بررسی رفتار خرید متقابل مصرف کنندگان

This study addresses antecedents of cross-shopping behaviour. Five theory-driven hypotheses are derived and tested. The results indicate that impulse buying tendency and perceived time pressure have a statistically significant negative effect on supermarket patronage. Product assortment and price consciousness have a statistically significant negative effect on speciality store patronage, while impulse buying tendency and convenience orientation have a statistically significant positive effect on speciality store patronage. Perceived time pressure has a statistically significant positive effect on meat store patronage. This effect is, however, not statistically significant on seafood store patronage. The findings have managerial implications for both supermarkets and speciality stores.

What determines the consumer's choice of food stores? Consumers patronise different food stores for a multiplicity of reasons. Certain food stores may not offer the food items they want to buy. Price and promotional campaigns may affect the choice of a specific food store. Time constraints may lead to the choice of a food store the consumers do not normally patronise. Impulse buying and convenience may also have an effect on the preferences for a particular food store. All these reasons may lead to cross-shopping behaviour characterised by the type of food stores visited and the frequency of visits. It is important for food retail managers to understand this retail patronage behaviour. Such an understanding will allow the managers to identify and target those food customers, who are most likely to patronise their food outlet. Patronage behaviour in general has been an important area of research in the retail literature. Many studies have related consumer store choice or patronage behaviour to store attributes (e.g. Fox et al., 2004); others have related patronage behaviour to the consumer's perceptions and evaluations of those attributes (e.g. Baker et al., 2002). Consumer store choice has also been related to socio-demographics (e.g. Carpenter and Moore, 2006). However, the evolution of store formats and the resulting cross-shopping behaviour have received limited attention in the literature. Cross-shopping behaviour was first discussed in the trade literature in the late 1970s (Cort and Dominguez, 1977), but the literature has been sporadic and has focused on different topics within the retail shopping context (Arnold et al., 1983; Urbany et al., 1996; Krider and Weinberg, 2000; Pan and Zinkhan, 2006). Examinations of studies of cross-shopping behaviour indicate that cross-shopping in general and intertype cross-shopping (i.e. crossing from a supermarket to a speciality store), in particular within the food store context, has remained largely under-analysed. The aim of the present study is therefore to investigate antecedents of consumers’ intertype food store cross-shopping behaviour. To accomplish this aim, we develop a theoretical framework that captures antecedents of consumers’ format choice across three different food outlet types: supermarkets and two speciality store formats (i.e. seafood stores and meat stores). The dinner food category is an important category for most households, and consequently important for their choice of retail outlet. This study is therefore examining cross-shopping behaviour within the dinner food category. Cross-shopping behaviour should be studied and compared at the category level in order to identify predicting factors. If cross-shopping behaviour is not found within the most narrowly defined level of product hierarchy—the product category level, it is unlikely to be found across product categories. Earlier research of store patronage has also been limited to product categories such as disposable diapers (Kumar and Leone, 1988), spaghetti and cake mix (Walters, 1991), and detergents (Bucklin and Lattin, 1992). By identifying the antecedents of food store cross-shopping behaviour, we will provide a stepping stone for understanding the nature of intertype store cross-shopping in a food retail context. This research will provide food retailers that operate various types of outlets with specific knowledge of the rationales their customers judge to be important when making format choices. As competition in the food retail industry continues to develop, a better understanding of the linkage between consumers and format choice is crucial to the food retailer's performance. This is of particular importance to the speciality food stores that have experienced a dramatic decline in numbers and market shares over the last couple of decades (Hansen, 2003).

The purpose of this research is to investigate antecedents of cross-shopping behaviour between consumers patronising supermarkets and consumers patronising speciality stores. In the theoretical section of the paper, five antecedents (product assortment, impulse buying tendency, price consciousness, perceived time pressure and convenience orientation) of cross-shopping behaviour are identified and related to cross-shopping. Table 4 sums up the findings.The left-hand column in Table 4 shows antecedents of patronage. The middle column and right-hand column show the direction of the hypothesised effects on the patronage of supermarkets and speciality store respectably, and whether the hypothesised effects are supported by our findings or not. First, inspection of the middle column shows that the effects of two of the five antecedents (i.e. impulsive buying tendency and perceived time pressure) of supermarket patronage are statistically significant and in the expected direction. As hypothesised, the effect of impulsive buying tendency (IBT) and perceived time pressure (PTP) are negative. Our findings provide no support for the hypothesised effect of the three other antecedents. Inspection of the right-hand column shows that all five antecedents of speciality store patronage are statistically significant. It seems that the theoretical model predicts antecedents of speciality store patronage better than supermarket patronage. However, inspection of the column shows that the effect of convenience orientation is in the opposite direction of that hypothesised for speciality stores. The finding relating convenience orientation positively to speciality store patronage agrees with some previous research. Hansen (2003) found a positive relationship between convenience orientation and speciality store patronage, although this effect was not statistically significant. It seems that a possible explanation for the positive relationship between convenience orientation and speciality store patronage should be found along one or more of the dimensions (i.e. time, place, acquisition, use and execution) suggested by Brown (1989). A further inspection of the right-hand column shows that the effects of product assortment, price consciousness, IBT and PTP on speciality store patronage are as hypothesised. This is consistent with previous research. Impulsive buying tendency (IBT) and perceived time pressure (PTP) are the only antecedents of patronage where both the effects of patronage on supermarkets and on speciality stores are as hypothesised.