Retail marketing and sales performance a definitive guide to optimizing service quality and sales effectiveness

Retail Marketing and Sales Performance Christoph Preuss Retail Marketing and Sales Performance A Definitive Guide to Optimizing Service Quality and Sales Effectiveness Christoph Preuss Bradford, UK PhD Thesis, University of Bradford, School of Management, 2013 ISBN 978-3-658-04629-3 DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-04630-9 ISBN 978-3-658-04630-9 (eBook) The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de Library of Congress Control Number: 2013956641 Springer Gabler © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 2014 This work is subject to copyright All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein Printed on acid-free paper Springer Gabler is a brand of Springer DE Springer DE is part of Springer Science+Business Media www.springer-gabler.de Abstract Retail Marketing and Sales Peiformance: A Comparison ofBranch and Franchise Effectiveness (Christoph Preuss) Keywords: Retail marketing, retail management, sales peiformance The purpose of this research project is to contribute to effective retail by determining the impacts of the elements of retail marketing interventions on sales performance in franchises and branches The approach comprises a series of complementary surveys of franchisees (n=85), branch managers (n=307), shop visitors (n=86l) and customers (n=IOOO) This is enriched with secondary data and sector-specific structoral detail (sales, store location and environment) to determine the direct and mediating effects of retail marketing on sales performance Through factor analysis results provide evidence that RM has a high and positive, direct-structoral impact on sales performance Furthermore, in branches there is also a lesser, indirect effect on sales through the attitude of sales staff Despite high internal construct validity, the findings are unproven in the retail context external to the retail network that was the focus of the investigation and so the genera1izability could be considered to be limited Future research should examine if the findings can be replicated in different retail sectors This research contributes to the development of the dichotomy of branch and franchise management by exploring their operational differences Retailers can exploit retail marketing more effectively if they understand that structural retail marketing parameters make the greatest impact on an outlet's sales performance For the development of customer and shop visitor loyalty the main factor is the attitude of sales staff Theoretically, this research contributes to understanding the effectiveness of retail marketing in plural-form networks Acknowledgements The completion of this thesis has ultimately been possible with the continued help and support of a number of people To them I owe honest thanks First and foremost, I am greatly indebted to Professor Gillian H Wright for guiding me successfully through the demanding times of my studies, with much appreciated expertise Her guidance, honesty and encouragement have pushed me intellectually and have ultimately made this a better work of research The long evenings and weekends filled with lots of espresso and few glasses of red wine and away from normal family life have finally paid off! I extend this gratitude to my second supervisor, Professor Nancy Harding and Program Director, Dr Eva Niemann for their insightful comments, support and enthusiasm A special thank goes to my very good friend and mentor Samuel D Chinque for proof-reading the thesis and for making this thesis far more readable a well as for his challenging me on the key concepts in my research project! As well as the practical, special thanks are extended to all those who have provided encouragement and support Thanks to my greatest gift in life, my beloved wife Svetla, for her constant encouragement and taking care of our three beautiful daughters who on weekends for the last four years have seen their dad mostly working on this research project at his desk I love you, Svetla! Thanks also to my mum and dad for their belief in me and to family and friends who I have neglected over the last four years Christoph Preuss This thesis is dedicated to Svetla Preuss - my beloved wifewho surely wins the award of the most wonderful wife in the world! Table of Contents Abstract V Acknowledgements VII List of Figures XV List of Tables XV1l List of Appendices XXI List of Abbreviations XXIII Introduction 1.1 Background and Research Drivers I 1.2 The Telecommunications Industry as Research Context 1.3 Company Context and Challenges: Freenet Group and mobilcom-debitel Retail Limited Company 1.3.1 Company Context 1.3.2 Cha1lenges 1.4 Research Aims and Objectives 1.5 Research Design Stages and Thesis Structure 10 1.6 Methodology and Research Methods 13 1.7 Contributions 14 1.7.1 Contribution to Management Practice 14 1.7.2 Contribution to Theory and Conceptual Development 15 1.7.3 Contribution to Research Methods 16 1.8 Summary 16 Retail marketing, concepts and research model 19 2.1 Introduction 19 2.2 Retail marketing 20 2.2.1 Defining retail and internal marketing 20 2.2.2 Clarifying the relevance of intema1 marketing 21 2.2.3 Defining franchising and branch management 21 2.2.4 Targeting through retail marketing 22 2.2.5 Managing the elements of retail marketing 23 2.3 Concepts 27 2.3.1 Retail marketing and the service profit chain 27 2.3.2 The loyally and commitment index 28 2.3.3 Findings of retail and internal marketing research 31 XlI Table of Contents 2.3.4 Identification of research needs 33 2.3.5 Deduction of research questions 36 2.4 Research modeL 39 2.4.1 Direct, mediating and moderating effecta 39 2.4.2 Research model: retail marketing, attitude and sales performance 40 2.4.3 Research questions and associated research hypotheses 41 2.5 Summary of research questions and associated hypotheses 46 2.6 Summary 48 Methodology and methods 49 3.1 Introduction 49 3.2 Methodological considerations 49 3.3 Methodological approach 50 3.4 Methods and research design 53 3.4.1 Information needs 53 3.4.2 Approach 59 3.4.3 instrument development 63 3.4.4 Construct measurement 66 3.4.5 Samples 68 3.4.6 Implementation 70 3.4.7 Data management 71 3.4.8 Validity and reliability 72 3.4.9 Analysis procedures 78 3.5 Summary 87 Results 89 4.1 Introduction 89 4.2 Overview of measurement concepts, research questions and hypotheses 89 4.3 Construct profiles 91 4.3.1 Sales staffsurvey 91 4.3.2 Shop visitor survey 101 4.3.3 Customer survey 103 4.4 Research objective 1: relationship between retail marketing and sales performance 106 4.4.1 Sales staff 106 4.4.2 Shop visitors 128 4.4.3 Customers 138 Table of Contents XIII 4.4.4 Overview of relationship results 148 4.5 Research objective 2: testing of hypotheses of retail marketing and sales performance 151 4.5.1 The direct and mediating effects of retail marketing on sales performance 151 4.5.2 The modemting impact of the sales format on attitude and sales performance 152 4.5.3 Summary of hypotheses testing and research results 154 4.6 Overview of results 156 4.7 Summary 157 Di.cu••ion of re.ult• 163 5.1 Introduction 163 5.2 Research objective 1: relationship betweeo retail marketing and sales performance 164 5.2.1 Sales staff 164 5.2.2 Shop visitors 167 5.2.3 Customers 169 5.3 Research objective 2: testing of hypotheses on retail marketing and sales performance 171 5.3.1 The direct and mediating effects of retail marketing on sales performance 171 5.3.2 The modemting effect of the sales format on attitode and sales performance 173 5.4 Contributions 174 5.4.1 Contribution to the practice of management 174 5.4.2 Contribution to conceptual development 182 5.4.3 Contribution to research methods 183 5.5 Research limitations and futore research 185 5.6 Conclusions 188 Reference 193 Appendix 209 .. .Retail Marketing and Sales Performance Christoph Preuss Retail Marketing and Sales Performance A Definitive Guide to Optimizing Service Quality and Sales Effectiveness Christoph Preuss Bradford,... relationship between retail and intemal marketing on the one hand and sales performance and staff attitude on the other • to clarify research deficits and to analyse the reliability and validity... branch- and franchise- and retail and intall'll.llI'II.rKeting manag.m.nt Togr an overviaw ofCl.lT8nt retail and inlllrTIIl marketing research related to organizational performance Empirical