Editorial

Citation

Towers, N. (2014), "Editorial", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 42 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJRDM-02-2014-0014

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Volume 42, Issue 6

There is a strong retail emphasis running through this issue. The topics of the submissions include the creation of a responsible brand image, the store opening process, the performance of Indian retailers, the quality of retail services, consumer perceptions and functional evaluations of store cash desks and finally how relationship marketing can reduce cognitive dissonance in the post-purchase stage.

The first contribution by Gunn and Mont explored how and why choice editing is being used as a tool to promote sustainable consumption using the choice editing of fish as a case study. The study is explorative in nature and is based on a case study of choice editing of fish as a product category that has undergone fairly widespread choice editing. The case is built on primary empirical data from three Swedish and four British retailers collected through semi-structured interviews. These retailers are of different sizes, but together represent over 50 per cent of the food retail market in both Sweden and the UK taken by market share. The findings suggest that the main business case choice editing is the creation of a responsible brand image and is often based on pressure from wider societal norms. The case for choice editing is therefore ultimately reliant on consumer recognition of sustainability issues as valuable, and it is unlikely to be taken up when retailers see no added brand value in acting responsibly on a certain issue. Clearer product-based indicators and stronger governmental regulation of unsustainable products may enable further choice editing for sustainability by retailers. NGOs and the media also play a critical role.

The purpose of the second paper by Sandberg is to explore the store opening process conducted by retail companies. The research questions cover the role and organisation of the establishment function in charge of the process, the activities and functions involved in the process, and the coordination mechanisms applied during the process. This research considers the store opening process as a company-wide project, managed by an establishment function in which internal functions as well as external suppliers need to be coordinated. A multiple case study of eight retail companies is presented focusing on the organisation of the establishment function, a mapping of the store opening process, and the application of coordination mechanisms. The role and organisation of the establishment function is described and the store opening process is summarised into 11 main activities to be conducted by either the establishment function or other involved functions. During the store opening process six different coordination mechanisms are utilised, including mutual adjustments and direct supervision, as well as different types of standardisation.

The third contribution by Gandhi and Shankar aims to analyse the performance of Indian retailers in recent past and derive meaningful insight for practicing managers in this area. The paper analyses the economic efficiencies of select Indian retailers using three related methodologies: data envelopment analysis (DEA), Malmquist productivity index (MPI) and bootstrapped Tobit regression. DEA analysis has shown that five retail firms out of selected 18 are found as efficient under the CCR model of DEA and seven out of 18 retail firms are efficient under the BCC model of DEA. MPI results indicate that 61 per cent of the firms have progressed in terms of the MPI during the period under consideration. The bootstrapped Tobit regression shows that number of retail outlets and mergers and acquisitions can be considered as the driving forces influencing efficiency of retailers in India.

The fourth contribution by Deb and Lomo-David deploys analytical hierarchy processing (AHP) in which the decision problem is broken down into hierarchy; thus customer preference involves the structuring of a hierarchy in terms of the overall objective, the selection criteria and the decision alternatives. AHP technique allows pairwise comparisons to be made among the alternatives with respect to the service dimensions. The paper uses a comparative evaluation model to compare retail stores (supermarkets) across several RSQ dimensions, validated and tested RSQ model in the context of Indian supermarkets and explores the existence of RSQ gap by studying the difference between customers’ perception and expectations. This study validated the formal retail service quality scale developed by Dabholkar et al. (1996) with a modification that led to making it more suitable to the Indian context. Prospective and existing retailers can use this instrument effectively to measure the quality of their services as perceived by customers in comparison to their competition. This work will not only help the supermarkets to improve their competitive positioning in the marketplace but will help them to identify areas of services needing improvement on priority basic.

The fifth contribution by Yildirim, Ayalp, Aktas and Hidayetoglu focuses on assessing consumer perceptions and functional evaluations of store cash desks (flat, L- and U-shaped) in the clothing retail context. To test the assumption that relationships exist between various types of cash desks and consumer perceptions and functional evaluations, a study was devised using digital pictures of three types of cash desks hypothetically located in a large store. The results based on semantic differential and functional items show that consumers expressed a more positive perception of flat than of L- or U-shaped cash desks. Men evaluated the store cash desks more positively than women overall. Managerial implications are discussed and directions for future research are proposed. This paper reveals a significant relationship between cash desk type and consumer perceptions and functional evaluations of cash desks. The results of the work suggest that retailers and designers may be able to easily make stores more attractive to consumers by installing flat cash desks.

The purpose of the final contribution by Sharifi and Esfidani is to study how relationship marketing can reduce cognitive dissonance in post-purchase stage and thereby increase customer satisfaction and encourage loyalty under mediating roles of trust and cognitive dissonance. Based on a survey on consumers of cell phones the authors tested the effects of relationship marketing on cognitive dissonance and then customer satisfaction, behavioural and attitudinal loyalty using structural equation modelling. The results indicate that, thanks to relationship marketing consumers undertook less cognitive dissonance in post-purchase stage. Thus, as consumers faced less cognitive dissonance they represented more satisfaction and thereby behavioural and attitudinal loyalty. Additionally, our study confirmed the mediating role of trust and cognitive dissonance. The results show that when brands and retailers make their ties with their customers stronger and encourage trust they can discourage cognitive dissonance in post-purchase stage and thereby encourage customer satisfaction and behavioural and attitudinal loyalty.

Neil Towers

Reference

Dabholkar, P., Thorpe, D.I. and Rentz, J.O. (1996), “A measure of service quality for retail stores: scale development and validation”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 3-16