Steve Greenland and Peter McGoldrick
Effective retail environments are crucial for customer acquisition and retention. However, the environment behaviour relationship is complex and producing the ideal design is…
Abstract
Purpose
Effective retail environments are crucial for customer acquisition and retention. However, the environment behaviour relationship is complex and producing the ideal design is difficult. Whilst substantial research reports the affects of specific design components, studies investigating the impact of multiple store environment stimuli upon consumer perceptions, attitudes and behaviour are limited.
Design/methodology/approach
The environment response model provides a conceptual framework for examining the impact of retail settings upon cognitive, affective and cognitive consumer responses. Its applicability is tested in retail banking environments. Research empirically links survey data to a design audit and reveals that more modern branch styles and features are statistically more likely to induce favourable customer reaction.
Findings
Research empirically links survey data to a design audit and reveals that more modern branch styles and features are statistically more likely to induce favourable customer reaction. This finding in some ways helps justify expenditure on refurbishment. However, features having a positive impact in one respect may also be negative in another, highlighting the complexity of the environment behaviour relationship and the difficulties facing retail designers.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations of this research is the relatively small branch sample size.
Originality/value
Contributes to the literature on the impact of retail settings on consumer responses.
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Ian Combe, David Crowther and Steve Greenland
This article considers the attempted change to the image of an established brand by studying the semiotics within the brand’s historical advertising campaigns. The use of…
Abstract
This article considers the attempted change to the image of an established brand by studying the semiotics within the brand’s historical advertising campaigns. The use of semiotics to study the interpretation of messages is discussed, and the link between interpretation of messages and advertising effectiveness in changing brand image is explored. The authors deconstruct advertisements of a brand to provide a model containing opposing dialectics that may aid managers by highlighting alternative symbolic messages contained in advertisements. Oncwe identified, these alternative symbolic messages may be used to help change brand image and influence advertising effectiveness. Although the study focuses upon a major brand of beer, this is an industry in which there are numerous small firms, and many of those have constrained marketing budgets, and thus need to make sure that their advertising is effective. Equally, entrepreneurial marketing is not to found only in the small firm, and the case study discusses a radical and imaginative brand repositioning of a well established product.
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The Ninh Nguyen, Antonio Lobo and Steven Greenland
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how consumers’ altruistic values influence their personal norms, environmental attitudes, subjective norms and perceived barriers, all…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how consumers’ altruistic values influence their personal norms, environmental attitudes, subjective norms and perceived barriers, all of which in turn influence their pro-environmental behaviour (i.e. the purchase of energy efficient household appliances).
Design/methodology/approach
This research follows a hypothetic-deductive approach. A unique conceptual model examines the role of consumers’ altruistic values in relation to their environmentally responsible purchase behaviour. Structured questionnaires were administered to randomly selected Vietnamese consumers who visited busy electronics and appliance specialist stores, which yielded 682 usable responses.
Findings
Structural equation modelling revealed that consumers’ altruistic values tend to positively influence their personal norms, environmental attitudes, subjective norms and mitigate their perceived barriers in relation to the purchase of energy efficient appliances.
Practical implications
Marketers, policymakers and sustainability campaigners should develop relevant communication and education programmes that emphasise the importance of purchasing energy efficient appliances for the environment and society, arousing consumers’ sense of moral obligation and societal responsibility to purchase such products. They should also provide a convenient and easily accessible shopping environment for consumers.
Originality/value
This research makes an important contribution by presenting and testing a new altruistic-values-based model that seeks to understand consumers’ environmentally responsible purchase behaviour. This model could serve as a blueprint for future studies in the domain of pro-environmental behaviour, especially those in emerging markets.
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The Ninh Nguyen, Antonio Lobo and Steven Greenland
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of consumers’ collectivism and long-term orientation (LTO) cultural values on their purchase intention in relation to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of consumers’ collectivism and long-term orientation (LTO) cultural values on their purchase intention in relation to environment-friendly products.
Design/methodology/approach
This research adopts a hypo-deductive research design. A unique conceptual model was developed by linking cultural values to key determinants of green purchase behaviour. This model was then tested using a quantitative survey of 682 shoppers in popular Vietnamese electrical appliance stores.
Findings
Analysis using structural equation modelling reveals that consumers with greater adherence to collectivism and LTO tend to engage in green purchase behaviour owing to their positive environmental attitudes, strong subjective norms and tolerance of inconvenience associated with eco-friendly product purchase. Gender is found to moderate the relationship between the determinants and purchase intention.
Practical implications
Marketers including manufacturers and policymakers must endeavour (change globally) to reduce or eliminate perceived inconvenience associated with green purchases. They should also effectively communicate messages stressing that eco-friendly product purchases are crucial for environmental protection and benefit consumer groups including family, peers and society in the long-run.
Originality/value
This research is the first of its kind which links consumers’ cultural values at a personal level to all the elements of the theory of planned behaviour. This research also extends current knowledge about green purchase behaviour in emerging markets by focussing on Vietnam.
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Abderahman Rejeb, John G. Keogh, Steven J. Simske, Thomas Stafford and Horst Treiblmaier
The purpose of this study is to investigate the potentials of blockchain technologies (BC) for supply chain collaboration (SCC).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the potentials of blockchain technologies (BC) for supply chain collaboration (SCC).
Design/methodology/approach
Building on a narrative literature review and analysis of seminal SCC research, BC characteristics are integrated into a conceptual framework consisting of seven key dimensions: information sharing, resource sharing, decision synchronization, goal congruence, incentive alignment, collaborative communication and joint knowledge creation. The relevance of each category is briefly assessed.
Findings
BC technologies can impact collaboration between transaction partners in modern supply chains (SCs) by streamlining information sharing processes, by supporting decision and reward models and by strengthening communicative relationships with SC partners. BC promises important future capabilities in SCs by facilitating auditability, improving accountability, enhancing data and information transparency and improving trust in B2B relationships. The technology also promises to strengthen collaboration and to overcome vulnerabilities related to moral hazard and shortcomings found in legacy technologies.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is mainly focused on the potentials of BC technologies on SCC as envisioned in the current academic literature. Hence, there is a need to validate the theoretical inferences with other approaches such as expert interviews and empirical tests. This study is of use to practitioners and decision-makers seeking to engage in BC-collaborative SC models.
Originality/value
The value of this paper lies in its call for an increased focus on the possibilities of BC technologies to support SCC. This study also contributes to the literature by filling the knowledge gap of how BC potentially impacts SC management.
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Considers distribution in the financial services. Financial services providers face a wide choice in the combinations of channels that they can employ to market their products…
Abstract
Considers distribution in the financial services. Financial services providers face a wide choice in the combinations of channels that they can employ to market their products. Asserts that plastic cards are increasingly replacing paper cheques and credits and have become a key channel of distribution for the money transmission services. Continues by reviewing the possible advantages of chip‐based plastic payment cards. Discusses how they would allow all the different payment functions to be held on one piece of plastic and, therefore, provide complete financial management for the cardholder. Considers the adoption of plastic cards in the card centric countries of Japan and the UK.
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Jillian Dawes and Steve Worthington
The harsh market environment has led to fierce levels of competition within the personal financial services sector, where banks, building societies and other providers of…
Abstract
The harsh market environment has led to fierce levels of competition within the personal financial services sector, where banks, building societies and other providers of financial services have been criticized for offering sophisticated consumers undifferentiated products. With customer retention becoming increasingly significant for institutions within the sector, strategies which provide them with competitive advantage are becoming of paramount importance. Examines how one large building society is responding to the demands of an oversupply of financial services by developing a customer database in an attempt to improve its competitive position.
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A startegic management approach is used to assess the nature of business environments affecting seafood distribution in Japan. Notions of environment ‘textures’ described in an…
Abstract
A startegic management approach is used to assess the nature of business environments affecting seafood distribution in Japan. Notions of environment ‘textures’ described in an influential paper by Emery and Trist are used to determine the current degree of environmental turbulence and the implications for export strategies. The environment as a whole is found to exhibit ‘medium turbulence’, and the sectors of importing, wholesaling, and food retailing/service are ‘medium’ to ‘high’ turbulence'. To cope with such environments, firms must undertake extensive real‐time market research (e.g. using POS information accessed via computer); develop flexible structures and operating systems (to become more responsive); and focus on improving communication and meeting the changing customer needs.
Philip O’Reilly and Pat Finnegan
Since 1995, Internet banking has allowed consumers to utilise the Internet as a platform to interact with their bank. Initially, the hype surrounding Internet banking was immense…
Abstract
Since 1995, Internet banking has allowed consumers to utilise the Internet as a platform to interact with their bank. Initially, the hype surrounding Internet banking was immense. However, more realistic expectations about the value of Internet channels and changes in the financial services sector are affecting opinions of Internet banking systems. This study examines contemporary Internet banking systems in five leading ‘clicks and mortar’ banks operating in the North‐Eastern part of the United States. The findings reveal a move towards viewing Internet banking as an operational rather than a competitive instrument, with consequential changes in how banks evaluate their Internet banking systems. The paper concludes by proposing some changes to expectations on how Internet banking is likely to develop.
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Maria Goulina Rabany, Bettina von Stamm and Meltem Etcheberry