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This study addresses the following question: “What factors attract customers to the shopping mall?”, since the commercial attraction of this major retailing format is an undertaken variable. So, the purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical analysis of the main commercial pull factors of the shopping malls in order to attract potential customers.

For this purpose, the authors provide and empirically test a conceptual model considering the variables convenience, tenant variety and specialisation, internal environment, leisure and communication. Data were analysed through structural equation modelling on a sample of 253 customers.

The findings suggest that tenant variety and the internal environment of the mall – understood as an adequate tenant mix and a pleasant, attractive environment – are the main determinants of attracting customers. However, the convenience of the shopping mall and the communication activities do not show a significant influence as pull factors.

The results obtained suggest that marketing managers have numerous tools to influence customers’ intention to visit and patronise shopping malls.

The purpose of this paper is to address the following issue: “Does the products’ perceived quality influences the consumer behaviour in the specialty retailing setting?”

For this purpose, the authors propose and empirically test a conceptual model on the creation of consumer satisfaction and loyalty in specialty retailing, to examine the influence of products’ quality perception and its potential moderating role. Data were analysed through structural equation modelling on a sample of 592 consumers

The findings show that the store-based attributes have different influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty, according to the quality perception of products, and suggest the moderating role of products’ perceived quality.

Retailing managers may use the product’s perceived quality as a segmentation variable in the specialty food retailing context.

The major contribution of this paper is the empirical analysis of one subjective customer-based variable in the specialty retailing setting.

Celebrity endorsement has been profusely used to promote the consumption and purchase intention of diverse product categories; however, there is scarce research about whether celebrity endorsement effectiveness differs between brands and product categories. In this context, this study aims to answer this question: “Does consumer purchase behavior influenced by celebrity endorsement differ between brands and products?”.

To this end, a conceptual model of the influence of celebrity endorsement on consumer purchase behavior is examined through a multiple group structural equation modeling on two consumer samples (315 = brands; 308 = product categories). Samples were categorized as a celebrity promoting either a product category or a brand, and food products were selected as the product category for the investigation.

Findings indicate differences in the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement between brands and product categories: credibility is the most relevant variable influencing consumer purchase intention for product categories, while credibility and congruence both influence consumer purchase intention for brands. Similarly, the celebrity recommendation of brands generates greater purchase intention due to celebrity congruence with the endorsed product.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present research is one of the first endeavors to compare the effectiveness of celebrity brand endorsement versus celebrity product endorsement on purchase intention.

Situational factors influence food and drink consumption, being how, when and where, not fully researched. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to address the influence of “where” in alcoholic beverage consumption. That is, the authors examine the influence of the place of consumption, comparing consumer behaviour at home and at hostelry outlets.

For this purpose, beer was selected as the alcoholic beverage category. Then, a conceptual model of consumer behaviour was proposed and empirically tested through multi-group structural equation modelling (SEM) on a sample of 525 beer consumers (home consumers=209 and hostelry consumers=316.

The findings show that the place of consumption influences alcoholic beverage consumer behaviour. While home consumers demand value for money, hostelry consumers seek for product perceived quality.

This research suggests the applicability of situational factors to the beverages market, providing a starting point for situational segmentation.

The authors’ major contribution is the empirical examination into how alcoholic beverage consumption behaviour is situational dependent.

Emotional and affective responses are experienced during service use that determine customer behavior; and for this reason, bank services require an better understanding of the emotions customers feel in service experiences. This research aims to examine whether different customer segments exist in the bank services industry, based on the emotions they experience when using the service.

The factors were examined through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Then, two-step clustering analysis was developed for customer segmentation on data from 451 bank service customers. Finally, an Anova test was conducted to confirm the differences among the obtained customer segments.

Our findings show that the emotion-based segmentation is meaningful in terms of behavioral outcomes in bank services. Further, research findings indicate that bank service customers cannot be perceived as a homogenous group, since four customer clusters emerge from our research namely “angry complainers”, “pragmatic uninvolved”, “emotionally attached customers” and “happy satisfied customers”.

Our findings show that the emotion-based segmentation is meaningful in terms of behavioral outcomes in bank services. Further, research findings indicate that bank service customers cannot be perceived as a homogenous group, since four customer clusters emerge from our research namely “angry complainers”, “pragmatic uninvolved”, “emotionally attached customers” and “happy satisfied customers”, being the “angry complainers” the most challenging customer group.

The study is the first one to specifically segment bank customers based on the emotions they experience when using the service.

The purpose of this paper is to address the following question: “Does purchase frequency influence consumer behaviour in the specialty food retailing setting?”, since purchase frequency is a consumer-based undertaken variable. For this purpose, the authors provide and empirically test a conceptual model focussed on specialty food retailing.

Data were collected through a structured questionnaire in the USA, gathering 592 valid responses and analysis was developed through structural equation modelling.

Findings indicate that satisfaction and loyalty towards specialty food stores are strongly influenced by consumers’ purchase frequency of specialty food products. Additionally, the findings support the moderating role of purchase frequency on the relationship between store service and satisfaction, as well as on the link store environment satisfaction.

Specialty food retailers should carry out marketing strategies focussing on consumer behaviour and segmentation could be developed considering purchase frequency.

The purpose of this paper is to look at human interdependence and its significance in project management.

The paper focuses solely on human interaction in the context of a short-term project consisting of preparing a small “international” fair in Gatineau, Québec (Canada). For this purpose, an established questionnaire was used which aimed to evaluate the predator-prey dynamic between team members (as described by Mesly in a recent paper).

Human interdependence indeed plays a key role in the functioning of short-lived projects (and, this paper assumes, of long-term projects as well).

The paper places emphasis on considering the human power-game factor (predator-prey) more strongly in future project endeavors.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between employees’ perception of authentic leadership and their turnover intention as mediated by employees’ work-group identification (WID) and work engagement.

Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data from 623 Spanish employees.

Results show that authentic leadership has a negative effect on turnover intention and positive effects on work engagement and WID. The direct relationship between authentic leadership and turnover intention was found to be partially mediated by employees’ work engagement.

One of the strongest implications that may be drawn from this study is that authentic leaders can influence employees’ turnover intentions by positively enhancing their engagement. Thus, the study highlights authentic leadership as a key element for retaining valuable employees through the promotion of employees’ work engagement.

To the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to analyze the association between authentic leadership and turnover intention and the meditational effect of work engagement and WID.

Private label brands of food products are an important component of many consumers’ purchases, as well as an integral element of the retail industry. The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating role of trust on food private label brands’ purchase intention and loyalty.

For this purpose, the authors propose and empirically test a conceptual model comprising variables such as price, familiarity and store image. A sample of 445 respondents was gathered, and the hypotheses were tested performing structural equation modelling.

The findings highlight the moderating influence of trust on consumers’ loyalty to food private label brands. In addition, the results obtained reveal the substantially great influence of private label brand familiarity on purchase intention and loyalty. So, it seems that consumer trust and loyalty are strongly associated regarding food private label brands.

The authors suggest that trust of food private label brands allows retailers to increase consumer loyalty.

Consequently retail managers should consider the enhancement of trust in the context of a marketing strategy formulation for food private label brands.

The present study provides insights into the moderating effect of trust on loyalty to food private label brands, as well as evidence of the strong influence of familiarity on private label brands’ proneness, related to food products.

The purpose of this paper is to address two issues. First research goal is about analyzing differences in perceived quality in higher education (HE) between a private and a public university centre. Second, the research aims to analyze which are the key dimensions in perceived quality in HE from the students’ standpoint.

An analysis based on a modified SERVQUAL instrument was used to respond to the objectives put forward. Then, a mean comparison and covariance structure analysis approach was carried out to test the differences in perceived quality between the students from both centres, as well as the dimensions with higher influence in perceived quality.

The results suggest that tangibility and empathy dimensions are the most influent variables on perceived quality in HE. Furthermore, some relevant significant differences were found between the public and the private centre.

The results give an opportunity to HE institutions’ managers to develop enhancing quality strategies for their institutions, given that the present study relies on a sample of actual undergraduate university students.

The present research provides with a comparative analysis between a private and a public centre, in order to assess which one offers higher educational and teaching quality from the students’ viewpoint, as well as an approach to the main variables in HE perceived quality.