Soweto makes up 43% of the City of Johannesburg’s population, and up until 2005 it only made up 3% of the city’s retail floor space. As a result, the intensity at which retail facilities have mushroomed in the last four years has raised questions whether all retailers who have invested in Soweto will succeed given the existing perceptions about the Soweto shopper and doing business in Soweto. The aim of this qualitative study was therefore to explore factors driving store patronage and cross-shopping in Soweto because the evolution of store formats and the resulting cross-shopping behaviour have received limited attention in literature. Interviews with shoppers from Soweto were conducted in the process and the results showed that an increasing number of Sowetans are actually shopping in Soweto. The study ultimately makes the following conclusions: Factors driving store patronage in Soweto are competitive prices, the atmosphere in the stores, demographic variables, and retailer reputation. Cross-shopping is driven by limited product assortments, ‘out-of-stock’ situations, value-maximising behaviour and the convenience orientation of consumers. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The decision to patronize a particular store usually starts with a set of characteristics or attributes that consumers consider important. Consumers then use these attributes to make decisions regarding what store or stores can cater to their particular needs. Past retail and marketing studies have identified several consumer-oriented store attributes such as price, quality, variety, discounts, store reputation and their relationship to store patronage, but these studies overlooked how the physical environment affects retail store patronage. In addition, very few studies have addressed the issue of shopping scenarios and how they affect store patronage. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of selected environmental dimensions on store patronage using specific apparel shopping scenarios. Data were collected using a random sample of women age 18 and over throughout the United States. The final sample consisted of 151 women. Four hypotheses were formulated and tested using factor analysis, cluster analysis, MANOVA, and Chi-square. The hypotheses tested for differences in (a) importance of environmental dimensions relative to three shopping scenarios, (b) importance of environmental dimensions relative to shopping orientations, (c) perceptions of first store choice relative to shopping orientations, and (d) attitude toward first store choice. Results revealed no difference in importance ratings of two environmental dimension factors, Sensory/Layout (Factor 1) and Music/Aesthetics (Factor 2), for three shopping scenarios (i.e., a dress for a formal social gathering, family gathering, work or community activity). Significant differences were found in the importance ratings of the Sensory/Layout and Music Aesthetics dimension factors across shopping orientation clusters. The clusters were named Decisive Apparel Shoppers (Cluster 1), Confident Apparel Shoppers (Cluster 2), Bargain Apparel Shoppers (Cluster 3), and Appearance Conscious Apparel Shoppers. The Bargain Apparel Shoppers had higher mean scores on the environmental factors than the other shopper groups. With regard to first store choice, the department store was chosen most often as first store choice. Furthermore, differences were found in perception of the environment for first store choice across the shopping orientation clusters. No differences were found for the Ventilation/Sensory factor; however, differences were found for the Signs perception factor. Respondents expressed relatively unfavorable attitudes toward their first store choice. However, of those that expressed an unfavorable attitude, several respondents indicated they were likely to visit their first store choice again. / Ph. D.

Since 1997, the retail industry of South Korea has suffered a decline in sales due to the nation's financial crisis. Because of the increase of price consciousness, discount stores have become the stores most attractive to South Korean consumers. The purpose of this study was to (a) compare the differences between South Korean and the U.S. consumers in demographics, shopping orientation, perception of the importance of store and product attributes, and store evaluation, satisfaction and patronage in discount stores and (b) examine the relationships among the six variables. In addition, South Korean consumers' preferences toward the strategies used in the U.S. discount stores were examined to determine whether these strategies could be adapted to South Korean discount stores. The proposed model suggests that consumers' shopping orientation affects their perception of the importance of store and product attributes. Consumers' perception of the importance of attributes affects how they evaluate a store. Consumers' evaluation of the store then influences their satisfaction with the store. If consumers are satisfied with the store, they choose to patronize the store. A total of 234 participants recruited at Wal-Mart were included in this study, 117 from South Korea and 117 from the U.S. Results showed that there were significant differences between the two countries in participants' occupation, marital status, age, education, the perception of the importance of attributes in discount stores, and store evaluation and satisfaction. When the relationships between variables were examined, results showed that the proposed model is partially supported. When South Korean participants' preferences toward the strategies used in the U.S. were examined, they showed high preferences toward some strategies. The implication of the results were discussed. / Master of Science

Although culture and subcultural norms have been subjected to increased scrutiny in recent years as explanatory constructs for various dimensions of consumer behaviours, religion as a subsystem of culture has received only slight attention in the marketing literature. The purpose of this study was to examine the religious influences on some selected aspects of consumer behaviour. Utilising consumer behaviour model of retail patronage as a framework, religious influences on the following aspects of consumer behaviour were examined: lifestyle, use of information source, shopping orientation, store attribute importance and store patronage. Consistent with previous research, religion was viewed from two different perspectives namely religious affiliation and religiosity. Religious affiliation is the adherence of individuals to a particular religious group while religiosity, or religious commitment, is the degree in which beliefs in specific religious values and ideals are espoused and practiced by an individual. Fieldwork for this study was carried out in Malaysia where the populace contains sizable percentages of adherents to four of the world’s leading religions, namely Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity. The research data was collected by means of a survey through personal interviews with a structured questionnaire. Out of three hundred respondents targeted, two hundred and twenty-six questionnaires were deemed usable for statistical analysis. Statistical tests were calculated using statistical procedures of SPSS version 11.5. The main statistical techniques used include exploratory factor analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), multivariate ANOVA and multiple linear regression analysis. Findings indicated significant differences between religious affiliation groups in the areas of lifestyle, store attributes and store patronage. Significant differences between religiosity groups were also revealed in the areas of lifestyle, information source, shopping orientation and importance of store attributes. The usefulness of religious variables was further tested using multiple linear regression analysis with demographics and lifestyles were entered as extraneous variables. Results indicated that when the effect of other predictor variables were explicitly controlled (i.e. held constant) during the regression analysis, religious affiliation appeared to influence the perceived importance of store attributes. Intrapersonal religiosity, when controlling for the effect of other predictor variables, appeared to influence the use of information source, shopping orientation and perceived importance of store attributes. Similarly, interpersonal religiosity, when controlling for the effect of other predictor variables, was found to influence the use of information source, shopping orientation and importance of store attributes. Overall, findings indicated that consumer religiosity, as compared to religious affiliation, was more useful in predicting aspects of retail patronage activities. Thus it is suggested that religiosity variable should be given consideration in future patronage behaviour model building and research efforts. The implications of these results for theories of consumer behaviour along with the practical implications of the findings were discussed and opportunities for future research were provided.