Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services最新文献

{"title":"A longitudinal consumer feedback analytics approach for theory building and testing: Examining consumer satisfaction and loyalty in buy now, pay later (BNPL) platforms","authors":"Mohammed A. Al-Sharafi ,&nbsp;Shehab Abdulhabib Alzaeemi ,&nbsp;Mousa Albashrawi ,&nbsp;Yogesh K. Dwivedi ,&nbsp;Rasha Alahmad ,&nbsp;Inyoung Chae","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104551","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104551","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the post-adoption factors influencing consumer satisfaction and loyalty in Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) platforms, with a focus on the culturally specific and religiously regulated context of Saudi Arabia. A longitudinal dataset of 61,631 cleaned and validated bilingual user-generated evaluations from prominent BNPL applications, collected between 2018 and 2025, was analyzed to capture temporal shifts in consumer perceptions. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining topic modelling, sentiment analysis, and large language models to identify underlying experiential themes and map them to theoretical constructs. Confirmatory analysis using Elastic Net regression and Random Forest, with 80/20 train–test splits, 10-fold cross-validation, and bootstrap resampling, demonstrates that Information Quality and Perceived Security are the strongest predictors of Consumer Satisfaction, while Sharia Compliance functions as a cultural boundary condition and significant driver of Consumer Loyalty. Perceived Financial Risk consistently exerts a detrimental effect on both outcomes. The findings extend retailing and consumer behaviour as well as IS/FinTech literature by incorporating culturally specific constructs and by demonstrating how user-generated content (UGC) analyzed with machine learning, providing unsolicited, ecologically valid, and large-scale insights into post-adoption behaviour. Practical implications highlight the importance of transparency, ethical adherence, and financial clarity in enhancing the BNPL user experience, while also emphasising cost–benefit considerations, regulatory compliance, and consumer segment differences in implementation strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 104551"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145219709","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 dark side of AI adoption: A study of innovation resistance, job dissatisfaction, and workplace complaints in the franchised retail sector","authors":"Jhong-Min Yang,&nbsp;Ken-Chang Hsu","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104562","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104562","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the relationships among innovation resistance, job dissatisfaction, and various types of workplace complaints in the context of mandatory technology adoption. Our survey of 366 employees at a Taiwanese franchised convenience store brand reveals a crucial finding: contrary to prevailing assumptions, perceived innovation barriers (value, risk, tradition, and image) significantly and directly impact job dissatisfaction. Furthermore, a post-hoc mediation analysis shows that job dissatisfaction acts as a vital link, channeling the effects of these barriers into productive, venting, and malicious complaints. This research makes two key contributions by empirically refining Innovation Resistance Theory for mandatory settings and providing a new, context-specific complaint typology. Our findings offer valuable managerial insights, underscoring the importance of proactively managing perceived barriers and effectively addressing employee dissatisfaction to transform negative feedback into a catalyst for organizational improvement.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 104562"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145219708","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":"From attraction to aversion and back: examining brand hate, love, and retention","authors":"Syed Ramiz ul Hassan ,&nbsp;Tariq Iqbal Khan ,&nbsp;Mahnaz Mansoor ,&nbsp;Raja Ahmed Jamil","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104554","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104554","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates psychological ownership, brand uniqueness, hedonic pleasure, and brand passion as antecedents of brand love (BL). Additionally, the study explores the mediating role of brand hate (BH) and the moderating effects of brand obsession and opposition loyalty on BL. Finally, the study examines brand retention (BR) as an outcome of BL. Four studies were conducted to test proposed relationships, and data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equations modelling (PLS-SEM) through SmartPLS 4. The findings of Study 1 showed that the antecedents (except psychological ownership) positively influenced BL. Furthermore, it was found that BH negatively predicts BL, and it also mediates the relationship between antecedents (except psychological ownership) and BL. Study 3 found the moderating effects of brand obsession and opposition loyalty between BH and BL. Finally, Study 4 confirmed the positive influence of BL on BH. The findings highlight how positive emotional antecedents can offset the effects of BH and sustain BH, even in emotionally ambivalent brand relationships. These results provide actionable insights for brand managers, emphasizing the importance of leveraging positive emotional connectors while mitigating negative consumer sentiments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 104554"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145219641","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":"Advancing retail and service strategies: AI-driven consumer behavior prediction, gamification, and ethical marketing","authors":"Minh Tung Tran","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104558","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104558","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study addresses the research gap in understanding the combined effects of AI-driven predictive analytics on consumer personalization accuracy, engagement via gamification, and ethical governance in retailing and consumer services. The objective is to examine how predictive analytics enhances personalization and ROI, how gamification drives engagement, and how ethical challenges (e.g., privacy, bias) can be governed responsibly. Employing a convergent mixed-methods design, the study combines quantitative analysis of consumer data (n = 3900) with multi-case studies of Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon. Findings reveal that AI significantly improves personalization (<strong>β</strong> = 0.42, p &lt; 0.001) and campaign ROI (<strong>R²</strong> = 0.18), while gamification increases engagement by satisfying psychological needs. Ethical risk mitigation through frameworks such as the EU AI Act is demonstrated. Practical implications highlight actionable strategies for ethical AI adoption. Limitations include reliance on secondary qualitative sources and non-probability sampling; future research should explore probability samples and cross-cultural validation. This research contributes an integrated technical, psychological, and ethical framework, advancing theory on consumer trust and responsible innovation in retailing and consumer services.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 104558"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145219639","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 dual-theory examination of price guarantee advertising believability and its impact on consumer trust, satisfaction, and repurchase in retail","authors":"Khim Kheong Hoo,&nbsp;Ben Wooliscroft,&nbsp;Megan Phillips","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104557","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104557","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates how the believability of price guarantee (PG) advertising influences key psychological and behavioural outcomes: trust, satisfaction, and repurchase intentions in retail consumers. Drawing on Signalling Theory and Expectation-Confirmation Theory (ECT), we conceptualise a Believability–Trust–Behavioural (BTB) model to explain how consumers cognitively evaluate and affectively respond to PG messages. A quasi-longitudinal field study was conducted, using a real-world sample of 1219 loyalty programme members from a major New Zealand retailer. Participants were exposed to two PG formats, Price-Beating Guarantees (PBG) and Automatic Price-Adjustment Promises (APP), and they responded to measures before and after purchase. Results from covariance-based structural equation modelling (SEM-AMOS28) confirm that advertising believability significantly enhances trust, which mediates satisfaction and repurchase intentions. APP was perceived as more credible, while PBG produced stronger behavioural outcomes when trust was established. The model explains 82 % of the variance in satisfaction and 26 % in repurchase intention. These findings advance marketing theory by demonstrating how advertising believability functions as a psychological signal that builds trust and drives loyalty. Methodologically, the study offers a novel empirical application of dual-theory integration in a real-world retail context. Practically, it provides actionable insights for designing psychologically credible PG advertising that enhances brand trust and long-term consumer engagement in increasingly competitive and value-conscious markets.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 104557"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145219640","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":"Beyond technology: Role of technology-organization-environment-human factors in autonomous driving adoption for new energy vehicles","authors":"Ting Ji ,&nbsp;Shaofeng Wang ,&nbsp;Jianyuan Wang ,&nbsp;Jie Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104552","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104552","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While prior autonomous driving adoption research has predominantly applied traditional models (TAM, UTAUT, TPB) focusing on individual-level factors, this study pioneers the application of the Technology-Organization-Environment-Human (TOEH) framework to reveal previously unidentified asymmetric influence patterns and paradoxical relationships. Unlike existing studies that treat perceived benefits and risks as opposite ends of a continuum, we demonstrate they operate through distinct, parallel cognitive pathways with different antecedents and consequences. Analyzing data from 445 Chinese new energy vehicle users, we uncover three novel findings that challenge established adoption theories: First, we identify a “dual-effect phenomenon” where technology and company factors enhance perceived benefits but fail to mitigate perceived negatives—contradicting assumptions of symmetric influence. Second, we reveal an “infrastructure readiness paradox” where environmental factors counterintuitively increase perceived negatives rather than benefits. Third, only driver factors exhibit the expected bidirectional influence, enhancing benefits while reducing negatives, highlighting the unique importance of human-machine complementarity. Furthermore, we extend beyond intention-based studies by examining actual purchase behavior, discovering that perceived benefits influence purchase only through full mediation by intention, while perceived negatives exert both direct and indirect effects—revealing distinct evaluation pathways for positive versus negative perceptions. Our Importance-Performance Map Analysis provides actionable insight absent from prior research: enhancing perceived benefits yields significantly greater impact than mitigating negatives (importance: 0.152 vs. −0.040). These findings necessitate reconceptualizing adoption frameworks to accommodate asymmetric pathways, paradoxical environmental effects, and dual perception processing, offering strategic guidance for manufacturers and policymakers in accelerating autonomous driving adoption.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 104552"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2025-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145219710","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":"Mapping digital satisfaction dimensions in mobile fashion retail: Service-Dominant Logic in the Turkish market","authors":"Sezai Tunca ,&nbsp;Yavuz Selim Balcioglu","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104530","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104530","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates a critical “implementation gap” in Turkey's fashion retail sector, where technological interfaces have advanced faster than supporting service ecosystems, creating fragmented customer experiences despite substantial digital investments. Through an integrated framework combining sentiment analysis and topic modeling, this research analyzes 55,400 mobile app reviews from six major retailers to examine how this implementation gap manifests across dimensions such as app experience, customer service, pricing, and product quality. The findings reveal that while retailers have developed sophisticated mobile interfaces, inadequate service infrastructure undermines digital satisfaction, with app usability and service responsiveness emerging as primary determinants of customer sentiment rather than product quality. LC Waikiki and Mavi demonstrate superior performance through more balanced digital-service integration, whereas Koton and Defacto exemplify the implementation gap with strong technological capabilities undermined by service delivery failures. The study contributes to Service-Dominant Logic theory by providing empirical evidence of how digital transformation creates new forms of value co-creation challenges, while offering practitioners a framework for addressing the implementation gap through systematic service ecosystem development. These insights provide crucial guidance for retailers seeking to close the implementation gap and achieve sustainable competitive advantage in increasingly mobile-first markets.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 104530"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145219645","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 consumers' strategic return behavior on review bias: Evidence from Chinese online fashion retail","authors":"Kunlu Zhou ,&nbsp;Hongchao Zhang ,&nbsp;Zhicheng Fang ,&nbsp;Yinggao Qin","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104550","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104550","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Under the lenient return policy, strategic return by customers is becoming increasingly common. Existing research mainly explores the effects of strategic return on order volume, product pricing and word-of-mouth, neglecting how strategic return affect customers' product review behavior. Based on social exchange theory and reciprocity theory, this study investigates the impact of strategic return on customer review behavior, and examines the moderating effects of product marked price and price discount on the main relationship. Using large-scale customer behavior data provided by online retailers, this paper employs econometric models and stepwise regression to empirically test the research hypothesis. The results indicate that strategic return not only increase the probability of customer reviews but also significantly improve the positive review rate, thereby having a significant positive impact on review bias. Moreover, product marked price and price discount reinforced the relationship between strategic return and review bias. Interestingly, this study not only contradicts the view held by most prior studies that returns are always negative, but also has important practical implications for how companies manage customer returns and product reviews.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 104550"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145219644","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":"Shopping well-being through mobile apps: A congruence theory perspective","authors":"Kamel El Hedhli ,&nbsp;Ibrahim Alnawas ,&nbsp;Imene Becheur ,&nbsp;Allam K. Abu Farha ,&nbsp;Haithem Zourrig","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104545","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104545","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We build on theories from social psychology and retailing to investigate how shopping apps become part of shoppers' identities, and ultimately influence their sense of well-being as well as relevant retailing outcomes. Specifically, drawing on the congruence theory, this research advances that, beyond the retail apps' functional utility, shoppers are drawn to shopping apps that align with their personal identities in terms of self-congruity and lifestyle congruence. These distinct app-related congruities are hypothesized to be associated with shoppers' well-being. Specifically, functional congruence, self-congruity, and lifestyle congruence with a retail app are expected to exhibit differential associations with shopping well-being. In addition, self-congruity and lifestyle congruence are expected to amplify the association between functional congruence and shopping well-being. The sense of well-being experienced when shopping through retail apps is, in turn, likely to be associated with important retailing outcomes. Survey data were collected from mobile shoppers using fashion retail apps in two culturally distinct markets—the United States and Japan—to enhance the generalizability of the findings. The results of a SmartPLS-based SEM provide support for the hypothesized associations. Along with functional congruence, identity-based congruities are positively associated with shoppers’ well-being. In particular, shopping well-being shows a stronger association with self-congruity than with functional congruence. Additionally, shopping well-being is positively associated with favorable attitudes toward the app, intentions of continuance app use, and retailer loyalty. This paper provides valuable insights for mobile retailers by advancing our understanding of how shopping apps shape shopper identity and well-being.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 104545"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145219643","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":"Dual congruence in live-streaming commerce: A mixed-method to examine the role of virtual influencers and live content on consumer purchase behavior","authors":"Zhucheng Shao","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104546","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104546","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As virtual influencers increasingly become a fixture in live-streaming commerce, understanding how their brand congruence influences consumer behaviors is critical. Hence, this research investigates the dual congruence between live content, virtual influencers, and brands and how these congruences impact perceived value, source credibility, and, ultimately, purchase behaviors. Anchored in the congruity theory, perceived value theory, and source credibility theory, a mixed-method approach was employed in this research. Study 1 employs PLS-SEM and ANN to quantitatively demonstrate that utilitarian value and credibility, rather than hedonic content or attractiveness, significantly influence purchases. Study 2 offers qualitative insights to explain these findings, highlighting consumer preferences for informative content and credible influencers over mere entertainment or visual appeal. Theoretically and practically, this research contributes to digital marketing theory by clarifying how congruence mechanisms operate in virtual contexts and offers managerial strategies for brands seeking to leverage virtual influencers effectively in live-streaming commerce.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"88 ","pages":"Article 104546"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2025-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145219642","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}