engage retail store community. The research question focused on: what impact will intention to engage retail store community have on store satisfaction, store commitment, shopping enjoyment and store employee trust?

Survey data were collected from a national panel of 232 adult consumers in the USA. The theoretical model and hypotheses were tested using path analysis in AMOS.

The model was supported. Intention to engage retail store community had a significant impact on store employee trust, shopping enjoyment, store satisfaction and store commitment. In addition, store employee trust and store satisfaction had a significant impact on store commitment.

The study identified a breadth of outcomes that result from an intention to engage with retail store community. Furthermore, the study is limited to a grocery shopping retail store context and only outcomes are identified.

Managerially, retailers want to find innovative ways to compete in the marketplace, and the findings of this study highlight the benefits that can accrue to retailers who want to pursue a community strategy.

Few papers have examined retail store brand communities, and none has identified the outcomes of intention to engage with retail store community.

Company stores market to their internal employees via the distribution of branded promotional products. The purpose of this study is to investigate factors that may influence when an employee is more likely to purchase from a company store.

A survey was administered to the members of a chamber of commerce located in the southeastern USA. Data were analyzed using regression, and post hoc analyses were conducted using an analysis of covariance.

Organizational identification and job satisfaction significantly impacted employees’ intentions to purchase from a company store. Gender, education, marital status and years of work experience were personal factors that moderated that relationship. Firm size and employee rank were company factors that moderated the relationship between employee work perceptions and employee purchase intentions at a company store.

No research to date exists on company stores. This study is unique in that it proposes internal branding as a theoretical foundation for understanding company stores and examines factors that impact employees’ intentions to purchase from a company store.

This paper examines the discourse of consumers as they attempt to define and create consensus on the meaning and significance of cultural appropriation within a fashion context.

Data were collected via consumer comments posted to an article from The Guardian about the banning of headdresses from a large-scale music festival in Canada. Data were analyzed according to protocols for grounded theory.

Four themes emerged from the data: values consensus, ideological control, social and symbolic boundaries and social impact and change. These themes captured consumers' perspectives on the debate of cultural appropriation in fashion.

Cultural appropriation has become an increasingly important topic of interest as consumers share their voices online and demand companies increase their cultural competence.

Few researchers have examined cultural appropriation in fashion and captured the various perspectives of consumers on this phenomenon.

The purpose of the present study is to examine the connection between the self‐concept and fashion consumer behaviors of senior females.

Participants for the study (n=200) were recruited from 12 chapters of the Red Hat Society located in the Southeastern USA; they completed a self‐administered survey. Relational, individual and collective identities were measured via well‐established, pre‐existing scales. Statistical findings were used to examine how senior females with unique identities (i.e. relational, individual, and collective self‐concepts) differ in terms of their shopping behaviors and fashion orientation.

Statistical results from this study indicate that apparel purchase decisions for senior females are complex and involve issues beyond style, fit, and price. Information on how the identity groups differed from one another in the various shopping behaviors and their interest in fashion is identified.

This study provides an examination into the complex self‐concept of older females and its link to fashion‐related consumer behaviors. Recommendations on how specific apparel retailers can better target senior females are presented.

Research regarding the complex fashion needs, and purchase decisions of senior females, is sparse. This research contributes to the literature on fashion and apparel by examining how different identities relate to various fashion consumer behaviors for women over 50.

Virtual communities are increasing in popularity and changing the way apparel fashion information is learned and shared by consumers. According to Agins, consumers, as opposed to élite designers, are now dictating fashion trends and pinpointing the ideal places of distribution. The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the fashion‐related discussion which is taking place on perhaps the best known of these communities, MySpace.com. The three research questions driving this study include: “What are consumers saying about fashion within this particular virtual community?”; “What commonalities exist among the plethora of fashion‐related information available in this context?”; and “What kinds of insights can marketers draw from the categories of fashion‐related information being presented in MySpace.com?”

Content analysis was selected as the method for investigation. Within the forum Fashion and Style, the subgroup FashionLOVERS was selected for investigation because it represented a general discussion of fashion. The first 200 forum topical areas with five or more posts were selected for analysis. A total of 6,623 individual posts were examined and each of the three authors independently reviewed the posts noting the general topical categories of content. Interrater reliability for the coders was computed.

Eight recurring categories of fashion related information were identified in the study. The four most popular discussion categories were personal style, brands and designers, tips and advice, and retailers. The prevalence of these four topics suggests that consumer driven marketing is a growing and influential component of fashion marketing.

This study makes an important contribution to the study of virtual communities. Results provide insight into the complex, multi‐layered, interactive fashion‐related communication that occurs within virtual communities.

Fashion marketers and retailers are encountering an untapped resource with these virtual communities. Findings highlight the power of consumers in virtual communities and suggest a need for fashion marketers and retailers to closely monitor communication within virtual communities.

This research is particularly valuable because it provides insight into the popular virtual community, MySpace.com. Detailed investigation into types of fashion information that are shared with community members is presented and discussed.

In recent years, cause‐related marketing (CRM) has made a significant impact on businesses and charitable organizations. However, the study of CRM as a unique retailing format has received limited academic exploration. Central to this study's investigation is not just shopping^® (NJS), an organization that uses CRM as a basis for its retailing model. This study seeks to examine cause‐related retailing (CRR) and the perceptions of three vested parties: consumers who have purchased from NJS events; vendors who sell at NJS events; and the NJS business owner.

The primary factors that potentially impact CRR efforts were explored through an extensive literature search and qualitative data collection. Data were collected via in‐depth interviews with 13 shoppers, 15 vendors and the NJS business owner. The data were analyzed and interpreted according to the protocol for case study research as outlined by Yin.

This study of the three vested parties from NJS found that the CRR model differs slightly from that of CRM. Findings from this study suggest that consumers are motivated primarily by the location, vast array of unique products, and social benefits as opposed to the support of the charitable cause.

This study makes an important contribution to the CRM and CRR literature. Results also provide support for trends in retailing that show how consumers are actively searching for unique, non‐commoditized items. The findings illustrate that a combination of diverse retailing and socialization benefits, not price, drives this particular retailing venue. Additional research is needed to investigate the issues surrounding why the charitable cause is not a significant motivating factor in retail purchase decisions.

This research is original to the retailing and CRM literatures. One of the benefits of this exploratory study is that it provided the authors with an opportunity to examine a unique retailing venue, NJS, and to explore the impact of CRR on purchases.

Web accessibility is the practice of making web sites accessible to people, such as the disabled, who are using more than just traditional web browsers to access the internet. The purpose of this paper is twofold: to overview web accessibility and to highlight the ethics of web accessibility from a managerial perspective.

To that end, this paper reviews related literature, highlights relevant public policy, discusses web accessibility from a systems development perspective, and concludes with a discussion of web accessibility with respect to different ethical theories.

The findings take the form of a tutorial that highlights how to address web accessibility projects. The findings also examine web accessibility projects as they relate to well‐known ethical theories. Additionally, the findings also incorporate ethical opinions from web designers who have completed web accessibility projects in the past.

The paper makes several contributions to the existing literatures on web accessibility and ethics. An important contribution is that the paper is the first tutorial on web accessibility that also examines the topic through the lens of ethical theories. In addition to the tutorial, the paper reports on the opinions of web designers who have worked on web accessibility projects in the past.

To examine the variables that influence micromarketing merchandising in the apparel industry in order to help new retailer understand the importance of micromarketing merchandising.

A model was developed showing the different variables that influenced micromarketing merchandising. General merchandising managers of 20 US‐based apparel retail chains were interviewed using a questionnaire developed after analyzing the available literature. A qualitative method of data analysis was conducted and the model was revised based on the findings of the research.

A qualitative analysis of the transcribed interviews indicated that assortment, demographics, pricing and customer loyalty were the primary variables that effected micromarketing merchandising in the apparel retail industry. The sub‐variables in the study included lifestyle, ethnicity, store size and location, and customer service.

The research was limited to US‐based apparel retailers. Future research could be directed towards in‐depth quantitative analysis of each variable influencing micromarketing merchandising.

The results of this study could be used by managers of retail chains to understand the various variables that need to be considered while micromarketing merchandising for their store. Based on the area the store is located in, the importance of each variable can be adjusted to best suit specific stores.

Understanding the importance of micromarketing merchandising can help new retailers study their consumers based on the important dimensions reported in this research and buy the right product for their target consumers.

The purpose of the present study is to explore the collective consumption rituals associated with Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and one of the largest shopping days in the USA.

The research design for this study followed the approach of psychological phenomenological interviewing. Over a two‐year period, the authors, along with trained research assistants, conducted interviews with experienced female Black Friday shoppers.

Qualitative data from 38 interviews indicated that Black Friday shopping activities constitute a collective consumption ritual that is practiced and shared by multiple generations of female family members and close friends. Four themes emerged from the data: familial bonding, strategic planning, the great race, and mission accomplished. The themes coalesced around a military metaphor.

The findings of this study indicate that Black Friday shoppers plan for the ritual by examining advertisements and strategically mapping out their plans for the day. Recommendations for retailers are presented.

This exploratory investigation of Black Friday as a consumption ritual offers new insight into the planning and shopping associated with this well‐known American pseudo‐holiday. Findings also extend theory and research on collective consumption rituals.

The objective of this study is to explore adolescent girls' knowledge about the types of beauty valued in contemporary American popular and commercial culture.

Eighty girls ranging from seven to thirteen years old participated in a card sorting and collage construction exercise using 47 advertisements that featured models.

Differences were found among girls according to age. Preferred beauty types were more complex with age. Furthermore, older girls made more product and brand associations.

The findings indicate that the beauty match‐up hypothesis holds among young girls.

Advertisers may be overlooking the audience of young women by neglecting to use models who represent their desired type(s) of beauty. They may even be alienating young girls by using anti‐ideals such as nudity and sexiness. Furthermore, advertisers must use models who convey the appropriate personality traits to create persuasive ads.

This study is important because it expands upon previous work that has assessed how and why young girls are affected by highly attractive models in ads. However, instead of conceptualizing physical attractiveness as a simple bipolar continuum from “attractive or pretty” to “unattractive or ugly”, this work considers the complex, multidimensional properties of beauty.