Repurchase intention in a physical store: moderated mediating role of electronic word-of-mouth

Abstract

PurposeIn physical stores, consumer repurchase is the primary goal of retail operators. This includes many aspects of consumers' perceived value of a store, including images of goods, services, brands, atmosphere etc. Thus, repurchase intention in a physical store is a critical research issue to the retailer.Design/methodology/approachThis study took Taiwan Chunghwa Telecom's 3C electronic channel stores as the research object to investigate Taiwanese consumers' repurchase intentions for communication service and 3C products in this chain's physical stores. This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of perceived value (PV) between consumers' channel brand image (CBI) and store image (SI) on repurchase intention (RI). It further examined how the moderated mediating role of electronic word-of-mouth (EWOM) strengthens the influence of consumers' channel brand and store image on repurchase intention through perceived value.FindingsThe research results found that perceived value played a fully mediating role and electronic word-of-mouth is the moderating role on the proposed theoretical model by investigating two moderated mediation models.Originality/valueThis study considered that CBI represents commodity value and SI is the overall satisfaction obtained from consumer services. Thus, both channel brand and SI are active decision variables for consumers to purchase and repurchase in a physical store. For the moderated mediating role of EWOM, this study found that the indirect effect of both CBI and SI on RI through PV is stronger at low degree of EWOM than at high degrees of EWOM.