Determinants of attitudes, patronage intentions and the desire to spend at a Mall

Abstract

Shopping malls are a new concept in Lesotho. Even though scholarship on factors that influence shopping in malls is not new, some findings are inconsistent and inconclusive. Furthermore, consumer psychologists warn against generalising results from different environments because cultures and lifestyles differ. The aim of this paper is to examine attributes that influence young shoppers’ attitude, patronage intentions and desire to spent time at the Pioneer Shopping mall in Maseru, Lesotho. The sample consisted of 200 students from the National University of Lesotho located about 35KM from where the mall is based. The results generally suggest that mall atmospherics had positive and strong association with young shoppers’ attitude, patronage intentions and desire to spend time at the mall. Even though the perception of mall service influenced the desire of young shoppers to spend time at the mall, it neither influenced the young shoppers’ attitude nor their patronage intentions. We discuss these results and provide managerial implications and prospects for future research.