An empirical study on the antecedents of shopping experience in Bangladeshi malls: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Abstract

Growing competition amongst contemporary forms of shopping malls has made mall developers and management consider devising methods that enrich the experience of the customers. In this study, an attempt was made to explore the antecedents to the shopping experience at the mall. For this purpose, a survey instrument was developed for measuring the respondents’ opinion. The constructs developed for this study were tested and validated by means of multidimensional procedure on a sample of 284 mall shoppers in Bangladesh. Structural equation modeling was applied to test the hypotheses developed for this study. Among the three exogenous factors analyzed in this study, two factors namely ambience and amenities have a significant influence in determining customers’ shopping experience, while the third factor, named safety, exerts a statistically insignificant impact. It is reasonable to conclude, based on the evidence gathered from the study that, an enriched shopping experience can be facilitated by mall managers as a relational outcome of managing ambience and amenities. Being the first of its kind, this research work delves into the interrelated dependence among the factors that in turn influence customer experience at the shopping malls in the context of Bangladesh. Corresponding author: Shamsad Ahmed Email addresses for the corresponding author: shamsad@uap-bd.edu First submission received: 11th September 2018 Revised submission received: 17th December 2018 Accepted: 7th January 2019 Introduction The Bangladeshi marketplace, especially in relation to retail, has been going through a significant metamorphosis. A decade back, the discussion was about the expected negative impact of modern formal stores and shopping malls on the unorganized retail stores (Kalhan, 2007; Singh and Dave, 2013). Without considering the economic logic, shopping malls were considered as symbols of all that is wrong with the capitalist system and therefore were branded as an instrument of division within the society (Voyce, 2007). In the present scenario, the narrative has changed, as the competition between malls and unorganized stores has shifted to the competition between malls. An emergence of shopping malls is being observed next to each other, which is leading to cannibalization and encroachment upon each other’s catchment area (Singh and Prashar, 2014).Besides, the reduction in consumer spending vis-à-vis the increasing number of competing distribution channels and changes in customers’ habits are coming as formidable challenges for the shopping centres(Lucia-Palacios, Pérez-López, and Polo-Redondo, 2016).Moreover, the rise of e-commerce which is gradually crafting alternate venues for shopping is posing immediate threats to lure away traditional shoppers. (Tsai,2009). It has been argued that malls can differentiate themselves based on superior shopping experience (Wakefield and Baker, 1998; Csaba and Askergaard, 1999; Singh and Sahay, 2012; Singh and Prashar, 2014). Gonzalez-Hernández and Orozco-Gomez (2012) put forward that the retailers should identify the Journal of Business and Retail Management Research (JBRMR), Vol. 13 Issue 4 July 2019 www.jbrmr.com A Journal of the Academy of Business and Retail Management (ABRM) 31 shopping centre attributes, which are instrumental in retaining existing customers and appealing to new ones. It is crucial on the managers’ part to understand the concept of “customer experience” in order to unearth the reasons and dimensions that drive the shoppers towards malls. Understanding such mall attractiveness dimensions would help attract shoppers and maintain mall profitability/viability. Some researchers have also studied the impact of shopping experience on the outcome variables like emotional response, shopping response, and satisfaction (Wakefield and Baker, 1998; Machleit and Eroglu, 2000; Anselmsson, 2006). However, there is no study on the combined impact of ambience, amenities, and safety on the overall experience at the shopping mall, and so in this study, an attempt was made to probe the same. This research completes through developing constructs pertinent to shopping malls and in turn assessing the effects of those constructs on the shopping experience of the buyers. Furthermore, this study has been conducted in the context of the Bangladeshi market, where research on the related topic is yet to be paid adequate attention. The following sections of the paper consist of the theoretical background and hypotheses, subsequent to which there is the section on methodology and data collection, followed by the findings and discussion of the study, managerial implications, limitations and future research directions. 1.1 Objective of the Study During last two decades, the development of mall has paved the way for organized retail in Bangladesh. The investments made in this sector are also quite huge. In such a situation, it becomes crucial for those retail players to ensure sufficient footfall and high amount of sales for justifying their investments. However, the Bangladeshi shoppers who have been exposed to the unorganized local retail stores have been used to it for quite a long time. In some cases, trust develops between the storekeeper and the buyer. The storekeeper provides special facilities to the regular customers such as credit and home delivery, which has been their key driving factor. It was also observed by some researchers that additional reasons for customers preference of traditional stores could be mentioned as their perceived value and relationship with the retailers (Rabbanee, Ramaseshan, Wu, and Vinden, 2012), attachment with the community (Mullis and Kim, 2011) or adherence to community’s social norms (Kim and Stoel, 2010). Furthermore, cultural impact (Seock and Lin, 2011), poverty or lack of transport (Clarke and Banga, 2010) also play significant roles in shaping the preferences, which is also evident in Bangladesh. In the given circumstances, therefore, it is crucial on the part of the retailers to ensure an entertaining shopping experience to customers in order to intrigue them towards the malls. If the management engages customers in a manner that serves their sensory appeals and feeds their best interest, an experience as such can be guaranteed. Therefore, it is important to know what makes shopping experience appealing. Globally, the focus of consumers has shifted from traditional marketssouqs or bazaarsto modern retail formatssuperstores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, and city centres (Rakesh and Shweta, 2017). Correspondingly, the establishment of shopping malls is becoming an emerging trend in Bangladesh with the growing population. Management of various malls is now keen to know what induces a customer in choosing its shopping destination. Although there have been several studies on malls and factors driving the consumer attitudes towards the mall all over the global arena, a significant gap of research remains in Bangladesh that feeds the interest of the Mall management by exposing the critical dimensions of experience management. Thus, the present research was undertaken with an objective of particularly examining the antecedents of shopping experience in Bangladesh, which will ultimately help global researchers to check impact of the findings in other countries. Literature Review 2.1 Theoretical background Shopping malls can be characterized by large floorage, extensive range of product categories, a variety of specialty stores as well as recreational offerings (Tsai, 2010). Traditionally, developers tended to attract consumers to malls through the promise of a wide assortment of stores and merchandise available at one specific location. Over the years, the concept of developing malls has reached a new height and their one-stop convenience has expanded to include service outlets and entertainment providers. Representing a unique form of shopping environment, malls nowadays have become a vital destination for people to engage not only inbuying activities, but also to derive a holistic experience from the surrounding atmosphere. Social activities, such as going to a movie, having food or ameal out, getting Journal of Business and Retail Management Research (JBRMR), Vol. 13 Issue 4 July 2019 www.jbrmr.com A Journal of the Academy of Business and Retail Management (ABRM) 32 together with friends or family, hair styling, etc. (Ahmed, Ghingold, and Dahari, 2007) are also adding values. Even relatively small shopping malls today offer fast-food courts, art exhibits, restaurants, movie theatres, hair salons, and dental offices.(Bloch, Ridgway, and Dawson, 1994).Some researchers have stated that malls have transgressed beyond mere shopping places and are being considered multi-leisure complexes (Jones and Hillier, 2002).As claimed by Underhill (1999), a customer these days entering a shopping mall is never sure if he is in a store or a theme park. Because of their architectural design, retailing, eating and entertaining facilities, it is further stated that the malls have become tourist destinations (Ooi and Sim, 2007). Along with purchasing, the motives for visiting malls today are social interaction, spending leisure time, having pleasure, convenience and relaxing (Kumar and Karande, 2000; Michon, Yu, Smith, and Chebat, 2008). Management and consumer behaviour scholars, Dube and Le Bel (2003), Schmitt (2003), McCole (2004), Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004), Tsai (2005a, 2005b, 2006)and Caru & Cova (2003) notably, have gone to great lengths in explaining how customer experience derived from the malls is enhanced through all sorts of dynamic exchanges and contact points in the sensory, emotional, social and intellectual context. According to different researchers, the issue of selecting a mall by a consumer for shopping depends on several factors like product assortment, price bargains, transactional convenience, and shopping experience. All these attributes are combined under