The purpose of this study is to expand the body of knowledge in the area of retail patronage and small, retail apparel firm research. Consumers were approached as they entered one of the five stores in the survey (147 out of 150 usable surveys). The components of the proposed patronage behavior model derived from Darden's patronage model of consumer behavior (1980) and Shim and Kotsiopulos's apparel retail patronage behavior model (1992) were used for all hypotheses. Discriminant analysis with classification was used to categorize shoppers into light, medium, and heavy consumers of small, retail apparel firms. MANOVA and ANOVA were used to test for differences between each small, retail apparel firm. The patronage behavior model was satisfactorily described using Structural Equation Modeling. Findings indicated that the "local store shopper" was the best indicator of small, retail apparel firm patronage. Differences among the small, retail apparel firms existed among half of the components in the patronage model, which is attributed to the uniqueness of small, retail apparel firms. Further research is needed to examine the usefulness of this model to other store types. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Textiles and Consumer Sciences in
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2004. / June 19, 2000. / Patronage Behavior, Small Business, Retail, Apparel / Includes bibliographical references. / Susan S. Fiorito, Professor Directing Dissertation; Jerome S. Osteryoung, Outside Committee Member; Jeanne Heitmeyer, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_175749 |
| Contributors | Welker, Kelly S. (authoraut), Fiorito, Susan S. (professor directing dissertation), Osteryoung, Jerome S. (outside committee member), Heitmeyer, Jeanne (committee member), Department of Marketing (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
Page generated in 0.0017 seconds