Retail and service enterprises seek benefits and synergies from locating their stores within retail agglomerations, such as shopping streets and malls. The aim of this paper is to identify the main drivers of such synergetic or 'agglomeration effects' for tenants. A literature review reveals four sets of drivers that are related to the location, the tenant mix, the marketing and the management of an agglomeration. Based on a survey of 217 managers representing stores that are located in five regional and four supra-regional shopping malls, we demonstrate that location related drivers including geographical location, accessibility and parking conditions have a significant higher impact on agglomeration effects in terms of the economic success of tenants. The results were consistent amongst different types of tenants differentiated by store size, customer footfall, industry affiliation and perceived role within the respective mall (as footfall taker or generator within the network).

Interestingly, a higher share of hedonists visited the shopping mall. Overall, they make more shopping trips to agglomerations, stay there longer, visit more stores and -depending on the agglomeration format -spend less than or the same amount as utilitarians. Finally, we see that those customers who are attracted by agglomerations because of atmospheric and price stimuli are typical hedonists.

This paper discusses and evaluates the impact of cognitive (or self-perceived) age on grocery store patronage by elderly shoppers. Cognitive age is seen to be a more accurate reflection of changes related to age and aging than chronological age. Based on self-concept theory, the authors propose that cognitive age moderates the effects of perceptions of store attributes on satisfaction with a store. The hypotheses tests used a sample of 404 supermarket patrons aged 60 and above. The latent construct, cognitive age, was operationalised by six items: feel, look, do, interest, health and think age. The cognitive ages of our respondents proved to be significantly lower than their chronological ages. To evaluate the moderating effects, we applied the product indicator approach using variance-based structural equation modelling.The results show that the impacts of product range, manoeuvrability and atmosphere within the store on satisfaction become significantly stronger with increasing cognitive age. We conclude that cognitive age dimensions influence perceptions and, subsequently, behaviour related to store patronage and thus contribute to the understanding of the growing segment of elderly shoppers. Summary statement of contribution:The contribution of this paper is to provide a theoretical rationale and empirical evidence for considering cognitive age as a substantial influencer and predictor of store patronage by elderly shoppers. Thus, we call for a stronger consideration of self-perceived age dimensions, along with chronological age, in research and marketing related to older consumer cohorts.

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