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    Customer experience in immersive virtual reality retail : exploring behaviors, emotions, and touchpoints across the shopping journey : a thesis with publications presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Information Technology, School of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, Massey University, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2025-08-01) Erensoy, Aysu
    Immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) is transforming the retail landscape by merging sensory engagement with the personalization and convenience of digital platforms. As part of the rapidly evolving metaverse, iVR has the potential to redefine customer experience (CX) and create immersive, multisensory shopping environments. However, understanding how iVR shapes customer behaviors, emotions, and interactions across the shopping journey remains limited. These gaps hinder businesses from fully optimizing CX in this emerging domain. This research aims to address these challenges by exploring the influence of iVR retail touchpoints on CX and developing frameworks to advance theoretical and practical knowledge in iVR retail. This study employed a human-centered design methodology, integrating systematic literature reviews, semi-structured interviews with VR design experts, and iVR experiments with end-users. The literature review established a theoretical foundation, identifying challenges and opportunities in iVR retail. Semi-structured interviews with experts explored critical touchpoints, emotions, behaviors, and the design processes underlying iVR environments. Complementing these, VR experiments, card-sorting activities, and end-user interviews captured the behaviors and emotions of participants across the pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase stages of the shopping journey. This study offers significant theoretical advancements by extending the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model to better capture the complexities of CX in immersive virtual environments. It provides a nuanced understanding of how sensory stimuli influence emotional responses and consumer behaviors, particularly within iVR retail contexts. This extension enables a more comprehensive analysis of the relationships between touchpoints, emotions, and shopping processes. Additionally, the study adapts the Double Diamond framework, tailoring it to meet the unique demands of iVR design. This refined framework supports designers in addressing the iterative nature of immersive retail experiences across discovery, definition, development, and delivery phases. Additionally, the key outcome of this research is developing a CX framework that detailed the iVR customer journey, illustrating how user interactions, emotional responses, and behaviors evolve across the pre-purchase, purchase, and post purchase stages. These findings not only highlight the underlying mechanics of creating positive CX in iVR environments but also identify the drivers of emotional connection and satisfaction, laying the groundwork for further exploration and application in this transformative retail medium. This research contributes to both theoretical and practical understanding of iVR retail environments. Theoretically, it advances models such as the S-O-R model and refines the Double Diamond framework, aligning them with the complexities of immersive technologies and offering tools for analyzing how iVR reshapes CX. Practically, the study provides actionable design guidelines to address key challenges in iVR retail, including improving usability with intuitive interfaces, enhancing accessibility through features like voice navigation, and fostering emotional engagement via sensory-rich experiences. These guidelines support the creation of inclusive, engaging, and effective iVR shopping environments that serve as a roadmap for future studies for exploring and validating emergent technological innovations in iVR retail.
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    Consumer emotional engagement with plant-based meat alternatives : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Food Technology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2024) Orr, Rebekah Eleanor
    Plant-based meat alternatives (PBMAs) can support consumers in reducing meat consumption without having to drastically change the way they eat. However, consumer uptake of PBMAs is low highlighting the need for a better understanding of the drivers of PBMA acceptance. The research presented in this thesis aimed to do this by leveraging two innovative techniques in sensory consumer research: measuring emotional response and using digital immersive environments (digital-IEs). As no emotion lexicon had been published for plant-based patties (PB-patties) or PBMAs in general before this work, an emotional lexicon specific to comparing meat and PB-patties was created. Taking a unique approach, participants were immersed (using digital-IEs) in two relevant burger-eating scenarios to evoke key emotions associated with plant-based patty (PB-patty) consumption in realistic scenarios. Different age and diet groups were included in the lexicon development process to ensure it was inclusive of the range of emotions that could potentially be experienced by end-users. The lexicon included emotions not found in generic lexicons, highlighting the value of a product-specific lexicon for gaining deeper insights. Many emotions were negatively classified, such as ‘deceived’, ‘disappointed’, and ‘anxious’, while others were positively classified, including ‘amazed’ and ‘hopeful’. The lexicon was applied with meat-eating consumers to emotionally profile a variety of commercially available meat and plant-based patties, alongside measures of liking, sensory attributes, and perceived similarity to a beef patty. Findings revealed that PB-patties closely resembling beef were the most appealing to meat eaters, receiving high liking scores and evoking positive emotional responses, sometimes comparable to those elicited by the beef patty. In contrast, patties that did not mimic meat characteristics were generally disliked and evoked negative emotional responses. These results indicate that PB-patties lacking meat-like characteristics require significant product development to gain acceptance among meat-eating consumers. The lexicon was also applied to investigate the impact of eating scenarios created using digital-IEs, and accompanying foods, on emotional response, as well as liking, towards plant-based meatball alternatives (PB-meatballs). Serving two PB-meatballs with a well-liked sauce significantly increased both liking and positive emotional response. Additionally, consuming PB-meatballs in an appropriate home environment improved liking for one product and enhanced positive emotional responses toward both. These findings emphasised the importance of considering contextual factors in future research on PBMAs to better understand how they would perform in real-life eating situations. This research provided an emotion lexicon that researchers and food manufacturers can apply to better understand consumer emotional responses to PBMAs. It identified sensory attributes driving liking and positive emotional responses such as a strong beef flavour and juicy texture, as well as those that drive disliking and negative emotional responses including a beany flavour and pasty/doughy texture, providing a guide for improved PBMA product development. Furthermore, the research demonstrated that consumer acceptance of PBMAs can be improved when served with other meal components and consumed in a contextually appropriate environment, which has implications for how PBMAs are evaluated in the field. Notably, this research showcased the potential of digital-IEs as a tool for gaining insights into consumer responses in settings that are more representative of ‘real-life’ eating scenarios than traditional sensory testing facilities (i.e. sensory booths).
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    Conceptualising the solitude experience of solo female travellers : exploring the interplay of aloneness, social presence, and interactions : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Marketing at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2023-11-30) Somasiri, Sachithra
    Recent statistics in the travel and tourism industry show that the majority of the solo travel market is made up of solo female travellers (SFTs), the numbers of which are steadily increasing over time. Consequently, destination management organisations (DMOs) find SFTs as a flourishing market that creates many opportunities. In response, DMOs offer certain customised service amenities targeting SFTs, such as women-only hotels or floors. However, this research offers a deeper understanding of the multifaceted needs and experiences of SFTs in their travel discourse. Therefore, this study provides knowledge for DMOs to design more inclusive and diverse offerings when catering to this distinctive traveller segment. The existing literature is well-established in terms of the underlying needs of SFTs. Solitude is identified as one of the prime needs of SFTs and a key feature that defines present and future SFTs. Further, the various benefits of solo female travelling (for example, independence, relaxation, and self-learning) can be broadly linked with the benefits of solitude as a restorative experience. Even though existing literature identifies solitude as a need of SFTs, it is not informed about how solitude is experienced in the solo travel context. In their solo travel, SFTs encounter both solo and non-solo episodes that may shape one's solitude experience in a consumption context. Hence, the investigation of how solitude experiences of women in their solo travel discourse are shaped by their context, and the presence of and interaction with others, makes an original contribution to the literature. Focusing on the importance of solitude, this study argues that solitude as a travel need of SFTs may be influenced by the social presence of others and entail certain interpersonal dynamics (tourist-to-tourist interactions, tourist-to-service person interactions, and tourist-to-local interactions). Therefore, this research aimed to investigate how women experience and fulfil their need for solitude in their solo travel pursuits. To this end, a qualitative study was conducted. Thirty-four in-depth interviews were completed with SFTs who had travelled solo internationally. The narratives were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings emphasised the multiplicity of solitude as a travel need. Solitude was not a stand-alone experience. Instead, SFTs’ solitude experiences were multilayered, entailing differing levels of aloneness and interactions that were situational and context-bounded. SFTs found the presence of non-interactive others as a means of experiencing safe solitude. Further, the interactions within their desired levels and comfortable zones enhanced their solitude experience highlighting the possibilities of acceptable interactions within one’s solitude experience. Therefore, solitude in a bounded interactive sense can be understood in a way which is distinctive from the conventional solitude experience. On the other hand, the findings revealed certain interactive social presences of locals, other travellers, and service persons were beyond SFTs’ desires and were intrusive towards experiencing solitude. These intrusions contribute to the literature on the effects of social presence and territorial intrusions in distinctive consumption contexts. In responding towards intrusive experiences, SFTs used certain response strategies depending on the intruder. In the event of intrusions caused by locals and other travellers, SFTs mostly handled the incidents on their own. This study found complaining to be a novel response strategy of SFTs in the event of intrusive service persons, highlighting the non-complaining behaviour of SFTs with certain unique underlying reasons for suppressing complaints. Besides complaining as a novel response strategy in consumer territorial intrusion, reasons for non-complaining, also contribute to the wider literature on the complaining behaviour of solo female consumers, which could be applied in various other consumption contexts. These findings and the associated interpretations have implications for DMOs in designing solo female travelling-friendly servicescapes and offerings for women who travel with distinctive travel needs.
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    Online users' behaviours and behavioural intentions with reference to live streaming : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2021) Jia, Xiaoyun
    Live streaming, as a new medium, allows users to participate in real-time interaction. It has attracted a large number of online users, and become a new social commerce venue and lucrative business, especially in China where the live streaming industry is growing explosively and is the largest in the world. This thesis aims to comprehensively investigate users’ behaviours and behavioural intentions in live streaming through both qualitative and quantitative approaches using the Chinese live streaming as an example. This thesis contains four studies to investigate from both streamers’ and viewers’ aspects. Firstly, we conducted two qualitative studies to investigate users’ online behaviours in the social commerce practice in live streaming by exploring how streamers attract viewers (Chapter 2) and encourage gifting (Chapter 3). Novel multiple triangulation was used, including data source triangulation and methodological triangulation. Through multiple triangulation, three behaviours for viewer attraction and four behaviours for gifting encouragement were identified. These two chapters help to comprehensively understand streamers’ online behaviours in this new form of social commerce. Next, we conducted two quantitative studies to explore why viewers continue to watch streams (Chapters 4 and 5). Based on expectation-confirmation theory (ECT), in Chapter 4, we modified the post-acceptance model of information system continuance and re-defined the constructs in a structural equation model of predictors of continuance intention of watching live streams. Chapter 4 successfully connects intention and continuance intention of watching, and integrates disparate understandings of viewers’ watching behaviours. To solve the deficiencies identified in current ECT-based models and further increase the explanation of variance in continuance intention of watching, in Chapter 5, we proposed a value-based continuance intention model (V-ECM), which theoretically extends ECT-based studies by including a process of overall practical assessment between users’ perceived benefits and perceived sacrifices. V-ECM appears to be a better model for explaining users’ continuance intention in the stream-watching context. Also, V-ECM could be used broadly in online and/or technology-related fields. Overall, this thesis comprehensively investigates both streamers’ and viewers’ behaviours and behavioural intentions in live streaming. Insights from this thesis can improve the design, functions and marketing within live streaming platforms. Also, this thesis provides strong foundations for further online behaviour studies, for example, stream-watching addiction.
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    Customer behaviours and online banking in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Banking at Massey University, Manawatū campus, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) Azeem, Saba
    Recent technological developments in the financial sector have led to renewed interest in studying bank-customer relationships. The present study examined the effects of six demographic characteristics (i.e. age, gender, household income, education, employment and marital status) on the use of online banking in New Zealand. Three research questions were addressed: How do different personal characteristics affect customers’ use of online banking? How do these characteristics interact with each other in affecting customers’ use of online banking? and How do different characteristics affect the key factors that form users’ perceptions of online banking usefulness? We used a three-pronged data collection methodology including four focus group discussions an online survey and twenty-six qualitative interviews. The survey was taken by 758 respondents and the completion rate was 76%. A range of descriptive and empirical analytics were used and strong effects of customer demographics on online banking use were found. The explanatory power of the six characteristics was examined using stepwise backward regression modelling while ANOVA tests confirmed interactive effects between combinations of characteristics. Through Principal component analysis, we identified a subset of four key constructs to represent the major areas of themes where customer perceptions differ regarding the use of online banking. Ordinal logit regression determined how perceptions differ on the basis of the differences in demographics. Academically, this research examines the predictive utility of demographic characteristics in explaining New Zealanders’ use of online banking technologies from both banking and marketing perspectives. Expanding on demographic relationships as proxies for deeper drivers of behaviours, this study offers practical lessons for effective segmentation and engagement strategies. It reminds banks that understanding customer personas is the first step to effective targeting or personalization. This is critical in developing customer-centric banking in New Zealand and other regions.
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    Is it worthwhile going immersive? : evaluating the performance of virtual simulated stores for shopper research : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Marketing at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) Schnack, Alexander
    Advances in simulation technology offer the possibility of more authentic shopper environments for virtual store experiments. Criticisms of subjective measures of consumer behavior previously led to the use of test markets or simulated stores for consumer experimental research. As cost implications made such experiments unavailable to the wider market research community, virtual simulated stores (VSSs) were developed as an alternative. However, the adoption of VSSs has been slow as traditional desktop-operated VSSs do not provide an authentic multicategory shopper experience. New simulation technologies offer the opportunity for more immersive and authentic VSS environments. Yet there has been little research on how authenticity of VSSs is impacted by newly available technology such as head-mounted displays, motion tracking, force feedback controllers, and application of place and plausibility cues. Thus, this dissertation asks whether immersive technologies have potential to provide highly authentic VSS environments. Of the many factors that may determine authenticity, this dissertation examines three; participants’ sense of telepresence, the realism of shopper behaviour, and the effects of shopper locomotion alternatives. An immersive VSS incorporating new virtual technologies was specifically designed and built for this research. Three studies were undertaken. The first compared perceived telepresence and usability between a desktop-operated VSS and an equivalent immersive walk-around VSS. The second examined the authenticity of shopper behaviour in the immersive walk-around VSS by comparing observed shopping patterns to those previously reported in the marketing literature. The third tested whether walk-around locomotion was necessary for authenticity, or whether a simpler teleportation method would result in equivalent shopper behaviour and emotions. Results showed that immersive VSS systems are preferable to traditional desktop-operated systems with regards to telepresence and usability. Further, authentic behavioural patterns can be found in immersive walk-around store experiments, including plausibility of private label shares, pack inspection times, shelf-height effects and impulse purchases. Lastly, there were no differences in shopper emotions and purchase behaviour between walk-around locomotion and controller-based instant teleportation, implying that the teleportation technique can be used, thereby reducing the required physical footprint for immersive VSS simulations. Collectively, the findings imply that marketers who study in-store shopper behavior can be confident using immersive VSS for their research as opposed to outdated desktop VSS technology.
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    Consumer perception and behavior toward food safety risk in Vietnam : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Economics at Massey University, Manawatu Campus New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) Ha, Thi Thanh Mai
    Perception of food safety risk is heightened in Vietnam. The main objective of this thesis is to gain an understanding of consumer perception of food safety risk and the relationship between risk perception and behaviour toward food safety risk in Vietnam. The thesis used the primary data that comes from our survey of 498 consumers and group discussions. Data were collected during 2017 in Hanoi, Vietnam. Results from Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) analysis confirmed that extensive media coverage of food safety scandals decreased trust in institutions and heightened risk perception of common food and risk perception of hazards directly. Negative food safety information indirectly amplified perception of food safety risk in general. Using the mixed method, we found that risk perception was shaped by the fear of hazards, risk perceived from common foods, and food risk information. This finding was supported by those generated from SEM. Region was the most important determinant of risk perception, where urban consumers perceived a higher food safety risk than their rural counterparts. Applying Principle Component Analysis and ordered logit regression, we found differences and similarities in the determinants of vegetable risk perception between the rural and urban regions. The Kruskal-Wallis test shows that higher risk perception was associated with a larger decline in vegetable consumption. To reduce the perceived risk, consumers avoided eating vegetables that were believed to be unsafe and switched to safer ones. We used the contingent valuation method to predict the willingness to pay (WTP) for organic vegetables. Results show that the WTP of urban consumers was higher than that of rural respondents. Perceived values of organic food, trust in organic labels, and income increased the WTP across the regions. Growing own vegetables reduced the WTP in the rural region only. Our findings suggest that regional differences need to be considered when designing risk communication and food safety policy. Urban farming should be encouraged as a mean to reduce food safety concerns in cities.
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    Producing community pharmacy : complex performances in a hybrid space : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2018) McGuigan, Kathryn Amy
    Community pharmacies are recognisably hybrid health and retail spaces that are increasingly expanding beyond medicine-dispensing into new arenas of healthcare. However, there is limited understanding of the community pharmacy as a complex hybrid and socially-produced space. This thesis explores the community pharmacy as a hybrid, everyday and performative space using ethnographically-inspired methods to uncover the routines, performances and experiences within and across four pharmacies. Data was collected from two Life pharmacies and two Unichem community pharmacies using non-participant observation, mapping, photography, and interviews. Findings are presented in three parts, focussing on the landscape of the community pharmacy, staff practices, and customer performances in turn. The first findings chapter reveals that Life and Unichem pharmacies have distinctly different looks, ambience and feel that immediately identify them. However, all pharmacies had seven identifiably-distinct spaces: the dispensary, Over-the-Counter (OTC) medicines, Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM), the counter, the consulting room, beauty, and gifts. These spaces varied in size but were located in similar positions within each pharmacy, and each space was subject to its own boundaries and power differentials. The dispensary is the most powerful space, followed by OTC and CAM spaces, because of the symbolic power of medicine and health. The boundaries around the CAM space were blurred and precarious, illustrating how CAM is on the boundaries of orthodox medicine, but is important to the expanding arena of health in the pharmacy. The counter area is subject to competing powers vying for visual and commercial dominance in the pharmacy. The beauty and gifts spaces had gendered boundaries and although beauty spaces attempted to medicalise skin care, beauty was primarily seen as a retail necessity as well as a community service. The community pharmacy is more than a hybrid space, it is a site of multiple practices across and within seven distinct spaces. Exploring the physical and symbolic boundaries around and within these spaces illustrated how the community pharmacy meaning is comprised of movement and intersections across and within space. Exploring the spaces also revealed power differentials and competing stakeholders within the community pharmacy. Power played out within and across orthodox medicine, CAM, and beauty in aesthetics, symbols and physical aspects of the pharmacy such as marketing, product placement and staff hierarchies illustrating the complexity of the community pharmacy space. The second findings chapter explores professionalism, boundary work and interactions of community pharmacy staff in both the dispensary and the shop floor. Boundaries around the dispensary are demarcated and exclusionary. Technicians are limited to working in the dispensary with clearly-defined work boundaries. In contrast, the pharmacist works within the dispensary and on the shop floor and the different spaces require different performances but are both tied to the pharmacist’s professional identity. Pharmacy culture, expectations, the pharmacy brand, individual preferences and interests also influence professionalism and role boundaries of the pharmacist. For the pharmacist intern boundaries move and change as the performance moves from the dispensary to the shop floor. Retail staff play an important role in the social production of pharmacy. They have a range of performances from gatekeeping, sentry duty, and guiding customers in medicine, health, and beauty consultations. These staff use expertise developed with experience and on-the-job training to claim a conditional expert status, particularly in the medicines spaces such as OTC and CAM. The power of medicine functions to marginalise beauty staff keeping them on the boundaries of the pharmacy physically and symbolically. The analysis further revealed that emotional labour was required by all staff to create a sense of community in the pharmacy. Different spaces and different products required different emotional labour, with marked differences between health and beauty interactions. The boundary work and emotional labour of all staff reflects and reinforces the dominant medical, professional and gender hierarchies that are operative, highlighting the interwoven nature of space and staff practices in the community pharmacy. The final findings chapter explores the range of customer experiences within the community pharmacy. Customers’ performances were driven by consumption of health and non-health purposes but also by the nature of the pharmacy space itself. There were distinct differences between health and non-health practices. Health consumption involved the use of boundary objects, such as the prescription, and rituals to seek health advice, products and service such as displaying symptoms and storytelling. Filling a prescription revealed interesting differences across its three distinct phases (handing in, waiting and collecting). Handing in the prescription was consistent across pharmacies and customers, whereas waiting practices were gendered. Collecting the prescription was more complicated, and differed from pharmacy to pharmacy, leading to customer uncertainty. Non-health consumption was gendered due to the products on offer, and this was sustained by the feminine aesthetic of the beauty and gift spaces. Overall, customers were found to be active consumers who embrace the hybrid functions of the pharmacy, assimilating, modifying and rejecting health and non-health products, information and advice. The closing chapter offers a discussion, drawing on performativity, to consider how staff and customers interact with space, people and products to create the social production of pharmacy. Customers use the community pharmacy as a hybrid site of health and retail, using strategies and tactics to incorporate, modify and reject dominant health and beauty ideologies and discourses. Pharmacy staff are more constrained by spatial and role boundaries in both health and non-health spaces, but use emotional labour and patient-centred practices to create a relational and community space. Overall, this research highlights that the community pharmacy is a dynamic, relational and complex space.
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    Hijau : a mediation between conscious consumption and the contemporary media activism : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Master in Design at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Shari, Syamim
    The research project thus examines psychographic data to design for change to enable southeast iGen Asians become conscious consumers by using social media frameworks and techniques. iGens Asian are high consumer of fast fashion with limited knowledge of conscious consumerism. There is an identified gap in the sustainable fashion movement to address conscious consumerism. After outlining iGens’ key pain points and needs, the investigation examines the significant role of social media as a critical shaper in sharing collective knowledge, personal beliefs, desires, and hopes. It then explores how micro-narrative design can be employed to prompt a shift in attitudes towards sustainable fashion. The end goal is to elicit a long-term change starting with small habits. The methodology used in this one-year post-graduate research study encompassed naturalistic observation, in-depth semi structure interview and Instagram innovation. The design output in the form of face- filters provide an accessible platform for iGens in Malaysia to engage with conscious consumption. Furthermore, the flow of the project has been tested with three key participants. The study would be extended before the live release of the filters on Instagram.
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    What makes a good label? : the effect of wine label design on product evaluation and purchasing behaviour : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Marketing at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2018) Jaud, David Alexandre
    Companies spend billions annually on packaging and labelling, yet little is known about how and why specific features of package design influence consumer responses. This thesis identifies, across two projects, what wine label elements or themes should be used, where and when. First, while the use of fantasy themes is increasing across product categories, it is unclear how consumers react to fantasy labels. Across five studies, the results unite seemingly contradicting theories predicting the effects of fantasy labels on product evaluation and purchasing behaviour by uncovering an important boundary condition: product quality signal, in line with the principle of hedonic dominance. The results suggest that for low quality products, fantasy labels backfire (consistent with research on metacognition). For products average in quality, fantasy and non-fantasy labels do not differ in their performance. Yet, in the presence of a high quality signal, fantasy labels impact product evaluation and purchasing behaviour positively. This positive effect is sequentially driven by the evocation of the imaginary and affect, in line with research on mental simulation. Second, it is unclear to what extent elements of wine label design affect sales relative to other marketing mix effects. Specifically, we use wine transactional data for 127 SKUs across two liquor stores in New Zealand, covering 105 weeks. The findings suggest that some specific label elements have strong effects on sales. Specifically, extra text, as a quality cue, has the strongest positive effect. Overall, after price, the combination of image(s) and extra text has the strongest (negative) effect on sales. In line with research on processing fluency, this research also shows whether and when to use simple versus complex elements (typeface, label structure, mode of information). This thesis has important implications for wine companies and retailers.