International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management

Shopping motivation revised: a means-end chain analytical perspective

Tillmann Wagner
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International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 35 Iss 7 pp. 569 - 582
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Shopping
Shopping motivation revised: motivation
a means-end chain revised
analytical perspective
569
Tillmann Wagner
Area of Marketing, Rawls College of Business, Texas Tech University,
Lubbock, Texas, USA

Abstract
Purpose – Shopping motivation is one of the key constructs of research on shopping behavior and
exhibits a high relevance for formulating retail marketing strategies. Previous studies of shopping
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behavior as well as research in the areas of psychology and organizational behavior point towards a
need to investigate the hierarchical nature of shopping motivation. The present study intends to take
the first steps towards the development of a hierarchical theory of shopping motivation.
Design/methodology/approach – Means-end chain theory is adopted to explore the hierarchical
nature of shopping motivation. A total of 40 in-depths interviews with apparel shoppers were
conducted using the laddering technique. Results are depicted in three hierarchical value maps.
Findings – Evidence is provided relating to the social, experiential, and utilitarian aspects of
shopping as represented by four dominant motivational patterns referring to the issues of shopping
pleasure, frictionless shopping, value seeking, and quality seeking. Concrete retail attributes are
presented which allow retailers to correspond to these motivations.
Originality/value – The paper identifies the need to introduce a hierarchical perspective to provide
an increased understanding of consumers’ shopping motivation. First, empirical evidence is provided
regarding how consumers’ cognitive structures relating to the benefits of shopping are hierarchically
organized.
Keywords Shopping, Motivation (psychology), Retailing, Quantitative research
Paper type Research paper

Introduction and background

Research regarding consumer shopping motivation first found wide recognition among
marketing scholars in 1972 through Tauber’s (1972) seminal article investigating the
question “Why do people shop?” Since, then, shopping motivation has emerged as one of
the key constructs of contemporary research in retail marketing and consumer behavior,
discussed in numerous empirical (Dholakia, 1999) and conceptual scholarly articles
(Woodruffe-Burton et al., 2002), doctoral dissertations (Perner, 1998), as well as
marketing textbooks (McGoldrick, 2002). Although initial research findings typically
referred to the context of shopping at (physical) store outlets, over the years, shopping
motives have been related to various other retail channels, as for instance mail-order
services (Eastlick and Feinberg, 1999), online shopping (Parsons, 2002), and craft fairs
(Hibbert and Tagg, 2001). The topic of shopping motivation can be ascribed a superior
managerial relevance since varying retail marketing strategies correspond with International Journal of Retail &
different shopping motivations (Bucklin, 1963). Consequently, shopping motivation Distribution Management
Vol. 35 No. 7, 2007
exhibits a strong potential to be used as a basis for market segmentation and the pp. 569-582
development of retail marketing strategies (McGoldrick, 2002; Westbrook and Black, q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0959-0552
1985). With respect to the high theoretical and practical relevance, it does not come as DOI 10.1108/09590550710755949
 IJRDM a surprise that consumer shopping motivation has remained a current topic, actively
35,7 discussed in leading academic journals for more than 30 years (Kaltcheva and Weitz,
2006).
Existing research typically builds upon various factor-analytical procedures to test the
underlying dimensionality (i.e. factor structure) of shopping motivation and the
measurement properties of a selected set of corresponding indicator variables (Cox et al.,
570 2005). Research of this kind has been very successful in providing the discipline with
reliable and valid approaches for a quantitative measurement of shopping motivation.
However, the predominant perspective on shopping motivation commonly simplifies
different motives in that they are not classified as belonging to specific degrees of
abstraction, or hierarchical levels of specificity. Yet, Mooradian and Olver (1996, pp. 587-8)
suggest that consumers’ shopping motives are “organized hierarchically with broad
higher-order motives encompassing multiple specific motives”. This hierarchical
perspective seems logical in that “a single shopping behavior enables individuals to
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acquire a set of hierarchically arranged benefits which can include cognitive, emotional,
experiential, sensory, affiliative, and material benefits” (Darden and Dorsch, 1990, p. 301).
Accordingly, an investigation of the hierarchical dimension of shopping motivation holds
a strong potential to increase our understanding of shoppers’ underlying social,
experiential, and utilitarian needs pursued through store visits. Whereas research in the
areas of psychology (Rifkin, 1985) and organizational behavior (Cropanzano et al., 1992)
have long recognized and investigated the hierarchical nature of human motivation, this
phenomenon has been widely ignored in the literature on shopping behavior. Given that it
seems to be “generally accepted that consumer behavior is goal directed, and that goals at
different levels of abstraction are hierarchically related” (Warlop et al., 2000, p. 203), it
appears highly relevant to investigate the hierarchical structure of shopping motivation to
generate additional insights relevant for both theory and practice.
As will be discussed in greater depth in the following, the qualitative mean-end
chain (MEC) analysis facilitates to explore human motivation under different degrees
of abstraction (Bagozzi and Edwards, 1998). Research designs based on the MEC
theory have been employed frequently to investigate consumer motivation (Claeys
et al., 1995). A qualitative research design appears potentially valuable since work by
King and Dennis (2003) underscores the strong potential of qualitative techniques to
establish an in-depth understanding of particular shopping behaviors. The objective of
this paper is to investigate consumer shopping motivation under the aspect of different
degrees of abstraction. A MEC analytical framework is adopted in order to generate
first empirical results towards the development of a hierarchical theory of shopping
motivation. I do so by briefly touching upon the theory of MECs. Next, the process of
data collection and analysis is illustrated. This is followed by a presentation and
discussion of the empirical results. The paper closes by drawing conclusions for future
research and contemporary retail management.

Theory of means-end chains

MEC analysis is a qualitative research approach that investigates the cognitive
structures of individuals (Aurifeille and Valette-Florence, 1995). The term refers to a set
of methods for the purpose of questioning interview participants regarding the reasons
for their decision choice and interpreting the responses in terms of linkages between
different outcomes (Olson and Reynolds, 2001). Applied to the retail context, MEC
 postulates that cognitive linkages between store attributes, consequences evoked Shopping
through store visits, and personal values of consumers underlie the decision-making motivation
process (Thompson and Chen, 1998). In this view, MECs explain how the activity of
shopping enables an individual to achieve a desired end state (Gutman and Alden, revised
1985). An actual MEC is a cognitive representation of the connection between the
consumers’ prevailing knowledge about a retailer and their self-knowledge in terms of
important psychological and social consequences and values (Mulvey and Olson, 571
1994).
The common MEC framework consists of four elements, namely, attributes, functional
consequences, psychosocial consequences, and values (Olson and Reynolds, 2001). For the
purpose of the present research, attributes are the distinct characteristics of retail
environments and service offers such as store features or friendly personnel. The term
functional consequences is used to describe the anticipated qualities of a store visit which
consumers experience rather immediately during a store visit (e.g. fast shopping,
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discovering attractive merchandise). Psychosocial consequences, in contrast, describe the

psychological and social outcomes of the store visit. That is, personal outcomes occurring
as a consequence following the shopping experience. Values, on the other hand, can be
considered centrally held cognitive elements that trigger motivation for behavior (Vinson
et al., 1977), referring to more abstract concepts such as health or happiness. It is important
to realize that the theoretical distinction among attributes, consequences, and values of the
MEC approach proposes that consumers’ knowledge structures are hierarchically
organized, referring to different levels of abstraction (Reynolds et al., 1995).
When adopting the MEC approach to investigate consumer motivation, the
literature interprets the linked elements which comprise the MECs as representations
of consumers’ underlying motivation (Claeys et al., 1995). Providing the rationale for
this interpretation, Reynolds and Gutman (2001, p. 27) point out that an understanding
of the structure of attributes, consequences, and values depicted in MECs facilitates a
“motivational perspective” because it uncovers the underlying reasons why certain
attributes or expected consequences are desired. Likewise, Bagozzi et al. (2003, p. 918)
view depict cognitive structures as “ladders of motives” and Cohen and Warlop (2001,
p. 404) define the hierarchical levels inherent in a MEC as “motivational layers”. In this
view, attributes, functional consequences, psychosocial consequences, and values all
represent different motivational layers in a MEC analytic investigation of consumer
shopping motivation.

Data collection and analysis

As consumers’ shopping for apparel can be driven by a broad variety of different
underlying shopping motivations-including hedonic as well as purpose-driven
aspects-, it was selected as an exemplary retail context for the current study. The
data collection was conducted inside a large-size department store located in a major
metropolitan area in central Switzerland. For exploratory studies such as the current
research, a sample size of about 40 interviews is recommended, because beyond this
size very few new concepts are elicited (Olson and Reynolds, 1983). It was therefore
decided to conduct 40 usable laddering interviews. In doing so, the interview procedure
was based upon the guidelines by Reynolds and Gutman (2001). In general, the first
step of each laddering interview consists of eliciting the relevant attributes or criteria,
which are then used as starting points for the following laddering procedure consisting
 IJRDM of different series of questions in the style of “why is this important to you”. For the
35,7 purpose of eliciting initial store attributes, Breivik and Supphellen’s (2003) technique of
“ideal description” was employed.
Interview participants were selected out of the consumers patronizing the store. After
the research was introduced and related to the task of apparel shopping, participants
were asked the following questions: “What characteristics should a retail store have in
572 order for you to prefer shopping there?”; “Please list four characteristics of your ideal
store.” Subsequently, the laddering interview technique was applied on the basis of the
store attributes previously elicited. Then the interviewer would refer to the first attribute
mentioned by a respondent and then post the question “why is this important to you?”
After an answer has been given, the same question was asked again, now with regard to
this response (instead of the initial attribute), thereby taking one step up on a “ladder”
towards a higher degree of abstraction. After that, it would be asked again why the latest
reason provided was important. This procedure was then repeated for each ladder until
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the level of terminal values was reached (e.g. giving the reasons of “happiness” or
“quality of life”) or until a respondent was not able to provide an answer rather directly,
which is a situation commonly encountered during laddering interviews.
The sample of respondents demonstrates balanced characteristics. The majority of
interview participants was female (64 percent), married (42 percent), and has graduated
from high school and finished some form of professional training program (61 percent).
The average age of participants was 37 years. In order to prepare for the subsequent
analyses, all data had to be converted into an electronic form. In a first step, all responses
were recorded in a separate coding form. The coding form subsumed all given responses
as raw data in matrix form. After the responses had been inspected for completeness and
a general sense of the types of elements elicited during the laddering interviews had been
developed, a content analysis was conducted to categorize and code the elements
generated by the laddering interviews. Firstly, each element contained in the recorded
ladders was related to a particular hierarchical level within the theoretical framework.
Next, a set of content codes was developed to comprehend all the concepts included on
the levels of attributes, consequences, and values. All content codes resulting from the
classification procedure were independently validated by three different expert judges.
Discrepancies and additional suggestions from the validation process were mutually
discussed until there was complete agreement on all content codes. The software tool
Mecanalyst 1.0.19 was employed to facilitate the data analysis.
An implication matrix was generated with the rows and columns containing the
concepts obtained by the content analysis. The entries in the matrix consisted of the
number of times each pair of concepts was associated together in the laddering
interviews (Gengler et al., 1995). That is, the implication matrix indicated the number of
times each element lead to each other element, thereby showing which elements in a
given row precede other elements in the same row (Reynolds et al., 2001).
When depicting direct and indirect associations in an implication matrix and in a
hierarchical value map (HVM), a distinct fractional format is commonly applied,
where the direct relations appear to the left of the point and the indirect relations to
its right. The Mecanalyst tool was used to compute an implication matrix resembling
68 £ 68 rows and columns. When subsequently constructing the HVMs, the chains were
constructed based on the aggregated data in the implication matrix. Before the mapping
process could be started, the relevant cut-off level had to be determined. The cut-off level
 characterizes the minimum amount of total links (direct and indirect) between the Shopping
elements to be depicted in a HVM. Owing to the sample size of the current study of motivation
40 participants, a minimum cut-off level of three was determined. It is important to
note that an HVM does not depict “redundant” links which would occur when two revised
elements are linked both directly and indirectly. In such a case, only the indirect link is
depicted for sake of simplicity.
573
Results
The layout format of the HVMs in this study follows the contemporary research
practice to indicate the frequency of each element as well as the amounts of the relevant
cognitive associations in addition to the structural linkages among cognitive elements
(Gengler et al., 1995). Figure 1 shows corresponding guideline for interpreting the
following HVMs.
The differentiation among attributes, functional consequences, psychosocial
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consequences, and values is facilitated by the usage of different grey scales

identifying the four levels of abstraction. Increasing degrees of abstraction are
represented by darker grey scales, starting from plain white attributes to dark grey
values. In line with Mulvey and Olson (1994), the thickness of the arrows between the
elements is proportional to the percentage of subjects that related the respective
concepts. With reference to Fotopoulos et al. (2003) three distinct categorizations of links
were defined, specifically, weaker relations (up to four associations), medium relations
(between five and nine associations), and strong relations (ten and more associations).
Likewise, three classes expressing the frequency of the elicited elements were
established. Accordingly, elements which were mentioned up to nine times were
classified as a low, ten to 19 mentions as a medium, and 20 or more mentions as a high
frequency. Furthermore, the HVMs indicate the amount every element was mentioned
(N values) as well as the number of direct and indirect links (fraction) between
adjacent elements. For instance, the attribute friendly personnel – as discussed
subsequently – is characterized by the value N ¼ 16 and a link with the strength of 5.2
towards the consequence fun to shop, meaning that the first element was mentioned
a total of 16 times during the 40 laddering interviews, whereby the respondents stated
five times directly and twice indirectly (i.e. mentioning another element in between) that
this attribute would make the shopping experience more fun. For the sake of clarity, the
cognitive structures captured in this study are shown in three separate HVMs. In a first
step, Figure 2 shows the HVM in regard to personnel-specific attributes.

Values element mentioned up to link associated up to 4

9 times times
Psychosocial
Consequences element mentioned link associated between 5
between 10 and 19 times and 9 times
Functional
Consequences
element mentioned 20 or link associated 10 or
Attributes more times more times Figure 1.
Symbols used in HVMs
 IJRDM individuality balance
Contentment enjoy life happiness
personal
(physical & relationships
35,7 (N=7)
mental) (N=34) (N=40) (N=26) (N=15) (N=14)

shopping (5.4) (6.5) (4.2) (0.3) (1.2)

feeling well
satisfaction
(N=23) (N=18)
574
(6.1) (5.1)

(5.3)
(1.2)

finding the feeling

fast shopping fun to shop
right products comfortable inside
(N=35) easily (N=50) (N=31)
the store(N=7)
(6.1)
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(10.1) (5.2)
shopping (2.1)
human contact
convenience (N=5)
(N=29)
(3.0)
Figure 2. (3.0)
(7.0) (3.0) (3.0)
Hierarchical value map
based on personnel personnel (not personnel personnel personnel
attributes obtrusive) (available) (competent) (friendly)
(N=9) (N=4) (N=6) (N=16)

When employing an overall perspective on this HVM, two motivational patterns

emerge which indicate that personnel serves as a facilitator of frictionless shopping
and shopping pleasure.
With reference to the work of Brynjolfsson and Smith (2000), frictionless shopping is
defined as consumers’ perceived ease of the overall shopping process. Specifically, the
availability, competence, and friendliness of store employees are associated with the
functional consequence shopping convenience. Yet, this factor is most heavily related to
personnel which is not obtrusive, expressing shoppers’ desire not to be impacted too
much by others during the decision-making process. Overall, the motivational pattern of
frictionless shopping subsumes three important functional consequences including
shopping convenience, fast shopping and finding the right products easily. Especially,
the desire for convenience employs a very central position within consumers’ cognitive
structures. Convenience is driven by four different attributes and is strongly related to
the other two consequences in this motivational pattern. The illustration further reveals
that consumers perceive a convenient and fast shopping experience as a means to obtain
a physical and mental balance, a value of great importance to many shoppers. Similarly,
the desire to find the right products easily is associated with the psychosocial
consequences feeling well and shopping satisfaction as well as the value general
contentment. This finding indicates that consumers view a successful product selection
as a central goal during apparel shopping.
The second motivational pattern provides evidence for the social value of retail
experiences. In particular, the friendliness of store personnel is strongly associated with
the perceived pleasure of shopping. Respondents consider friendly personnel as a means to
experience human contact and feeling comfortable inside a retail facility. Yet, consumers
also relate this attribute to their desire for happiness and personal relationships.
 Most apparent however: consumers view a shopping experience which is fun largely as a Shopping
consequence of friendly personnel. Next, Figure 3 shows the cognitive structure map motivation
based on the attributes relating to the categories price and assortment.
The cognitive map depicts motivational patterns relating to value seeking, revised
frictionless shopping, and quality seeking. Regarding shoppers’ pursuit of value,
respondents related prices perceived as not too high very strongly with an inexpensive
shopping opportunity. Likewise, a good value for money relates to the same functional 575
consequence, albeit the relation tends to be much weaker.
The price-related elements suggest that while shopping for apparel, many
consumers do not seem to be looking for explicitly low prices, but – when following a
predominantly price-driven motivation – primarily pursue a good value for money or
somehow “acceptable” prices which do not necessarily have to be the comparatively
lowest ones, but are perceived as lying within a moderate range.
Frictionless shopping characterizes the second motivational pattern of this map and
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shows what consumers associate with a broad choice of merchandise and with an
appealing product style. Both of these attributes are linked to consumers’ desire to find
the right products easily, which was the functional consequence mentioned most
frequently. However, finding the right products easily is no end value in itself, but is
further related to consumers’ pursuit of fast shopping, which leads to the expected
psychosocial consequence to have more leisure time.
The third motivational pattern relates to consumers’ pursuit of product quality.
As shown above, consumers directly associate product quality most frequently with the
longevity of a product. Furthermore, long lasting products appear to be cognitively linked

quality of life contentment recognition happiness

(N=22) (N=40) (N=9) (N=15)

balance (physical
& mental) (0.3)
(N=34) shop less
(having to)
(0.3) enjoy life (N=4)
(4.0) (0.6) (N=26)
(1.2) (3.1)
shopping
travel (being leisure time satisfaction
able to) (N=6) (N=16) (0.3) (N=18)

(7.0) products last

fast shopping longer (N=10) (2.2) (0.3)
(6.0)
(N=35)

(8.0) (9.0)

finding the
inexpensive right products
shopping easily(N=50)
(N=23)

(6.0)
(3.0) (12.0) (6.0) Figure 3.
Hierarchical value map
value for prices (not too choice (broad) style of products
product
based on assortment and
(personally
money (N=5) high) (N=13) (N=10) appealing) (N=10) quality (N=12) price attributes
 IJRDM with the anticipated consequence of having to shop less as well as contributing towards
35,7 peoples’ general contentment. Next, Figure 4 shows what implications apparel shoppers
derive from different characteristics of retail store environments and accessibility.
At first sight, the above diagram depicts a structure much more complex than the
previously discussed value maps. When taking a closer look, however, two familiar
motivational patterns can be identified: one centered around shopping pleasure and
576 another one relating to frictionless shopping.
The first motivational pattern underscores consumers’ desire for experiential value
provided by the shopping experience. The pleasure-driven motivational cluster
relates primarily to one store attribute and one functional consequence, whereby the
interview participants placed a greater importance on this chain. That is, a pleasant
store atmosphere is the attribute mentioned most frequently within the context of
apparel shopping and was brought up as dominant facilitator of shopping pleasure.
In addition to this, a pleasurable shopping experience entails strong structural linkages
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towards consumers’ overall contentment.

The second motivational pattern relates to frictionless shopping and centers around
three hierarchically-organized functional consequences, namely, shopping convenience,
finding the right products easily, and fast shopping. Shopping convenience is driven by
preferences for sufficient space inside stores, uncrowded stores, and clearly arranged
store layouts. Shopping convenience, in turn, is strongly related to the desire for finding
the right products easily, which is also impacted by the attributes relating to an
appealing merchandise presentation and a pleasant store atmosphere. In addition to
that, store accessibility is viewed as an antecedent to fast shopping.

personal enjoy life contentment quality of life

relationships
(N=14) (N=26) (N=40) (N=22)
(5.0)
balance (physical
(2.2) & mental) (N=34)

(3.0) (5.0) (5.4) (6.5)

hobby (being leisure time (2.2)
able to engage
in)(N=6) (N=16)

(3.0) (0.3)
(7.0) feeling well
(N=23)
fast shopping fun to shop
(N=35) (6.1) (N=31)
(8.0)

finding the finding my way

right products inside the store
easily (N=50) (N=5)
(10.1)
(4.0)
(1.3) shopping
convenience (4.0)
(8.4) (N=29)
(4.0)
(3.0) (2.1)
Figure 4. (5.0)
Hierarchical value map store merchandise store atmosphere store space inside store store layout
based on store attributes accessibility presentation (uncrowded) (clearly
(pleasant) (N=17) (sufficient) (N=7) arranged (N=16)
(N=5) (appealing) (N=7) (N=6)
 Several cognitive clusters have emerged during the previous elaboration on Shopping
consumers’ mental associations. In particular, four dominant motivational patterns motivation
emerged which subsume frictionless shopping, shopping pleasure, value seeking, and
quality seeking (Figure 5). revised
These motivational patterns can be ascribed a dominant role because they account for
the very majority of cognitive links. Moreover, the respective functional consequences
represent the most highly desired shopping benefits from the consumers’ point of view: 577
finding the right products easily (N ¼ 50), fast shopping (N ¼ 35), fun to shop (N ¼ 31),
shopping convenience (N ¼ 29), and inexpensive shopping (N ¼ 23) have been mentioned
with the highest frequency during the laddering interviews. Owing to space restrictions is
not feasible to provide a detailed account of all cognitive elements corresponding to these
relevant motivational patterns. However, because functional consequences tend to be the
main psychological driving force of consumer behavior among the four different elements
of the MEC framework (Gutman, 1991), an overview is provided next about the retail
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attributes which consumers associate the most with the relevant functional consequences.
Retail attributes represent actionable managerial variables. Hence, the following
discussion exhibits a particular managerial relevance and indicates how retailers can
correspond to shoppers’ dominant motivational drivers.

Frictionless shopping
Consumers’ desire for a frictionless shopping process represents probably the most
dominant motivational pattern. This underlying scheme is manifested in three
functional consequences which relate to finding the right products easily, fast
shopping, and shopping convenience. As listed below, these shopping benefits are
linked to a broad variety of different retail attributes (the total amount of both direct
and indirect cognitive associations between a retail attribute and a motivational
pattern are shown in parentheses):
(1) Store:
.
store layout (clearly arranged) (15);
.
space inside store (13);
.
store atmosphere (pleasant) (5);
.
store accessibility (4);
.
merchandise presentation (4); and
.
store (uncrowded) (3).

Motivational
Patterns

Figure 5.
Frictionless Shopping Quality Dominant motivational
Value Seeking patterns
Shopping Pleasure Seeking
 IJRDM (2) Personnel:
35,7 .
personnel (not obtrusive) (11);
.
personnel (competent) (8);
.
personnel (available) (7); and
.
personnel (friendly) (3).
578 (3) Assortment:
.
choice (broad) (10); and
.
style of products (3).
Shopping pleasure
Consumers’ substantial desire for shopping pleasure expresses their pursuit of
social and experiential value provided by retail environments and store employees.
In particular, the motivational pattern referring to shopping pleasure centers around
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the desired consequences fun to shop, feeling comfortable inside stores, and human
contact. Consumers anticipate that the following retail characteristics lead to
experience of shopping pleasure:
(1) Store:
.
store atmosphere (pleasant) (20).
(2) Personnel:
.
personnel (friendly) (14).

Notably, these two attributes contribute towards all three desired consequences,
underscoring their vital importance as a facilitator of shopping pleasure.

Value seeking
Not surprisingly, the dominant cognitive associations expressing shoppers’
value-seeking shopping behavior are manifested in consumers’ desire for inexpensive
shopping opportunities and the resulting pursuit of price-related attributes:
(1) Prices:
.
prices (not too high) (12);
. value for money (3); and
.
prices (low) (2).

As discussed earlier, a substantial price consciousness can be detected among apparel

shoppers. Yet, interestingly, consumers do not seem to look for the distinctively lowest
prices, but appear content if retail prices are not perceived as being too high in
comparison to other market offers.

Quality seeking
When compared to the other motivational patterns, consumers’ quality-driven shopping
behavior exhibits different properties. Whereas the previously discussed motivational
patterns center around particular functional consequences representing the dominant
key drivers of behavior (Botschen and Thelen, 1999; Cohen and Warlop, 2001), the
attribute product quality does not relate to a single particular functional consequence.
 As shown above in Figure 3, shoppers’ pursuit of product quality is driven by a set of Shopping
underlying higher-order elements. The missing associations with specific functional motivation
consequences suggest that consumers do not seem to view product quality as an
immediate benefit of the shopping experience, but regard quality as an important value revised
in itself which pays off eventually after the store visit. In doing so, they anticipate an
experienced state of satisfaction after a successful shopping trip as well as an increased
longevity of the merchandise purchased. 579
Discussion
Research in psychology and organizational behavior has long recognized the
importance to study human motivation under different degrees of abstraction. Yet,
existing work on shopping motivation commonly reduces consumers’ motivation to a
single level of abstraction predetermined by the individual researcher. This study takes
first steps towards the development of a hierarchical theory of shopping motivation.
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The empirical evidence presented provides first insights into how consumers’ cognitive
structures relating to the benefits of shopping are hierarchically organized and suggests
that reducing shopping motivation to only one isolated and subjectively determined
level of abstraction represents a considerable oversimplification.

Managerial implications
This study demonstrates that the means-end approach is particularly useful for
deriving practical implications for retail marketing since it relates consumers’
shopping motivations directly to their corresponding store-attribute preferences.
That is, the relationship between specifically desired characteristics of retail stores and
underlying motivations are revealed, thereby reducing the shortcoming of current
motivational theories to “account for specific actions and to point to particular
strategies for influencing behavior” (Bagozzi et al., 2003, pp. 915-6). Retailers do not
only gain in-depth insights into the major psychological key drivers of shopping, they
receive a detailed account of the concrete retail attributes which directly correspond
with these motivations. In this view, the attributes depicted on the lowest level in the
HVMs represent actionable retail marketing variables that can be employed to fulfill
shoppers’ hidden motivations.
Overall, the present findings provide empirical evidence regarding shoppers’
pursuit of social, experiential, and utilitarian values experienced through store visits.
Consumers’ desire for social and experiential benefits of shopping is manifested in their
substantial need for shopping pleasure. Important utilitarian shopping values relate to
shoppers’ search for value, quality, and an overall frictionless shopping experience.
Two particularly interesting findings should be noted in regard to shoppers’ store
attribute preferences. Firstly, the pleasantness of store atmosphere and the friendliness
of store employees serve not only as the two major key variables influencing the degree
of experienced shopping pleasure, these characteristics also contribute to the
utilitarian, that is, functional aspect of shopping. In particular, shoppers associate a
pleasant store atmosphere and friendly personnel with the experience of overall
shopping convenience as well as being able to find the right products easily. Secondly,
the findings suggest that price is a critical variable in store-choice decisions, but that
shoppers often are willing to accept a price range which seems subjectively reasonable
instead of attempting to search for distinctively lowest prices.
 IJRDM Limitations and future research
35,7 The limitations of this study provide some guidance for future research. Foremost
among these limitations is the underlying sampling procedure. Whereas the applied
convenience sampling approach and the given sample size are appropriate for this kind
of qualitative research, the empirical findings do not allow making general inferences
about a specific population in a strict statistical sense. Consequently, the
580 generalizability of the present findings could be improved by subsequent empirical
research using a larger sample size generated by an underlying random sampling
procedure. Since, shopping motivation is commonly acknowledged to be a largely
situational phenomenon (Kaltcheva and Weitz, 2006), another shortcoming of
this study is its limitation to a single research context. This shortcoming is reduced by
selecting apparel shopping as a study context, which tends to demonstrate balanced
characteristics, representing both utilitarian as well as hedonic properties. However,
the findings provided by this research remain to be validated by empirical research
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building upon alternative shopping contexts, as for instance, different store formats or
consumers’ situational predispositions such as time pressure. Since, academic
investigations of shopping motivation are commonly limited to a single study context,
one interesting future research avenue might relate to a cross-contextual analysis of
shopping motivation using means-end analysis.
Lastly, it is worth noting that a MEC investigation of consumers’ motivation can be
considered a complementary, not competing approach to conventional quantitative
studies. For instance, the responses elicited through laddering interviews could be used
as reference points for deriving relevant indicator variables of respective constructs.
Likewise, a subsequent confirmatory study could attempt to validate the structural
relationships among the different cognitive elements inherent in the dominant
motivational patterns suggested by a means-end investigation. The results presented
here suggest that MEC analysis is a valuable alternative approach to study consumers’
shopping motivation. The individual MECs depicted in the HVMs provide a more
detailed and in-depths understanding of the psychology of shopping, that is,
consumers’ underlying reasons for shopping activities. In doing so, dominant
motivational patterns can be identified which represent the ultimate psychological key
drivers of shopping behavior and specific related store attributes are revealed which
help retailers to correspond to relevant motives with their marketing strategies.

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Corresponding author
Tillmann Wagner can be contacted at: t.wagner@ttu.edu

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