International Journal of Management & Strategy July-Dec.

2010

Vol.1,No.1

UNDERSTANDING THE CONSUMER BEHAVIOR TOWARDS SHOPPING MALLS

IN RAIPUR CITY
Rupesh Kumar Tiwari,Sr. Lecturer,DSME, Raipur,India
Anish Abraham, Lecturer,DSME, Raipur,India
ABSTRACT
Many developed and developing countries (like USA, Japan, Brazil, China etc) have already
witnessed the noteworthy mall culture which has redefined Retail. The emergence of malls, as
an important and significant destination for shopping, recreation and socialization has turned
the face of the retail industry in India. Cities of India like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore etc
have received colossal economic and social contributions from these malls making them one of
the most prominent cities not only in India but around the globe as well. Even, small cities like
Raipur is now eye witnessing the same phenomenon, described earlier as the mall
culture(with two malls already functioning and many more in the pipeline). Therefore, the main
aim of this paper is to investigate the consumer behavior towards these shopping malls, with
special reference to Raipur city. The paper also tries to facilitate the Mall developers, managers,
marketers and operators with the perfect blend of necessary acumen in terms of various
shopping dimensions required to offer the targeted customers so as to operationalize the mall
with utmost productivity and performance.
INTRODUCTION
Shopping, buying and utilizing are three activities which constitutes the consumer behavior in a
holistic manner (Tauber, 1972). Myriad number of literatures is available which have identified
various dimensions and concepts of customers buying and consumption behavior. However,
very few literatures are available which have described about the various constructs of shopping
behavior and even fewer numbers of researchers have focused on Indian Consumers.
According to Assael (1987), shopping behavior is the most unique for behavior which the
consumers exhibit. Gifts, clothing, groceries, gifts and household items are some of the most
common type of shopping which consumers indulge in a highly frequent manner. But according
to Dholakia (1999), occasion and motives are also some crucial points which influence the
consumers shopping behavior. For example, for some consumers, shopping is all about getting
the best deal out of bargaining, for some (especially teenagers or the young crowd) shopping is a
means of getting acquainted and interact more with others in a social context and for some it is a
way of breaking out from the regular monotonous professional and personal routine (Reid and
Brown, 1996).

International Journal of Management & Strategy July-Dec.2010

Vol.1,No.1

It is also possible, that the motives behind two consumers shopping at the same store could be
same or different. Same motives may arise as when the customers look for convenience,
shopping experience etc, whereas motives mat vary as a result of compulsion or by free choice.
Compulsion shopping happens when the customer is forced to indulge in shopping and for
him/her it could be a great deal of burden, in this case he/she will try to finish of the work in
minimum time that too with minimum effort. While for the other customer who see shopping as
a mean of enjoyment, may consider shopping as a form of sport, in this case he/she will not mind
sparing extra time and effort while searching and evaluating various alternatives available to
him.
The study done by Underhill (1999) revealed that, shopping is very distinctive in nature, its more
to just purchasing what one wants but it also includes the customers acceptance of the product,
brand or stores as well, using multiple senses like- seeing, smelling, tasting, hearing and even
tasting (at times).
Solomon (1994), proposed five types of shoppers which he identified from his study on
customers of western countries. The following are the five types:
The economic shopper: A balanced and more coherent kind of customer who tries to get the best
deal so as to utilize his/her money efficiently and effectively.
The personalized shopper: Customer who will only shop at a store with which he/ she has
formed a strong attachment.
The ethical shopper: Customer is very conscious and concerned about the local stores and will
prefer them over the big retail giants.
The apathetic store: Customer who doesnt like to do shopping but does it because he/she
consider as a necessary evil.
The recreational shopper: For this customer, shopping is a means of socializing, spending leisure
time and for him/her shopping is fun.
Reid and Brown(1996), proposes that the customers orientation towards shopping may shed
light into the way he/she indulge in shopping and it may also tell the reason why he/she chooses
a particular retail store (including shopping malls). This would be of great help to marketers to
design the malls in a way so as to increase the shopping experiences of the customers and
cooping up with the expectations and needs of the mall customers; as Underhill (1999), observed
that nowadays, upon entering a mall the environment is so vibrant,
Available literatures focus mostly on Western customers or some of the selected Asian counties
only. An appealing question is whether the theories and concepts postulated by the available
literatures also hold true for the Indian Customers (particularly of Raipur region). Therefore the

International Journal of Management & Strategy July-Dec.2010

Vol.1,No.1

current study in hand, has the primary focus in understanding the Indian customers shopping
behavior.

LITERATURE REVIEW
There are seven dimensions identified which elucidate the consumers motives for visiting and
shopping at malls (Bloch et al., 1994). Following are the seven dimensions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Aesthetics
Convenience
Escape
Exploration
Flow
Role enactment, and
Social

Aesthetics Dimensions
Wakefield and Baker (1998) found out that the architectural design of the mall was the
dimension which contributed the most to the mall excitement, while a malls interior design had
the strong influence on customers desire to stay longer in the mall. Wakerfield and Baker (1998)
also found a positive and strong relationship between the malls layout and desire to stay/mall
excitement. This tells us that customers not only evaluate the product assortments inside the mall
but they also do look for the intangibles that the mall offers like colors, ambience, fragrance,
lighting and music.
According to a study conducted by Loudon and Britta (1993), a better Interior design actually
helps to elevate the image of the mall over a period of time. Complementing the discussed
findings is the study conducted by Lui (1997) which revealed that todays Malls have seen a
paradigm shift in the kind of interior which the designers choose for their malls; from a very
relaxed environment to architecturally lavish, affluent and sophisticated design. Prior researches
suggest that use of light colors exhibits a sense of spaciousness and calmness whereas bright
colors impart a sense of excitement among the minds of the consumers; moreover, even the use
of serene music along with warm colors helped the mall by increasing the customers desire to
stay (Solomon, 1994; Peter and Olson, 1994). All in all, atmospheric characteristics are basically
an extension to the product assortments and could be manipulated positively to enhance buyers
mood and comprehension, hence affecting behavior, and to elevate the mall image. On the basis
of the above discussed literatures, our research postulates the first proposition:
H1: Shoppers motivation to go to a shopping mall will be higher when there is a higher
preference towards aesthetics

International Journal of Management & Strategy July-Dec.2010

Vol.1,No.1

Convenience Dimension:
Operating hours and time taken to reach the outlet are one of the main criteria which the
consumers look for while selecting a shopping outlet (Kaufman, 1996). As evident from the
theory of retail location, Consumers give higher preference to shopping outlet which is nearby
their homes. Loudon and Bitta (1993) also discovered that consumers seek high convenience;
they despise spending time and effort finding parking space, department or a particular product;
they also found that convenience is also an important criterion for customers who are either
visiting or making purchase in a mall very infrequently. Also, according to Kaufmann (1996),
consumers are getting more and more inclined towards a one stop destination for their
complete shopping desire, thereby complementing the theory of emergence of the mall culture.
This steers us to our second hypothesis:
H2: Shoppers motivation to go to a shopping mall will be higher when there is a higher
preference towards consumers convenience.
Escape dimension:
Malls, because of their exciting, lavish and sophisticated environments proffer a sense of relief
and break to the customers from the same monotonous and routine rituals of job and personal
works. Underhill (1999 and 2005) explained that many modern malls have started to offer a
myriad level of sensory stimulus. A trip to shopping malls can provide an individual/family a
very economic means of entertainment, leisure and recreation with a great deal of effortless
planning. This leads us to our third hypothesis:
H3: Shoppers motivation to go to a shopping mall will be higher when there is a higher
preference towards escape activity of the customers.
Exploration Dimension:
According to Tauber (1972), Malls attract shoppers by offering an opportunity to learn new
trends i.e. Exploration. Infact, customers perceive the process of accumulating information by
exploring various products or stores (both new and old) as a sense of benefit (Wakefield and
Baker, 1998). Consumers always look for new and upgraded product and their desire for variety
can only be met through the process of exploration. So, it is of utmost importance to the mall
management to offer a variety of products and alternatives for an improved mall performance
(Kaufmann, 1996). Thus we propose our fourth Hypothesis:
H4: Shoppers motivation to go to a shopping mall will be higher when there is a higher desire
for exploration
Flow Dimension:

International Journal of Management & Strategy July-Dec.2010

Vol.1,No.1

Bloch et al (1994) and Lui (1997) have explained the meaning of Flow as a blissful state of
absorption which is associated with the forgetting about the sense of time. For example if the
mall experience is good the customers will not mind the time which they have spent inside the
mall while shopping or enjoying and may even have a high desire to spend more time inside the
mall thus resulting in better performance of the mall. Moreover, visiting a mall alone is also not
perceived as a sense of negativity which however, is present in case of watching movies alone or
dining out alone. Thus, we propose:
H5: Shoppers motivation to go to a shopping mall will be higher when there is a higher
preference for flow.
Role enactment dimension:
People behave in manner which is socially accepted or expected depending on the cohort they
belong to. For example, shopping of household items in Raipur is done by housewives and
shopping for clothes and other related accessories are done by individuals. Wakefield and Baker
(1998) observed that hedonic shoppers (those who seek pleasure in shopping) were noticed to
visit malls more than utilitarian shoppers (those fulfill the duty of shopping). Solomon (1994)
also elicited that some shoppers enjoy bargaining and that they see shopping as a sport. Thus, in
a nutshell we may say that consumers enact their social roles by shopping or visiting a mall.
Therefore, we have our sixth hypothesis:
H6: Shoppers motivation to go to a shopping mall will be higher when there is a higher drive to
enact to a social role.
Social Dimensions:
Shopping offers an individual an opportunity to socialize, it often result in meeting up with old
friends or new acquaintances. Researches done by Tauber (1972); Wakefield and Baker (1998)
have posit that the opportunity of socialization is an important factor related shopping
experience. In addition to this, Loudon and Bitta (1993) have highlighted that most of the people
prefer to shop at location where employees behavior towards them are cordial and courteous.
Teens (even families) in particular have shown a great tendency of visiting and recreating at
shopping malls because of the economic cost of entry. Thus we, propose our seventh and last
hypothesis:
H7: Shoppers motivation to go to a shopping mall will be higher when there is a higher desire
for socialization.
The researchers are attempting to understand the influence of all the seven dimensions related to
shopping experience with regards to motivation towards visiting a mall. Thus, we postulate the
above proposed hypotheses in the form of a graphical representation as in Figure 1.

International Journal of Management & Strategy July-Dec.2010

Vol.1,No.1

Figure1: Graphical representation of Influence of Shopping Dimensions on motivation for

shopping at Malls
METHODOLOGY
A self administered questionnaire was employed in order to measure the responses of the
consumers towards the selected dimensions. A total of 156 respondents were selected purely on a
judgmental basis (making it a non-probability sampling technique) at the two malls situated at
Raipur city namely, 36 City Mall and Magneto Shopping Mall, who visited the two malls
between 6:00 pm 8:30 pm; as we believe that this the prime time when the most genuine bunch
of customers visit the malls.
The questionnaire divided into four parts. Part I employed questions to measure necessary and
relevant demographic details of the respondents. Part II of the questionnaire used questions to
capture the shopping behavior of the respondents (e.g. frequency of shopping, time taken while
shopping in the mall, etc.). Part III aimed at measuring the respondents reactions towards the
various dimensions of shopping as elicited by Bloch et al (1994). This part employed a total of
27 questions adapted from Tauber (1972) and Bloch et al. (1994) to cater to the seven selected
dimensions for the purpose of the study as depicted in our conceptual model. Each question was
measured using a five point Likert scale, which ranged 1 to 5, where 1 resembled the response as
strongly disagree while 5 resembled strongly agree.

ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

International Journal of Management & Strategy July-Dec.2010

Vol.1,No.1

Demographic details (Part I)

From a total of 156 respondents, about 136 questionnaires were found completely usable for the
purpose of the study. The frequency and percentage of the respondents were constructed
depicting the complete demographic characteristics of the sample; as shown in Table I.
There were 43.2 percent of male respondents and 59.8 percent of female respondents in the
sample. The largest set of respondents was found to be of the age group 22-25 years (33.8 %),
following were the respondents of age groups 26-30 years (24.3%) and 16-21 years (17.6 %)
respectively. Unmarried and single respondents were found to be more as in the sample
accounting for nearly 60 % and married respondents were about 40% of the total sample. No
case of divorced/widowed was found.
With respect to the educational level, graduates were the most recurring with 46.3% followed by
Post-Graduation level respondents. Percentage of undergraduates included in the sample was
21.3% whereas only two respondents were holding Doctorate award.
According to the statistics in terms of monthly income illustrated that major proportion of
respondents were earning a monthly income ranging from 20,001-30,000 INR (33.1%) followed
by respondents who specified that had a monthly income of 10,001-20,000 INR accounting for
22.8 % of the total sample, others who followed had 30,001-40,000 INR (16.9%), below 10,000
INR (14%) and above 40,000 INR (13.2 %). About the occupation of the respondents, the
statistics revealed that 30.9% of respondents were service professionals, 29.4% were students,
25.7% were self-employed and a considerably low percent of respondents with 14%, fell under
the category of Others (for example, Retired, Housewives etc).
Shopping Behavior (Part II)
Table II. indicates the shopping behavior of the respondents included in the sample. The given
table tells that majority of the respondents (30.1 %) spend about one and a half hours to two
hours for shopping purpose while 23.5% of respondents spend two and a half hours to three
hours for shopping purpose. There were even a good percentage of respondents who shop for
more than 4 hours accounting for 20.6% of the total sample a very less percent of respondents
(8.8%) was observed, who spend half an hour to one hour for shopping.
In terms of number of stores visited, 29.4% of respondents were found to be visiting 5-6 stores
while shopping, followed by 27.9 % visiting 3-4 stores, a good set of respondents were also
found (22.8 %), who visit more than 9 stores for their shopping purpose. A considerably low
percent of respondents accounting for 10.3 % and 9.6 % of the total sample were found to visit 78 stores and 1-2 stores respectively. In terms of number of times visiting the shopping mall, the
result indicates that only 8.1 % of respondents visited the malls on a daily basis whereas about 40
% of respondents visited the malls atleast once in a week (see Table II). 17.6 % of respondents

International Journal of Management & Strategy July-Dec.2010

Vol.1,No.1

were found to be visiting the malls atleast once in a month whereas only a handful of
respondents (5.1 %) were observed to visit the malls once in 45 months or higher.
With regards to the percentage of monthly income spent in the malls; Table II Indicates that
31.6% of respondents spend about 6-10 % of their monthly income, while shopping in the malls.
Table II also indicates that 19.9% spent more than 20 %, 18.4 % of respondents spent 11-15%,
15.4 % of respondents were found to spend 16-20 %, and remaining 14.7 % of respondents
spend less than 5% of their monthly expenditure in the shopping malls.
Reactions towards shopping dimensions (Part III)
As we have already discussed, there are a number of reasons (dimensions like aesthetics,
Convenience, flow etc) why consumers shop or visit malls (Bloch et al. 1994). The response of
each respondent was measured and compared among the various age groups using a one-way
ANOVA. The obtained result has been presented in Table III. The figures in the Table III are
mean scores based on a 5 point Likert scale as discussed in earlier section. The higher the mean
score, the more respondents agree to the various items of the selected dimensions.
With this thing in mind, we see that the shopping dimensions of aesthetic and exploration
obtained higher preference ratings as compared to the remaining dimensions. Notably, shopping
dimensions of Escape and Flow received lower preference scores in contrast to other dimensions.
However, in general, most of the respondents accept the fact that they did not shop/visit malls
just to escape from boredom, stress, bad traffic or loneliness. It could be elicited from the study
that the respondents visit the mall seeking positive experiences rather than to avoid negative
situations. The results revealed that Raipur customers prefer to visit malls mainly because of the
vibrant and attractive interior design of the mall (4.17); mall is a place where they get everything
(3.98); good place to hangout with friends as a means of socializing (3.98); as they sell products
of their interest and relevance (3.96).

1. Gender
Male
Female
Total
2. Age
16-21
22-25
26-30
31-35
36 and above

Frequency

Percentage

57
79
132

43.2
59.8
100

15
46
33
24
18

11.0
33.8
24.3
17.6
13.2

International Journal of Management & Strategy July-Dec.2010

Total

136

100

3. Academic
Qualification
Undergraduate
Graduate
Post-Graduate
Doctorate
Total

29
63
42
2
136

21.3
46.3
30.9
1.5
100

4. Marital status
Married
Unmarried
Total

54
82
136

39.7
60.3
100

5. Monthly Income (in

INR)
below 10,000
10,000-20,000
20,001-30,000
30,001-40,000
above 40,000
Total

19
31
45
18
23
136

14.0
22.8
33.1
13.2
16.9
100

6. Occupation
1. Student
40
2. Business/ self employed
35
3. Service
42
4. Others
19
Total
136
Table I. Demographic profile of the respondents

29.4
25.7
30.9
14.0
100

Frequency Percentage
I. Average Time spent for shopping (in
Hours)
0.5- 1
1.5- 2
2.5- 3
3.5- 4
above 4
Total

12
41
32
23
28
136

8.8
30.1
23.5
16.9
20.6
100

Vol.1,No.1

International Journal of Management & Strategy July-Dec.2010

2. Stores Visited
1-2 stores
3-4 stores
5-6 stores
7-8 stores
more than 9
Total

13
38
40
14
31
136

9.6
27.9
29.4
10.3
22.8
100

3. Frequency of Visit
Daily
once in every 7 days
once in every 14 days
once in every 30 days
once in 45 days or higher
Total

11
54
40
24
7
136

8.1
39.7
29.4
17.6
5.1
100

20
43
25
21
27
136

14.7
31.6
18.4
15.4
19.9
100

4. Monthly spendings in the mall

less than 5 %
6-10 %
11-15 %
16-20 %
More than 20 %
Total
Table II. Shopping habits of the sample

Vol.1,No.1

Theoretically, when we talk about the customers of different age groups, it is of common belief
that for different age group there different reasons for shopping at malls. To investigate this
belief we studied customers belonging to five different age groups namely 16 to 21, 22 to 25 yrs,
26 to 30 yrs, 31 to 35 yrs and those belong to 36 years or above. Table III shows one way
ANOVA scores for 27 items given by the respondents of various above mentioned age groups.
The result from the given table shows that out of 27 items of shopping dimensions, 11 items
were found to vary significantly between the different age groups (as p value < 0.05).
Of these, 5 items belonged to escape dimensions which suggest that younger respondents visit
the malls for the main purpose of escapism from boredom, stress, bad weather, bad traffic and
loneliness while this wasnt true with the case of older respondents.
Likewise, younger respondents gave higher preferences to the two items in the Exploration
dimensions namely discovering and examining new products. In social dimension the item which
varied significantly was I enjoy visiting the mall with my friends as younger respondents
agreed more to this than the older respondents. This indicates that younger respondents prefer to
visit the mall as means of socialization and to hang out with their friends.

International Journal of Management & Strategy July-Dec.2010

Vol.1,No.1

16-21

22-25

26-30

31-35

> 36

Total

p*

4.35
3.31
4.60

4.37
3.69
4.25

3.99
3.44
4.20

4.16
3.71
3.89

3.98
3.84
3.66

4.17
3.60
4.12

0.013
0.174
0.018

4.54

4.44

4.10

3.80

3.36

4.05

0.02

4.64

4.48

4.14

3.89

3.14

4.06

0.015

3.69

3.75

3.74

3.37

3.28

3.57

0.239

2.55

2.58

3.5

3.53

2.9

3.01

0.308

3.54

3.3

3.84

3.64

3.37

3.54

0.254

3.94

3.95

3.94

4.15

3.94

3.98

0.634

4.39
4.12
4.03

4.34
4.10
3.98

3.13
2.50
2.60

2.70
2.40
2.30

2.50
2.40
2.12

3.41
3.01
3.00

0.067
0.631
0.025

4.05

4.00

3.24

3.15

2.9

3.47

0.014

3.92
3.69

3.78
3.42

2.7
2.92

2.42
2.87

2.35
2.36

3.03
3.05

0.339
0.124

3.65

3.63

3.54

3.02

2.27

3.22

0.245

4.5

4.44

4.28

4.10

4.10

4.28

0.030

4.05

4.01

3.74

3.72

3.44

3.79

0.023

19. Certain stores are fun to visit because they

sell products of my interest

3.78

4.07

4.02

3.93

3.96

0.012

20. I enjoy handling and trying various

merchandise

4.03

3.96

3.34

3.29

3.08

3.54

0.000

3.18

2.9

2.98

2.68

2.51

2.85

0.284

a) Aesthetics
1. the interior design of the mall attracts me
2. I notice the interior color usage of the mall
3. I notice the texture of the mall's interior
4. The Lightning and decoration of the mall
attracts me
5. I am feel good whenever I am in the mall
b) Convenience
6. I visit the mall because its very near to my
residence or place of work
7. I Visit the mall because the parking space
of the mall is good
8. the mall has convenient store hours
9. Mall is a place where I can get
everything(dining, movies, shopping etc)
c) Escape
10. whenever I feel bored I visit the mall
11. whenever I feel lonely I visit the mall
12. Whenever I am stressed, I visit the mall
13. I get the feeling of relaxation when I visit
the mall
14. I visit the mall to escape from bad weather
15. I visit the mall to avoid traffic congestion
16. to escape from the monotonous job
routine, I visit the mall
d) Exploration
17. Mall is a good place to find out what is
new
18. its a good learning experience for me
whenever I visit the mall

e) Flow
21. I feel like in another world whenever I am
in the mall

International Journal of Management & Strategy July-Dec.2010

Vol.1,No.1

22. I lose track of time, whenevr I am inside

the mall

3.68

3.65

3.72

3.43

3.26

3.55

0.414

23. when I leave the mall I feel it is very late

at night

2.94

3.26

3.75

3.57

3.17

3.34

0.162

4.16

4.04

3.73

3.93

3.66

3.90

0.076

2.94

2.64

3.67

3.14

3.17

3.11

0.002

f) Role Enactment
24. grocery shopping is a routine exercise of
the housewife.
25. I consider myself as a wise shopper,
because of the way I bargain and get the best
deal

g) Social
26. I enjoy going to malls when I am with
4.43
4.18
4.14
3.9
3.27
3.98
friends
27. The sales persons are friendly and
3.48
3.52
4.10
4.23
4.22
3.91
courteous
*Level of significance using one-way ANOVA test. Significance values <0.05 are highlighted and
underscored
Table III. ANOVA scores of shopping dimensions by age group

0.000
0.013

MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS
As more and more malls are coming up in the Raipur city, competition in this domain will soon
intensify and become fierce. It is of utmost importance to mall management to understand the
needs/desires of the targeted customers and deliver their offerings accordingly so that they can
get not only the maximum wallet shares of the customers but also their mind shares. The results
of the current study have many implications to the managers and marketers for an efficient,
effective and productive mall performance.
Malls are fast becoming a place for socializing and recreation (apart from shopping), and
customers have set high expectations from the malls. They see malls as a one stop destination for
various purposes like dining, watching movies, hanging out, meeting new/ old friends and
shopping. Hence, mall managers should understand that malls have become something more than
a place to buy products and they should transform the malls that would offer energetic and
vibrant stores with attractive product merchandises, scores of entertainment bundled with
modern, more sophisticated atmospherics and facilities, necessary to lure the target customers.
Aesthetics were valued high by the Raipur customers, items related to the aesthetics like interior
design, dcor and lightning of the malls were observed to have received high acceptance from
the respondents. Managing atmospherics is of great strategic importance, resulting in an
appropriate differentiation and positioning. The results of the study could help marketers in
framing the atmospherics in a very strategic manner.

International Journal of Management & Strategy July-Dec.2010

Vol.1,No.1

Customers of Raipur also gave high acceptance to dimensions like Exploration, Convenience and
Social. The customers preferred one stop shopping, wide product assortment and a place for
recreation with friends and acquaintances. Mall managers and marketers should bundle all the
mentioned items while designing criteria which the mall has to offer to the customers, inorder to
lure them, make them to stay longer and spend more.
The current study also revealed that young customers of the Raipur city were found to have
favorably inclined towards the mall than their older counterparts. Mall managers and marketers
should develop new strategies inorder to attract more and more youth crowd by employing new
technologies, vibrant color schemes and futuristic whereas they should also devise ways of
attracting older crowd by offering complete family entertainment along with a great shopping
experience.

LIMITATIONS AND SCOPE FOR FUTURE WORKS

Resource and Time constraints led the researchers to select a limited sampling frame for the
purpose of the current research. Although the study offers exciting results and some great
managerial implication yet they are not suitable for generalizing to the whole of Chhattisgarh or
the nation. The use of convenience sampling method by the researchers may have included a
sense of biasness while selecting the respondents. So, the researchers suggest the employment of
probabilistic sampling and a large sample frame, for all future works towards this direction in
order to maximize the reliability and generalizability of the results.
Since only two malls were available at the time of study when undertaken, demographic profile
of the customers may not be broader. The researchers also recommend to gather data from
customers at more number of malls (as they open) in order to broaden the demographic profile.
Future work examining the shopping behavior of the entire nation so as to compare and
benchmark across various cultures within the nation is also of highest need and desire.
REFERENCES
1. Assael, H. (1987), Consumer Behavior and Marketing Action, 3rd ed., Kent Publishing
Company,Boston, MA.
2. Bloch, P.H., Ridgway, N.M. and Dawson, S.A. (1994), The consumer mall as shopping
habitat,Journal of Retailing, pp. 23-42.
3. Dholakia, R.R. (1999), Going shopping: key determinants of shopping behaviors and
motivations,International Journal of Retail & DistributionManagement, Vol. 27 No. 4,
pp. 154-65.

International Journal of Management & Strategy July-Dec.2010

Vol.1,No.1

4. Kaufman, C.F. (1996), A new look at one-stop shopping: a TIMES model approach to
matching store hours and shopper schedules, Journal of ConsumerMarketing, Vol. 13
No. 1, pp. 4-52.
5. Loudon, D.L. and Bitta, A.J.D. (1993), Consumer Behavior: Concepts and Applications,
4th ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.
6. Lui K. F. (1997), Shopping behavior in Kuala Lumpur shoppingmalls, Universiti
Putra Malaysia.
7. Peter, J.P. and Olson, J.C. (1994), Understanding Consumer Behavior, Irwin Inc,
Homewood, IL.
8. Reid, R. and Brown, S. (1996), I hate shopping! an introspective perspective,
International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp 4-16.
9. Solomon, M.R. (1994), Consumer Behavior, 2nd ed., Allyn Bacon
10. Tauber, E.M. (1972), Why do people shop?, Journal of Marketing Management, Fall,
pp. 58-70

11. Underhill, P. (1999), Why We Buy? The Science of Shopping, Simon Schuster, New
York, NY.
12. Underhill, P. (2005), Call of the Mall. Simon Schuster, New York, NY.
13. Wakefield, K. L. and Baker, J. (1998), Excitement at the mall: determinants and effects
on shopping, Journal of Retailing, Fall, pp. 515-50.