Consumer research into new technologies in the retail services area has evolved from unsophisticated industry studies. Focusing on point-of-sale scanning systems, various research studies are reviewed following an indication of the more general conceptual bases which could be relevant internationally. Some proposals are made to encourage more theory-driven research.
E.g., David F. Midgley, Innovation and New Product Marketing, Croom Helm, London, 1977; Everett M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, Free Press, New York, 1983.
Robin Shaw N.. 1979. . Will code scanning revolutionize research? . Australian Marketing Researcher . , Vol. 3: Summer;: 22––7. .
Robin N. Shaw, Universal Product Code Scanning Systems: The Retail Experience 1974-76, Department of Agricultural Economics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, 1977.
Food Marketing Institute, Scanning Installation Update, Food Marketing Institute, Washington DC, 1985; International Article Numbering Association EAN, Annual Report 1983, EAN, Brussels, 1984.
Philip Kotler. . 1984. . Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, and Control . , Englewood Cliffs , New Jersey : : Prentice-Hall. .
ibid., p. 565.
Rogers, op. cit.
Shaw, op. cit., 1977.
Rogers, op. cit.
ibid.
Thomas Robertson S.. 1967. . The process of innovation and the diffusion of innovation. . Journal of Marketing . , Vol. 31: January;: 14––19. .
David Collier A.. 1983. . The service sector revolution: the automation of services. . Long Range Planning . , Vol. 16((6)): 10––20. .
Robert E. Stevens, ‘Retail innovations: a technological model of change in retailing’, Marquette Business Review, Winter 1975, pp. 164–8.
Arun K. Jain and Michael Etgar, ‘Overlap in retail outlet and product innovator characteristics’, Journal of Retailing, 53, Summer 1977, pp. 63-74; Robert T. Green, Eric Langeard and Alice C. Favell, ‘Innovation in the service sector: some empirical findings’, Journal of Marketing Research, 11, August 1974, pp. 323–6.
See particularly Journal of Retailing, 60, Spring 1984, passim; Theo M.M. Verhallen and Gert Jan De Nooij, ‘Retail attribute sensitivity and shopping patronage’, Journal of Economic Psychology, 2, 1982, pp. 39-55; Stephen J. Arnold, Sylvia Ma and Douglas J. Tigert, ‘A comparative analysis of determinant attributes in retail store selection’, Advances in Consumer Research, 5, 1978, pp. 663-7; Robert A. Hansen and Terry Deutscher, ‘An empirical investigation of attribute importance in retail store selection’, Journal of Retailing, 53, Winter 1977-78, pp. 59-72, 95; Jay D. Lindquist, ‘Meaning of image: a survey of empirical and hypothetical evidence’, Journal of Retailing, 50, Winter 1974-75, pp. 29–38.
Richard Olshavsky W. and Donald Granbois H.. 1979. . Consumer decision making — fact or fiction? . Journal of Consumer Research . , Vol. 6: September;: 93––100. .
James Engel F. and Roger Blackwell D.. 1982. . Consumer Behavior . , Chicago : : Dryden Press. .
Rogers, op. cit.
Louis G. Tornatzky and Katherine J. Klein, ‘Innovation characteristics and innovation adoption — implementation: a meta-analysis of findings’, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, EM-29, February 1982, pp. 28–45.
Engel and Blackwell, op. cit.
Noel Capon and Deanna Kuhn. . 1982. . Can consumers calculate best buys? . Journal of Consumer Research . , Vol. 8: March;: 449––53. .
Jagdish Sheth N. and Prakesh Sethi S.. 1977. . “A theory of cross-cultural buyer behavior. ”. In Consumer and Industrial Buying Behavior . , Edited by: Arch Woodside G., Jagdish Sheth N. and Peter Bennett D.. p. 369––86. . New York : : Elsevier North-Holland. .
Arieh Goldman, ‘Transfer of a retailing technology into the less developed countries: the supermarket case’, Journal of Retailing, 57, Summer 1981, pp. 5-29, Eric Langeard and Robert A. Peterson, ‘Diffusion of large-scale food retailing in France: supermarche et hypermarche’, Journal of Retailing, 3, Fall 1975, pp. 43-63, 80.
Robert Green T. and Eric Langeard. . 1975. . A cross-national comparison of consumer habits and innovator characteristics. . Journal of Marketing . , Vol. 39: July;: 34––41. .
See, for example, Director General of Fair Trading, Micro-Electronics and Retailing, HMSO, London, 1982; Working Party on Electronic Checkout Systems, Report to the Standing Committee of Consumer Affairs Ministers, South Australian Department of Public and Consumer Affairs, Adelaide, 1983.
Senate Standing Committee on Consumer Protection, Universal Product Code: Final Staff Report, New York State Senate, Albany, New York, 1976; Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations, Interim Report on Computerized Checkout Systems in Food Supermarkets in Ontario, Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations, Toronto, 1980.
Field Research Corporation, A Survey of Reaction to the New UPC Checkout System Among Gemco Shoppers, Lucky Stores, Dublin, California, 1975; Barbara Walman, ‘What do customers think of scanning?’, and J.E. Penney, ‘The successful combination of people and technology’, papers presented to the Electronic Point-of-Sale Conference, Melbourne, October 1984.
Gilbert D. Harrell, Michael D. Hutt and John W. Allen, Universal Product Code: Price Removal and Consumer Behavior in Supermarkets, Graduate School of Business Administration, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, 1976.
Moira H. MacKinnon and Timothy G. Kitching, Price Awareness and Comparative Shopping Behaviour in Two Stores: Some Implications of Price Removal for Consumer Behaviour (M. Admin, project, Department of Administrative Studies, Monash University 1979).
Valarie A. Zeithaml, Consumer Response to Grocery Store Price Information (DBA thesis, University of Maryland, 1980); idem., ‘Consumer response to in-store price information environments’, Journal of Consumer Research, 8, March 1982, pp. 357–69.
Brian F. Harris and Michael K. Mills, ‘The impact of item price removal on grocery shopping behavior’, Journal of Retailing, 56, Winter 1980, pp. 73-93; Brian F. Harris and Michael K. Mills, ‘The impact of item price removal in scanner supermarkets’, Journal of Consumer Afairs, 16, Winter 1982, pp. 362–83.
Virginia B. Langrehr and Frederick W. Langrehr, ‘Do consumers want controls on item price removal?’, paper presented to the 25th Annual Conference of the American Council on Consumer Interests, 1982.
Robin Shaw N. and Rosalie Gibbs E.. 1981. . Shopper behaviour, price information, and new technology. . Australian Marketing Researcher . , Vol. 5: March;: 25––33. .
Frederick W. Langrehr and Virginia B. Langrehr, ‘Consumers’ reactions to technology in general and to a specific technological innovation’, Journal of Consumer Policy (forthcoming).
Frederick Langrehr W. and Richard Robinson K.. 1979. . Shoppers’ reactions to supermarket price scanning and shopper price marking. . Journal of Consumer Affairs . , Vol. 13: Winter;: 370––9. .
Michael Pommer D., Eric Berkowitz N. and John Walton R.. 1980. . UPC scanning: an assessment of shopper response to technological change. . Journal of Retailing . , Vol. 56: Summer;: 25––44. .
Robin N. Shaw and John L. Aitchison, ‘Consumer behaviour and new technology: an analysis of supermarket scanning and item price-marking’ in Theme Papers — Proceedings of the Management Educators’ Conference, Queensland Combined Management Schools, Brisbane, 1984, pp. 104–28.
Walman, op. cit.
Kent Monroe B. and Krishnan R.. 1983. . A procedure for integrating outcomes across studies. . Advances in Consumer Research . , Vol. 10:: 503––8. .
Gene Glass V., Barry McGaw and Mary Lee Smith. . 1981. . Meta-Analysis in Social Research . , Beverly Hills , California : : Sage Publications. .
Zeithaml, op. cit., 1982.
Rogers, op. cit.
ibid.
Olshavsky and Granbois, op. cit.
Rogers, op. cit.
ibid.
Robin N. Shaw, Frederick W. Langrehr and Virginia B. Langrehr, ‘Diffusion of innovations: international research into new technologies in the consumer services sector’ in Chin Tiong Tan and Jagdish N. Sheth (eds), Proceedings of the Association for Consumer Research International Meeting in Singapore, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 1985, pp. 90–4.
Zeithaml, op. cit., 1982