Fang-Yi Lo , Muhammad Dliya'ul Haq , Meng-Hsuan Wu , Matthew Ting Chi Liu
{"title":"How digital efforts build equity: Moderating role of brand type, familiarity, and consumer green consciousness in the fashion sector","authors":"Fang-Yi Lo , Muhammad Dliya'ul Haq , Meng-Hsuan Wu , Matthew Ting Chi Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104687","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104687","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The fashion industry faces mounting pressures from rapid digital transformation and rising consumer expectations for sustainability, yet how these forces jointly influence brand equity remains underexplored. To address this issue, the present study investigates how digitalization intensity contributes to consumer-based brand equity, while examining the moderating influences of brand type (luxury versus fast fashion), brand familiarity, and consumer green consciousness. Building on the dynamic capabilities' perspective, we implemented a 2 (digitalization intensity: high vs. low) × 2 (brand type: luxury vs. fast fashion) between-subjects experiment with U.S. consumers (N = 547) recruited through a commercial online panel. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results show that greater digitalization intensity strengthens brand equity, with particularly strong effects for fast fashion brands and brands with low consumer familiarity. Although consumer green consciousness did not significantly moderate the focal relationship, it still demonstrated a positive tendency, suggesting a reinforcing role. Overall, the study advances understanding of the boundary conditions of digitalization's value creation and offers practical guidance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104687"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145791048","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}
In-Hyoung Park , Jaehye Suk , Hayoung Kim , Seunghyun Kang , Jae-Eun Chung
{"title":"Skincare satisfaction goes green? A comparative textual analysis of vegan and conventional product reviews","authors":"In-Hyoung Park , Jaehye Suk , Hayoung Kim , Seunghyun Kang , Jae-Eun Chung","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104690","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104690","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study compares post-purchase satisfaction between five categories of vegan and conventional skincare products and examines how product attributes relate to consumer ratings. We analyzed over 110,000 Ulta Beauty reviews using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation modeling technique and hierarchical regression. Eleven key attributes were identified, with intrinsic efficacy and sensory attributes prevailing over extrinsic attributes, while sustainability topics were absent. Drawing on expectation-confirmation theory (ECT) and the zone of tolerance (ZOT) framework, this study yields three main findings. First, vegan products received higher ratings in the pooled sample, moisturizers, and creams—reflecting assimilation effects—but lower ratings in serums, consistent with the ZOT framework, with no differences between mists and oils. Second, sustainability claims generally enhanced ratings for conventional products but not for vegan items, indicating differing expectation thresholds. Finally, a comparative analysis of non-sustainability attributes and rating associations across vegan and conventional cosmetics showed that 53 % of the cases supported the assimilation-contrast effects predicted by ECT, varying with the magnitude of expectation-performance gaps. The findings elucidate comparative post-purchase satisfaction mechanisms grounded in ECT and ZOT and offer practical insights for vegan and conventional skincare marketing.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104690"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145791057","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":"Data-driven agility in the UK retail sector: How SMEs innovate in dynamic environments through experimental evidence","authors":"Mohammed Aldossary , Gomaa Agag","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104716","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104716","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines how Big Data Analytics Capabilities (BDAC) drive innovation in UK retail SMEs through the mediating role of market agility and the contingent roles of environmental dynamism and learning orientation. Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV) and dynamic capabilities view (DCV), we employ a sequential mixed-method design comprising a qualitative pre-study of 26 SMEs and two experiments. The qualitative phase contextualises BDAC and market agility and informs sector-authentic experimental stimuli. Study 1 (N = 248 SME decision-makers) provides causal evidence that stronger BDAC increase market agility, which in turn increases both innovation adoption and innovation generation, with a stronger effect on adoption. Study 2 (N = 96 individuals/48 two-person teams) tests boundary conditions and reveals an asymmetric contingency: environmental dynamism amplifies the agility-adoption link, whereas learning orientation strengthens the agility-generation link. By distinguishing adoption from generation and by demonstrating this asymmetric moderation pattern under controlled conditions, the study clarifies why data-rich SMEs may become responsive adopters yet struggle to generate novel offerings unless learning routines are institutionalised. For practitioners and policymakers, the findings indicate that digital investment must be complemented by agile decision cycles and learning-oriented practices that convert data into timely, innovative action in dynamic retail markets.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104716"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145925530","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":"Disentangling the interplay between customer orientation and innovation. A qualitative study from small independent retailers","authors":"Sandro Castaldo , Alice Mantovani , Lara Penco","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104691","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104691","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Small independent retailers are having to cope with an increasingly hostile environment, and the sector is experiencing numerous challenges in terms of customer needs, technological advancements, and intensifying competition from large retailers and e-commerce platforms. This study explores how small retailers implement customer orientation to generate innovation, adopting a micro-foundational perspective within the dynamic capabilities approach. The focus of the research is on how the interaction between customer orientation and innovation is put into practice in small independent retailers through concrete behaviours, repeated actions, and operational choices. We conducted a multi-case study involving a sample of 15 small retailers, with the results revealing how different dimensions of innovation, including retailing mix levers, relationship-oriented, technological, and sustainability, are simultaneously customer-driven and -oriented due to their micro-foundations of sensing, seizing, and transforming. By identifying micro-organizational practices through which customer orientation and innovation influence each other, the study develops a framework that advances a micro-foundational perspective within the dynamic capabilities approach. The final section of the paper presents theoretical and practical implications with a view to improving the competitiveness of small retail businesses in the current hostile and challenging environment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104691"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145791054","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":"Tied-goods pricing: Consumer decision-making and managerial implications","authors":"Kwanho Suk","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104708","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104708","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Consumers often evaluate tied goods—durable products paired with required complementary consumables—without fully integrating the total cost of ownership into their judgments. This research examines how consumers weigh durable versus complementary product costs and how this weighting differs depending on cost presentation and bundling format. Across three studies, consumers consistently placed greater emphasis on the durable product price and underweighted complementary costs, even when complementary cost increases resulted in equal or greater changes in total ownership cost. Study 1 shows that consumers are less responsive to changes in complement selling price than to comparable changes in the durable product price. Study 2 demonstrates that ongoing usage-based complement costs are further neglected, reflecting reduced attention to temporally extended expenses. Study 3 finds that bundling attenuates this asymmetry by reducing the salience of separate price components and prompting heuristic value judgments. Together, these findings advance understanding of consumer pricing evaluation in tied-goods systems and offer implications for the design of bundling and captive pricing strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104708"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145883971","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":"Fashion retailing and consumers in the digital age: E-semiotics and the Co-creation of luxury brand narratives on instagram","authors":"Muhammad Naeem","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104695","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104695","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines how consumers co-create luxury brand identity through symbolic interactions on Instagram and how these impact consumer perceptions and brand love. The study addresses a gap in understanding around how e-semiotic processes could be involved in brand co-creation in digital contexts. To achieve this, the study applies a pragmatist philosophy and a mixed-methods approach with four sequential stages. Data collection included in-depth semi-structured interviews with 32 participants, 24 participants from six focus groups, content analysis of luxury brands’ Instagram posts, and quantitative testing with a sample of 342 survey respondents. The results highlight that textual and visual utterances on Instagram become antecedents of engagement, prompting e-semiotic interpretations of meanings attached to the luxury brand. These include craft, elegance, sustainability and art. These perceptions, classified as Monarchic Identity, Sophisticated Aura and Prestige Continuum arise from these meanings, and in turn enhance cocreated brand identity and strengthen brand love. The research takes semiotic theory into the digital realm, incorporating co-creation and emotional engagement in the conceptualization of brand identity creation. The qualitative data stemming from interviews, focus groups and a content analysis informed the quantitative construct that was tested using structural equation modelling (SEM) for both theoretical soundness and empirical strength. Managerially, it provides takeaways that will enable luxury brands to apply the symbolic affordances of Instagram to create genuine engagement and build stronger consumer-brand ties.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104695"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145883969","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}
Manuel Alonso Dos Santos , Carmen Zarco-Fernández , Francisco Liébana-Cabanillas
{"title":"The new frontier of customer understanding: Financial satisfaction and AutoML in banking","authors":"Manuel Alonso Dos Santos , Carmen Zarco-Fernández , Francisco Liébana-Cabanillas","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104601","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104601","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The objective of this study is to examine the factors associated with financial satisfaction using microdata from the Bank of Spain's Financial Competence Survey (2016 and 2021). Machine learning allows us to explore a wide range of possible predictors of financial satisfaction, overcoming the limitations of traditional approaches. The proposed methodological design combines predictive accuracy with interpretability, capturing hierarchical effects and interaction patterns that traditional approaches often overlook. The results consistently highlight household income and employment status as key structural factors, while perceived financial constraints, ability to meet expenses, and financial concerns emerge as influential perceptual correlates. The comparative analysis reveals two complementary segmentation logics: one dominated by objective resources and another focused on perceptions and planning behaviors, with evidence of a shift between 2016 and 2021 toward the growing importance of subjective assessments. This approach enables us to identify the variables most strongly associated with financial satisfaction, complementing existing models in the literature. Substantively, the results highlight that financial well-being is not only related to objective resources but also to how individuals interpret and manage them. These associations should be understood as correlational patterns rather than causal effects. From a managerial perspective, the findings underscore the need for retail financial institutions to integrate perceptual and behavioral dimensions into segmentation strategies to anticipate dissatisfaction, tailor services, and strengthen long-term consumer relationships.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104601"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145738243","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}
Yanze Liu , Tian-Hui You , Bing-Bing Cao , Junrong Zou
{"title":"A dual-orientation framework integrating explicit and silent information for Mobile game improvement and publicity: An asymmetry and term-level CR analysis based on online reviews","authors":"Yanze Liu , Tian-Hui You , Bing-Bing Cao , Junrong Zou","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104677","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104677","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study proposes a dual-orientation framework for mining customer requirements (CRs) from online reviews to support product improvement and publicity in mobile games. Existing research often overlooks silent information embedded in unmentioned CRs, limiting the effectiveness of strategic decision-making. Our framework integrates explicit and silent information through term-level asymmetry analysis. Specifically, BERTopic and BW-CNN are used to extract CRs and sentiments, while SHAP quantifies their influence on satisfaction. A four-quadrant perception model is developed to conduct asymmetry analysis of silent information, and the Kano model is applied to perform asymmetry analysis of explicit feedback. Finally, LIME-based term contribution analysis integrates these perspectives to evaluate the priorities of CR improvement and publicity. Experiments on 72,000 reviews from eight mobile games demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in providing a comprehensive understanding of customer perceptions and supporting more targeted product improvement and publicity strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104677"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145738238","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":"How multi-domain innovation influences consumer decisions in retail context: The mediating role of perceived brand resilience and its boundaries","authors":"Jie Han , Tengqi Xin , Liangping Sun , Yaoyao Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104647","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104647","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Innovation is a critical lever for brand differentiation in the retail sector, yet the psychological mechanisms through which multi-domain innovation shapes consumer responses remain underexplored. Based on resilience theory, this research investigates how retail consumers perceive and react to brands that innovate across multiple domains, drawing on three experimental studies to uncover underlying psychological processes. Results show that multi-domain innovation—compared to single-domain innovation—elicits higher brand preference and stronger purchase intentions in retail settings. This effect is mediated by perceived brand resilience, as consumers infer greater adaptability and robustness from brands that innovate broadly. Furthermore, the strength of this relationship is moderated by key individual and contextual factors: consumer innovativeness, domain expertise, and brand age. Specifically, the positive impact is amplified among consumers high in innovativeness or expertise, but attenuated for older, more established brands. These findings advance the literature on brand psychology by identifying perceived resilience as a central psychological pathway linking multi-domain innovation to consumer decision-making. Practically, the study offers actionable guidance for retail marketers on how to strategically communicate innovation across domains to enhance brand perception and consumer engagement.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104647"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145659084","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":"Speaking of facts or experiences? The interaction effect between description types of virtual influencers and product types on endorsement effectiveness","authors":"Yijia Sun , Chundong Zheng , Ke Ma","doi":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104704","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jretconser.2025.104704","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The emergence of virtual influencers (VIs), driven by advances in digital technology, presents a compelling alternative to human influencers (HIs) in brand endorsements. Yet, a systematic understanding of how to develop VI's communication strategies regarding “what to say” and “how to say” across different endorsement contexts remains notably absent. Through a field study with secondary data and three scenario-based experiments, this research demonstrates the interaction effect between product and description type in shaping VIs' endorsement effectiveness. Specifically, the match between search (experience) products and subjective (objective) descriptions enhances consumers' attitudes towards the advertising, brand, endorser, and their purchase intention. More importantly, mental simulation explains these effects as a potential mechanism. The findings of this research are crucial for understanding how endorsed products and content promoted by influencers (especially VIs) shape consumer experiences and provide significant implications for marketing practice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48399,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services","volume":"90 ","pages":"Article 104704"},"PeriodicalIF":13.1,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145883974","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}