Capturing the multiple facets of mall experience: Developing and validating a scale

Many constructs have been tied to the customer experience in shopping malls, including hedonic shopping motivations, activities, excitement, and emotional and cognitive reactions. Yet the literature has not addressed the notion of the mall experience as a construct in and of itself. The current research aim is to conceptualize the mall experience through the development and validation of a measurement scale. We present a four‐stage process of scale development and validation, based on three studies with four separate samples of mall shoppers, in which the final stage employs the scale to predict mall equity and loyalty. The suggested scale offers a quantitative measurement of four different mall experiences—seductive, functional, social recreation, and social scene—which differ in their components. This work extends theory in understanding, conceptualizing, and measuring the customer experience in the retail space. On the practical level, the developed scale can serve as a means for planning a mall's marketing mix and launching marketing campaigns in order to attract various groups of customers. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An examination of the role of perceived support and employee commitment in employee-customer encounters

The authors examined the relationships between perceived organizational support, organizational commitment, commitment to customers, and service quality in a fast-food firm. The research design matched customer responses with individual employees' attitudes, making this study a true test of the service provider-customer encounter. On the basis of a sample of matched employee-customer data (N = 133), hierarchical linear modeling analyses revealed that perceived organizational support had both a unit-level and an employee-level effect on 1 dimension of service quality: helping behavior. Contrary to affective organizational commitment, affective commitment to customers enhanced service quality. The 2 sub-dimensions of continuance commitment to the organization--perceived high sacrifice and perceived lack of alternatives--exerted effects opposite in sign: The former fostered service quality, whereas the latter reduced it. The implications of these findings are discussed within the context of research on employee-customer encounters.     

Recency Versus Repetition Priming Effects of Cigarette Warnings on Nonsmoking Teenagers: The Moderating Effects of Cigarette-Brand Familiarity

This study focuses on the interactive effects of antismoking warnings and cigarette-brand familiarity on teenagers' smoking intent, attitudes toward the website, and sponsoring brand when exposed to entertainment websites sponsored by cigarette brands. Findings from a 3 (Warning Type) × 2 (Level of Cigarette-Brand Familiarity) factorial design experiment with nonsmoking teenagers demonstrated that text and picture warnings significantly reduced attitudes toward cigarette brands, compared to text-only or no warning. Warnings had assimilation effects on attitudes (toward brand and website) and on smoking intent in the case of familiar brands; and marginally significant contrast effects in the case of unfamiliar brands, which better reflects the repetition priming paradigm than the recency priming paradigm, and calls for attention to cigarette brands' familiarity.     

Voice and persuasion in a banking telemarketing context

Voice has been neglected in research on advertising and persuasion. The present study examined the influence of voice and sex on the credibility of the voice source in a banking telemarketing context as well as with regards to the attitude toward the advertisement, and subjects' behavioral intention. An experiment using voices of a man and a woman was conducted. A recorded mock-telemarketing message consisted of an advertisement for an ATM card offered by a Canadian bank. Subjects were undergraduate students (N=399; 71.6% women, 28.4% men; M age=26.5 yr., SD = 7.4). They completed a questionnaire after hearing the message in telemarketing conditions. Analysis indicated a moderate intensity, an unmarked intonation, and a fast speech rate are associated with a more credible source than the other combinations. Sex was not a significant moderator in the relationship between voice characteristics and source credibility. Voice characteristics significantly affected attitudes toward the advertisement and behavioral intention.     

Can cigarette warnings counterbalance effects of smoking scenes in movies?

Scenes in movies where smoking occurs have been empirically shown to influence teenagers to smoke cigarettes. The capacity of a Canadian warning label on cigarette packages to decrease the effects of smoking scenes in popular movies has been investigated. A 2 x 3 factorial design was used to test the effects of the same movie scene with or without electronic manipulation of all elements related to smoking, and cigarette pack warnings, i.e., no warning, text-only warning, and text+picture warning. Smoking-related stereotypes and intent to smoke of teenagers were measured. It was found that, in the absence of warning, and in the presence of smoking scenes, teenagers showed positive smoking-related stereotypes. However, these effects were not observed if the teenagers were first exposed to a picture and text warning. Also, smoking-related stereotypes mediated the relationship of the combined presentation of a text and picture warning and a smoking scene on teenagers' intent to smoke. Effectiveness of Canadian warning labels to prevent or to decrease cigarette smoking among teenagers is discussed, and areas of research are proposed.     

Compensatory Effects of Cognitive Characteristics of the Source,the Message,and the Receiver Upon Attitude Change

This study explored the interactive effects of four cognitive variables (perceived expertise of the source, recipients' initial attitudes, number of arguments, and message sidedness) on attitude change. A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design was used (N = 236 Canadian students): Results showed a positive and significant main effect of initial attitude on attitude change and three significant compensatory effects of independent variables on attitude change: (a) two-sided messages were more persuasive with fewer arguments; conversely for one-sided messages; (b) high expertise compensated for low number of arguments and conversely; and (c) higher expertise was more persuasive in the case of unfavorable recipients and conversely. Results also showed that when the message was one-sided and the number of arguments was large, low expertise was more persuasive than high expertise on initially opposed recipients, which confirms the cognitive response.     

Effects of time of day on shopping behavior.

Shoppers interviewed in a shopping mall at different times of the day show different activities within the mall and attitudes toward the products. Prices also vary with the time of the day. These results can be explained in terms of shopping values and the related demographic characteristics of the population visiting the shopping center at different times of the day.     

Paradoxical effects of famous music in retail venues

The present study analyzes the effects of famous versus nonfamous ambient music in retail venues on actual shoppers' emotions and cognitions, which, in turn, affect buying intention and brand images. Our theoretical model was basically validated by the data collected in actual shopping venues in 2 studies. Study 1 explores the effects of music famousness on buying intention through the mediation of affect, self‐congruity, and product quality (N = 304). Study 2 explores the effects of music famousness on perceived brand quality through the mediation of self‐congruity and store attitude (N = 351). As expected, famous music has positive effects on shoppers' responses according to the mediating role of affective and cognitive responses and their sequential mediating effects. Paradoxically, famous music has also negative effects on these variables because it distracts consumers from their shopping, reducing cognitive activities. We draw theoretical and managerial conclusions from these findings.