Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand why people shop at small retailers in their community. The authors investigate the influence of consumers’ civic commitment, measured at behavioural and perceptual levels, on small-retailer patronage (SRP).
Design/methodology/approach
Data from 984 respondents represent four French cities that host common town-centre shopping streets and large out-of-town retail parks. A structural equation model applied to the theoretical framework tests the relationships between civic behavioural commitment (CBC), civic perceptual commitment (CPC) and declared SRP.
Findings
The more an individual consumer exhibits civic behavioural commitment (CBC) to his/her community, the greater his/her small-retailer patronage (SRP). Furthermore, consumers who express strong civic perceptual commitment (CPC) prefer to patronise small retailers. Results show that CPC has a stronger impact on SRP than CBC does.
Practical implications
If the CPC has stronger effects on SRP than CBC does, town managers can catch people’s attention by communicating civic commitment to enhance CPC. Solidarity could be developed through large-scale social projects to send a strong signal to consumers regarding retailers’ commitment in the community. Finally, the study highlights the role businesses, retailers and consumers play in building communities. Partnerships across all local stakeholders should be built.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to define civic behavioural commitment within consumers’ life place based on social capital theory. Moreover, it offers a new framework for understanding perception of commitment within a community, and its impact on SRP. This measurement scale allows more efficient capturing of civic commitment to communities.
L'obligation d'obtenir la permission des prospects, qui s'impose aux utilisateurs de courriels marketing, a très peu inspiré les chercheurs. Pour rendre compte du processus de la permission, nous mobilisons la théorie psychosociale de l'engagement et nous considérons aussi le rôle médiateur de la confiance. Nous avançons que les actes accomplis par le prospect pour compléter un formulaire de permission, ainsi que la confiance qu'il place dans son demandeur, l'engagent pour l'avenir. Le prospect devrait ainsi accepter plus facilement de ce demandeur de nouvelles requêtes de permission et développer en sa faveur à plus long terme une intention de fidélité. Un test empirique de ces hypothèses, réalisé à partir d'une expérimentation, conforte ces propositions théoriques.
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