Why do consumers shop where they do? A study of Christchurch consumers' choice of supermarket outlets
Abstract
This thesis investigates why consumers shop at a particular retail outlet. It applies international research on consumer choice behaviour to the Christchurch context, paying particular attention to location convenience, merchandise selection, outlet image, consumer characteristics, and retail advertising. In order to determine how these factors influence outlet-choice behaviour, this thesis develops a conceptual framework to study consumers' choice behaviour.
This conceptual framework integrates decision-making, behavioural, and experiential perspectives of consumer behaviour theories. Choosing to shop at a particular store is depicted as the outcome of a two-stage decision-making process, being elimination and choice processes, influenced by an individual's characteristics and environmental stimuli. The second stage of this conceptual framework, or the choice stage of the decision-making, is applied in-depth to study Christchurch consumers and their choice of supermarkets. To facilitate this in-depth study and carry out this investigation empirically a range of statistical models is evaluated. For this purpose, factor, cluster, and logistic regression analyses were considered.
The results suggest first that there is no one overriding reason why people shop where they do. Instead consumers tend to shop at different supermarkets for various reasons. The principal reasons being meat, variety, staff services signage, coupon, price, and location convenience. Secondly, the supermarket's patrons belong to specific consumer segments, each with its own significant pattern of demographic and life-style characteristics. Finally, image advertising is an effective marketing tool which influences choice behaviour through interacting with consumers' perception of choice determinants.... [Show full abstract]
Keywords
consumer outlet-choice behaviour; choice criteria; choice determinants; Christchurch supermarkets; theories of choice behaviour; statistic models of choice behaviour; supermarketsFields of Research
150501 Consumer-Oriented Product or Service Development; 150507 Pricing (Incl. Consumer Value Estimation)Date
1999Type
ThesisAccess Rights
Digital thesis can be viewed by current staff and students of Lincoln University only. Print copy available for reading in Lincoln University Library. May be available through inter-library loan.Collections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
A comparison of the insecticidal properties of New Zealand native and other plants
Vasanthaverni, S. (Lincoln University, 1997)Economically important plant species were selected from three different countries: New Zealand (12 species), Chile (11 species) and Australia (1 species). They were screened for insecticidal properties against the economically ... -
Cross-cultural differences in environmental valuation: a choice modelling application to water resources in the Waikato
Andersen, Maiki Dita (Lincoln UniversityChristchurch, 2013)Differences between traditional Māori and Western utilitarian approaches to waterways and their management support the possibility that strong cultural differences in environmental perspectives may exist. Failure to account ... -
Benefit transfer: choice experiment results
Kerr, Geoffrey N.; Sharp, B. (New Zealand Agricultural and Resource Economics SocietyLincoln, Canterbury, 2004-06)Benefit transfer entails using estimates of non-market values derived at one site as approximations to benefits at other sites. The method finds favour because it can be applied quickly and cheaply, however the validity ...