For adolescents in a formative stage of development, peer groups have a strong influence on teenage
girls’ store image formation. Using qualitative interviews, we develop an understanding of how girls
rely on stereotyping to develop their categorization of stores and then develop an affinity for, or
identify with, various stores based on this stereotypical categorization using peer group associations.
We use our qualitative research and social identity theory (and its subtheories of stereotyping theory
and group identification theory) to develop a concept we refer to as social store identity (SSI), which
represents how much a girl likes a store and considers it part of her in-group. Then with a larger
empirical study, we find that SSI plays a pivotal role in the formation of adolescent girls’ store image
perceptions and in their store attitudes and behaviors. We use the findings to develop theoretical
and managerial implications of the research