To shop or not to shop while traveling? Exploring the influence of shopping mall attributes on overall tourist shopping satisfaction

Abstract

The shopping experience may impact tourists' overall dis/satisfaction and, subsequently, the destination's local economy. To address this importance, the current study focused on six important criteria - environmental performance, geographical location, human resources, marketing, services and welfare recreational facilities - that also include twenty-four sub-criteria that had been identified and proposed after a comprehensive review of relevant literature. Combining fuzzy set theory and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method, the causal relationship of each criterion and its sub-criteria and the key influencing factors for the quality of tourists' shopping mall satisfaction were identified. Also, the links between the main criteria and sub-criteria were uncovered, and their weights were determined. The results indicate that the 'marketing' criterion has had the most substantial influence on the quality of shopping mall satisfaction, while the additional variables include 'services', 'human resources', 'welfare recreational facilities', 'environmental performance' and 'geographical location'. The study provides a list of implications for both the literature and practice.