How Good A Shopper Am I? Conceptualizing Teenage Girls' Perceived Shopping Competence

Academy of Marketing Science Review,  2006  by Palan, Kay M

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face=+Bold; CONCEPTUAL MODEL DEVELOPMENTface=-Bold;

To conceptualize shopping competence fully, as perceived by adolescent girls, our next step was to make connections from the data to existing theory (consistent with the grounded theory method) in an attempt to extend our understanding of competence in a shopping context and to develop a conceptual model of shopping competence. Based on our interpretation of the conceptualization of competence, we propose that in order to be a competent shopper in a mall context, certain 'inputs,' which psychologists label as resources, must be utilized. The competence literature divides these inputs into environmental and knowledge-based or individual resources--thus, we examined the data from the perspective of utilizing environmental and individual resources to achieve positive outcomes in a shopping context. We looked for higher-order linkages among the categories from Table 1 to the environmental and individual resources that are presented in Table 2.

face=+Bold; TABLE 2Resources and Behaviors Related to Shopping Competenceface=-Bold;

face=+Bold; Environmental Resources face=-Bold; There are several important environmental resources in a shopping mall, including an assortment of stores, salespeople, other shoppers, and product information (in the form of product labels, in-store signs and displays, etc.), and the data reveal that teenage girls are aware of and utilize many of these resources in their shopping activities. Moreover, many of the behaviors the informants perceive as exhibiting shopping competence involve utilizing environmental resources.

For example, in order to engage in several of the behaviors and complete the necessary tasks that informants perceive as associated with competent shopping, e.g., making good decisions, our informants visited a variety of stores in the mall and used the environmental resource of store variety to help them engage in behaviors that they associated with competence.

In addition to shopping in a variety of stores, according to our informants, shoppers they perceive to be competent seek assistance from salespeople and from other shoppers, e.g., friends and parents, to help them make considered decisions. Further, our informants were willing to utilize this environmental resource themselves, particularly with respect to asking other shoppers (i.e., their peers) for opinions. However, peers were not typically who informants described as competent shoppers. In contrast, mom, the person most commonly mentioned as a competent shopper, was, along with salespeople, often the resource that was least likely to be called on for advice during shopping excursions.

One environmental resource that the informants appear to utilize more fully is product information. Although not explicitly stated, it can be inferred that in order to consider prices, shoppers read labels or signs--not only did the informants consider comparing prices to be associated with perceived competence, they also did not mention this as an area for improvement with respect to their own perceived competence.