Streetwear can be thought of as a lifestyle, which in turn is a choice of how one facilitates money and time in the process and pattern of consumption of products. The user’s affinity with like-minded individuals or groupings and how they spend their disposable or available income creates groupings. These similar minded individuals fall into groups or lifestyle segments and their consumption patterns mirror their lifestyle choices. Group identities focus around expressive symbolism, following similar consumption patterns and change over time as the group preferences move onto the next desire or trend (Solomon, 2007).

Building on Technology Readiness and Acceptance Model(TRAM), the study aimed to examine how technology readiness affects consumers’ perceptions of ease of use, usefulness, and risk, which in turn predict their intention to use retail service robots. Specifically, the study proposed that technology readiness motivators (optimism and innovativeness) would influence perceived ease of use and usefulness, while technology readiness inhibitors (discomfort and insecurity) would affect perceived risk. The study further examined if the perception factors (ease of use, usefulness, and risk) contribute to intention to use retail service robots. A survey method was used with data collected from Korean consumers. The final sample size was 418. The data was analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings of the study revealed that technology readiness motivators positively affected perceived ease of use and usefulness while innovativeness had no impact on usefulness. All the inhibitors increased perceived risk. Lastly, as hypothesized, perceptions of ease of use, usefulness, and risk predicted intention to use retail service robots. This study extended the retail technology literature by applying and validating TRAM to the context of consumer acceptance of retail service robots. The study further helped marketers and retailers by highlighting the importance of technology readiness in improving consumer perceptions and responses towards retail service robots.

This paper focuses on luxury retail fashion trend imitation. Study 1 explores the effects of firm evaluations between luxury and masstige firms and in the context of imitation. Study 2 examines participant reactions to varied levels of imitation similarity and the effects of imitation on the trend originator.

Advanced web technologies enable consumers can create and exchange the content in various social media platforms (SMPs). As an interactive communication channel, SMPs serve as a new and updated form of online community where consumers and companies benefit from each other. Due to its minimal threshold in cost and skills necessary for accessing these SMPs, consumers use SMPs to acquire information in addition to seeking for socialization, which affect a purchase decision making process (Wang, Yu, and Wei, 2012). With various benefits of using SMPs among consumers, product reviews and photos posted by the customers in SMPs perform as an emerging type of endorsement to other users of SMPs. Individuals who actively share and disseminate the such product/service related-contents often become micro-celebrities among SMPs users. According to DiSilvestro (2016), customers no longer trust advertising created by brands, but they prefer to reply on reviews via SMPs, and in fact, 67% of consumers visit SMPs to reviews generated by other customers. In this regard, increasing number of brands tries to find influential micro-celebrities to build positive brand image and provide meaningful customer engagement which potentially increase sales in the end (Khamis, Ang, and Welling, 2016). Despite the increasing popularity of SMPs and influencers to brands, marketers struggle to measure their returns on investment, such as customer retention and increased customer lifetime value (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2010). Thus, a focal interest of this study is the role of a sense of community in building participants’ positive relational outcomes for a given brand that implementing the promotional activities via SMPs (Hudson et al., 2016).

Although retailers deals with a large number of single-term inventory items, but few cases have been considered in the areas of practical decision making. However, recent moves to strengthen fair trade have created a real need for single-period inventory decision-making problems. This study addresses the problem of ordering quantity decisions that are expected to maximize profits using classical newsvendor models. The research target is data on seasonal and perishable products from retail. We also use data from retailers to actually apply the newsvendor model and calculate the results to compare performance. It also suggests solutions for estimating demand for products sold in order to apply newsvendor models that utilize actual demand ratio versus forecast demand. This study would like to examine the effectiveness of this research through data analysis and make some suggestions for applying it to reality.

Purpose: as they travel more, the Chinese consumers are making a rapidly-growing share of their luxury purchases outside the Mainland. Their purchases are now the most part of the sales in the luxury shops in Europe. This paper aims to analyze if and how their buying behavior is affecting the retail mix. Design approach: in order to analyze the influence of Chinese customers on European luxury shops a qualitative research has been developed by mean of 346 observations, in a period of four months, of the buying behavior inside a luxury shop in Italy. We used the mystery sales person approach. The research aimed to verify the consistency of the traditional retail mix of a luxury shop with the requests of these new customers. Findings: the research highlighted that the buying behavior of the Chinese globetrotters is quite different compared to the traditional European and American luxury customers, and that their requests are not fitting with the existing luxury shop retail mix. Research limitation: The research process was heavily limited by the particular situation of a Chinese luxury customer, who doesn’t like to be interviewed. So the research approach should be totally indirect, similar to a mystery research. Only one luxury brand could be included in the sample, while a comparison between more brands seems to be more fruitful. Practical implications: the traditional retail mix of luxury shops, based on long and careful relationship, exclusive spaces and atmospheres, timeless and experiential experiences inside the point of sales are not fitting with the needs of Chinese luxury shoppers. It must be reconsidered and innovate, coping with the paradox represented by traditional European customer desires and new Chinese ones: the same location for two totally different approaches. Originality: in the new era of globalization almost the totality of the previous studies analyzes the strategy of western retail luxury chains in China, focusing on how the West is influencing Chinese customers, skipping the reverse situation. This paper focuses how Chinese customers can influence European luxury shops.

Despite the importance of retail atmospherics documented in the literature, little empirical research has been done on the issue of what specific aspects of retail atmospherics can enhance experiential marketing. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study is to compare the effect of product display (lifestyle vs. product-centric) on consumer satisfaction and retail patronage intentions. In so doing, this study examines the mediating role of hedonic shopping experiences operationalized through 3 separate subdimensions (i.e., brand experience, shopping enjoyment, and cognitive pleasure) while controlling a brand effect (i.e., testing two types of product display in a single brand context). Demminga et al. (2012) state that lifestyle display is a cross-merchandised, integrated, aesthetically attractive theme or scene through which consumers could envisage themselves in the scene or nature. On the other hand, product-centric display does not necessarily present a coherent theme. Instead, this type of product display is frequently used in a traditional retail format focuses on merchandise presentation appealing to target customers (Foster and Mclelland, 2015). This study was conducted using two product display stimuli: lifestyle and product-centric displays in the context of a specialty apparel store, Anthropologie. One image of Anthropologie was selected as a lifestyle display because it contained a thematic prop, which illustrates a natural scenario in that store. The results showed that the lifestyle display creates higher brand experience, shopping enjoyment, cognitive pleasure, satisfaction, time spent, and patronage intentions compared to the product centric display. This study provides empirical evidence supporting the importance of experiential marketing. Theoretically, this study demonstrates that lifestyle display could be applied in an apparel store. Rather than focusing only on products retailers could easily develop thematic props in a store because they are easy to set up, cost-effective, and less time-consuming. By setting up a lifestyle display, retailers could easily differentiate their brands from other competing brands.

Introduction Aim Research in the Swedish retail sector 2017, shows that 37% of the public in Sweden has attitudes and behavior that make them part of the Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability group (Lohas). Lohas is a method (see Lohas.se) to measure sustainable living in a global context (Swedish Sustainability Ranking 2017). This make Sweden in the forefront. Furthermore, the Swedish government has issued a new law (entered into force in 2017) that demands Swedish companies with more than 250 employees or a certain turnover to annually report their sustainability efforts and how it connects to their business model. This is the background for our study investigating different industry sectors in Sweden. In this environment, retailers such as IKEA, Apoteket, Max Burger, Clas Ohlson, and H&M, followed by others, have gained recognition regarding their strong brands as well as good practice within sustainability. Sustainability has recently become more relevant to study. In Sweden repeated surveys, (2004-2017), have shown that Swedish retailers are perceived as the most reputable and sustainable of all companies. What is the background that makes retailers so trusted and sustainable among the general public and customers in Sweden? The purpose of this paper is to present and analyze the underlying factors which give retailers in Sweden such a high sustainability scores over time i.e. what factors are important to achieve sustainable brand equity in the Swedish retail sector. A detailed comparison will be made of two large surveys carried out in 2016 and 2017. Design/methodology/approach This paper explores the branding framework Customer-Based Brand Equity as well as Points of Difference (POD) and Points of Parity (POP) in a projective retailer sustainability perspective, Keller, Apéria and Georgson (2012). The overall customer brand equity framework is developed by Keller (1993). PODs is defined as unique associations, strong and favorable, linked to a brand. POPs are associations that can be shared with other brands, Keller, Sternthal, and Tybout (2002). Ailawadi and Keller (2004) discuss the importance of measuring retailer brand equity. According to the researchers brand equity has been one of the most challenging and important issues for both academics and managers. The chosen framework and the analysis for the study is the corporate brand level. A sustainability index, developed by Apéria, has been developed and tested during the period 2015-2017. The sustainability index measures four dimensions of sustainability: environment/climate, society/ethics, longterm/future perspective, and openness (see figure 1). The index is inspired by the Triple bottom line approach. The data comes from the Swedish Sustainability Ranking, the largest survey on sustainability in Sweden. More than 18,000 online surveys were carried out in 2016 and 25,000 surveys carried out in 2017. The panelists participating in the survey were recruited in order to be representative of the Swedish general public, age 18-74 years. 190 well-known and visible consumer companies were measured in 2016 and 200 companies and organizations in 2017. These companies were selected because they are well-known, salient and represent important categories from a consumer point of view. Our view of salience is based on Ehrenberg, Barnard and Scriven (1997). A pre-study was carried out in 2015 in order to understand consumer criterias for choice of retailer. In 2016, 32 retailers where measured in a specific retailer frame of reference. 4,225 surveys where carried out among general public who participated in the study. In the 2017 survey, 35 retailers were measured and 3,416 surveys were carried out, also in a retailer frame of reference targeting the general public. All respondents taking part in the study initially ranked companies with product, brand, and sustainability attributes. The respondents ranked these retailers with approximately 35 brand- attitude questions (Likert scale from 1-7). In the second part of the interview each respondent also indirectly, through a projective approach, described the retailer. The perspective of reputation and sustainability metrics has traditionally been used in a strict rational point of view. One example of reputation metrics is the RepTrak model described by Fombrun, Ponzi, and Newburry (2015), and van Riel (2012). Chun and Davies (2004) and J. Aaker (1997) have also discussed corporate character and brand personality from a rational point of view. Ailawadi and Keller (2004) have pointed out that brand personality as an area deserves greater attention from research. The authors of this article argue that a complementary perspective is needed to fully understand how consumers evaluate corporate brands and sustainability and the complexity behind this process. The authors propose to add emotional components in the evaluation, as a complement to the traditional rational view. The proposed way to understand the emotional side of a corporate brand is to use projective techniques (Apéria 2001, Apéria and Back 2004, Keller, Apéria and Georgson 2012). An advantage of projective techniques is that they may elicit responses that respondents may be unwilling or unable to give by traditional interview methods. In this retailer study we used projective techniques in order to explore the more emotional aspects of the retailers. Findings The results from the analyze presents Swedish retailers as representing the most sustainable of all company categories in Sweden. During a period between 2004-2017 the retail category have been in top positions of the Swedish reputation and sustainability ranking, measured in a longitudinal study. Apoteket, The Body Shop and Clas Ohlson have been ranked as number one, one time each. While IKEA has been number one eleven times during the period. During the last two years, 2016 and 2017 IKEA was ranked as number one, based on the sustainability index. The analyze has shown that the highly sustainable retailers operating in the Swedish market primarily are characterized by strong brands as well as strong perceptions of sustainability. An interesting example is the local Swedish fast-food company Max Burgers that strongly outperforms McDonald´s both as a brand as well on sustainability. Successful retailers have different personalities, and archetypes compared with other corporate categories. The analysis reveals that the strongest retailers with a high sustainability index are characterized by having strong brand personalities. Furthermore, the analysis also reveals that the archetypes characterizing these retailers are we-oriented archetypes such as: ordinary/familiar, stable/down to earth, but also the ego-oriented archetype focused/specialist. Examples of retailers with a strong brand personality are IKEA, The Body Shop, Stadium, ICA, Zara and H&M. When we compare the data from the study 2016 with 2017 we see the same results. Our results from both studies indicate that local retailers are more positively evaluated than international. We-orientated brands score higher than ego-orientated. Some retail categories are perceived better than others are. Examples of strong retail categories are pharmacies, furniture, food, and sport stores and weak retailer categories are hamburger restaurants, consumer electronics and telecom stores. However, there is always an opportunity for a retailer to be stronger than the category they represent. One example, earlier mentioned is the local hamburger chain Max Burgers that strongly outperforms international competitors such as Burger King and McDonald´s, when we compare their sustainability indexes. The results indicate that both rational and emotional factors constitute an important part of the Sustainable Brand Equity Model. This new model (see figure 2) has been developed and tested during surveys 2015-2017 by one of the authors as a part of the Swedish Sustainability Ranking. Central components of the model are sustainability indexes, corporate brand personality, brand associations meeting need segments which lead to brand loyalty and trust capital. Finally, our survey shows that retailers needs to be strong in both brand and sustainability. It´s not enough to only excel in sustainability. Research limitations/implications The Sustainability survey was carried out both in 2016 and 2017 in a retailer frame of reference including different retailers from different sectors. The authors recognize that Swedes rank retailers as the most reputable and sustainable category of companies every year. In different countries the general public has different opinions about which companies they found most reputable (Apéria, Simcic Brønn, and Schultz, 2004). Originality/value The authors compares the chosen 32 retailers studied in 2016 with 35 retailers studied in 2017 with the same method. In both surveys we used both rational questions and emotional projective questions in order to understand the retailers in-depth. In both surveys a sustainability index was used in order to rank the retailers.

For brands operating retail stores to stay competitive in the context of the rise of ecommerce, globalization and consumer’s quest for experiences, the design of store environments is one key element to deliver memorable, tangible brand experiences to customers. Architectural branding is an emerging literature stream at the intersection of consumer behavior, marketing management, and design (Raffelt, 2012), based on the assumption that a store concept should make effective use of materials and space to optimize the brand experience in a holistic manner (Quartier, 2017). However, factors such as globalization and increasingly international audiences challenge brands in conveying a consistent core brand identity across all touchpoints (Özsomer & Prussia, 2000). Thus, the question arises to what extent retailers should opt for “prototype designs”, which rigidly follow guidelines or to opt for a decentralized approach with potentially diverse brand image perceptions (Turley & Chebat, 2002). This paper gives first insights on how global retail brands can holistically configure their architectural branding in retail in order to reflect their brand identity in different target markets. From 23 in-depth expert interviews and 30 observations of five fashion and accessories brands across three geographic locations propositions emerged on how to achieve a compelling and target-group specific architectural branding in a glocal context. The studies have shown that to what extent a localization strategy is necessary depends on products/services sold, the brand positioning, the heritage of the brand and the local country culture of the subsidiary’s location. However, order not to overshadow and dilute the brand’s global core values, the extent of regional adaptation should be carefully considered.

Racism has changed its form over the decades and has become more subtle and indirect than the blatant forms in the past (Gaertner & Dovidio, 2005; Sue et al., 2007; Sue, 2010; Tropp & Molina, 2012). As a result, it is becoming more difficult for minority groups to identify and call them out (Sue et al., 2007). Subtle racism can be detrimental to minority groups in that they can deteriorate performances and when accumulated, they can have negative consequences such as mental and physical health problems (Sue et al., 2007; Sue, 2010; Ong et al., 2013). Recognizing the issues regarding subtle racism, the research questions were the following: (1) Are there differences in the experience of indirect discrimination in a retail context between racial minorities and majorities?; (2) Do minorities use different strategies to solve these situations and why?; and (3) What are the consequences of subtle discrimination in the retail environment? To test the research questions, a total of 599 participants were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants were randomly assigned to read either a racial microaggression scenario or a control scenario (a scanner unable to read a discount coupon) and they were asked to select why the incident happened to them. Further, they were asked to answer how they felt after reading the scenario and then respond to the outcome variables repatronage intention, word of mouth, and complaint intention. The findings of the study showed that Asians tend to attribute their racial identity as to why retail employees maltreated them. While Caucasians would simply state that an employee was busy or would not put much thought as to why a service failure occurred, Asians were more burdened by the thought that their race was an issue. After an employee showed subtle discriminations, Asians experienced less positive emotions than Caucasians, which resulted in them deciding to avoid the retail store. This may be due to their belief that they have less control over the situation and would rather not confront the employee or a manager on the issue. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

By increasing awareness of product offers and availability in the consumer’s proximity, Location Based Marketing (LBM) increases relevance of placed advertisements. However, depending on how it is executed, such advertising can also be perceived as intrusive, irritating, or even violating consumer’s privacy. Existing knowledge does not offer clear directions for retailers, who are keen to know of LBM’s effectiveness on sales. In this paper, authors investigate the effects of LBM on application (app) driven revenues of 116 major mobile retailers from around the globe. In particular, we examine the contingency effects of the roles of device as well as privacy needs of the brand audience. Findings reveal that effects of LBM on app-based revenues vary by tactic (inbound vs. outbound), type of device (Tablet vs. Phone), and user type based on brand of app (Android vs. Apple). Overall, this research identifies critical factors for retailers to consider, in order to best monetize their location based efforts. Contributions of the analysis and managerial implications are discussed.

Consumer interest in eco-friendly fashion products has been consistent. While most relevant research emphasizes individual morals and environmental concern as the most crucial determinants to eco-friendly consumption behavior, more recent studies point out that in so doing there has been somewhat a neglectance on the importance of fundamental marketing strategies. More specifically, the crucial role of interior colors in fashion retail stores has been managerially considered something certain yet no empirical results have been found to support such a strong managerial assumption. For instance, colors such as green, blue, and brown are believed to represent natural images and are more appropriate to the eco-friendly marketing and the relevant research has been lacking. Therefore, this study attempts to explore the effect of in-store interior design colors (green versus non-green) on consumer perception of green store images. A total of 382 respondents were gathered for an online survey using differing store images as the stimulus and used for testing hypotheses. In the results, respondents exposed to store images using green interior colors reported a higher evaluation of green store image of the store. The effect is found to be significantly moderated by respondent’s environmental concern: to explain, respondents of high environmental concern are less influenced by green color interiors when they evaluate the brand’s eco-friendly image. In sum, the positive influence of green interior colors on green store image is found statistically significant, with its stronger effect for consumers of low concern. Managerial and academic discussions are provided.

Squid is a popular seafood in Korea. However, since the 2000s, the squid production has been declining. The unstable supply of the squid products may cause price fluctuations of fresh and chilled squid. These price fluctuations may be relatively more severe than them of other commodities, because the fresh and chilled squid can not be stored for a long period of time. Thus, this study analyzes the structural characteristics of price volatility and price asymmetry of fresh squid based on off-diagonal GARCH model. Data used to analysis of this study are daily wholesale and retail prices of fresh squid from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2016 provided in the KAMIS. As theoretical approaches of this study, first of all, the stability of the time series is confirmed by the unit root test. Secondly, the causality between distribution channels is checked by the Granger causality test. Thirdly, the VAR model and the off-diagonal GARCH model are adopted to estimate asymmetry effect and price volatility spillover between distribution channels. Finally, the stability of the model is confirmed by multivariate Q-statistic and ARCH-LM test. In conclusion, fresh squid is found to have shock and volatility spillover between wholesale and retail prices as well as its own price. Also, volatility asymmetry effect is shown in own wholesale or retail price of fresh squid. Finally, this study shows that the decrease in the fresh squid retail price of t-1 period than the increase in the t-1 period has a greater impact on the volatility of the fresh squid wholesale price in t period.

The luxury industry worldwide, and in China in particular, has been going through some major shake-ups in the last few years, such as the impact of anti-corruption campaign in China since 2012, massive increase of Chinese out-bound tourists travelling abroad for shopping due to price advantages as compared to mainland China prices, changing customer preferences and low loyalty towards luxury brands, and heightened customer knowledge of luxury, to name a few. These changes have a direct impact on customers’ behavior and experience in luxury retail stores and ultimately the level of expectation and satisfaction they have with luxury brands. This paper aims to shed some light on this topic by focusing specially on Chinese luxury customers’ perspectives. Companies have considered customer experience as one of important ways to obtain and sustain competitive advantages. Zomerdijk and Voss (2009) maintained that customer experience is a holistic concept that encompasses every aspect of a company’s offering. However, it is unclear which service elements offered by company create the most compelling contexts. Chinese luxury customers represent one-third of the total personal luxury goods market by the end of 2016 according to Bain & Co (2016). Therefore, no luxury brand can afford to ignore Chinese customers and their level of satisfaction with their brands. Paradoxically, from 2012 to 2015, the luxury personal goods market in China has decreased by 1% or 2% each year as compared to the previous years. This was due to many factors, and one of them was “poor customer experience in retail stores” according to our study. This deceleration of the market in China has prompted many luxury brands to create new customer experiences that could increase satisfaction (such as made-to-order services) in order to retain existing customers and to gain new ones. The research questions of this paper are: what type of services do Chinese customers expect from luxury brands? What are the levels of satisfaction Chinese customers have with luxury brands abroad and in China? How can luxury bands improve their service experience offers to satisfy Chinese customers? In order to answer these questions, we carried out a longitudinal study over 4 years, from 2012 to 2015 with Chinese luxury customers. A Chinese luxury customer is defined as someone who has bought a genuine luxury product over the last 6 months, whether in China or abroad, for themselves or for someone else. Each year we interviewed 120 customers who were chosen randomly in the streets of Shanghai, nearby luxury malls. The interviews were carried out either in English (if they are comfortable of speaking in English) or in Mandarin (by a native speaker). The interviews lasted on average 30 minutes each. The questions are mostly open-ended questions such as: “Could you please tell us your best or worst experience in a luxury retail store, in China or abroad? And why is it the best or worst?”. The interviews were manually recorded by a second interviewer present at that time. The data were then compiled and analyzed for this paper. The findings of the study were somehow unexpected such as: 1- Chinese luxury customers expect very simple and basic services in luxury retail stores, such as a sincere smile and a warm welcome, or sales employees do not judge them based on their looks and appearances. 2- Retail staff should have a better and up-to-date product knowledge so they can answer simple questions about the products when asked. 3- Retail staff should be able to give good advice to customer when they are undecided, and not try push only sales. Managerial implications for luxury brands are many. However, the most important one by far is “to go back to the basics of retail customer experience” by selecting and training the right employees for the job.

With consumption increasingly shifting to online and mobile, the physical retail environment has been called into question. However, not all facets of a physical experience can be substituted virtually (Anderson & Eckstein, 2013; Johnson, Kim, Mun & Lee, 2014, Piotrowicz & Cuthbertson 2014, Verhoef, Kannan, & Inman, 2015). The enduring quest for real, tangible experiences with real people and in real environments is one reason for the acknowledgement of the importance of architectural branding 1 , enabling memorable experiences (Raffelt, 2012). Here, architectural branding plays a key role at the intersection of consumer behavior, marketing management, and design. Furthermore, one can also observe the trend of forward brand verticalization in retail: with brands increasingly strive towards direct distribution, they open and manage more retail stores themselves (Kahn, Inman & Verhoef, 2016, Nierobisch et al. 2017, Teufel & Zimmermann, 2015, Tischer, 2014). This is especially true for the luxury industry, where brands are looking for ways to attain more control over the brand in order to steer highend customer experiences (Wiedmann & Hennings, 2013, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, 2015). Therefore, demand to develop good architectural branding in retail and to improve retail design strategies for current and future challenges is crucial. During the last five years, marketing scholars, renowned management consulting firms, and the popular press have examined the role of brick and mortar as one aspect of an omnichannel strategy in a world of increasing digitalization (Anderson & Eckstein, 2013; Bauer, Beil, & Wege, 2014; Piotrowicz & Cuthbertson 2014; Worden, 2013; Verhoef, Kannan, & Inman, 2015). The importance of architecture in general and retail design as a specialization thereof in marketing strategy has been broadly acknowledged (e.g. Kotler, 1973; Kotler & Rath, 1984; Martineau, 1958; Münster & Haug, 2017). Although, there is only little research focused on architectural branding (Raffelt, Littich & Meyer, 2011; Raffelt, Schmitt & Meyer, 2013). This is likely caused by its position at the intersection of the research fields on retail stores (e.g Kent & Stone, 2007; Kirby & Kent, 2010; Borghini, Diamand, Kazinets, Mccrath, Muiz, JR., & Sherry, JR., 2009; Hiss; 1987; Kozinets, Sherry, DeBerry-Spence, Duhachek, Nuttavuthisit, & Storm, 2002), brand experience (e.g. Brakus, Schmitt & Zarantonello, 2009; Pine & Gilmore, 1998; Schmitt 1999), and atmospherics (e.g. Kotler, 1973; Donovan & Rossiter, 1982; Rayburn & Voss, 2013; Spence, Puccinelli, Grewal, & Roggeveen, 2014). Here, articles primarily focused on store design in general (e.g; Kent & Sone, 2007; Kirby & Kent, 2010; Meyers-Levy & Zhu, 2008),flagship store design (e.g. Borghini et al., 2009; Hiss; 1987; Kozinets et al., 2002), or were primarily published in retail management journals. However, in marketing and management research, there are limited journal publications about the role of physical stores in the luxury industry in times of digitalization. Dion & Borraz (2015) stated that luxury brands recently followed the strategy to build very costly and unique boutiques with star architects, which have become sacred places. The role of store design in the luxury industry is even scarcer. In two case studies, Jiang, Nagasawa, & Watada (2014) investigated the role of store design for the brands Bally and Tod's in Japan. Thus, this research project aims to fill this research gap and extend the research in the field of architectural branding in the luxury industry, investigating role of physical stores in an omnichannel construct and to gain a deeper knowledge on how to sustainably tangibilize brands in modern and future luxury retail environments, answering the following question: What is the role of store design for luxury monobrand stores in a digital economy? This research project will apply an inductive and exploratory research method, implying a qualitative research design. It will build upon existing literature in the mass market and draw from two studies using in-depth interviews with academics and practitioners from the field of marketing and retail primarily working in the luxury industry to gain more insights about the role of physical stores in this specific industry. One study will focus on ways to make brands tangible in store. The other study will lay its focus on how a omnichannel strategy supports luxury brands in offering a superior in-store experience. Furthermore, results from a workshop with executives from brands with high-end positioning will be taken into account as well as expert interviews about the role of store design in general. These four studies will be presented in an aggregated manner during the conference. The overall contribution of this project is to provide insights about the role of brick and mortar retail design in the luxury industry and thereby extend research in the field or architectural branding in retail.

One specific manifestation of CSR is the solicitation of donations in collaboration with an NGO. Especially in an online environment, companies can easily control if they present donation options to consumers either before or after the actual purchase moment of their products. The aim of this paper is to investigate how the sequence of purchase and donation requests in the customer journey influences the willingness to donate to a charitable cause and the potential revenues for the seller. As theoretical frame, we use two related concepts of moral self-regulation, namely moral licensing and moral cleansing. We assume that consumers spend a higher sum on a luxury product after donating to an NGO (moral licensing) and vice versa donate a higher sum to charity after purchasing a self-indulgent product (moral cleansing). While we do not consider luxury products as morally questionable per se, prior research has shown that consumers repeatedly feel bad after purchasing a luxury item. Our results indicate that the moral cleansing effect is present in our experiment. On average, participants who first indicate their WTP for a luxury product are subsequently more prone to donating money to an NGO. We could not observe a moral licensing effect at large. Both conditions lead to comparable mean WTP measures, hence to similar total potential revenues. In general, our results indicate that both parties profit the most, if donation options are available after purchase decisions.

The consumption landscape is currently moving, making it hard for marketers and managers to anticipate consumers‟ needs and behaviors. With the digitalization of their daily life, ways of selling/communicating/involving with consumers has been re-invented, shifting from a traditional brick-and-mortar environment to a click-and-mortar -if not purely digital- one. Besides, consumers themselves have evolved from postmodern values to hypermodern ones: they do not buy a product anymore for purely functional or hedonic values, but for a combination of both. The hypermodern consumer is in on ongoing quest of “meaning” (Lipovetsky, 2004): the products he buys and services he consumes need to „make sense‟ and help him give some meaning to his life. Such life meaning is then communicated to his network, via (among other media) digital tools, turning a traditionally small network (primary group) into a much larger one (take bloggers for instance (Maman Larraufie & Sommer, 2015)). Still, very few consumers switch towards a 100%-digital way of consuming. They tend to melt physical stores along with digital expectations. The store therefore needs to be a showcase of the brand values, aligned with consumers‟ values of consumption. Some studies have even showed that brand and consumer personalities needed to be aligned to create some store involvement and attachment (Wilson, Wagner, & Maman, 2015). Semiotics is a discipline that focuses on understanding how meaning is produced for consumers (analytic process) or can be produced for consumers (constructive process). Therefore, it can be used to design marketing tools to build some meaning for consumers that would be consistent with their consumption values (Harmon, 2005; Mick, 1986). This would enable turning the store/the communication/etc. into some device enabling the consumer to make sense of his life. As presented before, the store is the current point of tension, as the reconciling showcase between virtual and real brand environments. In this presentation, I will stress out how structural semiotics (Greimas, 1966) can pragmatically help brand managers or marketers reconcile the rational and emotional dimensions behind the so-called store experience, while allowing the consumer associate some inherent meaning to the product/service showcased in the store. I will present several positioning deriving from it, and based on the objective of communication associated with the store, using the Jakobson‟s functions of speech (Jakobson & Halle, 2002). I use visual examples from various sectors of activity, from fashion to hospitality including jewelry, etc.

In consideration of the existing eco-friendly marketing research, it is only focusing on the type and characteristics of eco- friendly consumers. Therefore, in order to carry out more systematic and comprehensive eco-friendly marketing research, it is necessary to complement the comprehensive model that examines the mechanism by which the leading variables of the enterprises factors affecting consumer’s eco-friendly consumption behaviors. In this research, based on previous studies and literature considerations, it tries to present a research model that the core benefits and relational benefits of the retail store which is the advantage of VMD affect eco-friendly consumption behavior through consumer's implicit and explicit motivation. And, considering the environment, this study assumes the regulatory role of the perceived risk on the environmental problems under the relationship between green consumption motive and consumption behavior. The purpose of this research is as follows. First, it clarifies the influence of the benefits of eco-friendly VMD in fashion retail stores on the eco-friendly consumption motive, which is a psychological factor of consumers, as a leading variable of corporate factors affecting consumers’ green consumption behavior. The core benefits and relational benefits provided by eco-friendly VMD will identify differentiated impacts on consumer motivation, which is a psychological factor that drives green consumption behavior. Second, the types of motivations that cause eco-friendly behavior are classified into explicit motivation and implicit motivation, and this study tries to find out which type of motivation better predicts eco-friendly consumption behavior. Third, it tries to verify the moderating role of environmental perceived risk in the relationship between explicit motivation, implicit motivation and green consumption behavior. By further organizing the theme of eco-friendly marketing research, this study has its academic significance in that it derives a comprehensive model, moderating consumers’ green consumption behavior regarding eco-friendly marketing stimulates. It reveals the mechanisms that affect green consumption behavior backed by fashion retail stores where consumer buying behavior actually takes place. Based on this research, it is expected that subsequent studies of a more fragmented viewpoint for fashion retail stores’ eco-friendly marketing will be developed that will give consideration to consumers' green consumption behavior. Practically, the results of this research can be utilized very conveniently. In a practical dimension, if it becomes possible to thoroughly understand the mechanism by which eco-friendly VMD stimulation leads to green consumption behavior, retailers are possible to formulate an environmental marketing strategy peculiar to the target market segment. From a socio-policy perspective, retailers can encourage consumers' eco-friendly consumption by giving a stimulus of VMD to them. Moreover this study will promote companies to develop and manage healthier and more sustainable products.