MURAL - Maynooth University Research Archive Library



    Retail Strategy in the Age of Retail Apocalypse – Exploring the Role of Customer Experience Orientation on Retail Performance


    Cakir, Gültekin and Bezbradica, Marija and Helfert, Markus (2020) Retail Strategy in the Age of Retail Apocalypse – Exploring the Role of Customer Experience Orientation on Retail Performance. In: European Academy of Management Conference 2020, 4-6 December 2020, Trinity College Dublin (Virtual). (Unpublished)

    [img]
    Preview
    Download (1MB) | Preview


    Share your research

    Twitter Facebook LinkedIn GooglePlus Email more...



    Add this article to your Mendeley library


    Abstract

    The retailing industry is in constant change and consequences of the digitalisation are visible through dramatic shifts in closing numbers of physical stores. However, in this age of “Retail Apocalypse”, different retailers with different retail formats show different opening/closing conduct. From a competitive strategy view, cost-oriented retailers such as discounter or warehouse clubs show increase in openings, whereas differentiation-oriented retailers such as apparel or luxury retailers show a decline in their store numbers. At the same time, the notion of customer experience emerges as the new imperative in the industry and underlines a new principle to follow in the whole digital transformation process. For retailers, it is now key to generate distinctive customer experience to succeed and comply to the new rulebook of the industry. However, investigating a retailer’s customer experience orientation in the context of opening/closing behaviour remains an open topic in retail research so far. Through a mixed-method approach, this study investigates the relationship between a retailer’s customer experience orientation and retail performance (opening/closing of stores). Findings show on the one hand a possible relation between store openings (closures) and a retailer’s low (high) customer experience orientation and on the other hand a consistency in retail strategy, aligning competitive strategy, customer experience orientation, price orientation, profit strategy and retail format. Implications open further questions on the underlying reasons for the potentially increased vulnerability of high customer experience-oriented retailers.

    Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
    Additional Information: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 765395, and was also supported, in part, by Science Foundation Ireland grant 13/RC/2094 and co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund through the Southern & Eastern Regional Operational Programme to Lero–the Irish Software Research Centre (www.lero.ie).
    Keywords: Retail Apocalypse; Retail Strategy; Customer Experience; Retail Format; Profit Strategy; Omnichannel Retailing;
    Academic Unit: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Business
    Item ID: 14095
    Depositing User: Gultekin Cakir
    Date Deposited: 26 Feb 2021 16:31
    Refereed: No
    Funders: Horizon 2020, Grant Agreement No. 765395
    URI:
      Use Licence: This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

      Repository Staff Only(login required)

      View Item Item control page

      Downloads

      Downloads per month over past year

      Origin of downloads