ASAC 2005 Brent McKenzie

The focus of this empirical study is to present the findings of a cross-cultural comparison between Canadian and Estonian university students and their perceptions of retail practices. The findings of this research indicate a level of commonality in retail shopping perceptions between both groups as well as non-trivial differences in both how shopping practice, in terms of the construct structure, and individual service drivers, should be theorized. Although the findings of this study solely focused on one particular sample set, and one type of retail format, they nonetheless represent an initial focus on an unknown area of retailing research. There are two specific contributions resulting from this study. The first is that Estonian University student consumers, in comparison to their Canadian counter-parts, have a similar focus in terms of how shopping behaviour should be modelled. At the factor and overall level, the linking of merchandise price, merchandise selection, retail service, and customer loyalty appears sound. The findings of this study also highlight potential differences in both how the specific constructs should be measured (i.e. at the scale level), and in terms of the relevance of a customer loyalty factor. In terms of customer loyalty determinants, university students in both countries were significantly influenced by the three other factors. However, there were differences in terms of perspective. In the Estonian sample, retail service, and merchandise selection, measures were deemed of greater importance than merchandise price. In the Canadian sample merchandise price, then retail service, versus merchandise selection was found. These findings are interpreted in that Estonian consumers, who have had a shorter period of product choice, and arguably stores that provide “western” style service, would thus focus on these measures if they were to have a sense of store loyalty. Conversely, price would have a lesser role in customer loyalty due to a lack of price competition in the local marketplace. With respect to retail practice, for the Canadian sample, price and selection were not significantly correlated. This may imply that by providing a better understanding, or distinction between these factors needs to be communicated to Canadian consumers in order to influence store loyalty, versus in Estonia where the two factors should have a closer linkage. A second implication is the degree of commonality in the two groups in terms of relevance of specific shopping behaviour measures. This may not only be of interest to retail practice, but also provide insight into the potential value of developing programs to encourage customer loyalty at the university student level in other transition economies. Finally, the limitations of using university student samples should continue to be addressed, but based on this study, contributions can still be made to marketing practices such as shopping behaviour, and should not be dismissed out of hand. It is argued that the use of university student samples may have even greater relevance for study in transition economies, such as Estonia, due to the limited history of “western” marketing practices.