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Pull Factors of the Shopping Malls: An Empirical Study

Article  in  International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management · February 2018

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Cristina Calvo-Porral Jean-Pierre Lévy Mangin

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Pull factors of
Pull factors of the shopping malls: the shopping
an empirical study malls
Cristina Calvo-Porral
Department of Economic Analysis and Business Administration,
University of La Coruña, La Coruña, Spain, and
Jean-Pierre Lévy-Mangín Received 23 February 2017
Department of Marketing, University of Quebec in Outaouais, Gatineau, Canada Revised 23 February 2017
10 March 2017
26 November 2017
Accepted 2 January 2018
Abstract
Purpose – This study addresses the following question: “What factors attract customers to the shopping
mall?”, since the commercial attraction of this major retailing format is an undertaken variable. So, the
purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical analysis of the main commercial pull factors of the shopping
malls in order to attract potential customers.
Design/methodology/approach – For this purpose, the authors provide and empirically test a conceptual
model considering the variables convenience, tenant variety and specialisation, internal environment,
leisure and communication. Data were analysed through structural equation modelling on a sample of
253 customers.
Findings – The findings suggest that tenant variety and the internal environment of the mall – understood
as an adequate tenant mix and a pleasant, attractive environment – are the main determinants of attracting
customers. However, the convenience of the shopping mall and the communication activities do not show a
significant influence as pull factors.
Originality/value – The results obtained suggest that marketing managers have numerous tools to
influence customers’ intention to visit and patronise shopping malls.
Keywords Retailing, Environment, Convenience, Shopping mall, Commercial attraction
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
The importance of shopping malls as retailing formats has become increasingly remarkable,
and today the mall culture plays a significant role in consumers’ lifestyle. But shopping
malls have become more than simply a place to shop, and social factors justify a deeper
research on shopping malls, such as the leisure shopping, which is a browsing activity
characterised by seeking pleasurable experiences and stimulation of the senses rather than
an intent to purchase something (Sinha and Uniyal, 2005; Bäckström, 2011). Today,
consumers demand commercial areas not only for purchasing, but also for recreational
shopping and to enjoy the company of other people; thus being related to social factors,
since one of the key motivations behind shopping was to enjoy the social interaction
with family members or friends (Bäckström, 2011). However, shopping malls should
meet customers’ needs in a satisfactory way, in order to achieve return visits behaviour
(Anselmsson, 2016).
In addition, competition is intensifying among shopping malls due to a steady increase in
the number of shopping malls (Tsai, 2010), and to the increasing competition with other
retailing formats (Anselmsson, 2016) and online shopping (Köksal and Penez, 2015).
So, today the shopping mall must be in reach of sufficient potential customers and should be
able to attract customers in order to be profitable (Borgers and Vosters, 2011). However,
only a few empirical studies have analysed what motivates consumer attraction to shopping
malls (Dennis et al., 2010; Baker and Wakefield, 2012; Correia-Loureiro and Roschk, 2014).
In this context, the present study contributes to the literature on the topic by expanding International Journal of Retail &
Distribution Management
previous research on shopping mall commercial attractiveness. In first place, this study © Emerald Publishing Limited
0959-0552
provides empirical evidence of the main pull factors of shopping malls; thus, contributing to DOI 10.1108/IJRDM-02-2017-0027

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