The research presented in this thesis presents a unique experimental environment designed to identify social components that may strengthen the social context of online shopping. This experimental environment is designed to simulate the interaction of customers' social experiences in their offline shopping tasks, e.g. when they visit stores socially to shop with friends or relatives. In collaboration with the simulation environment a fractional factorial experimental study has also been designed to explore how social and co-presence, can be built, measured and improved within online retailers' e-commerce websites. This research investigates whether social and copresence have an impact on user perceived involvement, engagement and interactivity when socially rich elements embedded in a shopping environment are adjusted. A key element of this research investigates the social influence on customers' attitudes, including search and purchase decision behaviour, when online shopping is shared with friends or relatives. A unique research model combining an experimental simulation and fractional factorial design of an experimental study is proposed that examines the effect of socially rich elements on social and co-presence. The proposed model also provides additional insight into the effect and consequences of social and co-presence on perceived involvement, engagement and interactivity in the online shopping experience. Specifically, a fractional factorial design of the experimental study with three interventions was planned and implemented. The experiment involved small groups of two participants who performed a group experimental task with the simulation environment in computer laboratory conditions. The fractional factorial experimental study required the design of unique structured pre- and post-test questionnaires, a novel shopping environment simulation and associated experimental tasks. The population of this research includes staff and students of the University of Sussex. Experimental results support the hypotheses developed in this thesis. They illustrate positive correlations between three interventions and dependent variables. It was found that increased level of social presence results in higher level of experienced involvement, engagement and interactivity with the shopping channel. Also, it was found that social presence has statistically significant effect on perceived involvement and engagement. However, social presence has a main effect on perceived interactivity. In addition, it was found that increased level of social presence reduces consumers' search effort for product information, and also increased level of social presence increases the effectiveness and quality of purchase decision. This thesis demonstrates that retailers could develop innovative new online shopping channels that exploit primarily social presence, i.e. shopping with friends and relatives, to increase revenues because social presence accounts for 15% of the users' intention to buy.

The evaluation and understanding of customers’ service quality perception has been a topic of major interest for academics and practitioners since the 1980s. Despite this intense research focus, there is a gap in understanding service quality in multichannel settings. This is surprising, since multichannel service systems have become increasingly important with the rise of E-commerce. The overall aim of this study, therefore, is to contribute to the interpretation of multichannel service quality by explaining it from the perspective of so-called ‘multichannel customers’. The study looks at interactions when purchasing a fashion product at a multichannel retailer with the aim of conceptualising service quality in a multichannel fashion retail context. Therefore, the study considers extant service quality research from traditional, electronic, and multichannel settings. The perspective of the current study is different from mainstream positivist service quality research, which sees service quality as static, objectively measurable and dualistic. This study, however, acknowledges service quality as a dynamic, subjective and pluralistic phenomenon. Following this line of argument, the study postulates the existence of multiple realities as consistent with social constructivism. Therefore, the current study investigates the service quality perceptions of experienced multichannel customers. Perceptions are considered to be the meaning that these customers give to their service experiences. The current study indicates that the customers’ perceptions of service quality in multichannel settings imply some fundamental uniqueness. This study proposes a holistic conceptualisation of multichannel customers’ service quality perception by considering (1) the heterogeneity of multichannel customers and (2) all moments of contact between customer and retailer. The proposed framework contributes to research about service quality with a theoretical interpretation of the phenomenon.

Rapid transformation in the food retail supply system, accompanied by rational economic efficiency, has marginalized the role that traditional markets play in the UK food distribution system. Yet these markets survive, some even thrive, implying that traditional food markets cannot be defined simply in terms of their distribution function. Traditional food markets are part of the surrounding food retail environment and whether they survive or thrive is dependent on wider economic and societal dynamics and change. This thesis links the micro-level activities of traditional food market exchange with how food systems, power structures and consumption practices interact and transform each other over time and space at the macro-level. The research provides the first detailed assessment of traditional food markets in England and examines their contemporary role in fresh food provisioning. The thesis proposes a cultural economy framework that examines how food retail restructuring and changing patterns of fresh food consumption have affected the internal and external spaces and places that support the everyday economic processes and cultural practices of traditional food market exchange. The research employs a mixed methods approach with three inter-related phases. First, the construction of a database of UK food markets identified 1,124 traditional food markets operating in the UK and the empirical analysis, using geo-coded data and more detailed location quotient (LQ) analysis, mapped the geographies and concentrations of traditional food markets and their links with wholesale markets and farmers' markets. Second, data drawn from an email questionnaire survey with traditional food market managers examined the effects of retail restructuring and changing fresh food shopping habits on these markets. In the third and final phase, detailed analysis from case study research in two contrasting traditional food markets, in the North East and Eastern regions of England, examined how the market as place significantly shapes the distributive processes and practices of buying and selling that transform fresh food into the `market product', and also explored the reciprocal relations between the economic and the cultural and between value(s) and exchange. The research findings provide new insights into the traditional food retail sector. The database and email survey analysis reveal how market geographies have been affected by regulatory, economic and cultural change and demonstrate how market and place are entwined in a relationship that has adapted to retail restructuring and changes in fresh food provisioning. Detailed case study analysis reveals how traditional markets are intimately linked with the regions and cities where they are located and how different geographies, histories and approaches to food and farming have moulded the relationship between market and fresh food over time. Although the overall economic value of fresh food sold on traditional markets is reduced in real terms, its symbolic value as `the market product' is not. Historically and culturally, the traditional market may be considered part of a `traditional' food system that aimed to provide fresh and affordable food to all, but the contemporary market is a different place. The findings reveal a marketplace frequently articulated through parallel fresh food trading and shopping experiences at the supermarket and the farmers' market and informed by practical and local knowledge systems. Knowledge systems help define food-provisioning expertise in the traditional food system and the value put on fresh produce depends on both economic and less tangible factors bound up with cultural and moral understandings. How fresh food is assigned monetary, social and symbolic value by market actors' everyday practices demonstrates a `sliding scale' of moral and monetised values as fresh food takes on cultural form The value(s) assigned to fresh food traded on the market fundamentally shape how it performs in the contemporary context and ultimately determine whether its role in fresh food provisioning declines, survives or thrives.

This thesis is concerned with the UK agro-food system, and in particular the emergence of 'alternative strategies' ('AS') that seek to overcome, or at least circumvent, some of the problems associated with the globalised and industrialised practices on which it is based. Underlying the emergence of these 'AS' is the intention to reconnect the processes of food production and consumption in various ways, and to reconfigure the relationship between producers and consumers. Commercial imperatives remain important within 'AS', but they are overlain with social, cultural and ethical constructs that can significantly influence the motives of those involved, as illustrated by Fair Trade produce which seeks to introduce a sense of equity within the exchange process. This research focuses on the relationship between producers and consumers within the context of Farmers' Markets (FMs). FMs have been used as the portal for this purpose because they are considered to be an exemplar of how producer-consumer relations are being reconfigured within a concrete exchange context. FMs aim to re-locate production within specific localities and specific personal relationships, in an attempt to facilitate produce traceability and give food a sense of identity. In order to examine these emerging relationships, data were drawn from a questionnaire survey of FM managers across the UK, semi-structured interviews with producers and focus group discussions with consumers at five FMs in England. In the first instance the data were interpreted through the notion of 'embeddedness', which established that the exchange process at FMs is modified by social interaction within a localised setting. As this did not permit an explanation of aspects of the relationship that were clearly of value to the participants, but extraneous to their commercial evaluations, the data were also analysed within the notion of 'regard', which established that there were additional benefits to the producers and consumers at FMs, intrinsic to the human-level interaction between them. For example, producers sometimes felt personally valued for the effort they make to produce high-quality food produce. On this basis, it was possible to establish what distinguishes FMs as a retail outlet, in terms of how the producers and consumers relate to each other and to the produce available. In order to better understand the significance of these results within the wider agro-food system, they were subsequently assessed within Conventions Theory (CT). CT is based upon a number of conventions, of which the 'civic' and 'domestic' conventions are of particular relevance in this instance as they I are concerned, respectively, with the general societal benefits of a product, and the development of trust in a product on the basis of attachments to specific places or people. The concept of conventions enables an understanding of how the participants at a FM define the quality of the products to be exchanged between them. However, CT does not specifically address the benefits of regard and so this thesis proposes that a regard convention should be considered, which can specifically incorporate this aspect of quality evaluation. Each of the conventions of quality identified for FMs is the subject of ongoing negotiation, and the concept of a bubble of FM alterity is suggested as a means of understanding the durability of FMs as an 'AS', before their underlying integrity is breached and they cease to have a distinctive identity. In this context, the term bubble is used to convey flexibility and elasticity, whereas alterity means 'otherness' which implies an intention to produce change within the agro-food system.

The existing literature on ethical consumption is primarily developed from a Western perspective; those from other parts of the world remain under-represented. This study offers an authentic Chinese perspective of ethical consumption: revealing Chinese consumers’ responses to the Western notion of ethical consumption and describing their interpretations of ethical consumption in a Chinese context. A phenomenological approach was adopted to explore this Chinese perceptive through consumers’ lived life stories and experiences. Four focus groups and fourteen interviews were conducted to ‘make text’, thematic analysis, guided by a hermeneutic approach to interpretation, was then used to produce rich meanings. This study’s findings highlight the significance of traditional Chinese cultural virtues, and in particular, those attached to reconstructionist Confucianism. The outcomes illustrate that these traditional Chinese virtues are still deeply embedded in Chinese consumers, speaking through them and influencing their construction of the meanings of ethical consumption. Virtues such as harmony, thrift, being humble, trustworthiness, humanness and righteousness, loving one’s family and extending this love to others, are particularly relevant. This Chinese perspective of ethical consumption, therefore, can be viewed as ‘a bundle of virtues’. This bundle does not operate in a fixed order, but rather the elements interact with the external environment and thus the virtues used are influenced by specific situations to provide the basis for ‘ethical consumption’ in context. The study findings also indicate the usefulness of virtue ethics in the field of ethical consumption. This leads to the suggestion that future research adopt a virtue ethics lens, rather than falling back on either a principles-based (deontological) or outcomes-based (consequential) perspective. Thus, even though this study considers a Chinese perspective, it offers a response to the Western notion of ethical consumption that underscores the importance of context, environment and situation. This leads to a position where research need to address, appreciate and incorporate the collaboration of governments, organizations and individual consumers in achieving a ‘true’ sense of ethical consumption.

This research aims to investigate the effects of creolisation (in a manifestation of cultural change, cultural mixing and ethnicity) on consumer behaviour and fashion supply chain management in a Thai retailing context. In this study, creolisation is the process of cultural crossover that appears when local culture has been influenced and integrated with foreign culture. This doctoral study develops a theoretical and conceptual framework that addresses the main question of how creolisation impacts on Thai fashion consumers, retailers and their supply chain. Based on reviewing literature, there is lack of studies exploring the relationship between creolisation, consumer behaviour and fashion supply chain management in Thailand. It is expected that the study will complete this gap by providing the empirical findings to the literature. The study was based on the scientific realism position with a deductive (Thai fashion consumers) and an inductive (Thai fashion retailers and their supply chain) approach to gain a detailed understanding of their relationships. This also relates to mixed methods approach, including the three main methods used. Quantitative questionnaire surveys were conducted with Thai fashion consumers, whereas qualitative interviews and document analysis were used to collect the data from Thai fashion retailers and manufacturers. In terms of data analysis, the data from questionnaire survey were analysed by descriptive statistics and multiple-regression analysis, whereas the interviews data and document analysis were analysed by directed content analysis. In particular, the literature review and the findings from qualitative interviews were used to construct hypotheses to be tested in the quantitative analysis. Overall findings were integrated in the interpretation stage based on the suggested conceptual framework. Furthermore, the triangulation approach was considered to validate the research findings on the relationship between creolisation, Thai fashion consumer behaviour and Thai fashion supply chain management. The study contributes to the extant literature by providing not only new insights into its deficiencies, but also developing a suggested conceptual framework to inform practice. In particular, Thai fashion retailers may have interest in the suggested conceptual framework and apply it in order to enhance an understanding of the relationship between creolisation, consumer behaviour and supply chain management. Moreover, the findings could contribute to the responsiveness strategy in fashion supply chain management. In terms of research methodology, the study also contributes to a methodological foundation of supply chain management research. There is the using of mixed methods approach which integrates a quantitative method and qualitative method in order to investigate the effects of creolisation on consumer behaviour and fashion supply chain management in Thailand.

Despite consumption and retailing having grown to form a meta-narrative in historical enquiry, the village shop has largely escaped attention. Remarkably little is known about the long-term development of rural services, particularly shops, which are often ignored as marginal and undynamic. Moreover, whilst their recent decline has highlighted their perceived importance to the vitality of village life, the extent to which this is based on a romanticised or historically myopic image is unclear. This thesis seeks to rectify this lacuna by critically assessing the real and imagined role of the shop and shopkeeper within village life during the nineteenth century, in terms of supplying goods and services, integrating and representing community as a place and a network of people, and projecting images of the rural into the wider national consciousness. It adopts an innovative interdisciplinary approach and offers an integrated analysis of a wide range of visual, literary and historical sources: from paintings and serialised stories to account books and trade directories. Central to the argument is a sustained interrogation of the shifting historic construction of the village shop and its keeper, from exploitative and anti-rural to the epitome of a nostalgic and sentimentalised view of England’s rural communities. This is compared to the lived experience, as established from the historical record, quantitative analysis conducted at both village and county level. This synthetic approach has required the amalgamation of multiple perspectives: writer and artist; reader and consumer; observer and participant; patron and critic; shopkeeper, customer and villager. The thesis inputs into debates relating to the commercial history and cultural understanding of rural communities, the findings broadening our understanding of the history of rural retailers and the communities they served, shedding light on rural consumption and how changing attitudes to retailing, rural communities and the countryside were developing. It also contributes to other key areas of research including the notion of community (places and networks) and cultural representations of people, place, space and everyday life.

This thesis deals with the trend of an ageing population in Germany and the opportunities and challenges that it presents for the consumer goods industry. The goal of the research is to provide a more nuanced understanding of ageing consumers and to suggest strategies to overcome innovation resistance. It departs from the traditional product-oriented research perspective and explores domestic practices of everyday life. Using this approach, it investigates the role of household appliances in facilitating the wish of older adults to age-in-place. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the research, a synthetic framework was created that melds and extends distinct conceptual elements from separate theories. While previous studies have largely failed to provide a detailed description of user segments, this research applies a novel market segmentation approach that assists in developing more effective innovation strategies. It has extended the Use Diffusion model (Shih & Venkatesh, 2004) by creating a number of novel sub-determinants which direct household technology use in different directions. It posits that different user segments exhibit different levels of interest in future technology acquisition. Based on an advanced understanding of use patterns, the research intends to clarify a possible application of disruptive innovations, which suggest simpler, more familiar and affordable products and services. The research followed a sequential approach to data generation. It begins with interviews conducted during home visits using the task of ‘doing the laundry’ as a focal practice, interviews with care workers, and medical practitioners. It is supplemented with focus groups comprised of the intended product users in order to generate innovation ideas. A final focus group of industry experts followed and centred on the operationalization of those ideas within an established company. Finally, the thesis developed a synthetic model to support innovation management that is not present in current conceptions.