Research reveals alarming results on the prevalence of the dishonest consumer behaviour known as deshopping. Deshopping is the "deliberate return of goods for reasons other than actual faults in the product, in its pure form premeditated prior to and during the consumption experience." (Schmidt et al., 1999 p.2) In effect this means buying something with no intention of keeping it (Schmidt et al., 1999). The authors consider the implications of deshopping and retailers' prevention of deshopping, exploring the research undertaken to date and the methodology for further research.

Deshopping is the return of products, after they have fulfilled the purpose for which they were borrowed. Previous research indicates that deshopping is a prevalent and growing consumer behaviour. This paper examines deshopping from a retail perspective. It is a case study of interviews conducted with a mass-market retailer, to investigate their awareness and management of this behaviour. Methodology: This paper is a case study of nine interviews conducted with different levels of staff at a mass-market retailer in their flagship London store, to investigate their awareness and management of deshopping. Findings: The findings demonstrate the beliefs, attitudes and emotions of the different levels of employees towards deshopping and demonstrates their attempts to manage deshopping and combat the negative affects of this on customer service.

a b s t r a c tMusic piracy is the major factor leading to the downturn in paid-for music consumption. This study aims to distinguish between the determinants of a music pirate and a genuine consumer of music (age, gender, income, music preference, music experience). It also investigates attendance at live performances, which previous research suggests, will tend to inhibit the decline of paid-for recorded music. This research is innovative in that it investigates a range of antecedents of music piracy. The method utilises a structured questionnaire survey (n ¼ 214) and regression analysis to elicit which factors play the most important role affecting our respondents' choices in buying music, illegal downloading music and attending live concerts. Managerial and theoretical implications are presented.

As a prevalent and growing form of customer behaviour, deshopping is on the rise. Retailers' focus on good customer service and the offering of lenient returns polices has led to the growth in this fraudulent behaviour of customers in returning goods. This paper considers retailer myopia in the context of dishonest customer returns, applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) using a quantitative questionnaire with 535 female consumers. The findings highlight the extent of the behaviour with 50% admitting to partaking in deshopping. The TPB variables can be utilised to manage and prevent deshopping. The results indicate that currently these customers perceive it to be easy to deshop as there are no consequences with the result that such behaviour continues to grow. If retailers were less myopic they would monitor returns more thoroughly and make it less easy for such customers to get away with undesirable deshopping behaviour. The paper makes recommendations for retailers to manage or alter perceived behavioural characteristics for customers, which in turn, would reduce tendencies for dishonesty in customers returning goods for refunds. Retail myopia is evident with deshopping behaviour with consequences for retailers in time, effort and costs. KEYWORDS Fraudulent customer returns, Deshopping; Retailer return policies, Theory of Planned Behaviour, Theory of Reasoned Action INTRODUCTIONThe marketing myopia pinpointed in this paper concerns the under-representation in the literature and by companies about an aspect of customer behaviour, termed deshopping. This behaviour to do with returning goods to sellers, as presented in this paper on shopping research, leads to increased cost implications for organisations that are detrimental to their good health. This under-representation is in contrast to the emphases in marketing journals, books and conferences that are replete with papers concerning customer retention and loyalty. Both retention and loyalty are key aspects emphasised in marketing strategy development helped along by short term promotional incentives. However, is retention of all customers a desirable outcome for organisations? The answer needs to be balanced between retaining those customers who are of high value with a succession of repeat buying and without difficulties in keeping up repayments against those who present a variety of persistent problems varying from lack of payments to demands for refunds leading to customer disloyalty and malpractices. The paper's research is concerned with the latter regarding customer returns and malpractices because such behaviour is detrimental to the good health of organisations as it consumes their staff's time and energies. Moreover, it leaves organisations with less than optimum products since these were handled by customers outside their facilities and then returned back to the sellers. The objectives of this paper are twofold. First, to attempt to address the gap in academic literature concerning customer malpractices, in particular, dishonest cust...

The authors investigate gender shopping styles across countries and explore whether differences between male and female shopping styles are greater than differences in shopping styles between consumers across countries. The study develops a conceptual model to test Eagly and Wood's (1999) convergence hypothesis. Applied to shopping, this predicts that men and women should become more similar in shopping styles as traditional gender-based divisions in wage labor and domestic labor disappear. The results of a survey on shopping behavior across 11 countries indicate that men and women are evolutionarily predisposed to different shopping styles. Counter to the convergence hypothesis, differences in shopping styles between women and men are greater in higher-gender-equality countries than in lower-gender-equality countries. Empathizing-the ability to tune into someone's thoughts and feelings-mediates shopping style more for women, while systemizing-the degree to which an individual possesses spatial skills-mediates shopping style more for men. Results suggest that gender-based retail segmentation is more strategically relevant than country-based segmentation. The authors discuss the implications of their findings for international marketing theory and practice.