Effects of store loyalty on shopping mall loyalty Fazlul K. Rabbanee a,n , B. Ramaseshan a , Chen Wu b , Amy Vinden c a School of Marketing, Curtin University, Australia b International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, The University of Western Australia, Australia c OmniSTAR Pty Ltd., Australia article info Available online 29 February 2012 Keywords: Shopping mall loyalty Store loyalty Relationship commitment Customer distance Perceived value abstract The key purpose of this paper is to bridge a research gap in shopping mall literature by investigating the relationship between store loyalty and shopping mall loyalty. The paper also examines the effects of perceived store value and store relationship commitment on store loyalty en-route to loyalty towards the shopping mall hosting the stores. The study shows that store loyalty influences shopping mall loyalty under certain conditions and that such an influence is moderated by the geographic distance between the consumer and the shopping mall. Further, the study found that distance has a moderating effect on the relationship between perceived store value and store loyalty, but not on the association between relationship commitment and store loyalty. The insights provided by this study offer academics, retailers and shopping mall managers a richer understanding of the relationships between store loyalty and its antecedents, customers’ distance from the mall, and shopping mall loyalty. & 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Shopping mall developers are always keen to attract, entice and retain the shoppers in the mall by creating exciting shopping experiences. Attracting shoppers and obtaining their loyalty are the key concerns of shopping mall developers and their manage- ment authority (Babin and Attaway, 2000). Shoppers’ loyalty enables the mall developers in gaining market share and attaining sustainable competitive advantage (Wright and Sparks, 1999). Subsequently, shopping mall loyalty has been receiving more attention from the retail marketing literature over the last decade (e.g. Chebat et al., 2009; Chebat and Morrin, 2007; Chebat et al., 2006; Lehew et al., 2002; Pan and Zinkhan, 2006). Existing literature on shopping mall focused more on factors influencing shopping mall loyalty. For example, Chebat et al. (2009) proposed and tested a conceptual model of psychological process of generating mall loyalty considering commitment to the mall as the key antecedent of shopping mall loyalty. Lehew et al. (2002) support the presence of both loyal vs. non-loyal mall customers. Their study revealed that mall attributes influence mall loyalty. Wakefield and Baker (1998) mentioned that store variety, mall environment, and shopping involvement influence shoppers’ excitement and desire to stay in mall and thus affect their patronage intentions. Therefore, some portion of shoppers’ loyalty toward the mall could actually be store specific loyalty, wherein loyalty is directed toward the specific stores of the mall. This may also raise question whether shoppers are loyal to the mall or to the store. Because shoppers may remain loyal to the stores but may not necessarily be loyal to the malls. Surprisingly, retail literature is largely silent whether store loyalty contributes to the shopping mall loyalty. In the light of these unexplored aspects of mall loyalty vs. store loyalty, the primary purpose of this research is to examine whether store loyalty has any influence on shopping mall loyalty. Shoppers often drive past weaker malls to reach desired malls that have the best variety of stores and merchandises (Ashley, 1997). Besides, with respect to rising competitive intensity among the shopping malls due to increased number of malls (Kirkup and Rafiq, 1994; Raajpoot et al., 2008) and similar stores carrying same merchandises (Ashley, 1997; Templin, 1997), it is imperative for the shopping malls to decide an optimum store mix as it affects the occupancy rate in shopping malls (Kirkup and Rafiq, 1994). On the other hand, shoppers often tend to patronise their nearest shopping malls more; hence, distance influ- ences shopping mall attractiveness (Dennis et al., 2000). None of the previous research relating to store/shopping mall loyalty has focused on the moderating impact of distance either in the relationship between store loyalty and mall loyalty or in relationship between store loyalty and its antecedents. Chebat et al. (2009) found that mall image positively influences store image, however the reverse rela- tionship whether store image and/or loyalty influence/s mall image and/or loyalty is largely unknown. Therefore, this study contributes to the literature in three ways: first, it investigates the impact of store loyalty on shopping Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jretconser Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 0969-6989/$ - see front matter & 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2012.02.001 n Correspondence to: Fazlul Rabbanee, School of Marketing, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia. E-mail addresses: fazlul.rabbanee@postgrad.curtin.edu.au (F.K. Rabbanee), b.ramaseshan@curtin.edu.au (B. Ramaseshan), chen.wu@curtin.edu.au (C. Wu). Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 19 (2012) 271–278