The influence of international tourists' self-image congruity with a shopping place on their shopping experiences

Abstract

To extend the existing knowledge about international tourists' shopping behaviors, this study examined the formation of their retention by considering the effect of self-image congruity, shopping value, emotional experiences, satisfaction, and ambient atmospherics of shopping places in tourist sites located in South Korea. A field survey was conducted. The collected data was analyzed using structural equation modeling and a test for metric invariance. Our empirical result showed that international tourists' self-image congruity with a shopping place significantly enhances its subsequent constructs. Shopping value, emotional experiences and satisfaction with shopping experiences were also significant contributors to increasing shopper retention toward the same shopping place, playing a significant mediating role. Moreover, ambient atmospherics had a significant moderating impact on forming shopper retention. Furthermore, shopper satisfaction included the greatest influence on retention. Overall, the proposed theoretical framework sufficiently accounted for retention.