Browsing by Author "Emmel, JoAnn M."
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- Developing a Retail Buying Model Based on the Use of Assortment Decision FactorsBahng, Youngjin (Virginia Tech, 2011-06-03)As end-consumers are surrounded by a tremendous number of multi-channel retailers and their products, clothing retailers are exposed to numerous clothing samples with a variety of styles in various price ranges, offered by onshore and offshore manufacturers. Although manufacturers or vendors offer well-salable products, a retail business may not be successful in maximizing profits without a strategic retail buying planning process. The purpose of this study is to develop a retail buying model for clothing retailers. In order to test the variables that comprise the retail buying model, the objectives of the study are to: (a) investigate important assortment decision factors for clothing retail buying; (b) segment clothing retail buyers by their decision factor uses; (c) characterize the segments by buyer (i.e., age, gender, education, experience, employment) and company demographics (i.e., types of products, type of store, size of the firm); (d) examine the relationship between these demographic variables and the factor uses; (e) examine the influence of the factor uses on the success of assortment planning; (f) examine the influence of the success of assortment planning on firm performance; and, (g) examine the influence of extraneous variables (i.e., retail environment) on firm performance. After two pilot tests, adjustments were made to wording in the questionnaire. Data collection, using a pen and paper questionnaire, was conducted using convenience and snowball sampling. Through this method, 425 clothing retail buyers, merchandisers, or store owners, who are involved assortment planning and buying in South Korea, participated in the survey. A variety of statistical analyses was used to test the hypotheses. For testing Hypothesis 1, the mean and standard deviation of the assortment factor items were used to rank important decision factors for assortment planning. To test Hypothesis 2, retail buyers were segmented by their assortment decision factor use through exploratory factor analysis and K-means cluster analysis. For Hypothesis 3, Chi-square was utilized to characterize the segments of buyers and merchandisers from Hypothesis 2, using buyer and company demographics. For Hypothesis 4, Pearson and Spearman Correlations were used to test if correlations exist between buyer and company demographic variables and decision factor use. For Hypotheses 5 to 7, a Structural Equation Model (SEM) was developed to test if causal relationships exist among assortment decision factor use, the success of assortment planning, firm performance, and retail environment. All Hypotheses were fully or partially supported. Based on the results of hypotheses testing, the finalized retail buying model was developed. The finalized retail buying model based on the use of assortment decision factors will benefit retailers by helping retail buyers to analyze available information and identify the need for additional decision factors. Due to the use of convenience and snowball sampling as well as the limited geographic location of the survey, the finding of the current study cannot be generalized to the general population of clothing retail buyers. Future studies using probability sampling methods, utilizing qualitative methods, and/or examining in different countries, are suggested to verify the current findings and confirm the validity of the framework.
- Effects of Experiences and Brand-Self Image Congruity on Perceived Risk and Purchase Intention in Apparel Online Shopping ContextCho, Siwon (Virginia Tech, 2008-10-31)Retailers' ultimate concern is consumers'' purchase intentions because increasing levels of purchase intention may lead to the actual purchase, which is directly related to retailers' sales and profits. Perceived risk has been proposed as one of the most important concepts for understanding how consumers make a purchase decision (Mitchell, 1999) and research findings supported that perceived risk was a significant factor affecting consumers' willingness to purchase (Heijden, Verhagen, & Creemers, 2001). Therefore, it is critical for online retailers in the apparel industry to understand consumer's perceived risk and purchase intention so that they can develop effective retail strategies and build long-term relationships with customers. Consumers use internal information to help them in the purchase decision process by retrieving risk-related information from memory. Experience and product/brand knowledge are two common types of internal information that consumers use to reduce risks and make purchase decisions (Brucks, 1985; Engel, Blackwell, & Miniard, 1995). Studies showed that experience with previous in-home shopping for apparel products significantly reduced perceived risk and increased purchase intention in buying apparel products via in-home shopping channels (Kwon, Paek, & Arzeni, 1991; Park & Stoel, 2005; Sen, Johnson, Stanforth, Lennon, & Moore, 2000). Several researchers also have investigated the relationship between the familiarity with a website's brand and the perceived of risk and purchase intention (Laroche, Kim, & Zhou, 1996; Park & Stoel, 2005). However, the brand familiarity in these studies was measured as consumer's brand knowledge through frequent exposures, such as advertisement, instead of experiences acquired through actual purchase and use of the brands. No study has examined if the purchase experience and actual usage of a specific brand are related to perceived risk when consumers shop for apparel products online. Brand image is one type of knowledge that consumers stored in their memory and may retrieve it during their decision making process. Studies showed that brand image was the most important and most frequently used tool to reduce consumers' perception of risk (Nandan, 2005). McCracken (1989) indicated that brand image helps an individual express oneself and develop one's self-identities; therefore, consumers prefer products with an image that matches their actual or ideal self-concept (Karande, Zinkhan, & Lum, 1997). Therefore, congruity between brand image and consumers' self image (brand-self image congruity) may help consumers to reduce their perceived risk and increase purchase intention in apparel online purchases. No study has examined the effect of brand-self image congruity in apparel online shopping context. The purposes of the study were to investigate (a) the relationships between consumers' experience with apparel catalog/TV shopping and their experience with apparel online shopping, (b) the effects of consumers' experience with apparel online shopping and brand-self image congruity on their experience with a specific brand, and (c) the effects of consumers' experience with a specific brand and brand-self image congruity on their perceived risk and purchase intention in apparel online shopping context. Two conceptual frameworks were developed. The first framework was for examining all participants, including participants with and without experience with a specific brand. The valence of experience with a specific brand was excluded in this framework. The second framework, including the valence of the experience with a specific brand, was for examining participants who had experience with a specific brand. Fifteen research hypotheses were generated with respect to the specific relationships proposed in the conceptual frameworks. A 2 x 2 quasi-experimental between subjects design was used in this study to examine if experience with a specific brand (Experience vs. No Experience) and brand-self image congruity (Consistent vs. Inconsistent) were the antecedents of perceived risk and purchase intention in apparel online shopping context. In addition to the quasi-experimental design, a survey design was also used to examine the relationships among experiences with catalog, TV, and online shopping for apparel products and the relationships among experience with apparel online shopping, perceived risk and purchase intention. Data was collected by online surveys using a national sample, and 455 apparel online shoppers living in the U.S. participated. Factor analysis results showed that the valence and extent of the experiences were two different constructs, and therefore, the two aspects of experience were included in the study. The extent of the experience is about how often consumers buy products, how much money they spend, and how many items they buy (Klopping & McKinney, 2006; Seock, 2003; Ward, 2001). The feelings experienced are called the valence of the experience, and these feelings are usually described in the literature as good/bad, enjoyed/not enjoyed, or satisfied/ dissatisfied with the experience (Chen & Dubinsky, 2003; Folkes & Patrick, 2003; Mano & Oliver, 1993; Raghubir & Menon, 2005). The first purpose of the study was to investigate the relationships between consumers' experience with apparel catalog/TV shopping and their experience with apparel online shopping. The results showed that participants who had more experiences and who had a positive feeling about their experience with buying apparel products from catalogs had more experiences with apparel online shopping. However, participants' TV shopping experiences did not have significant relationships with apparel online shopping. Participants who had more positive feelings about their experience with buying apparel products online purchased apparel product more frequently, bought more apparel items, and spent greater amount of money on apparel products online. The second purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of consumers' experience with apparel online shopping and brand-self image congruity on their experience with a specific brand. The results showed that participants who had more experiences with buying apparel products online and who perceived the image of a specific brand as more consistent with their self image had more experiences with a specific brand, indicating that they purchased apparel product of the brand more frequently, bought more items of the brand, and spent greater amount of money on the brand. The third purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of consumers' experience with a specific brand and brand-self image congruity on their perceived risk and purchase intention in buying a specific brand online. The results of perceived risk showed that for all participants, including those with and without experience with a specific brand, those had more experiences with a specific brand and those perceived the image of a specific brand as more consistent with their self-image perceived less risk in buying the apparel products of the brand online. However, participants who already had experience with a specific brand perceived less risk in buying the brand online if they had positive feeling about their experience with the brand despite of the frequency of previous experience (i.e., the extent of the experience with a specific brand). In the results of purchase intention, similar results to that of perceived risk were found for all participants. Those had more experiences with a specific brand and those perceived the image of a specific brand as more consistent with their self-image had higher purchase intention in buying the apparel products of the brand online. However, among the participants who had experience with the specific brand, only brand-self image congruity influenced their perceived risk and purchase intention. Either the extent or valence of the experience with the brand did not directly influence their purchase intention in buying the brand online. Instead, these experiences indirectly influenced the purchase intention through perceived risk. In conclusion, participants' experience with apparel online shopping and brand-self image congruity were significant factors on their perceived risk and purchase intention in apparel online shopping context. Participants who had more and positive experience with apparel online shopping and those whose self image was more consistent with the brand image perceived less risk and had higher purchase intention in buying apparel products of the brand online. This study extends the understanding of consumers' apparel online shopping behavior by identifying the roles of experiences and brand-self image congruity in apparel online shopping context. Based on the findings, suggestions for marketing strategies in apparel online shopping were provided.
- The Effects of Perspiration Application, Weathering Exposures, Washing Action of Automatic Home Clothes Washers, and Repeated Laundering on the Ultraviolet Protection of a Naturally Colored Lightweight Cotton FabricWong, Soak Wai (Virginia Tech, 2014-10-01)Sun protection has gained worldwide attention because repetitive overexposure to ultraviolet radiation can result in harmful effects on human skin, including sunburn, premature skin ageing, and in the worst case, skin cancer (Eckhardt and Rohwer, 2000; Sengupta and Blain, 2001). The diminishing stratospheric ozone layer, due to environmental degradation in the past few decades, combined with the modern outdoor-oriented lifestyles, are leading to unexpected levels of skin cancer (Davis, Capjack, Kerr, and Fedosejevs, 1997). Wearing Ultraviolet protective clothing is a simple way of practicing sun safety; however, regular cotton generally has very low ultraviolet protection and it is one of the most environmentally damaging crops despite of it is commonly used to make summer clothing. With the increased interest of public awareness related to sustainability and environmental issues, naturally colored cotton was recommended as it provides better ultraviolet protection than regular cotton. In addition, the production of naturally colored cotton is more environmentally friendly than regular cotton. Although several studies have been conducted on the UVR protection of naturally colored cotton, many questions regarding the factors that influence the UVR protection of fabrics remain unanswered. The primary purpose of the study was to examine the effects of perspiration application, weathering exposures, washing action of automatic home clothes washers, and repeated laundering on the UVR protection of a NC lightweight cotton fabric. In addition, five fabric property changes in the test specimen after the treatments of perspiration, weathering exposure, washing action, and repeated laundering (i.e., fabric count change, thickness change, weight change, color change and dimensional change) were included in this study to serve as secondary dependent variables to examine if the four treatment factors (i.e., perspiration application, weathering exposures, washing action of automatic home clothes washers, and repeated laundering) will cause changes in these five fabric properties, and if these changes will lead to changes of UVR protection of NC lightweight cotton fabric. Based on the purpose and objectives of the study, a split-plot repeated measures experimental design was used for the current study. In this study, the whole plot treatment was the weathering exposure, which contained three levels (i.e., semi-tropical climate without water spray, semi-arid climate, and standard conditioning), and the split plot treatments were the combinations of two treatment factors. In order to understand the effects of repeated laundering on the UVR protection and the five fabric properties, except for the control group, all test specimens were laundered after being treated with the three treatment factors (i.e., perspiration, weathering exposure, and washing action), and this process was repeated 15 times. The UVR protection (i.e., express in UPF value change in current study) and the five fabric properties of these treated test specimens were measured before laundering, and after each laundering cycle. The results of UPF value change showed that test specimens treated with perspiration had a lower change in UPF value than the specimens without treatment. The test specimens exposed to Florida condition had the most UPF value change, followed by Arizona and Standard textile testing conditions. A significant difference also found in test specimens that laundered in a traditional washer after ninth cycle and the UPF value decreased as the number of laundering cycle increased. However, test specimens that laundered in a front-loading HE washer showed no significant UPF value change. For the five fabric properties that listed in secondary objective, all four treatments significantly influenced fabric count, fabric thickness and fabric weight. However, perspiration treatment had no significant effect on the dimensional change in warp direction of test specimens, and washing action had no significant effect on the dimensional change in filling direction of the test specimen as well as both Delta E and Delta L of color change. For testing the relationship between the changes of the five fabric properties and UPF value change, Delta E and Delta L of color change had the highest correlation coefficient with UPF value change. Therefore, it is possible that the changes of these two properties caused by the four treatments and lead to the UPF value change. Future research is needed to confirm this relationship. In conclusion, of perspiration application, weathering exposures, washing action of automatic home clothes washers, and repeated laundering do have influence on the ultraviolet protection of the naturally colored cotton. The color change of the test specimens caused by these four treatments possible lead to the change of the ultraviolet protection of the test specimens. More studies are needed to confirm this relationship.