Research On Effect Of Cross-channel Informational Integration On Customer Patronage

With the increasing deployment of information and communication technologies in the retail industry,a growing number of companies have implemented or are preparing to implement omnichannel strategies.This trend has become increasingly obvious,as a single marketing channel cannot meet customers’ needs for convenient and safe shopping.For retailers,a focal objective of omnichannel retailing is customer patronage,reflecting customers’ intention of continuous purchase behavior and recommendations.However,most companies fail to establish positive connections across customer touchpoints through informational integration between channels.The lack of informational integration makes it hard for retailers to meet customers’ expected benefits and sustain their patronage in omnichannel retailing.Therefore,omnichannel retailers must learn whether and how informational integration can be managed to guide customer patronage.Numerous studies explored the role of cross-channel informational integration in promoting customer patronage;however,findings on the relationship between crosschannel informational integration and customer patronage are markedly inconsistent.Such contradictory findings give rise to the crucial question of the extent to which cross-channel informational integration can significantly promote customer patronage.Scholars further proposed that the impact of cross-channel informational integration on customer patronage may depend on the scope and content of the omnichannel integration.Based on the informational integration content,cross-channel informational integration can be categorized as(1)integrated information access(ⅡA)and(2)integrated transaction information(ITI).However,few studies explored whether the impact of OOⅡ on customer patronage differs in terms of the informational integration content.Based on equity theory,this study investigates how the different types of OOⅡaffect perceived deception and Perceived Satisfaction and thus influence customer patronage in omnichannel retailing in Chinese and American contexts.The research model was tested by collecting 307 samples from the US and 197 samples from China.Results show that perceived deception and Perceived Satisfaction mediate the effect of OOⅡ on customer patronage.Moreover,in the American context,the influence paths of the two types of information integration are different.Another interesting finding is that the relationship between integrated transaction information(ITI)and perceived deception is negative in Chinese sample but positive in American sample.The research findings contribute to the literature in several aspects.Firstly,this study reveals the influence mechanism of OOⅡ on customer patronage from the perspective of equity theory.Secondly,this study uncovers the differences between ⅡA and ITI,which can explain the contradictory findings of previous studies on the relationship between OOⅡ and customer patronage.Lastly,we use multigroup analysis approach to test cross-cultural differences with samples from two national contexts(i.e.,US and China).The findings also provide practical suggestions for omnichannel retailers on how to improve customer patronage.