The relationship between shopping mall image and congruity on customer behaviour: Evidence from Indonesia

• This study is aims to investigate the influence of internal and external stimuli on customer shopping behaviour.
• Performances of mall attributes act as internal stimuli, while self-image congruity acts as the internal stimuli.
• Shopping mall image influence customer behaviour but self-image congruity does not.

Competition is intensifying amongst shopping malls. In response scholars have advanced various perspectives regarding how to differentiate shopping malls to gain competitive advantage, such as adding or expanding the level of entertainment available (Sit et al., 2003). Others suggest malls satisfy non-functional wants, which stem from associations one has with the mall (Rintamaki et al., 2006). Herein, a reflective measurement model is tested that explores the relationships between the latent constructs shopping mall image and congruity on customer behaviour. A high-end shopping mall in Indonesia is the context. As hypothesized, shopping mall image had a strong effect on customer behaviour, namely, the likelihood of purchasing, returning to the mall, and spreading positive WOM. However, congruity – captured by the indicator variables ‘self-image congruity’ and ‘congruity with other shoppers’ – had no effect on customer behaviour. We attribute this unanticipated finding to Indonesians scoring low on Hofstede's dimensions of Individualism and Indulgence. Survey participants indicated that there was high self-image congruity as well as congruity with other shoppers, but were unwilling to admit it affects their shopping behaviour – arguably, that would be self-indulgent and indicate a lack of restraint with respect to controlling their desires.

Chinese Abstract商场之间的竞争日趋激烈。为了应对这一情况，学者们就如何通过商场的差异化来获得竞争优势提出了各种见解，例如加盖或扩大现有的娱乐场所楼层（Sit等人，2003年）。其他人认为商场应该从其对外的关联性出发，满足相关的非功能性需求（Rintamaki等，2006）。我们在此测试了一种反射性测量模型，用来探究商场形象和消费者行为一致性的潜在因素之间的关系。我们以印度尼西亚的一座高端购物中心为对象。按照上面的假设，商场形象能在很大程度上影响消费者的行为，即购买商品、再次光顾和传播好口碑的可能性。然而，通过“自我形象一致性”和“与其他购物者的一致性”这两个指示变量获取到的一致性对消费者行为并没有影响。我们把这个意外发现的原因归结于印度尼西亚人在霍夫斯泰德理论的个人主义和放纵程度维度上得分较低。对调查参与者的研究表示，他们既有较高的自我形象一致性也有与其他购物者的一致性，但不愿承认这会影响他们的购物行为 — 可以说，这就是自我放纵以及缺乏对控制自身欲望的约束的表现。