Smart shopper feelings in the case of store brands: the role of human capital as a key antecedent and the implications for store loyalty

ABSTRACT This paper asks the questions ‘how do store brands create smart shopper feelings?’, ‘what are the antecedents to this form of ego expressive benefits?’ and ‘what are the consequences for store loyalty if any?’ The findings reveal that ego expressive smart shopper feelings emerge from the interaction between shoppers’ food related human capital, in the form of information and knowledge capital, and retailers’ store brand products. As such, it draws attention to yet another element that contributes to the in-store value that some shoppers enjoy as part of the shopping process. While smart shopper feelings have typically been related directly to saving money, our findings find no such support: checking and engaging in price comparisons are not found to yield store brand smart shopper feelings. That store brands are cheaper appears to be taken as given. Rather, we find that food-related knowledge capital in the form of search skills and the ability to deal with more complicated forms of on-pack information coupled with food-related information capital are the antecedents to these ego-expressive benefits. Through ability and information, some shoppers experience these benefits to a greater extent. The consequence for retailers is that store brand smart feelings encourage loyalty to store brands in general rather than to a particular retailer, fostering store brand promiscuity rather than store loyalty.

The need to be a smart shopper is intensified in times of financial difficulties when store brands are considered smart purchases, primarily because of the monetary savings that they yield.Indeed, smart shopper feelings have been regularly, but not exclusively, tied to monetary savings.Given the current downbeat status of the economic environment and the cost-of-living crisis, it is unsurprising that the importance of store brands is getting extensive coverage in the press once again (Haurant 2022) even as global growth in the sales of these products continues to grow (Alić and Mujkic 2022;Statista 2021Statista , 2022)).It is recognised that when household budgets are tight, consumers rely more on store brands while filling their shopping baskets.Nevertheless, this shift of preferences towards store brands does not expire when household finances improve.For example, in times of economic downturns, store brands perform well with significant gains in market share, which, curiously, they tend to hold once economic activity rebounds (Lamey et al. 2012).This suggests that the value store brands create extends beyond monetary savings as cheaper alternatives and merit investigation and explanation.This brings us to the extended value that store brands are associated with in the form of smart shopper feelings (Baltas and Argouslidis 2007;Burton et al. 1998;Sethuraman and Gielens 2014).
The role of shopping and acquisition experiences, especially those revolving around products, in the creation of value has recently gained more attention in the grocery market (Diep and Sweeney 2008).In this regard, Diallo et al. (2015) usefully distinguish between the shopping trip value, associated with higher-order hedonic and utilitarian motivations (Arnold and Reynolds 2003;Jones, Reynolds, and Arnold 2006) and the product value derived from the feelings or affective states that a product generates.Rather than focus our enquiry on smart shopper feelings at shopping trip level, which might include planning and organisation, the right purchase, time savings (Atkins and Hyun 2016;Gómez-Suárez, Quinones, and Yagüe 2020), we are concerned with the product level and the smart shopper feelings that a particular set of products (i.e.store brands) elicits.We postulate that store brands, in addition to monetary savings, can also create additional forms of value.They enable shoppers to deploy their particular set of skills and knowledge while shopping, thus creating a new ego expressive form of in-store shopping value through the interaction with and the evaluation of products (Diep and Sweeney 2008).
We will extend our understanding of smart shopper feelings by drawing on the economics of information and the work of Ratchford (2001) in particular, to show how human capital establishes the foundations for experiencing non-monetary sources of smart shopper feelings in the context of store brands.Ratchford (2001) defines human capital as 'knowledge, skill, or expertise embodied in people and acquired through investments in formal or informal education, training, or learning by doing ' (pp. 397).Human capital represents an important resource available to the consumer when making decisions and indeed when evaluating consumption experiences.Human capital embodies the outcome of investments of time expended in learning made in the past that can assist decision-making (Srinivasan and Ratchford 1991;Urbany, Dickson, and Kalapurakal 1996) or elevate consumption experiences in current or future periods (Holt 1995;Ratchford 2001).The recognition of human capital gained momentum after the seminal work of Gary Becker (1964) who brought the concept to the fore.While human capital had been typically related to the creation of economic value (Nahapiet 2011), more recent works have explicitly considered other forms of value to include the 'creation of personal and social wellbeing alongside economic returns' (OECD 2001, p. 18).A greater understanding of the role of human capital in consumers' lives is largely due to the growing awareness of its contribution to the creation of hedonic values (Holt 1995;Murray and Bellman 2011;Ratchford 2001;Srinivasan and Ratchford 1991).More skilled and informed consumers can extract greater pleasure and enjoyment from a given context or performance through their ability to discern more effectively than those consumers who are less informed (Holt 1995;Ratchford 2001).Human capital may explain consumption activities and related experiences, motivated in part by self-efficacy, achievement, exploration, and self-fulfilment (Namin et al. 2020;Ratchford 2001) that closely align with outcomes of smart feelings in the shopping domain such as 'winning', 'pride', 'good feelings' (Burton et al. 1998) 'accomplishment' (Gomez-Suarez, Quinones, and Yagúe 2016), 'thrill' (Schindler 1989), 'competence', and 'efficiency' (Atkins and Kim 2012).
Human capital may be considered as domain specific and our attention will focus on the food domain in the form of Food-Related Human Capital (FRHC) similar to earlier works (McCarthy et al. 2017;Namin et al. 2020) and is closely related to the multidimensional concept of food literacy and the ability to read and understand on-pack information (Bostic, Bisogni, and Sobal 2016;Vaitkeviciute, Ball, and Harris 2015).Shoppers, imbued with high levels of FRHC, may resemble 'foodies', who engage in browsing and finding products as a source of positive and pleasant experiences (Calvo-Porral and Lévy-Mangin 2018).In our case, we argue FRHC enables shoppers, so endowed, to discern intrinsic quality variations between store brands and national brands more effectively through an evaluation of pack information than those less well endowed, yielding greater ego expressive forms of value.
We contend that the current research makes a number of distinct contributions to the literature.First, we will draw attention to the role of human capital in the context of grocery shopping as an important antecedent to smart shopper feelings.Second, while existing research has tended to view human capital as a single construct (Namin et al. 2020;Urbany, Dickson, and Kalapurakal 1996) we will deconstruct human capital into its two forms, knowledge and information capital (Ratchford 2001;Mittal and Sawhney 2001), and will reveal how each form is implicated in the value creation process.Third, we will draw attention to store brands' capacity to create smart shopper feelings beyond simply saving money, and finally, we will reveal how store brand smart shopper feelings can undermine the store loyalty.
We contextualise our study in the grocery market, as it represents a suitable locus for the application of FRHC being characterised by complexity due to dizzying arrays of choice, prices, promotions, and marketing tactics (Lindsey-Mullikin and Petty 2011; Mick, Broniarczyk, and Haidt 2004) as well as other multisensory stimuli (Bitner 1992), informational cues (Grunert 2005) and on-pack claims (Stanton et al. 2015).On the one hand, it is a servicescape furnished with artefacts that offer enormous potential for engagement (Bitner 1992) and the application of one's FRHC, while, on the other hand, it is a context where shoppers frequently resort to shopping processes that are characterised by scripted behaviours (Abelson 1981), routines or habits (Gbadamosi 2009;Wood and Neal 2009), and heuristics (Garaus, Wagner, and Kummer 2015;Grewal, Roggeveen, and Lindsey-Mullikin 2014;Suri and Monroe 2003;Berne et al. 1999) that can often depress the application of FRHC.Such habitual and routinized behaviours constrain an important source of smart shopper feelings and are in direct contrast to more effortful activities involving external search driven by consumers' access to their FRHC.
Our paper addresses the following research question: • (R1) What are the antecedents to store brand smart shopper feelings (how do store brands create smart shopper feelings)?
While much of the existing research focuses on the relationship between behaviours and smart shopper feelings, our work extends our understanding of these feelings by uncovering the antecedents to these behaviours themselves.In doing so, we will show how shoppers' skills and knowledge translate into smart shopper feelings elicited by store brands when mediated through specific search behaviours.Finally, we assess the consequences of store brand smart shopper feelings for store loyalty by addressing our second research question: • (R2) How do store brand smart shopper feelings influence store brand purchasing behaviours in competing stores and what are the implications for store loyalty?
The paper is structured as follows: In the first section, we will develop a set of hypotheses (H1-H6) to form Model 1 to examine the relationship between our two dimensions of FRHC and our dependent variable, the creation of smart shopper feelings.Then, we will extend our model to uncover the competitive consequences of human capital and to examine the relationship between store brand smart shopper feelings and store brand purchasing behaviours in stores other than one's primary store (H7-H9).This will be followed by our methods section leading to our analysis and discussion of the main findings.The paper concludes with an expanded note on our theoretical contributions and managerial implications.

Hypotheses and models
Model 1 Food-related human capital and smart shopper feelings Ratchford (2001) usefully distinguishes between two dimensions of human capital, knowledge capital, and information capital.Knowledge capital relates to 'know-how', skills, and capabilities and is associated with processes that enhance productivity and efficiency particularly with regard to search activities, which have been linked directly to smart shopper feelings (Atkins and Kim 2012;Schindler 1989).Moorthy, Ratchford, and Talukdar (1997) and Sethuraman and Gielens (2014) found that shoppers, who have superior skills and food-related know-how, apply their knowledge capital to seek out and interpret onpack information, especially where task complexity is perceived to be high (Hu, Huhmann, and Hyman 2007).The time allocated to search incurs an opportunity cost of time, which may be defined as 'the value of what was forgone in order for the individual to spend his or her time in the manner he or she did' (Bryant 1990, p. 160).As knowledge capital increases, efficiency effects are manifest in the reduced opportunity cost of time engaged in search; the individual becomes a more efficient searcher and is equipped to either expend less time evaluating the same number of product attributes or evaluate more alternatives or attributes in a given amount of time (Ratchford 2001;Moorthy, Ratchford, and Talukdar 1997).Thus, we propose; H1 The relationship between On-Pack Information Search (OPIS) and Food-Related Knowledge Capital (FRKC) will be positive and mediated by the Opportunity Cost of Time Engaged in On-Pack Information Search (OPCT); as FRKC increases, the opportunity cost of time engaged in search falls, increasing on pack information search.
Information capital, on the other hand, relates to domain-specific information or content learned in the past that can be used at present to inform current decisions or influence the extent of current searches.For example, drawing on previously accumulated information and past positive experiences of a brand can lead to reduced search and bolster brand loyalty (Alić and Mujkic 2022;Ratchford 2001).In the grocery market, many forms of market information retain saliency and display little change over time (Watson, Wood, and Fernie 2015).Over time and with exposure, shoppers learn from their experiences by building information capital (Vogt and Fesenmaier 1998) across their shopping and consumption activities.In this manner, the more the shopper knows about product and brand alternatives, the less they need to find out, and the breadth and depth of information capital accumulated in the past is likely to reduce external on-pack information search in the present (Moorthy, Ratchford, and Talukdar 1997;Putrevu and Ratchford 1997).To a degree, shoppers by drawing upon their existing information capital can reduce expending effort on current search, and in the process become 'set in their ways' (Ratchford 2001, p. 403) displaying many of the habitual behaviours that characterise much of contemporary grocery shopping.Thus, we propose; H2 Food-Related Informational Capital (FRIC) will reduce On-Pack Information Search.
Human capital in the form of expertise and information has also been strongly related to hedonic outcomes.Consumers' enjoyment of activities or experiences increases as their proficiency grows (Alba and Williams 2013;Holt 1995;Ratchford 2001).Specialised or domain-specific knowledge and information can yield hedonic outcomes associated with different experiences that are unobserved by the less knowledgeable (Alba and Williams 2013) (in soccer, for example, seeing and delighting in the timing and angle of run to beat the offside rule).While retailers have argued that the objective or intrinsic quality of their store brand offerings is as good as, if not better than, manufacturer branded variants (PLMA 2018; Sethuraman and Gielens 2014) consistent evidence suggests that many consumers find it difficult to observe the claim (Fugate 1986;Luis Mendez, Oubina, and Rubio 2011;Richardson, Dick, and Jain 1994;Rossi, Borges, and Bakpayev 2015).Indeed, there is compelling evidence to suggest that store brands have suffered detrimental intrinsic quality perceptions as a consequence of many consumers' propensity to use simple heuristics and reliance on well-known brand names as quality indicators (Rossi, Borges, and Bakpayev 2015).On the other hand, there is evidence that store brand loyal shoppers derive substantial hedonic benefits from the shopping process while deploying FRHC through consideration of on-pack labelling (IRI 2021).We argue that shoppers, armed with higher levels of FRIC, will be more aware of the intrinsic quality similarities that exist between store brands and national brand products.In establishing the quality bona fides of store brand products relative to the national brand alternative and seeing beyond the market orthodoxy that underpins the superiority of national brands, the greater the sense of smart feelings is evoked by 'knowing better than others' and being able to 'beat the system' (Mano and Elliott 1997;Schindler 1989).Thus, we propose; H3 Store Brand Smart Shopper Feelings will be positively related to FRIC.
Hedonic outcomes can extend beyond the information about the product itself to include the process of acquisition (Holbrook et al. 1984) involving the experiential aspects surrounding the product and occasion (Alba and Williams 2013).While effort is typically associated with work and utilitarian outcomes, there is recognition that what might be externally perceived as work can regularly generate personally salient hedonic outcomes (Alba and Williams 2013).Thus, the experiential aspects of the search (Hirschman and Holbrook 1982;Bloch, Sherrell, and Ridgway 1986) and some of its underlying hedonic motivations and outcomes (Arnold and Reynolds 2003), need to be considered.FRKC, by enhancing efficiency, reduces the opportunity cost of search, enabling the shopper to engage in more sophisticated (attribute based) and extended forms of search (Mittal and Sawhney 2001).By drawing on one's skills embedded in FRKC to engage in active on-pack information search to compare and evaluate product alternatives to discern intrinsic quality, the shopper creates a personal stream of hedonic benefits in the form of store brand smart shopper feelings.Thus, we propose; H4 FRKC will increase Store Brand Smart Shopper Feelings (when mediated through the Opportunity Cost of Time Engaged in On-pack Information Search and On-pack Information Search).
The monetary savings offered by store brands that appeal to price-conscious shoppers have been routinely associated with store brand smart shopper feelings (Gomez and Rubio 2010;Batra and Sinha 2000).These savings require effort as they are revealed through the process of search and price comparisons.It is the active process of search that enables the shopper to ascribe the savings as outcomes of their own efforts and in the process experience hedonic and ego expressive benefits in the form of smart shopper feelings (Gomez-Suarez, Quinones, and Yagúe 2016;Schindler 1998;Sethuraman and Gielens 2014).Thus, we propose: H5 In-Store Price Comparisons will increase Store Brand Smart Shopper Feelings.
While price consciousness has been defined as the 'degree to which the consumer focuses exclusively on paying low prices' (Lichtenstein, Netemeyer, and Burton 1990, p. 235) a more overarching concept, value consciousness, defined as a 'concern for paying lower prices subject to some quality constraint' (Lichtenstein, Netemeyer, and Burton 1990, p. 56) is of more relevance given that store brands offer shoppers a variety of price and quality points across the typical 3-tiered store brand hierarchy.Identifying and selecting the lowest priced store brand variant is relatively easy and readily flagged by labelling such a Tesco Value, for instance.For value-conscious shoppers, optimising a particular combination of price and quality is more complicated than simply selecting the lowest price yielding ever greater hedonic returns (Alić and Mujkic 2022).Thus, we propose that store brand smart shopper feelings will be partly and positively determined by shoppers' value consciousness.
H6 Shoppers' Value Consciousness will increase Store Brand Smart Shopper Feelings.

Model 2 Smart shopper feelings and shopper behaviour in competing stores
Given the homogeneity and ubiquity of the three-tiered store brand portfolio across the marketplace, both FRKC and FRIC may be applied generally across the variety of grocery stores that shoppers find themselves in.Consequently, Store Brand Smart Shopper Feelings may be experienced beyond one's primary store (i.e. in competing stores) and motivate store brand purchases in other stores populating the marketplace.Thus, we propose; H7 Store Brand Smart Shopper Feelings will increase store brand purchases in competing stores.
H8 FRKC will increase store brand purchases in competing stores.
H9 FRIC will increase store brand purchases in competing stores.

Method
To empirically test the models developed above, the research applies structural equation modelling.The following subsections detail the data collection process, item selection, pretesting, and the evidence supporting the reliability and validity of the constructs in our measurement model along with its overall fit.

Data collection
The data were collected using an online survey in the Philadelphia MSA, extending into New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, through an external marketing agency who collected data from their proprietary consumer panel to reflect the composition of the area's population.All respondents were the individuals responsible for the household's primary shopping and had completed a grocery shop within the previous 4 weeks.A minimum proportion of male shoppers was specified at 25 percent to reflect shopping responsibilities in the area.Each qualifying respondent completed a 10-minute online survey.To encourage responses, a $5 reward was given for each completed questionnaire.The company returned a sample of 459 responses of which 457 were usable.The sample characteristics are presented in Table 1.

Item selection and development
All constructs were measured using multiple items based on existing or adaptive measures (Table 2).A 5-point Likert scale (1 strongly disagree to 5 strongly agree) was used.New measures were required for the constructs FRIC and FRKC.Following Churchill (1979), the domains of these constructs were defined and sample items developed and evaluated by two academic colleagues who specialize in consumers' food-related behaviour independent of the current study.In the case of FRIC, the measure was designed to capture the consumer's subjective knowledge, what individuals perceive they know (Brucks 1985;Razmdoost, Dimitriu, and Macdonald 2015) of the intrinsic quality (taste, nutrition, and quality) of store brands relative to national brands.Subjective knowledge was considered suitable as it can provide a better understanding of consumers' decision-making (Park and Lessig 1981), their evaluation of decision outcomes (Raju, Lonial, and Mangold 1995), and reliance on previously stored knowledge (Razmdoost, Dimitriu, and Macdonald 2015).
Similarly, with respect to FRKC, the need to focus on relevant expertise and ability (Putrevu and Ratchford 1997) when making decisions at the point of purchase was considered core to the construct domain and was integrated into the items.The Store Brand Proneness in Competing Stores items were coded in the negative (see Table 2) following the traditional theoretical perspective that store brand loyalty enhances store loyalty to one's primary store and weakens loyalty to others.A number of covariates or control variables were integrated into the model including age, gender, and income but more importantly deal proneness and financial pressure to control for monetary savings' contribution to smart shopper feelings.Details and sources of items used for all constructs are presented in Table 2.

Pretest
The finalised set of items were piloted in the Irish grocery market as part of a research method course yielding a convenience sample of 199 respondents.This data was subjected to reliability tests and exploratory factor analysis, providing support for the use of  certain items, which loaded strongly onto the anticipated constructs.These were then reviewed, checked for ambiguity, and randomized prior to organising distribution in the US.

The measurement model: construct reliability and validity
The skewness/kurtosis levels of individual items were examined, and the results allowed accepting the normality of the distribution of the variables.Multivariate normality checks were also performed with AMOS and again no major issues influenced the reliability of the results.A maximum likelihood confirmatory factor analysis was carried out to test the measurement model.Following Podsakoff et al. (2003) a common method latent factor was introduced to ensure the model was free of bias.Exogenous variables were permitted to correlate.The resultant measurement model yielded an acceptable fit with Chi-square (χ 2 ) = 647.08,df = 359, p = .000,(χ 2 )/df = 1.802, goodness-of-fit index (GFI) =.914, adjusted goodness-of-fit index (AGFI) =.889, comparative fit index (CFI) =.960, the Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) =.951, the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) =.042, and the standardised root mean square residual (SRMR) =.040.All standardised factor loadings demonstrate statistical significance (p < .01) on their corresponding construct.
Reliability is demonstrated through the use of Cronbach's alpha scores and the composite reliability values (Table 2) with all constructs meeting the desired .70threshold (Nunally 1981).Convergent validity was assessed by examining the size and significance of the factor loadings and their associated critical values (Table 2).All items are significantly and positively loaded onto their corresponding construct demonstrating adequate convergent validity.All average variances extracted (AVE) for each construct (Table 3) meet the .50threshold (Hair et al. 1995).Comparisons between the average variance extracted and the squared correlation coefficients meet the Fornell and Larcker (1981) requirements for discriminant validity (Table 3).Overall, these results support the view

Store brand smart shopper feelings (Model 1)
Model 1 was employed to test H1-H6.The structural model yielded an acceptable fit with Chi-square (χ 2 ) = 665.903,df = 358, p = .000,(χ 2 )/df = 1.860, goodness-of-fit index (GFI) =.913, adjusted goodness-of-fit index (AGFI) = .886,comparative fit index (CFI) = .954,the Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = .944,the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = .043and the standardised root mean square residual (SRMR) =.0507.The standardised coefficients for the direct and indirect paths embedded in our hypotheses are presented in Figure 1 while Table 4 presents the paths and results for each of our hypotheses.The constructs Household Financial Pressure and Deal Proneness as well as the demographic variables age, gender, and income were employed for control purposes.
The hypotheses, with the exception of H2 and H5 are supported providing substantial support for our conceptual model (Table 4).In total, 49% of the variations in our focal variable, Store Brand Smart Shopper Feelings, are explained.
By taking H1 and examining Figure 1, we can see that the relationship between FRKC (shoppers' food-related search skills) and the OPCT (opportunity cost of time engaged in on-pack search) is significant and negative (β1 = −.724***).As the OPCT falls, the OPIS increases (β2 = −.737***).Thus, the indirect effect of FRKC on OPIS (onpack information search) is positive (β = .533***)(Table 4).Consistent with Moorthy, Ratchford, and Talukdar (1997) and Mittal and Sawhney (2001), more search, driven by FRKC, involves consideration and comparison of a greater number of product attributes consistent with more exploratory forms of search yielding hedonic outcomes (Hirschman and Holbrook 1982;Bloch, Sherrell, and Ridgway 1986).This is supported by Figure 1 which reveals the positive and significant relationships between OPIS and Store brand smart shopper feelings (SBSSF; β3= +.155***).Consequently, our hypothesis (H4) concerning the indirect path from the FRKC to SBSSF (β= +.082**) is positive and supported.
To test that the relationship between FRKC and SBSSF was totally mediated through OPCT and OPIS, we introduced a direct path (indented in Figure 1).Examining Figure 1, we can observe that this relationship (β4= −.054 ns) is not found to be significant.Thus, the effect of FRKC on SBSSF is positive and totally mediated through efficiency (skills) and onpack search indicating that deliberate and conscious on-pack information searches, encouraged by the efficiency effects of FRKC, yields smart shopper feelings.Experiencing these smart feelings may be beyond the means of shoppers whose behaviours are characterised by inertia, habit, or the use of heuristics.Arguably, retailers' greater use of complex on-pack claims (IGD 2012;Stanton et al. 2015) may increase the on-pack information load so much so that only more knowledgeable shoppers can evaluate them usefully (Jacoby, Speller, and Bering 1974), further separating out those 'that can from those that cannot'.
These findings also suggest that smart shopper feelings emerging from FRKC may be context or even shopper mission dependent.Factors such as time pressure may limit the opportunity to employ one's skills especially during fill-in shopping.Also, certain shopping contexts may not have the degree of complexity to merit the deployment of one's FRKC.For example, limited-line discounters with their focused assortments and lack of brands may not draw upon shoppers' FRKC.In these situations, smart shopper feelings may be elicited at the store choice stage (selecting Aldi as one's store choice to save money may elicit smart feelings) rather than at product choice level of decision-making when in-store.We also proposed that FRIC would depress OPIS, arguing that the more you know, the less you need to find out (H2).We have found no support for this relationship (β5 = .037ns).Rather, we have found that FRIC and the awareness of the similarity in intrinsic quality between store brands and the market's leading national brands yields smart shopper feelings directly.And the effect is both significant and substantial (β6= +.530***).Information accumulated in the past that informs relative quality evaluations between store brands and national brands plays an enormous role in determining smart shopper feelings.Thus, shoppers who are able to cut through the marketing trope that validates manufacturer's brands as superior and 'the real thing' (Cuneo et al. 2012) enjoy ego-related benefits in the form of smart shopper feelings.In contrast to FRKC, which requires the current application of effort and search to yield smart shopper feelings, FRIC draws on previous experience and is not context dependant.
Finally, it is notable that H5, the relationship between ISPC and SBSSF is not supported.One possible explanation for this finding is that shoppers have a general expectation that store brands are cheaper based on retailers' positioning of these products in the past.Being cheaper per se without considerations of quality trade-offs does not in itself create a smart shopper feeling.Being cheaper is taken as given.This is in direct contrast to shoppers' Value Consciousness, which is found to be strongly and significantly related to smart shopper feelings (β8= +.264***).Once again, dealing with complexityin this case, the balance of price and quality is implicated in the creation of smart shopper feelings.

Store brand purchases in competing stores (Model 2)
Considering H7-H9, we turn to Model 2 and Figure 2. Noting that all the items measuring the propensity to purchase store brands in competing stores (SBCS) were negatively framed, we see that the relationship between SBSSF and SBCS is positive (double negative) (β9= −.328**).This supports our proposal that SBSSF encourage store brand purchases across the retail landscape.In doing so, these hedonic and ego expressive forms of value foster store brand loyalty in general rather than loyalty to store brands in a particular retailer.
To see the effect of both forms of FRHC we can see that the path from FRKC and the SBCS is positive (β= −.022*), again noting the double negative (Table 4).However, the size of the effect is considerably smaller than that associated with FRIC (β= −.177***) (Table 4).Consequently, the evidence supports the view that while FRHC in both its forms promotes store brand promiscuity and undermines loyalty to a particular retailer's store brand offering, FRIC dominates.

Conclusions
By drawing on the works of Diep and Sweeney (2008) and that of Diallo et al. (2015) and the helpful distinction between product and store value as elements of shopping trip value, we have been able to isolate the ego expressive value that is created by store brands and their antecedents.Our research has drawn attention to a form of value that can be usefully framed as part of in-store value (Diallo et al. 2015) that is created by the interaction between the shopper, in possession of skills and knowledge, and a specific category of products, store brands.Addressing R1, our work has clearly demonstrated that it is the application of one's skills and knowledge that drives the creation of these smart shopper feelings.
We have revealed FRHC, through its subcomponents, as an important antecedent to smart shopper feelings and as a consequence another mechanism through which the retailer through its assortment facilitates the co-creation of in-store value.We have drawn further attention to experiential and hedonic outcomes that emerge from search, especially when driven by human capital.Despite concerns of others (Garaus, Wagner, and Kummer 2015;Mick, Broniarczyk, and Haidt 2004), this work has revealed that shoppers, rich in FRHC may thrive in a shopping context characterised by variety, complexity and high information loads, where new and innovative product features may be readily deciphered creating smart shopping feelings.
Second, while existing research has tended to view human capital as a single construct (Namin et al. 2020;Urbany, Dickson, and Kalapurakal 1996), this research deconstructed and modelled human capital into its two forms, knowledge and information capital (Ratchford 2001).In doing so, we revealed how each form is implicated in the value creation process and in the process showed that FRIC plays the dominant role.
The findings suggest that the stream of smart shopper feelings associated with FRKC will be influenced by context and varies across shopping missions and circumstances (time pressure; shopping with children, etc.).Knowledge capital requires time and the immediate expenditure of effort and certain shopping contexts may mitigate against its use.The evidence supports the dominance of FRIC and experience acquired in the past, which may be due to its greater generality and ease of application.
The findings demonstrate store brands' capacity to create smart shopper feelings beyond monetary savings.Indeed, we did not find support for in-store price comparisons yielding smart feelings.Thus, the findings redress the tendency in the smart shopping literature to focus on saving money, which in the context of the grocery market involves dealing with low complexity price-related market information (Garretson, Fisher, and Burton 2002;Gauri, Harmon-Kizer, and Talukdar 2016;Mano and Elliott 1997).Our findings indicate that for many consumers, the absence of FRKC or FRIC limits their shopping experience by constraining potential flows of ego expressive feelings gained through greater engagement with store brand products.
Which brings us to the point of economic downturns and ratchet effect these have on store brands' continued and sustained 8growth?Economic austerity, by forcing new economising shopping and purchasing behaviours builds FRHC through learning by doing so.Monetary savings during times of economic hardship encourage the substitution of store brands for national brands and in the process FRIC is extended through experience and trial.In the process, the market orthodoxy that national brands are superior is questioned and slowly undermined, while smart shopper feelings are enjoyed, serving to build loyalty to these products, which are retained once more positive economic conditions return.
Addressing R2, we have also shown that FRHC can be deployed across the retail alternatives establishing loyalty to store brands in general rather than to a specific retailer's store brand.This finding can help extend our understanding of the inverted U-shaped relationship between store loyalty and store brand share of purchases (González-benito, Martos-partal, and Fustinoni-venturini 2014), diminishing the strategically important positive relationship between store brand loyalty and store loyalty (Ailawadi, Neslin, and Gedenk 2001;Bonfrer and Chintagunta 2004).In this way, we find a very different argument in support of the 'loyal to store brands in general' perspective that extends beyond price motives (Ailawadi, Pauwels, and Steenkamp 2008;González-Benito et al., 2014).
A substantial body of research highlights the importance of time and effort in the determination of shopping trip value as an overarching concept embracing the totality of the shopping trip (Atkins, Kumar, and Kim 2016;Atkins and Hyun 2016;Bicen and Madhavaram 2013;Gómez-Suárez, Quinones, and Yagüe 2020).Drilling down, we have shown that time and effort also influence value at a micro level when considering the cognitive effort as part of the product evaluation process (price comparisons and on-pack information search).We highlight that value is co-created through the interaction of skills and products.
From a practitioner's perspective our main insight is clear.Retailers may question their role in the formation of their shoppers' FRIC.Trial through tastings, for example, represents an immediate mechanism to develop shoppers' product knowledge and FRIC.By promoting learning with experience (Sprott and Shimp 2004;Woodside 2012) has been shown to be highly effective in generating sustained sales in a manner that price-related promotions regularly fail (Chandukala, Dotson, and Liu 2017).In doing so, the in-store interaction between the shopper and the store brand shifts from transactional to experiential, fostering learning and the development of information capital while driving the enduring shift to store brand purchases through the creation of smart shopper feelings.

Limitations and directions for future research
One of the limitations underlying this research is that it is based on a regional, albeit very substantial, market on the east coast of the US, where the dominance of national brands over their store brand counterparts is greater than in other markets, such as the UK, France, Germany, or Spain where store brand market shares are considerably greater.Retailers' more strategic use of store brands over an extended period of time in different markets is likely to have played a part in creating varying levels of information capital.Consequently, cross-cultural differences are likely to exist and may merit investigation, especially given the real possibility that the store brand market share may act as a moderator influencing store brand smart shopper feelings.By highlighting the contribution of human capital in its two forms, we suggest that other skills and indeed knowledge may also help create smart shopper feelings at higher-order levels, e.g., in the store choice decision itself.Thus, this concept may have much wider applicability when examining the relationship between shopper decision-making and the retail environment and human capital's ability to create ego expressive value.This certainly merits further investigation.

Table 4 .
Results.The hypothesised signs at each stage of a path are provided.The final sign (bolded) shows the total path as specified in the hypothesis.**Also note that SBCS was scored in the negative. *