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Research Article

A Study on the Concept and Influencing Factors of Consumer Habitual Store Loyalty

Choi, Nakhwan1 · Kim, Minji1

1 Jeonbuk National University

Published: January 2012 · Vol. 41, No. 4 · pp. 897-922
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Abstract

In consumers' daily lives they continuously buy convenience products they need. In domains that involve repeated use of store or repeated purchasing behavior consumers can be locked in to a particular store when the costs of switching to a competing store outweigh the benefits. In Past researches about being locked in to a certain store, financial switching costs or search costs have been the focus of researchers. But cognitive lock-in concerned with repeated store use can be important driving force of choosing the store. Using same store repeatedly can make psychological links between a store usage goal and the store instrumental in achieving the goal. Strengthening such links depend on frequent co-activation of the goal and the instrumental actions experienced in the past. Through repeated actions to get store usage goal under the same circumstance the co-activation of the goal and the actions become increased, and skills necessary to use the store can be learned. Activation of store usage goal leads consumers to select the store used in the past and to form a plan to use the store unconsciously. When store usage goals are pursued regularly, the need to give conscious attention to the store in detail dwindles. Selecting the same store more often resulting in achieving the usage goal such as practical utilitarian values in a satisfactory manner helps consumer mentally linked to the goal. Frequent and consistent associations between store usage goal and the store lead consumers to learn store usage habits that can be seen as hierarchical mental representation in which activation of store usage goal leads to activation of the store positioned lower in the memory hierarchy. The direct relation between past store use and future store use can help consumer simply choose the stores as they did them before. This research proposes that habitual store loyalty is strengthened by the extent to which store becomes salient on the bases of repeated use of the store in the past and perceived ease of the store use that means low cognitive costs associated with thinking about using the store and the perceived meaningfulness of using the store to get the shopping goal. In other words,it is suggest that store salience and perceived ease of store use, perceived meaningfulness of store use could influence habitual store loyalty. And it is also suggested that repeated experiences of store use influence perceived ease of store use and store salience positively. Skill-based habits of store use are acquired though a trial-and-error learning process during which the store usage behaviors become increasingly automated with the amount of experience of using the store. So It is also suggested that the amount of experience with the store positively influences store salience and perceived ease of store use. We also propose that the perceived ease of store use could be affected by the location and operating times of the store. What are the sources of helping consumers feel meaningfulness of using the store? Perceived ease of using the store are supposed to be the forces of leading to perceived meaningfulness in this study. And store that meets or exceed consumers' practical utilitarian values(needs) is supposed to enhance consumers to get the perceived meaningfulness of using the store. This research reviews the theoretical background about the mediating roles of perceived meaningfulness and ease in using retail store, and store salience on the effects of the amount of experience with the store, the location and operating times of the store, and practical utilitarian values on the habitual store loyalty, and develops the hypotheses like the above. And the direct effects of the amount of experience with the store, the location and operating times of the store, and practical utilitarian values on the habitual store loyalty are also explored in experimental study. Convenience store, supermarket, and mart are selected as experimental objects. The results of testing hypotheses by using the samples of undergraduate students show that there are the mediating roles of the perceived ease and the perceived meaningfulness of using the store on the habitual store loyalty. Amount of experience of using the store have positive affects to the store salience. The store salience, amount of experience with the store, location and operating times of the store have positive affects to perceived ease of using the store. And the perceived ease of the store, the practical utilitarian values have positive affects to perceived meaningfulness of using the store. But the location and operating time of the store does not have positive impacts to perceiving the meaningfulness of using the store. Thus both the perceived ease and the meaningfulness of using retail store are showed to play the positive mediating roles on the habitual store loyalty.
Keywords: 습관적 점포충성도영업시간 및 이동소요시간점포이용경험점포이용실용성점포이용유용성점포이용편리성점포인출현저성