Understanding consumer motivation and behavior related to self‐scanning in retailing

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.Abstract Self-scanning technology is being tested by major supermarket chains as well as other types of retailers across the world, but the success of the new technology from the consumer's perspective is not yet clear. This study investigates consumer reasons for both using and avoiding self-scanning checkouts with a view to addressing these practitioner issues. In addition, the study advances theory on consumer motivation and behavior related to technology-based self-service in general. Factors driving preference or avoidance of self-scanning checkouts include attributes of selfscanners, consumer differences, and situational influences. Reasons for preference of other types of technology-based self-service over traditional service alternatives are also explored to determine motivational and behavioral patterns across service contexts. A combination of research methods is used to investigate these issues and offers richer findings than any one method used alone. Implications are discussed for managerial strategy as well as for future research.Recent advances in technology have created a surge in``technology-based selfservice'' delivery options ranging from in-room hotel checkout and automated airline ticketing by telephone to Internet shopping (Dabholkar, 1994a). In banking, for example, although automated teller machines (ATMs) were not well received when first introduced more than 20 years ago, technology-based self-service options now include telephone banking, Internet banking, smartcard banking, and home banking via television, in addition to the ATM (Prendergast and Marr, 1994). Such developments are changing the way service firms and consumers interact, and are raising many new research issues for investigation (Dabholkar, 2000).

Self-service Product Innovation Based on Data Mining Technology

“…Perceived usefulness is an important impact factor on self-service technology adoption according to many researches (Wang etc., 2003;Curran & Meuter, 2005; Amin，2007) [23][24][25]. The research of Dabholkar made in 2003 found that perceived ease of use is a determining factor to affect consumers using self-service [26].…”

Customer decision-making processes and motives for self-service technology usage in multi-channel hospitality environments

“…Using SSTs can also provide some consumers with intrinsic benefits, such as feelings of independence and enjoyment (Dabholkar et al, 2003;Meuter et al, 2003). Some consumers even admitted using SSTs in order to avoid the personal contact with service employees (Dabholkar et al, 2003). Some of those identified reasons represent motives such as convenience, independence and cost savings, while habit and lack of other service delivery options may be regarded as conditions rather than motivations.…”

“…SSTs also require higher levels of consumer participation and responsibility, so they are perceived as riskier than personal services (Lee and Allaway, 2002). Even people who have favourable attitudes towards technology may avoid SSTs because they cannot replace the personal interaction (Dabholkar et al, 2003;Lee and Allaway, 2002), or they require a radical change in their consumer behaviour (Curran and Meuter, 2007).…”

“…The reasons for customer usage of SSTs include cost savings , convenience (Dabholkar et al, 2003;Liljander et al, 2006;Meuter et al, 2003), habit (Liljander et al, 2006), control and independence (Dabholkar et al, 2003;Liljander et al, 2006;Meuter et al, 2003) and the lack of other options . Using SSTs can also provide some consumers with intrinsic benefits, such as feelings of independence and enjoyment (Dabholkar et al, 2003;Meuter et al, 2003). Some consumers even admitted using SSTs in order to avoid the personal contact with service employees (Dabholkar et al, 2003).…”

“…The methodology employed by Dabholkar et al (2003), Liljander et al (2006) and Meuter et al (2003) involved the inclusion of an open question in a questionnaire asking customers to state why they would use an SST. Questioning customers why they may act as they do may not produce a very deep understanding of their motivation (Thompson et al, 1989).…”