JOURNAL OF RETAILING AND CONSUMER SERVICES SPECIAL ISSUE CALL FOR PAPERS

The role of the store environment in creating customer engagement, satisfaction, and sales

Initial papers can be submitted as short papers to the 2015 ANZMAC conference (due 29 June 2015); Full papers due 31 March 2016.

Guest Editors: Paul Ballantine, University of Canterbury, NZ Harmen Oppewal, Monash University, Australia*

With the arrival of the internet the role of the store has been predicted to diminish. Retailers and marketers however increasingly realise the store as a physical outlet and the in-store experience continue to play important roles in the consumer purchase decision process, although often complemented by the online channel. This special issue will deal with how a broad set of store environmental and customer-related aspects influence consumer behaviour. The issue aims to bring together and possibly contrast classical approaches to studying the role of store atmospherics with newer ones that focus on co-creation, branding and theming, event management, and also on the role of consumer goals, emotions and attention, and on social or cultural influences in the retail environment, in creating relevant outcomes such as purchase but also engagement, attachment, referrals and satisfaction.

The issue will be open to any of the above facets and we welcome any methodology. We welcome papers from different perspectives. Paper selection will be based on novelty and expected impact, argued relevance of the topic, quality of problem formulation in light of existing literature and evidence, quality of presented new empirical evidence based on context, design and analysis, and quality of conclusions and discussion including implications for retail management, marketing and public policy and future research.

Papers are specifically invited from the submissions of short (five page) papers to the Retail and Distribution track of the 2015 Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy conference, held in Sydney, 30 Nov ? 2 Dec 2015 (www.anzmac.org/conference). ANZMAC conference papers are due by 29 June.

Authors from a selection of high quality conference papers will be invited to extend their paper to submit a full paper for possible inclusion in the special issue. Separate new submissions can also be considered or may be invited. The closing date for full manuscript submissions will be 31 March 2016 ? earlier submission is recommended.

All papers will be double-blind reviewed. We will aim to complete the review and revision process in time for publication by early 2017. The editor of the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services will have the right of final approval of acceptances.

All initially submitted manuscripts for the conference must follow the ANZMAC guidelines for the submission of conference papers, and submitted via website https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/anzmac2015

Final papers submitted for the journal must follow the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services guidelines, available at www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services and can be submitted via the JRCS website at http://ees.elsevier.com/jjrc/default.asp, with reference to the special issue.

*Affiliations and contact details:

Paul Ballantine, Associate Professor and Head of Department, Department of Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship, School of Business and Economics, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand; see http://www.mang.canterbury.ac.nz/people/ballantine.shtml; Email: paul.ballantine@canterbury.ac.nz

Harmen Oppewal, Professor and Head of Department, Department of Marketing, Monash Business School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, see http://www.buseco.monash.edu.au/mkt/staff/; Email: harmen.oppewal@monash.edu

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