How does perceived crowding moderate tourist shopping experience and satisfaction relationship?

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the direct impact of shopping experience of tourists on their satisfaction with shopping, while perceived crowding is used as a moderator in this relationship. Design/methodology/approach The proposed conceptual model was tested by an empirical study where the data were collected from 411 German tourists, visiting Kaleiçi, Antalya-Turkey. Findings The study results revealed that tourist shopping experience (consisting of education, esthetic, entertainment and escapism dimensions) significantly determines satisfaction with shopping. Moreover, crowding perception has a two-dimensional structure, as human and spatial crowding. Human crowding, which reflects high human density, is found to negatively moderate the effect of shopping experience on satisfaction, where spatial crowding, which is related to high space density, does not influence this relationship. Originality/value This study exceptionally shows that crowding perceptions of German tourists in shopping are affected by both human and spatial crowding. In addition, the moderating role of perceived crowding is clarified in the relationship between shopping experience and satisfaction.

The Rise and Fall of Modern Plagues

Millennia separate smallpox, the oldest pandemic, and COVID-19, the newest. Both calamities arose from an opportunistic virus amid human crowding. A vaccine for smallpox existed since the late 18th century, but it took worldwide public health strategy to eradicate it. COVID-19 proceeds against a hive of scientific collaboration, but succeeds, so far, from weak containment policies. COVID-19 was first identified in China, but it rose to become the American pandemic.

Store disorderliness effect: shoppers' competitive behaviours in a fast-fashion retail store

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand the effect of store messiness and human crowding on shoppers' competitive behaviours, in-store hoarding and in-store hiding, through the mediating effect of perceived scarcity and perceived competition.Design/methodology/approach2 (store messiness: messy × tidy) × 2 (human crowding: high × low) between-subject factorial experiment was conducted online to manipulate retail store atmospheric factors. A total of 154 responses were collected through Amazon MTurk. The hypotheses were analysed using ANOVA and PROCESS (Hayes, 2013) procedure.FindingsResults suggest that store messiness and human crowding within a fast-fashion store lead to perception of scarcity and competition that further affects competitive behaviours. When consumers experience store messiness, they are likely to hide merchandise in store, thus making it inaccessible for other consumers. Further, when they experience human crowding in the store, they feel that the products will be gone immediately so they have a tendency to hoard them.Research limitations/implicationsThis study examined the effects of scarcity perception by studying the case of fast-fashion retailers; generalizability needs to be established across different contexts.Practical implicationsRetailers by manipulating human crowding and store messiness can create a perception of scarcity in their stores, thus enhancing sales. However, they should also pay attention to deviant behaviours such as in-store hoarding and in-store hiding as these behaviours may decrease the store sales.Originality/valueThis research contributed to the retailing literature by finding a significant relationship between human crowding, store messiness and competitive behaviours through perceived scarcity and competition.

The effect of atmospheric harmony on re-patronage intention among mall consumers: the mediating role of hedonic value and the moderating role of past experience

Purpose This study assessed the roles of atmospheric harmony, human crowding and sensation seeking towards hedonic value to determine re-patronage intention amongst mall consumers. Additionally, this study aims to investigate the moderating roles of past experience amidst mall consumers within the context of Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach The study data were collected from 334 mall consumers of Rawalpindi/Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi by using the judgemental sampling technique. Data analysis was performed using SmartPLS 3 via partial least squares structural equation modelling. Findings This study revealed that atmospheric harmony and human crowding displayed positive and adverse impacts, respectively, on hedonic value. The sensation seeking tendencies exerted by the consumers displayed no significant impact on hedonic value in light of mall habitat. The hedonic value exhibited a mediating role for the relationships of re-patronage intention with atmospheric harmony and human crowding. Besides, a significant interaction was noted between hedonic value and past experience in light of re-patronage intention. Originality/value The proposed model embeds hedonic value as a second higher-order construct, apart from amalgamating environmental and psychological factors of the mall shoppers to determine their re-patronage intentions. The study outcomes posit that mall re-patronage intention is built on several factors that offer mall managers an opportunity to enrich the hedonic consumption experience among mall consumers, aside from ensuring their re-patronage intention.

Human Crowding or Spatial Crowding? The Impact of Perceived Crowding on In-store Impulse Purchase

The influence of shopper's perception of the physical environmental factors on impulse buying at the retail level has attracted the attention of researchers since the last three decades but the role of perceived crowding and in-store browsing attracted little attention. This paper attempts to develop and empirically valid a model to investigate the role of perceived crowding and in-store browsing in impulse buying along with the psychological variables. Mall-intercept survey technique was used to collect data from 335 participants from 18 branches of a supermarket chain in different parts of Kolkata. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling. Contrary to prior research the relationship between human crowding and other variables in the model was not supported whereas spatial crowding was found to have significant negative impact in impulse buying. The findings are discussed along with managerial implications and scopes for future research.

The Sustainability of Cruise Tourism Onshore: The Impact of Crowding on Visitors’ Satisfaction

The sustainability of cruise tourism has been questioned in relation to its negative effects on ports of call, among which crowding has recently become more pronounced. However, an understanding of how crowdedness influences cruise tourists’ experience onshore is lacking. The study analyzed online reviews on onshore experiences in the main European ports of call through Leximancer, an automated text analytics software. The results revealed that the perceived destination crowding was not always negatively evaluated by tourists, but was also discussed as a factor adding up to the authenticity of the visit under certain circumstances. Nevertheless, the evidence indicates that only human crowding might be positively assessed, while the spatial crowdedness was always reported as detracting from the enjoyment of the visit. The analysis also showed that the crowding phenomenon was represented differently in the accounts of the low, average and high satisfaction cruise tourists’ groups. The role of the guide, as well as the attractiveness of the sightseeing were identified as factors that can ameliorate the negative effect of crowding on the destination visit. The findings yield relevant implications for all actors involved in the cruise tourism activity, which should manage destination crowdedness in a more sustainably innovative way.

Assessing the Effects of Crowding Perception and Gender Among Southeast Asia Pilgrims in Mina, Saudi Arabia

This study gives a better understanding of the effect of crowding on pilgrims at the Hajj. It explores the levels of perceived crowding of Southeastern Asian pilgrims and investigates the effects of gender on their perceived crowding. Questionnaire in both Bahasa Melayu and English languages were administered for data collections from randomly selected pilgrims, (n=128), from the Southeast Asia Hajj group at Mina for three days (10th, 11th and 12th of Dhul-Hijjah). Results revealed that pilgrims witness high levels of crowd perception within their stay at Mina. In addition also, differences between the overall perceived crowding, perceived human crowding and perceived spatial crowding among pilgrims were revealed. Perceived human crowding was found as an indicator to the overall perceived crowding at Mina. Future research could be carried out to assess the effects of other factors such as education and cultural backgrounds and these findings can help authorities in charge of formulating policies manage crowd levels and perception.