• Robert Cascio – Adjunct Faculty, University of Central Florida
• Maria del Pilar Martinez Ruiz – Associate Professor, University of Castilla-La Mancha
• Ana Isabel Jimenez-Zarco – Associate Professor, Open University of Catalonia, Spain
• Cesare Amatulli – Associate Professor, University of Bari, Italy

ABSTRACT

Purpose

The aim of this work is to establish the main factors that underlie store attributes in order to examine which of them present the greatest influences on achieving the maximum level of customer satisfaction. Moreover, this study seeks to determine if there are significant differences not only between factor composition, but also their influence on customer satisfaction, depending on the focal country of residence of customers.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the proposed analysis, we analyzed two different samples of customers that had completed purchases in grocery stores in Spain (Europe) and the United States (America). We first performed factor analysis of principal components. To test the influence of the identified factors on the maximum level of customer satisfaction, we carried out binary logistic regression analysis.

Findings

This work represents a useful contribution to the existing literature by assessing differences in the main factors that contribute to customer satisfaction in food stores depending on the national location of the customer.[rc3]  Overall, we find that consumers in Europe and North America value customer attention, additional services, and store atmospherics (first-order factor). However, the second-order factors, indicate that North American consumers place greater weight on merchandise quality and brand availability, whereas the European consumers has greater concern for convenience — proximity to home, assortment variety, and operating hours.

Practical implications

This work is especially useful to those grocery retailers that operate, or plan to operate, in different countries as it outlines the main factors to consider in order to successfully achieve upper-bounded customer satisfaction scores.

Originality/value

A classification of attributes and factors according to their importance in terms of customers’ evaluations in different focal countries of residence is proposed. In particular, three factors of different order and containing different attributes are proposed Hence, the first-order factor includes the most valued attributes by all customers, independently of the country of residence of customers. The second-order factors include those attributes whose importance is less in comparison to the first-order factor, but still these attributes are quite valued by customers; the importance the customer attribute to them depends on the country of residence. Finally, we discuss the third-order factor, those attributes relatively less valued by consumers.

KEYWORDS

Customer satisfaction; grocery stores; store attribute perceptions; different countries.