The emergence of omnichannel retailing has revolutionized the way traditional e‐commerce business operates, subsequently bringing fundamental changes to consumer expectations and decision‐making processes. Despite the unquestionable relevance of this area of inquiry, the focal literature concerning omnichannel retailing remains sporadic and fragmented. With this in mind, the purpose of the current paper is to provide a comprehensive and concise state of the art literature review on omnichannel retailing. More specifically, we engage and draw upon the cognitive‐affective‐conative model to understand consumer behaviour within the omnichannel retailing context. The current study is built based on a review of total 131 research papers that were identified following a comprehensive search of the Web of Science database, capturing the time period between January 2011 and April 2020. This set of work was reviewed thoroughly to explore the aims, methodology and key contributions. In addition to engaging a systematic assessment and rigorous evaluation of the studies, we also extend literature by studying the relationship between omnichannel retailing and consumer decision making, with specific attention to consumer motivation, attitude and behaviour towards omnichannel retailing. Previous studies suggest consumer behaviour in omnichannel retailing to be a promising yet underexplored area with several potential avenues for future research. Among these, particularly lucrative directions include theory‐driven research, comparative cross‐cultural studies and qualitative approaches that capture rich first‐hand accounts of consumer decision‐making encounters. The current paper is timely and advantageous because it offers a holistic picture of omnichannel retailing research and provides literature‐driven evidence about a range of relevant consumer behavioural dimensions. It also integrates consumer responses using the cognitive‐affective‐conative model to advance our understanding of consumer decision‐making in the omnichannel customer journey. Recommendations for future research are provided using the Theory, Methodology and Context (TMC) framework. We conclude the paper by discussing implications for academics and practitioners.

Brand love has received increasing attention given its potential to enhance customer engagement, brand advocacy, commitment and loyalty. Despite its relevance, few studies explore brand love per se, and existing conceptualisations remain sporadic and fragmented. The purpose of the current paper is to critically assess available work on brand love, reviewing conceptualisations, measurements and key proximal constructs. Expanding upon and synthesising earlier work and conceptualisations, we develop and propose a comprehensive conceptual framework for brand love that is innovative for the following reasons. In particular, our model takes a developmental rather than a snapshot approach to capture brand love trajectories as a function of their onset and evolution; incorporates key frameworks and as such builds on interpersonal, parasocial and experiential theories; and acknowledges the important role of brand hate. Managerial implications and future research directions are discussed.

Compensatory consumption has been an increasingly researched yet widely debated area of consumer behaviour over the last 20 years. Extant research formulates the term as overwhelmingly negative, largely due to the simplistic and fragmented conceptualisations assumed in prior work. The purpose of the current paper is to present a comprehensive review of the umbrella term of compensatory consumption, incorporating a continuum of behaviours and accounting for the pre-and post-consumption periods including both positive and negative viewpoints. In addition, expanding upon the theory of need satisfaction, the current paper introduces a novel conceptual distinction between compensation and compromise. Finally, a proposed theoretical framework is presented that differentiates between compensatory and compromisory consumption based on the extent of consumer consciousness, rationality and rationalisation. Future research directions are offered.

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Given the increasing emphasis on online consumption in our digital era, the current study aimed to explore the avatar–self relationship in association with the concept of product attachment. Through constructing their own avatars and selecting certain virtual possessions for them, participants in the sample were able to represent different elements of their identities to be manifested in their embodied virtual presence. Certain attributes and emotions characterizing both the real as well as the virtual existence of participants appeared to exert important influences. Additional gender differences emerged, in that males were more likely to represent their possible and hidden self‐aspects, and focus on the functional meaning of virtual products, while females were more likely to reveal their ideal selves, and attach symbolic meaning to their virtual possessions. For female participants, the role of experimentation emerged as an important construct, with their avatars often reflecting upon their ambivalence toward perceived social norms and societal expectations. Implications for scholars and practitioners are discussed.

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