Title: Elements of task definition shopping situations: a study of Indian customers in context of products high on haptic salience

Authors: Abhishek; Piyush Kumar Sinha

Addresses: Marketing Area, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Vastrapur, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 380015, India ' Marketing Area, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Vastrapur, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 380015, India

Abstract: Marketing literature has identified task definitions as one of the important situational influences. However, existing definitions of planned and emergency shopping situations are driven from practitioners' perspective and suffer from operationalisation issues. In this study, we make an attempt to understand and define the concept of task definition from customers' perspective. Based on the thematic analysis of data collected through qualitative interviews, we identify the elements of task definitions which customers consider salient in distinguishing between different task definitions. We conclude, based on the additional analysis of comparison of these elements across different product categories, that it is also important to consider the finer point in elements across two product categories for same type of shopping trip.

Keywords: task definition; haptic salience; haptics; regular purchase; emergency purchase; fill-in trips; major trips; planned shopping; emergency shopping; India; customer perspective; marketing; product categories.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2016.078043

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2016 Vol.13 No.2, pp.243 - 265

Received: 11 Aug 2015
Accepted: 19 Sep 2015

Published online: 31 Jul 2016 *

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