Shopping with friends and teens' susceptibility to peer influence

While some retailers may discourage groups of teenagers from shopping in their stores, there is reason to believe that peer groups may affect teen behaviors and evaluations in ways that could benefit retailers. In this paper, we examine the phenomenon of teenagers' shopping with friends, and, in particular, whether shopping with friends might enhance teens' attitudes toward retailing and their tendency to spend more when shopping with friends. We also examine why teens shop with friends. Specifically, we relate friends' knowledge and teens' age to teenagers' susceptibility to informational and normative influence from friends. Susceptibility to peer influence is then related to various aspects of teen shopping, such as frequency and enjoyment of shopping with pals, which, in turn, are related to sentiment toward retailing and spending tendencies. With the exception of susceptibility to normative influence, results based on data from a sample of high school students generally supported the model. (C) 2004 by New York University. Published by Elsevier. All rights reserved.