Role of the eco-natural environment as an alternative attractiveness factor in malls

Abstract

Purpose The mall industry in Latin America has grown rapidly in the past decade, offering diverse proposals oriented to improving the attractiveness of this commerce format; along this line, despite the fact that several studies have analyzed variables from an ecological perspective based on the relationship of the physical space with the consumers (from a marketing context), there is shortage in research regarding alternative attractiveness factors inspired by nature, although its connection with people’s behavior has been confirmed. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to answer the following question: Is the perception of environments with natural resources displayed in malls an alternative attractiveness factor for visitors? Thus, does it benefit its own competitive management against other attractiveness variables that focus on offering variety, accessibility, physical design and entertainment? Design/methodology/approach The quantitative method is an exploratory factor analysis that is followed by a confirmatory analysis and resulting in a measurement model based on 470 effective questionnaires. The exploratory and confirmatory nature focused on multidimensional verification of the measurement model (including the validation of the eco-natural environment) justified this choice in consistence with prior research that has used goodness of fit criteria. Findings The paper not only suggests the existence of a perception factor in the eco-natural environment, but it also determines its comparative importance over other traditional attractiveness factors reported in scientific literature. Particularly because commercial attractiveness is a consequence of how marketing variables are managed by malls and of how consumers respond to said variables, benefiting the visit’s experience. Practical implications The paper contributes to malls’ competitive management by suggesting and proving the importance of the eco-natural environment as a commercial attractiveness factor; thus, the results encourage this format’s developers to take into account new ways of persuasion considering its progressive and competitive rise in the past years in Latin America. Originality/value There is shortage of research on alternative attractiveness factors for malls; therefore, contrasting the eco-natural environment in a measurement model of commercial attractiveness allows contributing strategic information to the industry, which in turn constitutes an innovative resource to lure and motivate visitors. On the other hand, the paper contributes the state of knowledge of environmental variables over consumers’ assessments.

Tendencias de investigación en branding enfocadas al adulto mayor: análisis bibliométrico y revisión sistemática de la literatura

“…El branding y el comportamiento del consumidor son ejes transversales en los estudios de marketing (Aaker, 1991;Keller, 2002;Solomon et al, 2017;Sandoval et al, 2018), los cuales han permeado diferentes disciplinas y escenarios emergentes como lo son la gestión humana (López-Rodríguez & Neme-Chaves, 2021); las neurociencias aplicadas al estudio del consumo (Golnar-Nik et al, 2019;Ortegon-Cortazar, 2019), la internacionalización de servicios (López-Rodríguez et al, 2020), la psicología del consumidor (Saad, 2020) y el marketing político (Pal, 2017); de ahí la pertinencia de identificar la manera en la que estos ejes han sido estudiados en el segmento de adulto mayor.…”

Effects of Psychological Benefits of Greenness on Airlines’ Customer Experiential Satisfaction, Service Fairness, Alternative Attractiveness, and Switching Intention

“… Ortegon-Cortazar (2019) offered a list of alternative attractiveness factors based on a multidimensional analysis of eco-natural resources in malls, including, but not limited to, access to the malls, the variety of offerings, clients, the physical design of the malls, luxurious feeling, and eco-natural environment. Customers are regularly attracted to strong alternatives, particularly when they perceive the relative merit of competing with the alternative’s price, value, location, service, or quality.…”

Diseño Ambiental Smart: Una Plataforma De Atracción Sostenible

“…Elaboración propia, basado en Berry y Glaeser (2005), Jong et al (2015), Caragliu et al (2011) La bibliografía menciona la influencia de los estímulos físicos y ambientales en el comportamiento humano (Jiménez et al, 2015;Amérigo, 2013;Herzog & Strevey, 2008), argumentando que este componente provee estados emocionales positivos como el placer y el bienestar (Brengman, et al, 2012) viéndose desde el campo de estudio de la psicología ambiental donde sitúa la relación del entorno físico y el comportamiento de los sujetos (Dewey, 1922). Lo anterior se demuestra gracias a investigaciones que evidencian que los espacios verdes son potenciales motivadores de visita e intenciones de compra (Ortegón & Royo, 2017;Park, 2016;Ortegón-Cortázar, 2019;Ortegón-Cortázar & Royo-Vela, 2019), además, estos pueden adecuarse a entornos de hotelería para constituir una ventaja competitiva (Lee et al, 2010). Dentro de la dimensión de la tecnología, Adapa et al (2020) incluyen un concepto de entornos de comercio inteligente (SRT), donde sustentan que existen consumidores que perciben el valor de compra con mayor o menor beneficio dependiendo de su nivel de innovación, y quienes lo perciben con beneficio serán propensos a realizar una recompra.…”

“…Esto debido a la constante presión que un estudiante o incluso otro miembro de la comunidad puede llegar a desarrollar o encontrar. Se valora la existencia de espacios físicos naturales, escenarios con entornos de vegetación y arquitectura ecológica amigables con el medio ambiente (Ortegón & Royo, 2017;Ortegón, 2019;Ortegón & Royo, 2019), pues como se menciona en la bibliografía revisada, estos proveen estados emocionales positivos de placer y bienestar (Brengman et al, 2012).…”