Tammy R. Kinley

Involvement and the tourist shopper: Using the involvement construct to segment the American tourist shopper at the mall

There is great interest in understanding the complex behaviors of consumers. One facet of consumer behavior is the ‘involvement’ construct. Involvement is a person’s perceived relevance of the object based on inherent needs, values, and interests. There is a plethora of shopping malls all over the US. Major metropolitan cities are over-malled! Despite the abundance of malls close to their residence, American travelers shop at comparable malls while tourists in another city. There exists a gap in the literature about this phenomenon. This study surveyed 485 tourist shoppers residing in metropolitan areas to address this gap. It examined the interplay of their shopping involvement with demographics, push motivators, pull motivators, shopper-tourist cluster typologies, and the amount of time and money spent shopping while on a trip. This study created a profile of tourists based on their level of shopping involvement. It segmented them into high-, medium-, or low-involvement tourist shoppers. The more highly involved tourist shoppers were female and had limited formal education. Further, they indicated they were more interested in shopping than in many other activities. Involvement levels were consistently associated with both push and pull factors in a hierarchical manner. Respondents strongly motivated to shop by push and pull factors were consistently found to be highly involved tourist shoppers. Involvement was a significant predictor of overall satisfaction with a shopping center. Involvement levels were significantly linked to tourist-shopper cluster typologies. High-involvement tourist shoppers were significantly more likely to have saved for shopping on their trip. However, involvement was not found to be a predictor of time or money spent on shopping while on a trip.

Shopping behavior and the involvement construct

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the degree of involvement with shopping for clothing affects the frequency with which GenY consumers seek the opinions of others when making clothing purchases for themselves; the non‐personal sources that influence the frequency of clothing purchase; and certain shopping behaviors.Design/methodology/approach – Written questionnaires were completed by students at a university in the southwestern region of the USA.Findings – Most of the participants were determined to be high involvement shoppers who sought opinions of female friends and co‐workers, used most of the non‐personal idea sources, shopped more often, spent more money, and were more comfortable shopping for clothing.Research limitations/implications – While the participants are representative of the GenY characteristics and a valid sample for this project, the use of a convenience sample may limit the generalizability of the results.Practical implications – Generation Y consumers who ar...

Size Variation in Women's Pants

The U.S. sizing system involves the use of a size code to direct customers to garments most likely to fit their body. The popular press reports expensive clothes tend to run large and there is inconsistency within each size category. The purpose of this study was to determine how much inconsistency there is within size categories, the difference in size of two different price points (inexpensive and expensive), and two different types of label (national and private) of women’s pants. To this end, the waist, crotch, and inseam of 1011 pairs of pants were measured. Inconsistency was found in each size category, expensive pants generally were larger in measurement, and little significant difference was found between national and private label merchandise except for sizes 4 and 6.

Travel motivation as a determinant of shopping venue.

Purpose – Shopping is a popular tourist activity. While a person might not travel for the purpose of shopping, many tourists shop while traveling. This study aims to examine travel motivation as a predictor of the importance assigned to desired shopping center attributes for three different shopping centers, and their effect on satisfaction, and re‐patronage intention.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected via mall‐intercept surveys from 624 tourist shoppers at seven shopping centers. A tourist was defined as a person who traveled a distance of at least 50 miles from their home.Findings – Desired shopping center attributes are influenced by travel motivation. For the superregional center, a linear relationship was computed for the exploration travel motive, mall environment, overall satisfaction and re‐patronage intention. Interestingly, overall satisfaction with the shopping center was not a significant predictor of re‐patronage intention in the theme/festival or super off‐price centers.Origin...

Fit and shopping preferences by clothing benefits sought

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to determine whether clothing benefits sought (CBS) affected fit preferences, satisfaction with the fit of ready‐to‐wear, label style preferences, and shopping behaviors of US women.Design/methodology/approach – Written questionnaires were completed to determine the relationship between the CBS paradigm and the fit and shopping variables examined in the study. A larger study from which these findings are drawn involved behaviors related specifically to pants.Findings – Responses on questionnaires from 150 women indicated four CBS factors: Fashion Forward, Sexy, Reputation, and Individualist. Study participants who desired Fashion Forward benefits preferred to shop in specialty stores and a tighter fit. Participants who sought Sexy benefits spent the most money on average, for a new pair of pants, preferred a tighter fit, clothing sized by waist dimension, and shopping in specialty stores. Participants who desired Reputation benefits from clothing shopped in specialty...

Learning Style Preferences: Implications for Web-Based Instruction

The objective of this paper was to profile the learning style preferences of merchandising students and to demonstrate how Web-based instructional strategies can accommodate their unique preferences. The framework was based on Felder and Silvermans (1988) model that identifies four dichotomous bipolar learning style dimensions (i.e., active or reflective, sensory or intuitive, visual or verbal, and sequential or global). To develop learning style profiles, students (N = 340) enrolled in three undergraduate merchandising courses completed the 44-item Index of Learning Styles (ILS). The majority of merchandising students were active, sensing, visual, and sequential learners. A model, Adapting Web-Based Instruction to Accommodate Student Learning Style Preferences, was developed detailing specific Web-based instructional strategies that could be incorporated across the merchandising curricula.

Media influence, fashion, and shopping: a gender perspective

Purpose – Promotional media and gender have been shown to influence purchase and shopping channel choice. The purpose of this paper is to better understand the role of media influence, fashion consciousness, and fashion leadership on shopping channel choice in regard to gender. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was administered using a convenience sample of male and female students at a Southwestern University in the USA. A total of 408 surveys were used for analysis. The data were factor analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) statistical software and a structural equation model was developed to test the hypotheses. Findings – The results indicate that while the media influence factor of mass media positively influences fashion consciousness for both males and females, personalized media only indicated significant influence on male fashion leaders. In addition, both male and female consumers indicated that fashion leadership influenced non-traditional over traditional retai...

Using structural equation modeling to understand the impact of Bollywood movies on destination image, tourist activity, and purchasing behavior of Indians:

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the influence of Bollywood movies on destination image, tourist activity, and purchasing behaviors of Indian viewers. Surveys were administered in a face-to-face format in New Delhi, India, to a convenience sample of over 600 respondents. Factor analysis and structural equation modeling were employed to test the hypotheses and explore causal relationships. Findings identified a profile of Bollywood movies viewers, sources of information used to determine destination choice, and the level of involvement among viewers in foreign travel. Additionally, this study explored the relationships between Bollywood movies and tourist motivations and the propensity to participate in activities featured. Findings indicated that engagement in Bollywood movies has a positive impact on both hedonic and utilitarian involvement factors and that utilitarian involvement positively impacts destination awareness. Furthermore, destination awareness has a positive impact on tourist activity but not consumption behaviors at a destination. However, activity behavior does positively influence tourist consumption behavior.

Impact of Fashion Orientation on Hispanic and Non-Hispanic White Consumer Behavior

The purpose of this research is to examine the influence of fashion involvement, fashion consciousness, and shopping enjoyment on non-Hispanic White and Hispanic consumers’ selection of shopping channel. The U.S. Hispanic consumer base is rapidly growing, which makes them an important group to study and understand. Surveys were analyzed from 451 students at a Southwestern university in a region where more than half of the population self-identify as Hispanic. The data were analyzed using SPSS and LISREL, and the hypotheses were tested using a structural equation model. The results of this study indicate differences in shopping behavior between Hispanic and non-Hispanic White consumers with fashion consciousness exhibiting a greater influence on enjoyment for Hispanics than non-Hispanic Whites. In addition, non-Hispanic Whites preferred Fashion Discounter Patronage, whereas Hispanics preferred Department Store Patronage above other shopping channels.