the moderating effect of Store Images
A store image is defined as the way in which a store is defined by a consumer, based on the store’s functional qualities and its produced consumer psychological attributes (Martineau 1958). Mazursky and Jacoby (1986) indicated that external environmental cues, such as exterior and interior designs, merchandise and service quality, and price levels, can be used to communicate retail store images. Similarly, some researchers have indicated that store images consist of attributes, such as the physical environment, atmosphere, service, and merchandise quality (Baker, Grewal, and Parasuraman 1994; Grewal et al. 1998). Baker, Grewal, and Parasuraman (1994) showed that ambient and social factors influence consumers’ inferences about merchandise and service quality, and subsequently influence store images. Ambient, store design, and social factors were shown to influence merchandise value perceptions and repurchase intentions (Baker et al. 2002). Store images can also be used to predict store loyalties (Park 1973). Researchers have shown positive associations between store images and consumers’ perceptions of saving, value, and quality (Biswas and Blair 1991; Dodds, Monroe, and Grewal 1991).
Prior research indicates that the effects of price-cue information on consumer responses are contingent on contextual cues such as store images (Gupta and Cooper 1992; Olson 1977). Lichtenstein and Bearden (1989) proposed that the price promotion practices of a retailer are important in the formation of consumers’ price standards and perceptions toward retail stores. For instance, due to the high credibility and low frequency of discount activities for high-image stores, as opposed to low-image stores, Gupta and Cooper (1992) proposed that changes in purchase intentions due to price promotions will be greater for highimage retail stores than for low-image stores. Yoon, Oh, and Song (2011) also indicated that store images moderate the effects of consumers’ responses to price (versus quality) promotions. In a similar vein, store images should be an important contextual variable that affects consumers’ responses to the OSPI. Positive store images convey a good shopping environment, atmosphere, and services, as well as high product quality perceptions. A high-image store gives credibility to the products being offered at retail stores so that the consumers perceive more tangible and intangible benefits from the retail store. Thus, it is expected that the positive effect of the OSPI on consumers’ repurchase intentions will be enhanced when store images are high. Hypothesis 7 is formulated as follows:
Hypothesis 7: A higher level of store images strengthens the impact of the OSPI on repurchase intentions.
In sum, this research proposes that the price value image, the price rewards image, the price fairness image, and the price pleasure image are antecedents of an OSPI and that repurchase intentions are the outcome of that OSPI. Retail store formats moderate the effects of the antecedents on the OSPI. In addition, store images moderate the effect of the OSPI on repurchase intentions. Figure 1 illustrates our conceptual model.