role of haptic touch in shopping
TRANSCRIPT
RESEARCH PAPER
Role of haptic touch in shopping
Some methodological contributions
S. Abhishek • Piyush Kumar Sinha •
Neharika Vohra
Published online: 8 January 2014
� Indian Institute of Management Calcutta 2013
Abstract Research on multisensory nature of con-
sumption has highlighted importance of smell, taste,
and touch during product evaluation and subsequent
purchase decisions. However, there are very few
studies in marketing which have examined role of
touch in shopping. This paper builds the argument for
conducting research on role of touch during shopping
in Indian context and provides some methodological
contribution for conducting such a research. The paper
provides schema to differentiate products into cate-
gories of high, moderate, and low haptic salience
based on consumer preferences and sensibilities.
Furthermore, it revalidates the NFT scale in Indian
context which can be used to differentiate consumers
into high and low motivation to touch.
Keywords Haptic touch � Shopping � Retail �NFT scale � Indian consumers
Introduction
Marketers have typically viewed consumers as verbal/
visual information processors (Citrin et al. 2003) and
thus utilized verbal and visual mean of communication
to present information to the consumers. However, in
everyday life, a number of senses are generally
involved in any act. Lindstrom (2005) said that all
five senses are important in any form of communica-
tion and life experiences. Research on multisensory
nature of consumption has also highlighted the non-
verbal and non-visual aspects during product evalua-
tion and subsequent purchase decisions (Hirschman
and Holbrook 1982; Krishna 2012; MacInnis and Price
1987). Research suggest that the opportunity to smell
(Davies et al. 2003; Mitchell et al. 1995; Spangenberg
et al. 1996; Ward et al. 2003), taste (Boutaud 1999;
Hoegg and Alba 2007), and touch (Argo et al. 2006,
2008; Morales and Fitzsimons 2007; Muller 2013;
Peck and Childers 2003a) can orient a person to make
a purchase. Some recent studies (Forster 2011; Hulten
2012; Krishna et al. 2010; Spence and Gallace 2011)
have also examined the role of multiple sensory cues
in influencing the consumers.
However, there are very few studies in the field of
marketing which have examined the role of touch in
shopping. To the best of our knowledge, there has not
been any study conducted in India on role of touch
during shopping in Indian context. This paper builds
the argument for conducting research on role of touch
during shopping in Indian context and makes some
methodological suggestions for conducting such
research.
Evolving store formats and shopping behavior is
leading to changes in the way stores function (Sinha
S. Abhishek (&) � P. K. Sinha
Marketing Area, Indian Institute of Management
Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad 380015, Gujarat, India
e-mail: [email protected]
N. Vohra
Organizational Behavior Area, Indian Institute of
Management Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad, India
123
Decision (December 2013) 40(3):153–163
DOI 10.1007/s40622-013-0017-x
and Uniyal 2005). Traditional format stores have a
clear division of space wherein a physical counter in
the form of wooden furniture has been used to divide
the store space between consumers and shop staff. The
merchandise is stocked such that there is direct control
of the shop staff. The consumer asks for the products
and is often provided the same. The shop staff serves
as the shopper’s intermediary to the world of things
(Underhill 1999). This arrangement prohibits and
discourages the consumer to actually touch and assess
products. However, with a number of new format
retail stores opening up in India, consumers can
directly pick up the merchandise from the display put
up by stores. Competition from modern format retail
stores has forced a number of traditional retailers to
change the display arrangements at their stores,
allowing consumers direct access of products. Con-
sumers can now increasingly touch to discover the
merchandise on their own. Thus, it is important to
understand the process by which touch influences the
consumer decision.
With the waning power of product brand name
and increased variety seeking behavior (Underhill
1999), customers need to feel a certain level of
confidence in a product and its value, which comes
only from hard evidence, and not from television
commercials or word of mouth. Consumers believe
in a product when they see/smell/touch/hear/taste/try
it (Underhill 1999). This becomes particularly
important for private label brands for which there
in no advertising and where consumers make
purchase decisions which are mainly based on feel
and touch of products at display in store. With the
growth of private label brands in India (Abhishek
2011), marketers need to understand the underlying
process of touch so that appropriate marketing
actions can be planned.
Research background
Stevens and Green (cf. Citrin et al. 2003) have defined
touch as ‘‘sensation aroused through stimulation of
receptors in the skin.’’ Although studies of touch
involve different parts of the human body, primary
interest is in studies using hands as principal source of
input to touch. The term haptic is used to describe the
information gained by an active movement of hand or
arm (Gibson 1962). The term was coined by Max
Dessoir, who alluding to the term optic and acoustic
suggested that teaching of sense of touch involving
tactile and muscular sensations be called haptic (Jutte
2009).
The haptic system is capable of encoding a number
of object dimensions and properties: surface texture,
internal substance, and thermal attributes, collectively
called material attributes, as well as structural attri-
butes of contour and size (Klatzky et al. 1987). Haptic
touch has been found to be more important when
encoding information about an object’s material
(Klatzky et al. 1993). Studies in marketing have
involved haptic touch as the stimulus.
Hornik (1992) pioneered the introduction of role
of touch in marketing with a study that demon-
strated the positive role of casual interpersonal
touch on consumer behavior. Since then the role of
touch studies in marketing can be broadly catego-
rized into two streams. (a) Studies examining
consumer behavior when a salesperson makes touch
contact with consumer and (b) Studies examining
consumer behavior when a consumer touches the
product.
Studies (Gueguen and Jacob 2006; Hornik 1992;
Smith et al. 1982) conducted in the first stream of
research have examined the role of salesperson’s
touch on shopping time, store evaluations, evaluation
of salesperson during consumption activity, and
compliance to marketing request. The findings indi-
cate that in case a salesperson touches the consumers,
it results in increased shopping time, higher evalua-
tions of store and salesperson during consumption
activity, and greater compliance to marketing request.
In a related study, Martin (2012) showed that
accidental interpersonal touch from a stranger on
shopper produces a negative effect on consumer
evaluations and shopping times.
The other and relatively more researched stream in
the field of touch has examined consumer’s touch of
products where haptic touch was employed. Peck and
Childers (2003a) proposed the haptic information
framework which examined the product, individual
and situational factors that affected use of touch
information during product evaluation. The situational
factors in haptic information framework were exam-
ined in case of touch and no-touch conditions.
In this paper, we attempt to classify the products
based on haptic salience and also segment the
customers on their need to touch.
154 Decision (December 2013) 40(3):153–163
123
Research methodology
In order to conduct studies examining role of touch
during shopping in India, there is a need to develop
better understanding about haptic salience of products
and consumer’s motivation to touch in India. The
study developed a methodology to classify the
products into high, moderate, and low haptic salience.
This methodology, consisting of three steps, employed
a combination of observation methods and self-report
measures. In the first step, observation method was
used to prepare a comprehensive list of products which
were relevant for the study. In the second step, short-
listing of products was undertaken by observing
consumers in retail stores. In the third and final step,
questionnaire was administered to respondents and
collected data were used to classify products into high,
moderate, and low haptic salience.
Similarly, while consumer’s motivation to touch
can be measured by NFT scale, there is a need to pre-
validate the scale in Indian conditions. The scale
testing process consisted of qualitative and quantita-
tive methods. Qualitative interviews were conducted
for face validity tests to ascertain the suitability of
items in the scale. After some changes in the wording
of items in the scale, data were collected through a
questionnaire. The collected data were quantitatively
analyzed by calculating Cronbach’s Alpha and con-
ducting factor analysis.
Differentiating products into three categories
of haptic salience
In product-related factors of haptic information frame-
work, it has been pointed that texture, hardness,
temperature, and weight information provided instru-
mental and autotelic material properties. While autote-
lic forms of information are related to the sensory
experience and hedonic appreciation of the product,
instrumental properties are related more to its structural
properties and less to the sensory enjoyment of the
product (Peck and Childers 2003a). These material
properties can be used to differentiate products as high,
moderate, and low on haptic salience. Dividing pro-
ducts into three categories provide a tool to marketers to
focus on role of touch for relevant product categories.
Multi-stage process was adopted for categorizing
products based on haptic salience. As the first step, a
comprehensive list of all the products for which haptic
touch is allowed in retail stores was made based on
observations made while visiting the store as a
shopper. All the items which were available without
any primary packaging were listed. The stores visited
for the exercise included new format supermarkets and
hypermarkets. The list was supplemented by items for
which customers could ask the external packaging to
be removed by the salespersons, such as glass bowl
sets in corrugated sheet boxes, socks, and dress
materials.
The details were noted down on the same day
following the guidelines by Wells and Sciuto (1966)
where they have highlighted the importance to transfer
the day’s observations from notes to permanent record
cards before the notes got cold. After preparing the list,
in some cases, the researcher went again to retail store
to reconfirm if all the relevant items were included in
the list. This led to generation of the first list of 125
products for which touch was allowed in stores
(Table 3 in Annexure).
In the second step, the retail outlets were re-visited
and customers were observed during shopping process
for eliminating the items where consumers were not
seen devoting efforts in touching the products, even if
haptic touch opportunity was present. It was decided to
observe customers as observation, as a primary
research method, has been found to be particularly
useful when researcher is seeking to establish how
people actually behave (Baker 2002). Direct observa-
tion also produces a highly detailed, nearly complete
record of what people actually do, as distinguished
from what people say. It can yield the correct answer
when faulty memory, desire to impress the inter-
viewer, or simple inattention to details would cause an
interview answer to be wrong (Wells and Sciuto
1966). Often, how people behave spontaneously in the
act of shopping or consuming products is different
from the descriptions they give in interviews. They are
much more responsive to social and environmental
stimuli when they are consciously aware and one way
in which researchers can overcome all these influences
is by observing the behaviors as they occur in the field
(Rust 1993a, b).
It was decided to follow non-intrusive observation
of consumers as we did not want the consumers to be
conscious and thus change their normal shopping
behavior. Rust (1993a) said that there are times when
non-intrusive observational methods provide a more
Decision (December 2013) 40(3):153–163 155
123
complete and accurate picture of the purchasing
experience and can be used. Since the observation
was not about something that was private or personal,
there were no ethical issues in such observations.
Following the guidelines of Baker (2002) who said
that in the case of exploratory research when one is
seeking to get a feel for a situation it is often best to
follow an unstructured approach, we did not structure
the observations. The researcher stood in the aisles
where unpackaged products are displayed and
observed what people did with the products. The
researcher observed behavior of 8–10 shoppers for
listed products in the aisle and then moved to another
aisle. In order to ensure consistency in observations of
consumer behavior, all stores were visited between
6.00 p.m. and 9.00 p.m. Moreover, shopping behavior
of only those products which were available through-
out the year were observed by researcher. This led to
generation of the second list of 46 products (Table 4 in
Annexure). This list of products was used to classify
the products based on their haptic salience.
In the third step, a questionnaire was developed for
capturing consumer responses about haptic salience of
short-listed products. For each product, respondents
were asked to indicate whether they thought that the
products were high, moderate, or low on haptic salience.
The questionnaire was administered to group of respon-
dents consisting equal number of men and women.
The questionnaire was divided into two parts. The
first part required the respondents to identify the
attributes (from the four attributes—texture, hardness,
weight, and temperature) which they considered as
relevant for a particular product. The important
attributes were ranked by the respondents as per their
importance in the evaluation process. Attributes
considered not important were indicated as NA. In
the second part of the questionnaire, taking into
consideration the attribute which was ranked first
(highest) in part one of the study, the respondents
classified the products into one of the three catego-
ries—high, moderate, and low on haptic salience.
In all the cases, the classification was done in the
presence of researcher. Each of the respondents was
individually approached and explained the instruc-
tions for first part of the questionnaire. Once the
respondents finished the first part, they were told about
the second set of questionnaire and it was given to
them. It took on an average 20 min to complete the
questionnaire.
Six products emerged as the highest ranked
products on high haptic salience. The set of respon-
dents classified mobile phones, apple, bedsheet, sofa,
clothes, and soft toys as high on haptic salience.
Digital cameras, carpets, bhindi (okra), tomatoes,
oranges, and cushions were given the second rank. The
product list with high haptic salience suggests that it
included electronic items—mobile phones and digital
cameras; fruits—apples and oranges; vegetables—
bhindi (okra) and tomatoes; and upholstery items—
bedsheet, sofa, carpets, and cushions along with
clothes and soft toys.
The next ranked products were steel plates along
with vegetables like brinjal, lemon, cabbage, and
parwal (pointed gourd) and accessories like laptop
bags and shoes. These products were followed by
slippers/sandals, cloth bags, plastic containers, steel
glasses, calculators, and vegetables like cucumber and
capsicum. All these products can be classified as
moderate on haptic salience.
The remaining products of Table 4 in Annexure
were classified as low on haptic salience. These
included categories like electric products—sandwich
maker, press iron, and landline handsets; utensils—
sauce pan, kadhai (circular deep cooking pot), tawa
(flat concave disk-shaped griddle), cups, and glasses;
household utility items—bucket and serving tray;
grocery items—rice, pulses, peanuts, tea, and dried
coconuts; stationery items—pencils and file folders;
and accessories—belts and backpack bags.
Measuring motivation to touch
While examining the consumer-related factors in
haptic information framework, Peck and Childers
(2003a) differentiated the customers based on their
motivation for touch which was measured through
‘‘Need For Touch’’ (NFT) scale. A similar exercise
was undertaken by Citrin et al. (2003) who developed
a scale to measure need for tactile input (NTI) in
product/brand evaluations. NFT scale has two dimen-
sions, autotelic and instrumental, containing 12 items
(Peck and Childers 2003b) (Table 1). The NTI scale is
a 6-item instrument with all items loading on single
factor. Consumers who scored high on NFT scale were
high on motivation to touch and for such individuals
barriers to touch inhibited the use of haptic informa-
tion and consequently decreased confidence in product
156 Decision (December 2013) 40(3):153–163
123
evaluations. On the other hand, consumers having low
NFT score, thus indicating low motivation to touch,
may forgo product touch before making the purchase.
Research has shown that people high or low on
motivation to touch get affected differentially in
different contexts (Peck and Johnson 2011; Vieira
2012).
The NFT scale (Peck and Childers 2003b) which
measures individual differences in preference for
haptic (touch) information has been developed and
tested in the United States. The NFT scale has so far
not been used in Indian research context. It was
decided to validate the scale in Indian conditions
before using it to classify consumers having high and
low motivation to touch.
For the face validity test, discussions were con-
ducted with six consumers to ascertain their under-
standing of the items mentioned in the scale. Based on
the discussions about the items in the scale, small
changes were made in the wording of items to make it
more suited to the English spoken and understood in
India. In India, most of the stores have over-the-
counter experience where customers do not get the
opportunity to touch the products. In such a case, some
of the consumers were not able to relate with phrase
‘‘walking through.’’ However, some of the respon-
dents identified stores as modern format retail stores
and were able to identify with the phrase ‘‘walking
through.’’ It was decided to change it (‘‘walking
through’’) by phrase ‘‘I am in’’ to take care of
differences in interpretations. In items 1, 5, and 12,
the word ‘‘kind’’ was replaced with ‘‘types’’ as the
respondents suggested that ‘‘type’’ was a more com-
monly used word in comparison to ‘‘kind.’’ In items 5
and 11, a decision was taken to replace word ‘‘handle’’
with ‘‘hold’’ as the word ‘‘handle’’ come across as
having different meanings for respondents. For some
respondents, ‘‘handle’’ meant that they were able to
hold the product whereas for some, ‘‘handle’’ meant
operating the product, especially in case of electronic
products. Table 2 lists the items which were used for
the study.
Data were collected through a questionnaire from
67 respondents (34 male respondents and 33 female
respondents) who were students of MBA program in
two institutes. The respondents were given a small
incentive as a token of appreciation for their involve-
ment after they completed the questionnaire.
Table 1 Items of need for touch scale
1. When walking through stores, I cannot help touching all
kinds of products (A)
2. Touching products can be fun (A)
3. I place more trust in products that can be touched before
purchase (I)
4. I feel more comfortable purchasing a product after
physically examining it (I)
5. When browsing in stores, it is important for me to handle
all kinds of products (A)
6. If I cannot touch a product in stores, I am reluctant to
purchase the product (I)
7. I like to touch products even if I have no intention of
buying them (A)
8. I feel more confident making a purchase after touching a
product (I)
9. When browsing in stores, I like to touch lot of products
(A)
10. The only way to make sure a product is worth buying is
to actually touch it (I)
11. There are many products that I would only buy if I could
handle them before purchase (I)
12. I find myself touching all kinds of products in stores (A)
A Autotelic scale item, I instrumental scale item
Table 2 Items of need for touch scale after face validity test
1. When I am in stores, I cannot help touching all types of
products (A)
2. Touching products can be fun (A)
3. I place more trust in products that can be touched before
purchase (I)
4. I feel more comfortable purchasing a product after
physically examining it (I)
5. When browsing in stores, it is important for me to hold
all types of products (A)
6. If I cannot touch a product in stores, I am reluctant to
purchase the product (I)
7. I like to touch products even if I have no intention of
buying them (A)
8. I feel more confident making a purchase after touching a
product (I)
9. When browsing in stores, I like to touch lot of products
(A)
10. The only way to make sure a product is worth buying is
to actually touch it (I)
11. There are many products that I would only buy if I could
hold them before purchase (I)
12. I find myself touching all types of products in stores (A)
A Autotelic scale item, I instrumental scale item
Decision (December 2013) 40(3):153–163 157
123
The Cronbach’s Alpha for the scale was 0.782, well
above the accepted level of 0.70 (Hair et al. 2003).
When reliability analysis was conducted for only
instrumental items, Cronbach’s Alpha was slightly
better, coming to be 0.838. However, the Cronbach’s
Alpha for only autotelic items was 0.676, just below
the accepted level of 0.70. The item-total statistics
showed that Cronbach’s Alpha did not drop signifi-
cantly even after dropping any of the items from
12-item scale (Table 5 in Annexure).
Factor analysis was conducted to check whether the
twelve items loaded on the two factors as per the two
dimensions suggested in literature. The results showed
that the twelve items loaded on three factors. The
factor analysis for instrumental items showed that all
the items loaded on single dimension (Tables 6, 7 in
Annexure). However, the factor analysis of autotelic
items showed that the six items loaded on two
dimensions (Tables 8, 9 in Annexure). Peck and
Childers (2003b) have suggested that based on the
underlying theory, researchers could employ either the
composite scale or one of the two subscales pertaining
to instrumental and autotelic dimensions. Previously,
researchers have used only one dimension of scale as
well (Krishna and Morrin 2008; Peck and Wiggins
2006).
The mean NFT score for female respondents was
above the mean NFT score for male respondents. This
confirms the findings of Peck and Childers (2003a, b)
where mean NFT score of female respondents was
higher than mean NFT score of male respondents.
However, the t test indicated that the difference was
not significant between male respondents (M = 5.91,
s = 9.918) and female respondents (M = 6.15,
s = 8.078), t (65) = -0.108, p = 0.914, a = 0.05.
Discussion
According to cue utilization theory, product consists
of an array of cues that serve as surrogate indicators of
quality to shoppers (Cox 1967). In many situations,
consumers do not know the true quality of competing
products (or brands) before making their purchase
decisions. In such cases, research suggests that
consumers are likely to rely on simple heuristics, or
cues, to assess product quality. Zeithaml (1988)
divided these cues into intrinsic and extrinsic cues.
Intrinsic cues are product-related attributes which
when changed will result in changes in composition of
product itself such as ingredients, flavor, color, and
texture (Blair and Innis 1996). Extrinsic cues are
product attributes which are not part of the physical
product and they can be changed without affecting the
composition of the product itself, e.g., price and brand
name (Blair and Innis 1996). While respondents may
get information about the product quality through
extrinsic cues, wherever they cannot receive such
information they rely on haptic touch to access this
information. Probably this is the reason for product
categories like fruits and vegetables to figure prom-
inently in category of high and moderate haptic
salience product categories.
The earlier study by Peck and Childers (2003a) also
included products which were available in packages
(such as cereals and toothpaste) for classifying
products into high, moderate, and low on haptic
salience. This limitation has been overcome by
including only those products where direct touch
was allowed and excluding products which were
always sold in packages.
This research has classified products into different
haptic saliences with a limited number of respondents.
As an extension, further research needs to be conducted
over a larger dataset representing a wider spectrum of
shoppers. While this will help in further building the
generalizability of schema, it also needs to be stated
that the study already mirrors the real-life situations as
it is grounded in the observations of shoppers.
The motivation to touch, which discriminates
individual differences in preference for haptic infor-
mation, was measured by NFT scale. The quantitative
tests showed that while the instrumental items of scale
loaded on one dimension, the autotelic items did not
load on a single dimension. This calls for further
investigation to look into the causes of items loading
on two dimensions. Probably item A4, which is not
loading with remaining five items, is not being
construed as relevant with hedonic aspect of shopping
by the respondents. Another reason could be with
respect to the nature of respondents. In this study,
respondents were young consumers in the age group of
20–30 who were students in post graduate program of
management. It is possible that young consumers
behave in a slightly different manner than the general
population with respect to haptic touch in stores.
Researchers working in this field can take this as an
area of future research.
158 Decision (December 2013) 40(3):153–163
123
Annexure
See Tables 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.
Table 3 List of items where touch was allowed in retail stores
Category
Electrical and electronic products
Television
Refrigerator
Washing machines
VCD/DVD Player
Air conditioner
Air coolers
Geyser
Toaster
Sandwich maker
Press iron
OTG machines
Mixie
Microwave machine
Ceiling fans
Mobile phones
Digital cameras
Landline handsets
Laptops
Hair dryer
Calculator
Household grocery items
Rice
Wheat
Pulses
Gram
Peanuts
Rajma (kidney bean)
Lobia (black-eyed bean)
Mustard
Jeera (Cumin)
Tea
Sugar
Dried coconut
Glass items
Cups
Glasses
Table 3 continued
Soup bowls
Sweetdish bowl sets
Plates
Decorative Items
Utensils
Plates
Bowls
Spoons
Glasses
Sauce pan
Serving tray—steel
Serving tray—plastic
Casserole
Knives
Seiver
Spoon stand
Glass stand
Cook and serve
Kadhai
Tawa
Chakla-belna
Tadka Pan
Clothes and accessories
T-shirts
Shirts
Trousers
Skirt
Jeans
Shorts
Towels
Track suits
Track pants
Ladies salwar suit
Ladies kurti
Mens kurta
Sarees
Slippers/sandals
Shoes
Belt
Stationery
Books
Notebooks
Decision (December 2013) 40(3):153–163 159
123
Table 3 continued
Pencils
Pens
File folders
Fruits and vegetables
Brinjal
Broccoli
Pea
Capsicum
Chili
Parwal
Tinda
Bhindi (ladies finger)
French bean
Lemon
Tomato
Potato
Onions
Garlic
Ginger
Cauliflower
Cabbage
Carrot
Corn/maize
Bitter gourd
Bottle gourd
Cucumber
Apple
Banana
Oranges
Pear
Papaya
Others
Gold jewelery
Artificial flowers
Soft toys
Laptop bags
Backpack bags
Strolley
Plastic chairs
Sofa
Dining table and chairs
Bed
Cushion
Camera pouches
Mobile pouches
Table 4 List of items where touch was observed in retail
stores
Sandwich maker
Press iron
Mobile phones
Digital cameras
Landline handsets
Calculator
Plates
Glasses
Sauce pan
Serving tray—steel
Serving tray—plastic
Kadhai
Tawa
Cups
Glasses
Plastic container
Buckets
Bed sheets
Cloth bags
Carpets
Rice
Pulses
Peanuts
Tea
Dried coconut
Brinjal
Capsicum
Parwal
Bhindi (ladies finger)
Lemon
Tomato
Cabbage
Cucumber
Apple
Oranges
Pencils
File folders
Soft toys
Laptop bags
Backpack bags
Sofa
Cushion
Slippers/Sandals
Shoes
Belts
Dress Materialsa
a Will include all items (other than slippers/sandals, shoes, and belts) in
Clothes and accessories category
160 Decision (December 2013) 40(3):153–163
123
Table 5 Item-total statistics for all 12 items of NFT scale
Scale mean if
item deleted
Scale variance if
item deleted
Corrected item-total
correlation
Squared multiple
correlation
Cronbach’s alpha
if item deleted
I1 4.60 67.426 0.496 0.601 0.746
I2 4.03 71.332 0.426 0.437 0.755
I3 5.75 65.404 0.546 0.456 0.740
I4 4.54 68.252 0.587 0.643 0.740
I5 5.48 69.647 0.411 0.459 0.756
I6 4.93 69.737 0.460 0.551 0.751
A1 6.21 69.107 0.337 0.404 0.765
A2 6.12 67.501 0.428 0.449 0.754
A3 6.01 70.530 0.369 0.372 0.760
A4 6.07 76.131 0.077 0.259 0.795
A5 5.91 67.265 0.477 0.446 0.748
A6 6.69 69.794 0.417 0.461 0.755
Table 6 Total variance explained: instrumental items of NFT scale
Component Initial eigenvalues Extraction sums of squared loadings
Total % of variance Cumulative % Total % of Variance Cumulative %
1 3.502 58.367 58.367 3.502 58.367 58.367
2 0.720 11.994 70.361
3 0.658 10.973 81.334
4 0.541 9.013 90.347
5 0.310 5.162 95.508
6 0.269 4.492 100.000
Extraction method: principal component analysis
Table 7 Component matrix:
instrumental items of NFT
scale
1 Components extracted.
Extraction method: principal
component analysis
Component
1
I1 0.779
I2 0.754
I3 0.653
I4 0.865
I5 0.724
I6 0.791
Decision (December 2013) 40(3):153–163 161
123
References
Abhishek (2011) Private label brand choice dynamics: logit
model involving demographic and psychographic vari-
ables, Working Paper No WP2011-01-07, IIM, Ahmedabad
Argo JJ, Dahl DW, Morales AC (2006) Consumer contamina-
tion: how consumers react to products touched by others.
J Mark 70(2):81–94
Argo JJ, Dahl DW, Morales AC (2008) Positive consumer
contagion: responses to attractive others in a retail context.
J Mark Res 72(6):690–701
Baker M (2002) Research methods. Mark Rev 3(2):167–193
Blair M, Innis D (1996) The effects of product knowledge on the
evaluation of warranteed brands. Psychol Mark
13(5):445–456
Boutaud J (1999) Sensory analysis: towards the semiotics of
taste. Adv Consum Res 26(1):337–340
Citrin AV, Stem J, Donald E, Spangenberg ER, Clark MJ (2003)
Consumer need for tactile input: an internet retailing
challenge. J Bus Res 56(11):915–922
Cox DF (1967) The sorting rule model of the consumer product
evaluation process. In: Cox DF (ed) Risk taking and
information handling in consumer behavior. Division of
Research, Graduate School of Business Administration,
Harvard University, Boston
Davies B, Kooijman D, Ward P (2003) The sweet smell of
success: olfaction in retailing. J Mark Manag 19(5/
6):611–627
Forster J (2011) Local and global cross-modal influences
between vision and hearing, tasting, smelling, or touching.
J Exp Psychol Gen 140(3):364–389
Gibson J (1962) Observations on active touch. Psychol Rev
69(6):477–491
Gueguen N, Jacob C (2006) The effect of tactile stimulation on
the purchasing behaviour of consumers: an experimental
study in a natural setting. Int J Manag 23(1):24–33
Hair JF, Anderson RE, Tatham RL, Black WC (2003) Multi-
variate data analysis, 5th edn. Pearson Education, Delhi
Hirschman E, Holbrook M (1982) Hedonic consumption:
emerging concepts, methods and propositions. J Mark
46(3):92–101
Hoegg J, Alba J (2007) Taste perception: more than meets the
tongue. J Consum Res 33(4):490–498
Hornik J (1992) Tactile stimulation and consumer response.
J Consum Res 19(3):449–458
Hulten B (2012) Sensory cues and shoppers’ touching behav-
iour: the case of IKEA. Int J Retail Distrib Manag
40(4):273–289
Jutte R (2009) Haptic perception: an historical approach. In:
Grunwald M (ed) Human haptic perception: basics and
application. Birkhauser, Berlin, pp 03–13
Klatzky RL, Lederman SJ, Reed C (1987) There’s more to touch
than meets the eye: the salience of object attributes for
haptics with and without vision. J Exp Psychol Gen
116(4):356–369
Klatzky RL, Lederman SJ, Matula DE (1993) Haptic explora-
tion in the presence of vision. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept
Perform 19(4):726–743
Krishna A (2012) An integrative review of sensory marketing:
engaging the senses to affect perception, judgment and
behavior. J Consum Psychol 22:332–351
Krishna A, Morrin M (2008) Does touch affect taste? The per-
ceptual transfer of product container haptic cues. J Consum
Res 34(6):807–818
Krishna A, Elder RS, Caldara C (2010) Feminine to smell but
masculine to touch? Multisensory congruence and its effect
Table 8 Total variance explained: autotelic items of NFT scale
Component Initial eigenvalues Extraction sums of squared loadings Rotation sums of squared loadings
Total % of
variance
Cumulative
%
Total % of
variance
Cumulative
%
Total % of
variance
Cumulative
%
1 2.595 43.254 43.254 2.595 43.254 43.254 2.563 42.724 42.724
2 1.147 19.117 62.371 1.147 19.117 62.371 1.179 19.647 62.371
3 0.807 13.455 75.826
4 0.555 9.248 85.074
5 0.498 8.307 93.381
6 0.397 6.619 100.000
Extraction method: principal component analysis
Table 9 Rotated component matrix: autotelic items of NFT
scale
Component
1 2
A1 0.715 -0.265
A2 0.765 0.062
A3 0.438 -0.594
A4 0.184 0.830
A5 0.785 0.200
A6 0.791 -0.151
Rotation converged in 3 iterations. Extraction method:
principle component analysis, Rotation method: Varimax
with Kaiser normalization
162 Decision (December 2013) 40(3):153–163
123
on the aesthetic experience. J Consum Psychol
20(4):410–418
Lindstrom M (2005) Brand sense: build powerful brands
through touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound. The Free
Press, New York
MacInnis D, Price L (1987) The role of imagery in information
processing: review and extensions. J Consum Res 13(4):
473–491
Martin BS (2012) A stranger’s touch: effects of accidental
interpersonal touch on consumer evaluations and shopping
time. J Consum Res 39(1):174–184
Mitchell D, Kahn B, Knasko S (1995) There’s something in the
air: effects of congruent or incongruent ambient odor on
consumer decision making. J Consum Res 22(2):229–238
Morales AC, Fitzsimons GJ (2007) Product contagion: changing
consumer evaluations through physical contact with ‘‘dis-
gusting’’ products. J Mark Res 44(2):272–283
Muller H (2013) The real-exposure effect revisited: how pur-
chase rates vary under pictorial vs. real item presentations
when consumers are allowed to use their tactile sense? Int J
Res Mark 30(3):304–307
Peck J, Childers TL (2003a) To have and to hold: the influence
of haptic information on product judgments. J Mark
67(2):35–48
Peck J, Childers TL (2003b) Individual differences in haptic
information processing: the ‘‘Need for Touch’’ scale.
J Consum Res 30(3):430–442
Peck J, Johnson J (2011) Autotelic need for touch, haptics, and
persuasion: the role of involvement. Psychol Mark
28(3):222–239
Peck J, Wiggins J (2006) It just feels good: customers’ affective
response to touch and its influence on persuasion. J Mark
70(4):56–69
Rust L (1993a) Observations: parents and children shopping
together: a new approach to the qualitative analysis of
observational data. J Advert Res 33(4):65–70
Rust L (1993b) Observations: how to reach children in stores:
marketing tactics grounded in observation research.
J Advert Res 33(6):67–72
Sinha P, Uniyal D (2005) Using observational research for
behavioural segmentation of shoppers. J Retail Consum
Serv 12(1):35–48
Smith D, Gier J, Willis F (1982) Interpersonal touch and com-
pliance with a marketing request. Basic Appl Soc Psychol
3(1):35–38
Spangenberg E, Crowley A, Henderson P (1996) Improving the
store environment: do olfactory cues affect evaluations and
behaviors? J Mark 60(2):67–80
Spence C, Gallace A (2011) Multisensory design: reaching out
to touch the consumer. Psychol Mark 28(3):267–308
Underhill P (1999) Why we buy: the science of shopping. Simon
and Schuster, New York
Vieira V (2012) An evaluation of the need for touch scale and its
relationship with need for cognition, need for input, and
consumer response. J Int Consum Mark 24(1/2):57–78
Ward P, Davies B, Kooijman D (2003) Ambient smell and the
retail environment: relating olfaction research to consumer
behavior. J Bus Manag 9(3):289–302
Wells W, Sciuto LL (1966) Direct observation of purchasing
behavior. J Mark Res 3(3):227–233
Zeithaml VA (1988) Consumer perceptions of price, quality,
and value: a means-end model and synthesis of evidence.
J Mark 52(2):2–22
Decision (December 2013) 40(3):153–163 163
123