Harmen Oppewal

A Multipurpose Shopping Trip Model to Assess Retail Agglomeration Effects

Multipurpose shopping is a prominent and relevant feature of shopping behavior. However, no methodology is available to assess empirically how the demand for multipurpose shopping depends on retail agglomeration or, in general, the characteristics of retail supply, such as the numbers and types of stores in a shopping center or the number of categories in a supermarket. The authors propose a nested-logit model that captures retail agglomeration effects on consumer choice of shopping trip purpose (what to buy) and destination (where to buy). The authors estimate parameters representing trip purpose-adjustment and between-store attraction effects on shopping trip data collected from a sample of 1704 households in The Netherlands. Both effects are significant for each of the three categories for which the model is estimated. This is consistent with the idea of agglomeration effects. The findings suggest that agglomeration helps attract not only multipurpose but also single-purpose trips. A comparison of multi- and single-purpose trip model predictions shows that single-purpose models underpredict the number of trips to larger shopping centers.

Measuring perceived service quality using integrated conjoint experiments

Proposes the use of integrated conjoint experiments to measure perceived service quality. It also demonstrates the process of modelling the hierarchical relations between operationally defined service attributes, strategically relevant service dimensions, and overall preference for banks or banking products. The proposed method, which is based on hierarchical information integration theory, avoids some of the limitations and problems of SERVQUAL and traditional conjoint analysis. The approach is demonstrated with an application to retail banks involving four service dimensions and 28 attributes. Conclusions are drawn about which dimensions and attribute changes will yield the strongest improvements in a bank’s utility and competitive position. The paper ends with a discussion of topics for further research.

Bundling and retail agglomeration effects on shopping behavior

Abstract This study investigates effects of bundling and retail agglomeration on shopping behavior, in particular on in-store purchase incidence and the sequencing of shopping activities. It is argued that many of the consumer benefits of bundling also apply to retail agglomeration and as such can help to explain multipurpose shopping behavior. The paper derives hypotheses and tests these in a choice experiment in which respondents have to purchase a beach holiday. Findings are that, as predicted, consumers are more inclined to buy individual components when they have more information about these components. The hypothesis that they would be also more inclined to buy components when there are more competitors nearby is however falsified; instead it appears that consumers are more likely to either not purchase at all or purchase a bundle if there are more competitors nearby. Effects are also found for time pressure, category experience and the presence of a shopping companion.

Discretionary Expenditure and Tourism Consumption: Insights from a Choice Experiment

Consumers’ decisions to spend money on tourism occur in the context of the other potential uses of their resources and corresponding values or utilities. Although many studies have examined the demand for travel and tourism, there is no known study that reveals how individuals and households make trade-offs when allocating their spending among various potential categories of discretionary expenditure. This study assesses these trade-offs empirically through the conduct of a choice experiment on a random sample of Australian consumers. The results provide insight into how each category of discretionary expenditure is valued and how spending in each category competes for a share of the discretionary expenditure “pie.” We discuss the results with an emphasis on the implications for tourism.

Place Attachment in Commercial Settings: A Gift Economy Perspective

Place attachment is ones strong emotional bond with a specific location. While there are numerous studies on the topic, the literature pays little attention to commercial settings. This is because they are seen as too insipid to rouse attachment. Consumer research, however, suggests otherwise. To address this disparity, the authors investigate how people develop, experience, and act on place attachment in commercial settings. Findings from consumer in-depth interviews and self-reports conducted in France reveal that place attachment develops through perceptions of familiarity, authenticity, and security and evolves into experiences of homeyness. Consumers find these encounters of homeyness extraordinary and respond by engaging in volunteering, over-reciprocation, and ambassadorship toward the place. The authors further theorize these findings through a gift economy perspective and identify a tripartite exchange between the consumer, the proprietor of the place, and selected people from the consumers social network.

Predicting consumer response to new housing : a stated choice experiment

This paper discusses problems typical of eliciting housing preference. It will be argued that stated preference and choice models are potentially powerful in eliciting consumer housing preferences. This approach is illustrated in an example of new housing construction in Meerhoven. The design of the stated choice experiment is outlined and the estimated part-worth utilities of the attributes are presented. Furthermore, choices for houses in low- and high-density environments are predicted and its is examined how much more households are willing to pay for low-density housing.

A Constraints-Induced Model of Park Choice

Conjoint choice models have been used widely in the consumer-choice literature as an approach to measure and predict consumer-choice behavior. These models typically assume that consumer preferences and choice rules are independent from any constraints that might impact the behavior of interest. Previous research has indicated that such constraints may be important in understanding park-choice behavior. The objective of the present article, therefore, is to develop a strategy for integrating the levels of constraints into an experimental choice model. The design strategy and model specification are discussed. The model is applied to the case of amusement-park choice. The results of this study suggest that constraints do influence preferences underlying park-choice behavior. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Analyzing heterogeneity in conjoint estimates of residential preferences

Conjoint estimates of residential preferencesare typically based on aggregate responses. Forreasons of segmentation or to differentiatebetween non-significant housing attributes andattributes that are characterized byconflicting preferences, further analysis isrequired. In this paper, the heterogeneity inthe conjoint estimates of residentialpreferences of families is analyzed. It isexamined how the estimated part-worth utilitiesof the housing attributes are related to thesocio-economic variables and current housingattributes by applying regression analysis.Although the explained variance was rather low,suggesting that residential preferences offamilies are highly idiosyncratic, therelationships that were significant could beinterpreted well.

A Comparison of Full Profile and Hierarchical Information Integration Conjoint Methods to Modeling Group Preferences

This paper presents a comparative test of full profile (FP), original hierarchical information integration (HII-O), and integrated hierarchical information integration (HII-I) conjoint methods for modeling group preferences. It is hypothesized that in settings where groups need to decide about complex multi-attribute alternatives, HII-O will predict holdout profiles better than FP, and that HII-I will perform better than HII-O. The predictive ability of the three methods is tested for the case of housing preferences of housing co-ops, which are groups consisting of three to five people who jointly own a house. The results confirm that HII-I outperforms the other two methods and further suggest that FP and HII-O perform equally well. In addition, two variations of HII-I are developed. One of these provides independent estimates of the relative influence of group members on the decision outcomes, however at the expense of requiring larger designs. The two HII-I variations are also tested and found to be equivalent in predictive ability.

The influence of ethnic attributes on ethnic consumer choice of service outlet

Purpose – Marketers are increasingly aware of ethnic subgroups as segments to target with customized offers. This paper aims to investigate the role of ethnic‐related outlet attributes in determining the attractiveness of mainstream and ethnic service outlets to ethnic consumers.Design/methodology/approach – Based on institutional theory and self‐congruity theory, the paper proposes that two sets of outlet attributes, ethnic‐related and performative attributes, influence the attractiveness of an outlet. These effects are mediated by a businesss pragmatic legitimacy, its social legitimacy (in terms of perceived sensitivity to ethnic culture), and the congruity between the consumers self‐image and the business. A model is proposed and hypotheses derived. They are tested on data from an online survey among 483 Chinese Australian consumers about their use of travel agents. The hypotheses are tested using structural equation modelling.Findings – The study reveals that ethnic‐related attributes play a specifi...