Introduction

Nowadays, consumption is gradually occupying a relevant position, both in the marketing field, more specifically in the consumer’s research area, and in the social sciences (Campbell, 1991). This movement deserves attention and explanation, since consumption is one of the human being’s most basic activities, which is also one of the most important phenomena in the modern societies (Barbosa and Campbell, 2006).

Linked to this assessment, Barbosa (2006) points out that in Brazil the status of being members of a modern and consuming society is denied to certain social groups, as emphasized in the studies about the dimension of the minorities that are discriminated and excluded. This is clearly perceptible in the studies that involve elderly consumers, which are many times researched focusing on negative issues, such as illness and health related products. It is also possible to observe that there is not much of a concern by part of the consumer’s researchers to understand the issues that are related to the consumption of the so called “elderly”, “third age”, “mature” or “gray” people. In countries, such as in Brazil, the lack of concern about this market is intriguing, due to the fact that the country faces a new demographic paradigm, which is the reduction of the population’s growth rate, starting in 2035 when it will reach approximately 214 million inhabitants, resulting in changes in the age structure with the increase of aging citizens. When scrutinizing the numbers, Camarano (2014) argued that they revealed, among other things, the rapid population’s ageing process. When confronting the population’s fertility decline with the mortality rate of this age group, it is expected that 23% of Brazilians will be over 60 years old already in 2035, while in 2010 they represented only 10.6% of the population.

However, more recently, it is possible to notice a change in the manner of researching the elderly people, taking into account points that refer to “life quality” and to “well-being” (Alves, 2007). Referring to authors such as Campbell (1987), Lipovetsky (2007), Bauman (2007) among others, to consider pleasure in today’s society seems to be grounded in the internalization of the welfare obligation. That means that the fundamental point of the modern hedonism has a direct relation with the condition that an individual can and should plan and control the sources of pleasure and pain, this last one, being sensorial or psychic.

Associated with the issues that involve life quality, well-being and the reference of hedonism, one should take into consideration that, especially in large cities, the shopping centers have gained notoriety for being a “welcoming” space and a locus of power of “incomparable seduction” (Underhill, 2004) for the consumption of products, services, leisure activities in general, when gathering together in the same environment of food courts, cinemas, shows, exhibitions, opportunity of having differentiated experiences and cohabitation.

Although in the Brazilian academic community it is possible to find a “body” of researches about the shopping center theme (Lima & Steiner Neto, 2010; Correa Jr. & Bataglia, 2010; Cavalcanti, 2011; Lima, Souza, Borges & Steiner Neto, 2011; Milan, Gasparin, & DeToni, 2013, to mention only a few of the latest studies) the shopping center’s context was used as the research’s locus to test some kind of model or theory that were related to the marketing field, but with no relation with the idea that the shopping center can be a space to contribute to the increase of the well-being or the life quality for a determined social group. It seems that this is where the concept of shopping well- being has emerged from (Hedhli, Chebat, & Sirgy, 2013).

Thus, it is possible to notice that there is a gap in the literature in which it is possible to articulate issues that involve the elderly public and their consuming experiences in shopping centers. When trying to recover studies that established the relations between shopping well-being and the elderly public, it is also possible to declare that this issue was not even mentioned in the retail, consumer’s behavior and marketing strategy studies, and neither in the researches that focused on macro marketing.

It was within this context that the interest in conducting an empirical research arose, with the following objectives. First of all, to test the applicability of the shopping well-being developed by Hedhli, Chabat and Sirgy (2013), taking into account the elderly public in Brazil. Secondly, point out which factors can be considered the construct’s antecedents of the shopping well-being. Thirdly, verify in which measure the well-being while purchasing has a positive impact on loyalty and word of mouth by part of the clients of this stratum. It is important to point out at this moment that, as in any other study in which the scope is an attempt to adapt a scale in a specific cultural context, this study has a preliminary character, with no pretension of proposing definitive formulations and let alone to become subject of criticisms and contestations. In this sense, it should here be mentioned, that the other objective of this study is also to bring to debate the issues which are related to the construct “the elderlies’ shopping well-being”, stimulating, with these issues, the reflection by part of the researchers in the fields which are related to the consumption of the elderly people and the retail environments.

The research’s purpose has the characteristics that qualify it as being relevant for the academic context. In the first place, the elderly segment has not been adequately investigated by the researchers belonging to the marketing field in the country. Thus, this paper can be helpful to highlight this complex and multi- disciplinary theme, which deserves more attention by part of the researchers of themes linked to retail, consumer behavior, marketing strategy and macro marketing. In second place, in the authors’ point of view about the consumers’ well-being (Sherman & Schiffman, 1984; Diener, 1984; Lee, Sirgy, Larsen & Wright, 2002; Kahneman & Krueger, 2006; Malhotra, 2006; Sirgy & Lee, 2006; Sirgy, Lee, & Rahtz, 2007), it presents “links” that have been little explored among the themes of consumption and well-being, being that these authors have dedicated decades in scrutinizing this concept and proposing concepts and scales to measure the construct. When bringing the third age to the discussion’s focus, as expressed by Neri (2007) and Doll (2007), the third age consists of a phase of life that is marked by a series of challenges and sensations. In a general manner, the elderly have more time to dedicate to activities that bring them well-being. These issues still do not seem to be part of the list of concerns by part of the researchers of the consumption and marketing fields. Despite this “negligence” by part of the researchers, there are well-being dimensions associated with their frequency at shopping centers, which by their turn are related to the dimensions of consumption, social life, leisure and community life (Hedhli, Chebat & Sirgy (2013). In the case of the elderly public, it is certain that these relations need to be investigated more carefully and with more details. In third place, as shown by Brito, Vieira and Espartel (2011), it is possible to verify that in the retail field there has been some “academic oversights”. Among these “oversights” it is possible to identify issues which are directly related do one of the main categories of retailing: the shopping centers. When it comes to issues involving the shopping well- being in these establishments, the “silence”, by part of the academy is considerable. One can also highlight, as a relevant point, the issue of the context linked to the consumption range of the elderly people in shopping centers, which can be used to theorize about issues that involve the concept of well-being. Finally, it is worth emphasizing that investigating the meanings of consumption by the elderly can reveal to the professionals, both in the consumption area as also in the retail area, ways to better understand this specific group. Furthermore, the expansion of this debate could mean having more space for the perception, by part of the Brazilian businessmen, of new business opportunities and fulfill the necessities of a part of the population that has been poorly investigated.

Literature Review, Research’s Hypotheses, Conceptual Model

The consumer’s well-being

The debate about the well-being concept is quite broad, due to its several dimensions (economic, social, emotional, political, spiritual and environmental) which are interrelated and have influence over each other (McGregor & Goldsmith, 1998). Thus, it is possible to notice an articulation between the well- being concept and the other themes, such as life quality, satisfaction with life and happiness in the marketing context (Sirgy, 1991; Sirgy & Lee, 2006; Andreasen, Goldberg & Sirgy, 2012), and important connections to the macro-marketing field.

Adjusting the focus to the consumption field, it is necessary to point out that the discussion about the well-being concept is not recent. It is possible to find studies that were published in the 1980s with the intention of presenting the concept and especially to point out the variables that were linked to it (Sherman & Schiffman, 1984; Diener, 1984). However, it was after 2000 that the well-being concept began to be systematically studied by researchers from the fields of consumption and marketing, more specifically by the macro-marketing school followers (Sheth, Gardner & Garret, 1988), that while investigating the relationships between the consumer’s satisfaction and life quality, created the construct’s metrics or measurements (Lee et al., 2002; Kahneman & Krueger, 2006; Malhotra, 2006), as also tried to articulate the concept with the other constructs, such as: the influence of public policies over the well-being (Sirgy, 2008); attitudes towards consumption (Iyer & Muncy, 2016); money (Srivastava, Locke & Bartol, 2001); personality and culture (Diener, Oishi & Lucas, 2003); loyalty towards a brand, feeling of belonging to a brand’s community (Grzeskowiak & Sirgy, 2008); access to supermarkets (Lavin, 2005) and religiosity (Barbera & Gürhan, 1997; Kasser & Ahuvia, 2002). One should also consider several studies that tried to relate materialism to well- being (Burroughs & Rindfleisch, 2002; Lee & Ahn, 2016).

Despite the development of the concept in the international literature, in Brazil, however, it is possible to verify that very little has been investigated about this theme. The exception was the paper of Torres, Pereira and Santos (2012) that, attempting to relate the concept of well-being while consuming with the experimental consumption and with materialism in the Brazilian context, reached the conclusion that people obtain greater happiness in the experimental consumption than in the material one. However, the authors themselves assume that there are gaps and that new researches are needed. More recently, some reports of researches that involve the well-being of purchasing can be found. Ubal, Lazarin and Rossi (2016) analyzed the perception of people as to the impact of joining the collaborative consumption in the well-being. As for Aureliano-Silva, Strehlau and Silva (2016) research, the intention was to measure the relation between the brand attachment and the consumer’s emotional well-being.

For the purpose of this study, it is important to define the consumer’s well-being. In an attempt to summarize, Sirgy, Lee, and Rahtz (2007) proposed that the understanding of the consumer’s well-being, given its amplitude, has to go through the following issues: cost of living, consumption equity, consumer’s complaints, quality, satisfaction in purchasing, ownership satisfaction, satisfaction with possession and acquisition, life cycle of the product/consumer, community, satisfaction of needs, materialism, market orientation, perceived value among several others. Given these considerations, there are three deliberations. The first one is the notion that the consumer’s well-being concept does not have a consensus between the authors in the consumption field; therefore, it has to be investigated in their own situations, and also focused on groups or very specific segments. The second one is linked to the requirement of some kind of reduction or focus analysis. The third is that some of the elements might be essential and can be considered central to be able to understand what the consumer’s well-being is, which are: the relationship between the consumer’s satisfaction and life quality, care for ethical marketing and the positive acquisition impact and the use of the product/service for the society.

Finally, it is important to point out that the consumer’s well-being construct can be understood as a concept that appears to have the characteristic of a “large tent” or of an “umbrella”, which includes innumerous and different themes involving the consumer’s satisfaction in different areas: acquisition (purchase), manipulation (preparing for consumption), possession, use, consumption, disposal among others. Thus, this study should be considered focused on one of the well- being areas: the related to purchasing, that will be discussed in the next section.

Shopping well-being

Hedhli, Chebat and Sirgy (2013), understand that the shopping well-being can contribute to the satisfaction or the quality of life, as it comprises issues related to four life dimensions: (1) consumption dimension;

(2) social dimension; (3) leisure dimension and (4) life in community dimension. The consumption dimension takes into account that a shopping center can contribute to the well-being, as it provides an assortment of options that are in accordance with the requirements to access goods and services that are related to this consumer’s profile. As for the social dimension, it is possible to point out that a shopping center can favor the individual’s social well-being, since the environment related to the shopping center provides interaction and socialization with friends and family. As to the leisure dimension, one can say that the shopping center is an interesting locus to promote several programs of leisure activities. Finally, the life in community dimension can be worked in a shopping center when it offers its visitors a feeling of socialization and the feeling of belonging to the community in which the consumers are part of. The authors also defend the idea that promoting the well- being in these four dimensions helps to increase the life satisfaction.

Complementing, one point must be highlighted. Hedhli, Zourrig and Chebat (2016) show that the shopping well-being concept should not be mistaken with the idea of satisfaction related to purchasing, in other words, one should not consider that the shopping well-being is only related to the purchasing experience and with the factors that are linked to the mix of factors of the retail’s establishment. Another form of saying this is that the well-being concept captures, beyond the static and transient feelings of satisfaction related to visiting a single commercial establishment, dynamic and long term aspects of the general sensation of well-being, due to the cumulative experiences of interaction of the consumer with the purchase.

Facing these issues, it seems to be interesting to focus on the discussion of the shopping well-being concept in shopping centers, since in this retail environment, it is relevant to notice the several dynamic experiences of interaction with the consumer.

The shopping well-being in shopping centers

At this point, it should be pointed out that these six factors are present in the retail environment in a shopping center and, apparently, contribute to the shopping well-being (functionality, convenience, security, leisure, atmosphere and self-identification). These elements are determinant in the form that the consumers perceive the retail environment. Thus, it is suggested that these factors can be considered as antecedents of the shopping well-being. The next section will discuss these relations and propose the research’s hypotheses.

Antecedents of shopping well-being in shopping centers

Functionality

Shopping center’s functionality refers to the enterprise’s quality when offering to its public a variety of shops in terms of quality and quantity that meet the consumption needs of their customers. Thus, the shopping center can increase the important role in the shopping well-being, since this feeling should increase when the consumers can do their shopping with minor effort and short time. On the other hand, the shopping centers that only have a few options of shops and services cannot meet the consumers purchasing needs (Hedhli, Chebat & Sirgy, 2013). This discussion has a relation with the elderlies’ profiles that seek to optimize their purchasing decisions (Pinto & Pereira, 2014). The previous discussion leads to the following hypothesis:

H1: The functional factors of a shopping center affect positively the elderly’s shopping well-being.

Convenience

The study carried out by Lee et al. (2002) found that the convenience and the proper arrangement of a product will affect the shopping well-being. In the same sense, Wagner (2007) also reached the conclusion that consumers perceive a purchasing experience when there is a balance between the physical and mental strain, which contributes to increase the consumers’ life quality. It is in this sense that Hedhli, Chebat and Sirgy (2013) defend that convenience offers the possibility of improving important issues of the shopping well-being, as described beforehand. In view of the issues involving the elderly public, the following hypothesis was proposed:

H2: The shopping center’s convenience affects positively the elderly’s shopping well-being.

Security

Hedhli, Chebat and Sirgy (2013) emphasize that concerns about safety are one of the main worries when thinking about purchasing. For this reason, the shopping centers’ environments can be a locus in which people can feel calmer with regards to the safety of their family, friends and belongings and, with this in mind, can dedicate integrally to purchasing. In view of the elderly public’s characteristics in which some of the physical limitations are prominent, a shopping center with threats of assaults, robberies and aggressions is not a place where consumers can interact with each other. Furthermore, in these authors point of view, it is obvious that the concerns about safety can affect the shopping well-being and reduce the well-being in the dimensions of consumption, social, leisure and life in community. Thus, taking into account these issues, it is possible to reach the proposition of the following research hypothesis:

H3: The aspects related to security of the shopping center affects positively the elderly’s shopping well- being.

Leisure

It is possible to find in the literature associated to the themes of life, well-being and other correlated areas, evidences in the sense to corroborate the relationship between leisure and well-being (Malhotra, 2006; Neal, Uysal & Sirgy, 2007). As being of interest for the present study, this is an important finding, that a shopping center that offers to its users the facility of entertainment has a tendency to be perceived as a shopping center that offers well-being. Furthermore, as perceived by Pinto and Pereira (2014), a research which involves the elderlies’ leisure consumption, it was noticeable that the elderly people like to walk around and use the services in this type of establishment, being considered by some as their main leisure locus. Thus, it seems to make sense the proposition of the following research hypothesis:

H4: The leisure activities offered by the shopping center affect positively the elderly’s shopping well- being.

Atmosphere

Atmosphere of a shop, in this study, can be defined as a combination of attributes materialized by components such as colours, lighting, merchandising, sound system and aromas, which contribute to the construction of a psychological attribute to the shop’s image (Turley & Chebat, 2002; McGoldrick & Pieros, 1998). Bringing the discussion to the shopping center’s environment, that atmosphere of a shopping center can be understood as a general environment perceived by consumers (Hedhli, Chebat & Sirgy, 2013).

It is worth considering at this point the Holbrook and Hirschman’s (1982) seminal study’s contribution, which showed the possibility of including in the consumption, aspects related to an experimental view, which involves a flow of fantasies and amusement. Babin and Attaway’s (2000) studies, as well as those of Babin, Darden and Griffin (1994) confirm that the hedonic characteristics of the consumption of goods and services or shops, affect the consumers’ attitudes. Thus, Hedhli, Chebat and Sirgy (2013) emphasize that a shopping center has many hedonic characteristics that can affect the consumers’ sense of well-being. This includes the shop’s external and internal appearance, the colours and the lighting, the decoration, the aromas, as also the establishment’s ambient sound. Thus, it is possible to enunciate the following research hypothesis:

H5: The atmosphere of a shopping center affects positively the elderly’s shopping well-being.

Self-identification

The perception of a shopping center in the perspective of a determined public has an important role in reinforcing the social well-being of their attendees. In other words, this suggests that the consumers like to go to a shopping center when they have the opportunity of interacting with other people with whom they identify themselves (Hedhli, Chebat & Sirgy, 2013). Similarly, these authors remind the results of researches related to life quality that show evidences that there are relations between personal expressions of an activity with the subjective well-being. When dealing with the shopping centers’ context, this leads to a conclusion that when the consumers perceive a feeling of self-identification or self-congruence when going to a shopping center, they tend to experience a greater degree of well-being. Based on these considerations, it is possible to establish the following research hypothesis:

H6: The elderlies’ self-identification affects positively their shopping well-being.

Consequences of the shopping well-being in shopping centers

Loyalty

The consumer’s loyalty has been considered as an important construct in the field of consumer behavior. Also, loyalty is used as one of the main consequences of other constructs. In the scope of this study, loyalty is assumed as a combination of positive attitudes and repeated purchases of a determined product, service or brand. Linked to this concept, as also established in Hedhli, Chebat and Sirgy’s (2013) study, loyalty towards a shopping center can be understood as a combination of positive attitudes and repeated purchase related to the establishment.

Based on this concept and starting from the elderly consumers’ profile, the following research hypothesis is reached:

H7: The shopping well-being has a positive predictive effect on the elderly’s loyalty towards a shopping center.

Word of Mouth

A positive word of mouth can be defined as a communication that is established informally with other consumers, such as family members, friends, colleagues and people that you know, with whom positive issues related to a shopping center are highlighted (Jones & Reynolds, 2006; Hedhli, Chebat & Sirgy, 2013). In this context, an issue that emerges in this discussion is related to the possibility of a relation between shopping well-being in a determined shopping center and the consumers’ tendency to speak positively about the establishment. Thus, a research hypothesis is presented as follows:

H8: The elderly’s shopping well-being has a predictive positive effect over the propensity to propagate positively in the word of mouth about the shopping center.

Conceptual Model

Starting from the theoretical discussions that were presented beforehand and in view of the research’s hypotheses that were shown, a research conceptual model is presented in Figure 1. This model explains six factors that can be considered as antecedents and two constructs that are considered as consequential of the shopping well- being in the shopping centers’ context.

As the literature revision has been presented and the hypotheses explained, the article turns to the discussion about the methodological procedures that were adopted in the empirical research.

Method

With the intention of reaching the objective that was proposed in this study, a survey was carried out with individuals that live in the Belo Horizonte municipality, with an age superior to 60 years and that, at the time of the research, had visited a shopping center at least once in the last six months.

Utilized Scales

The data collection instrument, other than the questions involving profile and those relative to the economic classification (CCEB) proposed by the ABEP (2014), involves three distinct parts:

(1) The Shopping Well-being Scale (shopping well-being and the associated factors: 46 questions were related to the construct shopping well-being and six associated factors (functional, of convenience, of security, of leisure, of atmosphere and of self- identification) based on the research conducted by Hedhli, Chebat and Sirgy (2013);

(2) The Loyalty Scale: 4 questions concerning the loyalty construct based on Hedhli, Chebat and Sirgy’s (2013) study;

(3) The Word of Mouth Scale: 3 questions involving the construct adapted from Hedhli, Chebat and Sirgy’s (2013) study.

In all the scales, the respondents were invited to explain their degree of agreement/disagreement with the statements, using a Likert type scale of 7 points.

Scales’ adaptation and pretest

The scales that were beforehand described to be used in the present research had to undergo an adaptation and validation process by means of a parallel translation technique (Malhotra, 1996). According to this author, this technique consists of a method in which a committee of translators, each one fluent in at least two languages, discuss alternative versions of a questionnaire and make the modifications, until they reach a consensus. In this process, three professionals were picked (two teachers from the marketing area and one professional fluent in English).

The instrument’s pretest was applied on a sample of 10 individuals to test the questions’ comprehension. Following, the instrument was applied on a sample of 5 elderly people. In these situations, it was requested that the interviewees presented their doubts as also their questionings about the research’s instrument. The doubts were properly discussed by the team and some corrections in the questions were carried out.

Sample, collection and data analysis process

The research’s initial planning was to conduct a sample of a stratified probability character. However, the field work identified in the early days of data collection that this type of sampling showed itself to be inadequate, given the fact that the number of respondents that fitted the research’s profile (individuals over 60 years of age that had been to a shopping center during the last six months) in some regions of the city, was very low. Based on this finding, it was decided to change the sample’s design to a non-probabilistic sampling by quotas, having as controlling variables the composition of gender, city regions and the age of the general population of Belo Horizonte.

The data collection was carried out by 12 interviewers that had been properly trained. They used mobile devices for the data collection aided by software to control the answers. A total of 746 elderly people were approached in nine administrative regions of Belo Horizonte. However, only 394 records became part of the final data base, since they fitted the interviewees’ profile (that had been to a shopping center during the last six months).

In the data analysis’ phase, a structural equation modeling (SEM) was used, which is a “multivariate technique that combines aspects of factorial analysis and multiple regressions, allowing the researchers to exam simultaneously a series of interrelated dependency relationships between the measurement variables and the latent constructs (latent variables), as also between the several latent constructs” (Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson, & Tatham, 2006, p. 542).

It is worth pointing out that the analysis was divided into two phases. The first estimated the constructs’ parameters. The second had the objective of establishing a structural equations’ model, which made it possible to verify a group of relations between the constructs and the intensity of the occurrence. In both stages the software’s SPSS v. 20 and AMOS v. 18 were used.

Results

Descriptive analysis

The data’s descriptive analysis allows the statement that the samples’ control criterion (gender and region) reflects the elderly population characteristics in Belo Horizonte. Most of the interviewees (59.4%) are female. In relation to age, 47.7% are between 60 and 69 years of age, 39.9% are between 70 and 79 years old and 12.4% are 80 or more years old. As for the economy class, the results suggest that the public that were interviewed (elderly people that visit shopping centers) are more part of an elite than the total population of the city (54.6% of the sample belong to the classes A, B1 NS B2, 30.1% of the State of Minas Gerais’ capital belong to these social levels).

Model

The well-being dimensions’ model was evaluated according to the factorial loads of each variable that was observed and which that composed them, as it can be observed in Table 1. The factorial loads show how much a variable is related to the factor to which it belongs.

It is possible to observe, by means of Table 1, that one item of the Leisure dimension, two from the Convenience dimension and one from the Loyalty dimension, presented a factorial load inferior to 0.4, an indication of possible problems with the scale. However, with the objective of testing the complete Well-being model, the option was to maintain the quoted items.

The constructs’ trustworthiness was verified by using the Cronbach’s Alpha which, according to Malhotra (1996), consists of a coefficient that seeks to show up to which point the scale produces consistent results. This trustworthiness analysis produces results that range from 0 to 1, where values less or equal to 0.60 indicate, in a general manner, unsatisfactory trustworthiness of the internal consistency. The results can be observed in Table 2.

It is possible to verify, by means of the Table 2, that all the constructs presented the Alpha Coefficient superior to 0.60, ranging from 0.738 to 0.913. These results support the argument that the scales are reliable, highlighting the Convenience, Leisure and Functional constructs, which presented indicators superior to 0.8.

Once finished the research’s validation instrument, the following item was to present the structural equation technique’s results. The model is presented in Figure 2.

It can be observed, as shown in Figure 2, that the Well-being antecedents were, according the results that were presented, the Functional factors (β =0.29) and the Self-identification factors (β =0.48), not having a significant relation between the Convenience, Leisure and Atmosphere constructs with Well-being. It was also found a positive and significant relation between Well-being and Loyalty (β =0.45) and Well-being and Word of mouth (β =0.95).

The model’s adjustment indicators are presented in Table 3.

Using Table 3, it is possible to verify that the model presented satisfactory measures, since the Chi- square/Degrees of Liberty (CMIN/df) relationship was inferior to 5 and the RMSEA was lower than

0.10. On the other hand, the CFI and IFI values were moderately inferior to 0.9, demonstrating a partial adjustment of the model.

From these results, it is possible to recover the hypotheses that were proposed for the research. According to Table 4, it is possible to verify that among the eight established hypotheses, four of them (H1,H6,H7 and H8) were supported by the empirical research.

As the description phase is finished, the next section will discuss the research’s results.

Discussion

From what was presented in the general structural model, it is important to point out the following points. In first place, it is noteworthy to point out that from the six initial factors to compose the shopping well-being (functional, convenience, security, leisure, atmosphere and self-identification); five were proved to be adequate. The exception was the security factor due to the fact that it only has two items, reason for why it was not included in the analysis. It is also worth mentioning that, after the adjustment, unlike Hedhli, Chebat and Sirgy’s (2013) study, only the functional and self-identification factors were considered significant.

When comparing these results with the literature on consumer well-being, it is possible to suggest that the findings of the research have significant adherence to seminal studies (Sherman and Schiffman, 1984; Diener, 1984) as well as the questions pointed out by Sirgy, Lee and Rahtz (2007) as satisfaction of buying, satisfaction of ownership, sense of community, consumption equity, among others.

With respect to the elderlies shopping well-being in shopping centers construct’s operationalization, the study’s results suggest that there is empirical support of trustworthiness and validity of the measurement. In the theory’s domain the instrument can be used, with a few necessary adaptations, in other purchasing contexts, as also for different publics, with the inclusion of new important relations for the marketing field. As for its practicality, the instrument can be useful in applied researches related to the shopping centers’ environment. Using the measurement of each one of the factors listed in the model, suggestions of managerial nature can be proposed and marketing actions can be identified with the objective of leading the elderly to perceive the shopping center as a place that can offer positive aspects linked to functionality, convenience, leisure, atmosphere as also attract other elderly people with whom there is a greater identification. Returning to what was said by Hedhli, Chebat and Sirgy (2013) about the essence of the shopping well-being, which involves the activity that can contribute with satisfaction or for a life quality related to the consumption, social, leisure and life in community dimensions, it is possible to consider that the construct has adherence with the concept of consumption well-being, as expressed by the authors in the literature revision.

One of the major conclusions of this study is the realization that the functional factors of the shopping center, represented by the items involving a variety of products and shops, product’s quality, availability of known brands, with the elderlies’ well-being in this retail environment. This finding has some kind of relationship with the results of the research conducted by Lopes, Garcia, Santos and Schiavo (2013). Even that it is not specifically about shopping centers, the investigation reached the conclusion that the assortment management (variables that are eminently functional) and customer support, have a positive impact on the elderly’s loyalty.

In this same sense, Moschis (1992) advocates in favor of the idea that individuals, with the increase of age, have a tendency of becoming more demanding and meticulous. It is also important to consider the finding that the functional aspects of a shopping center can lead to the well-being, which seems to have practical implications which are interesting for the shopping centers’ managers, if they have as their objective to reach specific clients of the population with more than 60 years of age. All this seems to be in line with Alves’s proposal (2007) when this researcher suggests that quality of life and well-being are key concepts for understanding the elderly public.

Another finding, which can be explained by the results that were shown above, has to do with the relationship between the factors of self-identification and shopping well-being. These factors include items such as “I identify myself with people that purchase in this shopping center”, “the people that come to this shopping combine with me”, and “the image of this shopping center has a lot to do with my self- image”. This seems to lead us to a conclusion that those elderly people, who have the opportunity to experience a feeling of personal expressiveness (both self-identification as self-congruence) in purchasing in a shopping center, tend to experience a higher degree of well-being. In this sense, the results suggest that the elderly public presents higher well-being when they are related to purchasing, which has experiential issues compared with the purchasing that is essentially material, as discussed in the researches carried out by Gilovich, Kumar and Jampol (2015) or in the hedonic consumption pointed out by Zhong and Mitchell (2010). Once again, this consideration may be relevant for those managers that desire to create conditions to develop this kind of feeling in the elderly people.

It is worth considering that the finding of the relationship between shopping well-being and the functional factors and the self-identification, are in accordance with the results of other studies that highlighted the elderly public. Pinto and Pereira (2014) emphasized that the relationships and concerns about health and life quality are essential points in the elderly’s point of view. In the self-identification case, it is of great importance for the elderly to have the feeling of belonging to several social groups, such as family (being close to their sons and daughters, grandchildren, members of family, such as brothers, parents and mothers), neighbourhood, former working colleagues, and members of several different groups among others. In addition, these results suggest that well-being is related to the sense of fun and escapism provided by the social encounters that the shopping environment seems to foster in the elderly.

The results of this study suggest that two of the proposed constructs as consequences of well-being when purchasing (loyalty and word of mouth) had a considerable relationship with the model. In the case of loyalty, with a β=0.45, it is possible to consider that the elderly person that feels shopping well-being in a shopping center, tends to develop an expressive positive attitude linked to a sense of interest and commitment with the establishment. In the same sense, as for the word of mouth construct, the results present a strong relationship (β=0.95). The results lead to a conclusion that the elderly people that feel well while purchasing, have a tendency in giving positive references of a shopping center to friends, neighbours, relatives and people that they know. In the study conducted by Loureiro, Amorim Neto, Anjos Neto, Silva & Santana (2010), which had the objective of investigating the influence of interpersonal communication over the purchasing decision by elderly consumers, it was also proven the power of the word of mouth for this public.

Given these discussions, it is possible to enter the conclusion section of this study, in which several issues can be exposed, such as the study’s limitations, the study’s management and theoretical implications as also the suggestions for future studies.

Conclusions

Before starting the concluding comments about the research, it is pertinent to expose some issues about the field of study in which this study is based. As a theme about well-being linked to the activity of purchasing in a shopping center’s environment by a specific public, such as the elderly people, it is acceptable and fully justified that the formulations are provisional and even open to contestation. Having this in mind, it is necessary to point out the challenge that it is to start an endeavor in which the intention is to adapt a scale for another cultural context as also for another researched public.

Retaking the proposed objectives for the research, it is possible to say that they were achieved, since the intention was, in first place, to test the applicability of the shopping well-being scale developed by Hedhli, Chabat and Sirgy (2013), taking into account the elderly public in the Brazilian context. At this point, it should be noted that this kind of initiative has a pioneer character in Brazil. Although some hypotheses have not been supported, the research findings highlight the characteristics of the Brazilian context in relation to the elderly public, which also has a different profile from other social strata.

In second place, it was possible to conclude that the functional factors and those related to linked to self-identification are able to influence on the shopping well-being for the elderly public. The indication that functional factors and those related to self-identification may lead to some interesting discussions. Both factors seem to have opposing characteristics, since, while functional factors would be more tied to economic issues, self-identification factors would have a more social and symbolic profile. That is, the shopping center seems to combine at the same time opposite points of a continuum, since the other factors (leisure, convenience, atmosphere and security) can be considered intermediate factors.

In third place, it was possible to observe that the shopping well-being in a shopping center by the elderly people has a positive impact on loyalty and word of mouth. This observation seems to be an interesting finding of the research, with theoretical implications and relevant practices for the retail context, as it suggest that the shopping well-being in a shopping center is a predictor of loyalty and word of mouth. It should be noted that loyalty and word- of-mouth constructs are considered “classic” in the literature of consumer behavior and are the results sought by almost all studies of marketing strategies. Finally, it should be emphasized that the study, when it proposed the theme, brought into discussion issues that are extremely important for different fields of study, which involve well-being, elderly people, retail and the relationships between marketing and society.

As for well-being, the results of the study shed light on indicating that both functional and self-identifying factors are essential to the well-being of purchasing. In terms of marketing and society, the theme of well- being is something that arises as fundamental, since this field seeks to understand the relationships between marketing systems, seeking to identify and minimize possible dysfunctions from the interrelationship between retail and its customers.

The discussion conducted in this study about the well- being concept, since it is a wide and interdisciplinary theme, can bring relevant theoretical contributions to the consumption field, especially when it is possible to notice that issues which involve the consumer’s well- being subsidizes the discussions that were promoted by the movement developed by the researchers of the Association for Consumer Research crafted by the Transformative Consumer Research – TCR (Mick, Pettigrew, Pechmann & Ozanne, 2012).

This study has some management contributions. In view of the results that were presented, it is possible to state that the shopping centers’ managers should ensure what the retail establishment is offering to their elderly public, if this is their desired target market, are not only the functional values but also those related to self-identification with the purchase. Therefore, it is appropriate to search for partners with the retailers that are aligned with offering products and services that are compatible with this proposal of value. Complementarily, managers could invest efforts in an advertising campaign in which the central message is the commitment of the shopping center in improving the well-being of their elderly clients, taking into account the functional and self-identification factors. Another strategy could be the insertion of advertisement which focuses on the description of testimonials of elderly users that recognize the positive effect of the shopping center in their life.

At this point, it is pertinent to discuss some to the research’s limitations. A first limitation of this study has to do with the sampling issue. The first intention was to conduct a sampling of a stratified probabilistic type, as already described in the methodological section, but the field work showed that this procedure was impractical due to the time and resources limitation for the research. Although it is possible to classify the research’s sample as non-probabilistic by quotas (since it is a gain compared with most of the academic researches on the marketing area in Brazil, which are non-probabilistic by convenience), it has to be mentioned that it is a limitation of this study since it does not guarantee the generalization of the results for the elderly population in Belo Horizonte. Another important issue is that a limitation of this study has to do with the so called bias of social desirability. This concept can be understood as the result of answers attributed by the respondent that are based on what he/she really believes or practices, but that is perceived as being socially appropriate to respond.

It is possible to identify several suggestions for the development of future studies. It is possible to suggest the development of studies related to shopping well- being in other contexts, such as popular shopping centers located in galleries and streets and others to be developed in fairs and other more simple businesses. Furthermore, the shopping well-being construct can be used with other publics that involve teenagers, adults and other specific publics. Future researches could also investigate issues about shopping well- being in the on-line context that could offer, other than the factors that were here discussed, different types of consumer’s purchasing factors, such as the interactivity. It would not be inappropriate to propose investigations in which the objective would lead to the development of new relationships involving the shopping well-being construct. Studies that seek to go beyond measuring relations involving the well- being of buying but understanding the whys of these relationships could be welcomed. In the same sense, in- depth interviews to give voice to these consumers and thus understand how meanings are (re) constructed in their daily lives can also be interesting suggestions for future papers.

Finally, it is interesting to point out that there is an imperious need of further reflections about the discussions that were here presented, taking into account that the study does not end here and that the theme is not exhausted with only one investigation. What remains is the certainty of the need of deepening the discussion, of inviting other researchers to present other issues, present comments and suggestions, in short, encourage the debate focused on this theme that, other than intriguing and complex, deserves a greater focus by part of the scholars in the field of marketing and consumption.

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