Index of Paper Presentations for the Parallel Sessions - Academy of ...

Modern retailing is aimed at facilitating customers in acquiring products and services in a convenient and pleasantmanner. It has evolved from being a mere buying ritual to delivering a joyful shopping experience (Jin andSternquist, 2004). Retailing is about creating an integrated series of events leading to a pleasurable, involving,relaxing, rewarding, delightful retail customer experience in the shoppers‘ life (Jones, 1999; Cox et al., 2005; Hart etal., 2007; Arnold et al., 2005; Backstrom, 2011). Earlier researches have approached retailing from utilitarian andhedonic perspectives (Babin et al., 1994; Arnolds and Reynolds, 2003; Jones et al., 2006; Kaul, 2007; Carpenter andMoore, 2009). A large number of studies have also focused on exploring the buying motives, store choice criteriaand determinants of retail experience adopting economical, psychological and sociocultural approach (Terblancheand Boshoff, 2001; Burns and Neisner, 2006; Carpenter and Moore, 2009; Sinha and Banerjee, 2004; Puccinelli etal., 2009; Jain and Bagdare, 2009 ). The present study primarily draws from the works of Mehrabian and Russel(1974), Donavan and Rossiter (1982), Holbrook and Hirschman (1982), Pine and Gilmore (1998), Mathwick et al(2001), and Verhoef et al (2009) to adopt an experiential approach to retailing. In the present study, retail customerexperience refers to the outcome of consumed experience in a retail store, also known as shopping experience.Substantial amount of research has been devoted on antecedents and factors influencing choice of retail stores andcreation of retail experience. The focus of the present study is on delivered experience rather than determinants ofcustomer experience.Retail Customer ExperienceRetailing orientation is shifting from transactions to building lasting relationships by providing experiences. Modernretail stores are getting converted into a retail theatre or experience factory for creating a pleasant shoppingexperience to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty (Baron et al., 2001). Terblanche and Boshoff (2001) definedretail customer experience as all the elements that encourage or inhibit customers during their contact with a retailer.Customers engage themselves into a variety of activities while selecting a retail store, shopping and post shoppingstages, leading to a complete experience determining their satisfaction levels and repeat visits. The greater the degreeto which the customer experiences satisfaction with a retailer, greater would be the probability to revisit (Wong andSohal, 2003). Customer experience in the modern retail stores may be interesting, involving, absorbing, entertaining,