Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services最新文献

{"title":"Do all the service attributes matter? Application of customer review-based attribute extraction considering brand status","authors":"Da Yeon Kim ,&nbsp;Hae Jin Seo ,&nbsp;Tae Ho Song","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104345","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104345","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Customer satisfaction is crucial for effective marketing in the hospitality industry, and online reviews provide valuable insights. This study explores how service attributes influence customer satisfaction across six hotel brand statuses (Luxury to Economy) by analyzing over 110,000 online hotel reviews. Data preprocessing involved bidirectional encoder representations from transformers for sentence tokenization, while Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling extracted attributes. Valence aware dictionary sentiment analysis measured the emotional valence of these attributes. The Kano model classified attributes as must-be, one-dimensional, attractive, or indifferent, and we investigated how perceptions differed across brand statuses. A regression model evaluated the impact of these attributes on satisfaction, considering both mention frequency and sentiment. Results revealed that the impact of service attributes on customer satisfaction varied across brand statuses. Room Comfort was a Must-Be or One-dimensional attribute for Luxury and Upper Upscale brands; however, regression analysis indicated that frequent mentions were correlated with lower satisfaction, highlighting the importance of meeting basic expectations. Conversely, Customer Service was an Attractive attribute for Upscale, Midscale, and Economy brands, with positive sentiment enhancing satisfaction. Breakfast Service, Entertainment and Family activities, and Dining Experience were generally categorized as Indifferent, but positive sentiment toward these attributes had a significant positive impact on satisfaction, particularly in lower-tier segments, challenging the Kano framework’s assumption of negligible impact for Indifferent attributes. This study highlights the differences in attribute perception across brand statuses and challenging the assumption of negligible impact for certain auxiliary services. This provides practical guidance for enhancing satisfaction through brand-specific strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 104345"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144262658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Decoding virtual influencer endorsement using machine learning: The role of virtual influencer, posting, and disclosure characteristics","authors":"Hui Xia ,&nbsp;Longyun Zhang ,&nbsp;Junjie Chen ,&nbsp;Xinchun Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104366","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104366","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Virtual influencers are promising marketing tools, which have increasingly provided endorsements on social media platforms. However, salient empirical research remains insufficient, and how to effectively promote users' social media engagement with virtual influencer endorsements is unclear. This study draws on expectation violation theory to develop a social media engagement determinants model for virtual influencer endorsement and explores how virtual influencer characteristics, posting characteristics, and disclosure characteristics impact users' social media engagement. Using data collected from 9665 virtual influencer endorsement posts on Instagram, we employed 10 different sets of machine learning algorithms to train and test the model. Our analysis reveals that LightGBM is the best-performing algorithm for predicting social media engagement. Combining the LightGBM and Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) models, we find that anthropomorphism is the most important predictive factor and is negatively related to social media engagement, followed by text length, AI identity declaration, brand disclosure, and item name disclosure. In contrast, basic information cues, persona, purchase channel disclosure, content dynamism, and co-creators’ followers have significant positive effects on social media engagement. Our findings provide theoretical implications for influencer endorsement research and offer practical implications for marketers to optimize virtual influencer endorsement strategies in terms of virtual influencer selection and design, posting design, and information disclosure.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 104366"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144262836","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"When the elephant aligns with the ant: Brand prominence strategies in asymmetric Co-branding","authors":"Bingxin Tang ,&nbsp;Bei Lyu ,&nbsp;Ziyuan Wan","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104352","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104352","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Brand prominence strategy is central to asymmetric co-branding, a marketing research area of growing importance for understanding its impact on brand equity and consumer response. This study examines how brand identity prominence in co-branding influences consumer responses through three controlled experiments (<em>N</em> = 1318). The findings indicate that in asymmetric co-branding, the prominent display of the weak brand, in contrast to the strong brand, has a positive effect on product evaluations. This visual prominence enhances consumers’ perception of inter-brand relationship commitment, which, in turn, fosters greater brand admiration for the strong brand and greater brand trust in the weak brand. However, this positive effect emerges only when consumers perceive a high degree of brand integration, diminishing when perceived integration is low. These results offer both theoretical and practical insights into the strategic display of brand identities in asymmetric co-branding.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 104352"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144262837","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The effect of risk on purchase confidence and subsequent purchase intention: The moderating role of product container haptic sensations","authors":"Marine Kergoat ,&nbsp;Charlotte Lecuyer ,&nbsp;Thierry Meyer","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104354","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104354","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This research examines the role of container haptic sensations as a moderator of the effect of perceived risk on consumer purchase confidence and subsequent purchase intention. Although not relevant to product evaluation, the haptic cues of a container influence a wide range of consumer responses to the product it contains. Until now, their role on confidence has never been examined, yet confidence is a central variable in consumer decision making, as most purchase situations can involve some degree of perceived risk. To date, the literature on touch has mainly demonstrated the positive impact that touching a product, compared to not touching it, has on confidence. Based on embodied cognition theory, the present research investigated the role of haptic sensations generated by containers on confidence in the purchase. Specifically, this research examines how haptic sensations of hardness and heaviness moderate the impact of perceived risk on purchase confidence and, ultimately, purchase intention. In three experiments, two in which participants were in actual touch conditions (studies 1 and 2) and one in which they were in no-touch conditions (i.e., online; studies 3a and 3b), respondents were asked to imagine themselves at a supermarket in-store tasting for a beverage. Levels of perceived risk (low or high) were manipulated, and two types of risk were considered: a physical risk (experiments 1, 3a, &amp; 3b) and a social risk (experiment 2). Haptic sensations were collected by touching (actual or imagined) a plastic or glass container. The results indicate that the negative effect of perceived risk—whether physical or social—on consumer purchase confidence is eliminated at moderate to high levels of perceived hardness or heaviness. However, these effects are observed only when consumers engage in direct tactile interaction with the container. This study makes a new contribution to the influence of containers' tactile inputs in purchasing contexts, highlighting how certain haptic sensations, when experienced, can reduce the negative influence of risk on consumers’ confidence in their purchases. Given that many purchase decisions generate a perception of risk, these findings also offer new insights into the ongoing development of packaging innovations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 104354"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144255046","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Understanding the impact of digital cue on consumer e-WOM for plant-based food: A situational experiment to explore the roles of sensory experience and social influence","authors":"Ruqiu Ma ,&nbsp;Bei Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104370","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104370","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With the extensive application of digital technologies and intelligent transformation of the food industry, digital cues have emerged as critical factors influencing consumers' purchasing decisions regarding plant-based foods. Nevertheless, few studies have systematically examined how distinct digital cues shape consumer electronic-word-of-mouth (e-WOM). Focusing on plant-based food, this study explores how digital cues shape e-WOM within the context of social e-commerce platforms. Using a situational experiment method, three experiments were conducted to examine the effects of digital cues on e-WOM. The results show that social digital cues (vs. product digital cues) have a stronger promotional effect on e-WOM. Sensory experience serves as a mediator between digital cues and e-WOM. Additionally, this study finds that social influence (online science popularization vs. social norms) moderates the pathway through which sensory experience mediates the impact of digital cues on e-WOM. This study provides significant theoretical insights by elucidating the psychological mechanisms and boundary conditions through which digital cues influence e-WOM. These findings provide practical recommendations for social e-commerce platforms and food companies to better market new types of food products.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 104370"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144255088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A general framework for retailer competition under elastic demand and quantity-dependent transport costs","authors":"Rosa-Branca Esteves,&nbsp;Francisco Carballo-Cruz","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104358","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104358","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper extends the classic Hotelling model by addressing two critical limitations: the assumption of perfectly inelastic demand and the exclusion of quantity-dependent transport costs. Traditional models fail to capture key market dynamics where consumer purchasing behavior depends on both price sensitivity and transport costs that vary with the quantity purchased. While prior studies have incorporated elastic demand into spatial competition, they often rely on specific demand functions and assume quantity-independent transport costs, limiting their applicability to diverse market scenarios. To address these gaps, we propose a general elastic demand framework and a novel transport cost function that depends on both distance and purchase quantity, introducing the elasticity of transport costs with respect to quantity as a key parameter. This dual extension highlights how store differentiation, demand elasticity, and transport cost elasticity jointly influence equilibrium prices and profits. Our findings demonstrate that, consistent with the classic Hotelling model, prices and profits increase with store differentiation. Higher demand elasticity intensifies competition, lowering prices and profits, whereas higher transport cost elasticity reduces competition by discouraging consumers from traveling for larger purchases, particularly for bulky goods. Conversely, for lightweight goods with low transport cost sensitivity, competition is more intense, leading to lower prices and profits. By integrating demand and transport cost elasticities, our model bridges significant gaps in spatial competition literature and provides actionable insights for pricing strategies across diverse product categories. These findings advance theoretical understanding and offer practical guidance for retail pricing and market policy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 104358"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144241861","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Strategic roadmapping for the future of retail healthcare","authors":"Sunil Kumar Yadav ,&nbsp;Surabhi Singh ,&nbsp;Tata Sai Vijay ,&nbsp;Shiwangi Singh","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104351","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104351","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The study aims to provide strategic foresight into the future of retail healthcare technologies by developing a patent-driven roadmap. It identifies how emerging innovations align with healthcare retail needs across short-, mid-, and long-term horizons. Patents were extracted for two time periods to analyze evolving technological trajectories. A total of 4384 patents were retrieved from 2008 to 2020 (Time-period I) and 5009 patents from 2021–January 2025 (Time-period II). The study employs structural topic modeling (STM), semantic network analysis, and patent data analysis across two time periods to identify the topics. For the time period I, seven topics were identified. For time period II, six topics were identified, namely: wireless communication for retail healthcare (Topic 1), advanced beamforming and antenna technologies (Topic 2), edge intelligence and secure IoT integration (Topic 3), scalable technology solutions (Topic 4), service continuity and real-time analytics (Topic 5), and uplink transmission and secure data handling (Topic 6). Further, a technology roadmap for the short-, mid-, and long-term was prepared. This study contributes to retail healthcare and technology roadmapping literature by using patent-driven topic modeling to map emerging technologies aligned with evolving consumer and operational needs across time horizons.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 104351"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144255087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Snack dilemma: How vending machines influence choice of virtue and vice foods","authors":"Agnese Perfetti ,&nbsp;Rocco Pietrini ,&nbsp;Daniele Scarpi ,&nbsp;Giacomo Gistri","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104369","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104369","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This research investigates consumer decision-making in vending machine settings, focusing on choosing between vice (less healthy) and virtue (healthier) products. The study identifies key drivers that influence purchases and explains these choices through construal-level theory. By analyzing real transaction data from 13,709 purchases, we examine how product familiarity, price, payment method, time of day, and product placement affect consumer behavior. The results reveal that product familiarity and price significantly influence the selection of vice products. Conversely, placing virtue products on higher rows and the right-hand side of the vending machine enhances their likelihood of being chosen. Furthermore, the context of vending machine locations, including workplaces, universities, and hospitals, uniquely shapes the dynamics between vice and virtue product choices. These findings, interpreted through construal level theory, provide actionable insights for optimizing vending machine layouts and promoting healthier consumer behaviors. Ultimately, this research contributes to retailing and public health by providing strategies to promote healthier choices in environments where vending machines are prevalent.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 104369"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144241860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Unpacking preferences for surprise subscription boxes - A Kano-based study of present, former, and non-users","authors":"Ellen Van Droogenbroeck ,&nbsp;Kim Willems","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104326","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104326","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Subscription-based services have emerged as a significant phenomenon in the e-retail landscape, with sales soaring during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for <em>surprise</em> boxes at a time when consumers were confined to their homes. However, in the aftermath of lockdown loneliness and with growing pressure on consumers' wallets, subscription-based surprise box services lately face challenging churn rates. While recent research has shed light on consumer profiles, motives and barriers in adopting subscription-based services, the relative importance of these factors in driving <em>satisfaction</em> is often neglected. Another boundary to the existing knowledge is the lack of distinction between what drives consumers to <em>adopt</em> versus what makes consumers <em>quit</em> their subscription. Given the substantial churn rate in the subscription market, investigating attitudes of the ever growing group of ‘former users’ entails potential to improve retention rates. Drawing from an online survey with Prolific panelists (n = 439 UK consumers, of which 234 former, 60 present, and 145 non-users), this study takes a refined Kano perspective to identify attributes of surprise subscription box services that contribute to customer satisfaction. Our findings provide clear guidance to retailers on the optimal positioning and marketing of their offers for present, former and non-customers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 104326"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144241862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The impact of service agent type on satisfaction in green purchasing: A comparative study of AI and human agents","authors":"Sunhwa Choi ,&nbsp;Youjae Yi","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104355","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104355","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated across industries, its application in green marketing is garnering growing interest—particularly in light of rising consumer demand for environmentally friendly products. However, research exploring consumer responses to AI-powered service interfaces in the context of green consumption remains limited. This study addresses that gap by examining how the type of service agent (AI vs. human) influences consumer satisfaction with green product purchases. Across three studies involving a total of 766 participants, data were collected via structured questionnaires using random sampling. Results show that consumers interacting with AI agents report higher satisfaction with their green purchases than those served by human agents. This effect is mediated by the perceived level of self-effort invested in the transaction. Furthermore, environmental consciousness moderates this relationship: the satisfaction advantage of AI agents diminishes among consumers with high environmental consciousness. These findings provide new theoretical insights into consumer–AI dynamics in green marketing and offer actionable guidance for both researchers and practitioners aiming to enhance green consumption experiences.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 104355"},"PeriodicalIF":11.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144241863","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}