The Influence of Location of Firm Ownership on Consumers

<p>An increasing number of consumers are making consumption decisions based on perceptions of a firm's social performance. In other words, many consumers take into account a firm's impact on society and the environment when deciding where they will spend their money. Thus, it is important for firms to understand what these consumers perceive to be important indicators of a firm's social performance. A potential element of social performance that has yet to be studied is local ownership as well as its influence on consumers' store perceptions and consumption decisions. As large, national chains increasingly threaten the existence of smaller, locally-owned businesses, some consumers have shown an aversion to these national chains and "buycott" local businesses as a way of showing support for local firms and their communities. In this research, a local shopping preference (LSP) scale that measures one's preference for shopping at locally-owned stores is proposed, developed, validated, and shown to be strongly related to consumer social responsibility. Next, localness, as a store selection criterion, is measured alongside other, more prevalent store choice determinants to evaluate the relative magnitude of localness's influence. Potential antecedents of LSP are tested, and it is found that three consumer values (materialism, consumer ethnocentrism, and environmentalism) and household income are associated with the new construct. It is also demonstrated that consumers with a high LSP are willing to pay a premium over what similar merchandise would cost at a national chain. The average premium willing to be paid was 16%. The manuscript concludes with a discussion of the results, including contributions to the theoretical understanding of the socially responsible consumer and actionable insights for managers of locally-owned stores.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D. in Business Administration

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Marketing

Year dc:date.available

2014

Author dc:creator

• Eason, C. Clifton

Contributors dc:contributor

• Scott Vitell
• John P. Bentley
• Melissa Cinelli

• consumer social responsibility
• local
• local shopping preference
• retail
• scale development
• Marketing

Repository record dc:identifier

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1436

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:egrove.olemiss.edu:etd-2435