IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jouret/v90y2014i3p428-441.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Utilitarian and Hedonic Motivators of Shoppers’ Decision to Consult with Salespeople

Author

Listed:
  • Haas, Alexander
  • Kenning, Peter

Abstract

Many retailers face the questions of whether providing consultation services would enhance store performance and, if so, what the retailers could do to increase the number of shoppers seeking salesperson consultation. Despite its importance, prior research has not answered the question of what influences retail shoppers to consult with salespeople. We use motivation theory and recent theorizing on behavioral decision-making to develop a model of four utilitarian and hedonic motivators of shopper consultation with salespeople. This model, which includes the relationship between consultation and amount of money spent by shoppers, was tested with data from 425 shoppers. Our results demonstrate situational and individual influences, both utilitarian (i.e., shoppers’ purchase uncertainty and efficiency orientation) and hedonic (i.e., shoppers’ situation-related affect toward salespeople and shopping enjoyment), that prompt retail shoppers to consult with salespeople. As well, we find that salesperson consultation is positively related to the amount of money spent by shoppers and completely mediates the spending effects of the four motivators of consultation. This research shows that motivation theory is useful for better understanding salesperson consultation and can assist retailers that compete on service to better implement consultation-oriented strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Haas, Alexander & Kenning, Peter, 2014. "Utilitarian and Hedonic Motivators of Shoppers’ Decision to Consult with Salespeople," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 428-441.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jouret:v:90:y:2014:i:3:p:428-441
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretai.2014.05.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022435914000323
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretai.2014.05.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Babin, Barry J & Darden, William R & Griffin, Mitch, 1994. "Work and/or Fun: Measuring Hedonic and Utilitarian Shopping Value," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 20(4), pages 644-656, March.
    2. Birger Wernerfelt, 1994. "On the Function of Sales Assistance," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(1), pages 68-82.
    3. Sharma, Arun & Levy, Michael, 2003. "Salespeople's affect toward customers: Why should it be important for retailers?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 56(7), pages 523-528, July.
    4. Donoho, Casey L., 2003. "The "top-of-the-line" influence on the buyer-seller relationship," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 303-309, April.
    5. Raj Echambadi & James D. Hess, 2007. "Mean-Centering Does Not Alleviate Collinearity Problems in Moderated Multiple Regression Models," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(3), pages 438-445, 05-06.
    6. Sharma, Arun & Stafford, Thomas F., 2000. "The Effect of Retail Atmospherics on Customers' Perceptions of Salespeople and Customer Persuasion:: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 183-191, August.
    7. Leischnig, Alexander & Schwertfeger, Marko & Geigenmüller, Anja, 2011. "Shopping events, shopping enjoyment, and consumers’ attitudes toward retail brands—An empirical examination," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 218-223.
    8. Urbany, Joel E & Dickson, Peter R & Wilkie, William L, 1989. "Buyer Uncertainty and Information Search," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 16(2), pages 208-215, September.
    9. Gerald Häubl & Benedict G. C. Dellaert & Bas Donkers, 2010. "Tunnel Vision: Local Behavioral Influences on Consumer Decisions in Product Search," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 438-455, 05-06.
    10. Ajay Kalra & Mengze Shi & Kannan Srinivasan, 2003. "Salesforce Compensation Scheme and Consumer Inferences," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(5), pages 655-672, May.
    11. Arnold, Mark J. & Reynolds, Kristy E., 2009. "Affect and Retail Shopping Behavior: Understanding the Role of Mood Regulation and Regulatory Focus," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 308-320.
    12. Jones, Michael A. & Reynolds, Kristy E. & Arnold, Mark J., 2006. "Hedonic and utilitarian shopping value: Investigating differential effects on retail outcomes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(9), pages 974-981, September.
    13. Laroche, Michel & Saad, Gad & Kim, Chankon & Browne, Elizabeth, 2000. "A Cross-Cultural Study of In-Store Information Search Strategies for a Christmas Gift," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 113-126, August.
    14. Crowe, Ellen & Higgins, E. Tory, 1997. "Regulatory Focus and Strategic Inclinations: Promotion and Prevention in Decision-Making," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 117-132, February.
    15. Brucks, Merrie, 1985. "The Effects of Product Class Knowledge on Information Search Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 12(1), pages 1-16, June.
    16. Cox, Anthony D. & Cox, Dena & Anderson, Ronald D., 2005. "Reassessing the pleasures of store shopping," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(3), pages 250-259, March.
    17. Donoho, Casey L. & Swenson, Michael J., 1996. "Top-down versus bottom-up sales tactics effects on the presentation of a product line," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 51-61, September.
    18. Moorthy, Sridhar & Ratchford, Brian T & Talukdar, Debabrata, 1997. "Consumer Information Search Revisited: Theory and Empirical Analysis," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 23(4), pages 263-277, March.
    19. Konuş, Umut & Verhoef, Peter C. & Neslin, Scott A., 2008. "Multichannel Shopper Segments and Their Covariates," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 84(4), pages 398-413.
    20. Sharma, Arun, 2001. "Consumer decision-making, salespeople's adaptive selling and retail performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 125-129, November.
    21. Cho, Jinsook & Lee, Jinkook, 2006. "An integrated model of risk and risk-reducing strategies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 112-120, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rizomyliotis, Ioannis & Kastanakis, Minas N. & Giovanis, Apostolos & Konstantoulaki, Kleopatra & Kostopoulos, Ioannis, 2022. "“How mAy I help you today?” The use of AI chatbots in small family businesses and the moderating role of customer affective commitment," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 329-340.
    2. Fassnacht, Martin & Beatty, Sharon E. & Szajna, Markus, 2019. "Combating the negative effects of showrooming: Successful salesperson tactics for converting showroomers into buyers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 131-139.
    3. Straus, Lennart & Robbert, Thomas & Roth, Stefan, 2016. "Customer participation in the customization of services: Effects on satisfaction and behavioral intentions," jbm - Journal of Business Market Management, Free University Berlin, Marketing Department, vol. 9(1), pages 498-517.
    4. Li, Mengyi & Ma, Qin-hai, 2022. "“Do not impose on others what you desire.†Research on the influence of service Personnel's interactive orientation on customer comfort," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    5. Tomás Escobar-Rodríguez & Rocío Bonsón-Fernández, 0. "Analysing online purchase intention in Spain: fashion e-commerce," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-24.
    6. Chae Hyun Lee & Han Na Lee & Jeong Il Choi, 2023. "The Influence of Characteristics of Mobile Live Commerce on Purchase Intention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-13, March.
    7. Tomás Escobar-Rodríguez & Rocío Bonsón-Fernández, 2017. "Analysing online purchase intention in Spain: fashion e-commerce," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 599-622, August.
    8. Sebald, Anna Kathrin & Jacob, Frank, 2020. "What help do you need for your fashion shopping? A typology of curated fashion shoppers based on shopping motivations," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 319-334.
    9. Lucia-Palacios, Laura & Pérez-López, Raúl & Polo-Redondo, Yolanda, 2020. "How situational circumstances modify the effects of frontline employees’ competences on customer satisfaction with the store," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    10. Alavi, Sascha & Wieseke, Jan & Guba, Jan H., 2016. "Saving on Discounts through Accurate Sensing – Salespeople's Estimations of Customer Price Importance and Their Effects on Negotiation Success," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 40-55.
    11. Yurova, Yuliya & Rippé, Cindy B. & Weisfeld-Spolter, Suri & Sussan, Fiona & Arndt, Aaron, 2017. "Not all adaptive selling to omni-consumers is influential: The moderating effect of product type," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 271-277.
    12. Su-Chang Chen & Kuo Cheng Chung & Ming Yueh Tsai, 2019. "How to Achieve Sustainable Development of Mobile Payment through Customer Satisfaction—The SOR Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-16, November.
    13. Sebald, Anna Kathrin & Jacob, Frank, 2018. "Help welcome or not: Understanding consumer shopping motivation in curated fashion retailing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 188-203.
    14. Bradley, Gregory T. & LaFleur, Elizabeth K., 2016. "Toward the development of hedonic-utilitarian measures of retail service," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 60-66.
    15. Söderlund, Magnus, 2018. "The proactive employee on the floor of the store and the impact on customer satisfaction," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 46-53.
    16. Shankar, Amit & Jain, Sheetal, 2021. "Factors affecting luxury consumers’ webrooming intention: A moderated-mediation approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    17. Chung, Minjee & Ko, Eunju & Joung, Heerim & Kim, Sang Jin, 2020. "Chatbot e-service and customer satisfaction regarding luxury brands," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 587-595.
    18. Liu-Thompkins, Yuping & Khoshghadam, Leila & Attar Shoushtari, Arjang & Zal, Saeed, 2022. "What drives retailer loyalty? A meta-analysis of the role of cognitive, affective, and social factors across five decades," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 92-110.
    19. Claro, Danny P. & Kamakura, Wagner A., 2017. "Identifying Sales Performance Gaps with Internal Benchmarking," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 93(4), pages 401-419.
    20. Roland Kassemeier & Sascha Alavi & Johannes Habel & Christian Schmitz, 2022. "Customer-oriented salespeople’s value creation and claiming in price negotiations," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 689-712, July.
    21. Sebald, Anna Kathrin & Jacob, Frank, 2016. "Curated Shopping: Value Creation durch One-to-One-Beratungsservice," Marketing Review St.Gallen, Universität St.Gallen, Institut für Marketing und Customer Insight, vol. 33(6), pages 38-45.
    22. De Canio, Francesca & Fuentes-Blasco, Maria, 2021. "I need to touch it to buy it! How haptic information influences consumer shopping behavior across channels," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    23. Tobias Scholz & Jörn Redler & Sven Pagel, 2021. "Re-designing adaptive selling strategies: the role of different types of shopping companions," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(5), pages 1243-1280, July.
    24. Michael D. Clemes & Kathryn Bicknell & Xuedong Li & Nicole Long, 2021. "Clicks or Bricks? Online Shopping Adoption in Australia," Business and Economic Research, Macrothink Institute, vol. 11(4), pages 78-103, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bradley, Gregory T. & LaFleur, Elizabeth K., 2016. "Toward the development of hedonic-utilitarian measures of retail service," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 60-66.
    2. Foster, Jamye & McLelland, Melinda A., 2015. "Retail atmospherics: The impact of a brand dictated theme," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 195-205.
    3. Maity, Moutusy & Dass, Mayukh & Malhotra, Naresh K., 2014. "The Antecedents and Moderators of Offline Information Search: A Meta-Analysis," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 233-254.
    4. Wagner, Tillmann & Rudolph, Thomas, 2010. "Towards a hierarchical theory of shopping motivation," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 415-429.
    5. Maggioni, Isabella & Sands, Sean & Kachouie, Reza & Tsarenko, Yelena, 2019. "Shopping for well-being: The role of consumer decision-making styles," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 21-32.
    6. Davis, Lizhu & Hodges, Nancy, 2012. "Consumer shopping value: An investigation of shopping trip value, in-store shopping value and retail format," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 229-239.
    7. Ainsworth, Jeremy & Foster, Jamye, 2017. "Comfort in brick and mortar shopping experiences: Examining antecedents and consequences of comfortable retail experiences," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 27-35.
    8. Gensler, Sonja & Neslin, Scott A. & Verhoef, Peter C., 2017. "The Showrooming Phenomenon: It's More than Just About Price," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 29-43.
    9. Jingyu Li & Anding Zhu & Dongsheng Liu & Wenmin Zhao & Yi Zhou & Yahui Chen & Yanni Liu & Nan Sun, 2020. "Sustainability of China’s Singles Day Shopping Festivals: Exploring the Moderating Effect of Fairness Atmospherics on Consumers’ Continuance Participation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-24, March.
    10. Wirawan Dony Dahana & HeeJae Shin & Sotaro Katsumata, 2018. "Influence of individual characteristics on whether and how much consumers engage in showrooming behavior," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 665-692, December.
    11. Sammon, Rachel & Kwon, Kyoung-Nan, 2015. "Host׳s interpersonal influence on guests in a home sales party," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 32-38.
    12. Parsad, Chandan & Prashar, Sanjeev & Vijay, T. Sai & Kumar, Mukesh, 2021. "Do promotion and prevention focus influence impulse buying: The role of mood regulation, shopping values, and impulse buying tendency," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    13. Barari, Mojtaba & Ross, Mitchell & Surachartkumtonkun, Jiraporn, 2020. "Negative and positive customer shopping experience in an online context," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    14. Smith, Gerald E. & Venkatraman, Meera P. & Dholakia, Ruby Roy, 1999. "Diagnosing the search cost effect: Waiting time and the moderating impact of prior category knowledge," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 285-314, June.
    15. Hsiu-Hui Chang & Wenchang Fang, 2011. "The effects of shopping value on retail outcomes: a comparison between department stores and hypermarkets," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(14), pages 2249-2263, April.
    16. Biswas, Dipayan, 2004. "Economics of information in the Web economy: Towards a new theory?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(7), pages 724-733, July.
    17. Arnold, Mark J. & Reynolds, Kristy E., 2012. "Approach and Avoidance Motivation: Investigating Hedonic Consumption in a Retail Setting," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 399-411.
    18. Sharlene He & Derek D. Rucker, 2023. "How uncertainty affects information search among consumers: a curvilinear perspective," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 415-428, September.
    19. Cervellon, Marie-Cécile & Sylvie, Jean & Ngobo, Paul-Valentin, 2015. "Shopping orientations as antecedents to channel choice in the French grocery multichannel landscape," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 31-51.
    20. Frank J. van Rijnsoever & Martin J. Dijst & Carolina Castaldi, 2009. "Involvement and use of multiple search channels in the automobile purchase process," Innovation Studies Utrecht (ISU) working paper series 09-06, Utrecht University, Department of Innovation Studies, revised Apr 2009.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jouret:v:90:y:2014:i:3:p:428-441. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.