Research On Customers’ Spillover Patronage In A Shopping Mall

Customers’ spillover patronage is the manifestation of retail demandexternalities and is also an important guarantee of the performance of retailagglomerations. To enhance customers’ spillover patronage in a limited operatingspace is an effective means to pursue performance for a shopping mall. Therefore, tomaximize customers’ spillover patronage has become the focus of the researchers andpractitioners.Consumers prefer to patronize the store which consistents with their self-image.Self-image congruence theory can well explain the patronage of a single store, butspillover patronage brought by retail demand externalities can not have a goodexplaination in a shopping mall.Based on self-image congruence theory, the self-image congruence orincongruence with an anchor store can be formed when customers’ self image and theimage of a typical customer of an anchor store match. The higher congruence, thehigher possibility for customers to patronage the anchor store. The self-imagecongruence or incongruence with a non-anchor store can be formed when customers’self image and the image of a typical customer of a non-anchor store match. Highercongruence, higher possibility for customers to patronage the non-anchor store. Whenthe shopper’s self-image, which is usually stable, is more congruent with the typicalshopper’s image of anchor stores and non-anchor stores (anchor store-non-anchorstore self-image for short), the distance between the image of anchor store and that ofnon-anchor store is smaller and the anchor store has a greater spillover effect on thenon-anchor stores. Therefore, we can link the patronage of multiple stores to explainand predict the spillover patronage based on customers’ self-image congruenceformed with multiple stores from the perspective of store image distance.In light of the above-mentioned gap and concerns, we conduct an in-depth study on the problem of spillover patronage from three aspects. Firstly, we test therelationships between store image, self-image congruence and patronage intention inthe context of retail store (see model1). The relationships between image, self-imagecongruence and consumer attitude/behavior have been supported empirically in thefield of brand and product, but few scholars explore the relationships between storeimage, self-image congruence and patronage intention in the context of the retail store.A2×2factorial design experiment was employed to test the influence of store imageon self-image congruence, and the influence of self-image congruence on patronageintention.Secondly, based on model1, we construct the relationship model betweendistance of store image, anchor store-non-anchor store self-image congruence andspillover patronage, and the moderator effect of anchor store’s purchasing throughtheoretical and logical inference(see model2). A2(anchor store image: high vslow)×2(non-anchor store image: high vs low) factorial design experiment wasemployed to test the influence of store image distance on anchor-non-anchorself-image congruence and spillover patronage, the influence of anchor-non-anchorself-image congruence on spillover patronage, and the moderator effect of anchorstore’s purchasing.Thirdly, based on model2, we propose the moderating effect of motivationalorientation between anchor store and non-anchor store self-image congruene andspillover patronage (see model2). A2×2factorial design experiment was employedto test the moderating effect of motivational orientation.The results of the experimental data analysis show that,(1) Store imageinfluence the formation of self-image congruence, and self-image congruence has apositive effect on patronage intention. This suggests that consumers will infer thetypical customer image based on the physical and marketing characteristics, thencompare with self-image to form self-image congruence experience. The greatermatch between the store patronage image and the consumer’s self-image, the morelikely the consumer visits the store, and vice versa.(2) Store image distance has anegative effect on spillover patronage. We confirm that the anchor store whose imageis close to that of the non-anchor stores can enhance the customers’ patronage intention in non-anchor stores. In other words, shoppers are more likely to patronizethose stores with similar image.(3) Store image distance influences the formation ofanchor store-non-anchor stores self-image. When externalities exist among somestores in a shopping mall, customers can form multi-store self-image congruence bycomparing self-image with the typical customer image inferred in the stores. If thesestores’ image is similar and matches with customers’ self-image, they willexperiecnce multiple stores self-image congruence. But the direction of the effect ofthe distance of on multi-store self-image congruence is not sure, sometimes positive,while sometimes negative.(4) Anchor store-non-anchor store self-image congruencehas a positive effect on spillover patronage. If stores in the shopping mall want to getmore spillover customers, they should not only consider their own store image andthe neighboring store image, but also take into account the self-image of the targetcustomer groups.(5) Whether or not to purchase in anchor store has not a moderatingeffect between anchor store-non-anchor stores self-image and spillover patronage,i.e. customers will patronize the non-anchor stores as long as they have a higher levelself-image congruence in the non-anchor store regardless of shoppers buyingsomething or not in the anchor store.(6) Motivational orientation moderates the effectof anchor store-non-anchor stores self-image on spillover patronage. As the anchorstore-non-anchor self-image congruence increases, the spillover patronage increaseswhen shoppers have the recreational motivational orientation. Although the smallerdistance of store image will result in the greater likelihood of spillover patronage,more entertainment experience will still enhance customers’ spillover patronage.The contribution of this study is:(1) We introduce the self-image congruencetheory into retail agglomeration with retail demand externalities and multi-storepatronage linked together to clarify the spillover patronage formation mechanism sothat spillover patronage is explained well.(2) Extant research only confinesself-image congruence theory to consumers and a single store. This study, however,proposes a multi-store self-image congruence theory, tests the effect of store imagedistance on multi-store self-image and the effect of multi-store self-image onspillover patronage and extend the study range of self-image congruence theory.(3)Store image scale confirmed through three sets of experiments has a good reliability and validity, which not only applies to anchor store, but also to non-anchor stores.We provide measurement tools of store image for future research of store imagedistance and spillover patronage and image diagnosis for managers of a shoppingmall.(4) Motivational orientation moderates the effect of anchor store–non-anchorstore self-image on spillover patronage, which further defines the domain of the effectof anchor store–non-anchor store self-image on spillover patronage.