Adapting to a retail environment Modeling consumer–environment interactions

心理学

JournalofBusinessResearch63(2010)673 681

ContentslistsavailableatScienceDirect

JournalofBusinessResearch

Adaptingtoaretailenvironment:Modelingconsumer–environmentinteractions

FrancescoMassaraa, ,SandraS.Liub,RobertD.Melarac

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IULMUniversity,Italy

PurdueUniversity,UnitedStates

CityCollege,CityUniversityofNewYork,UnitedStates

articleinfoabstract

Thispaperextendscurrentthinkingontherelationshipbetweenconsumersandtheretailenvironmentbyassessingatheoryofconsumer–environmentinteractionthatreinterpretsarousalanddominance,twodimensionsofthePADmodel(Mehrabian,Albert,Russel,JamesA.,Anapproachtoenvironmentalpsychology.Cambridge,MA:MITPress,1974.),asappraisaldimensions(affectiveexpectations).Accordingtothenewaccount,themorespeci cthetask,thelesstolerantconsumersareaboutdiscrepanciesbetweenexpectedandexperiencedarousalanddominance.Thestudyevaluatedtheeffectsofmatchingormismatchingappraisalsonjudgmentsofemotionaldimensionsasparticipantsshoppedwithinavirtualstoreenvironment.Appraisalsweremanipulatedbycombiningtwogoalconditions(goalspeci cityvs.goalambiguity)withtwolevelsofstorearousal(highvs.low)toproducefourseparatehypotheticalstates:hedonic t(ambiguousgoalandhigharousal),utilitarian t(speci cgoalandlowarousal),rationalcontrol(ambiguousgoalandlowarousal),andemotionalsubmissiveness(speci cgoalandhigharousal).Whenperceptualandcognitiveappraisalsmatched(i.e.,hedonicorutilitarian t),participantsjudgedpleasuretobesigni cantlygreaterthanwhenexpectationsmismatched(i.e.,rationalcontroloremotionalsubmissiveness).Affectiveexpectationsconcerningarousalanddominancethusareastrongdeterminantofconsumerpredispositiontowardtheenvironment.

©2009ElsevierInc.Allrightsreserved.

Articlehistory:

Received1April2008

Receivedinrevisedform1February2009Accepted1May2009Keywords:

StoreatmospherePAD

Cognitiveappraisals

EnvironmentaladaptationShoppinggoalsIn-storeexperience

Consumerdecision-makingstudiesfocusonproductchoice,agoods-centeredviewofmarketing(VargoandLusch,2004).Theliteraturere ectsagrowinginterestinincorporatingatmosphericsandtheeffectsofthestoreenvironmentintoconsumerdecision-makingmodels(Erogluetal.,2005;InmanandWiner,1998;KaltchevaandWeitz,2006).Environmentalpsychologyhasaidedthestudyofatmosphericeffectsbydevelopingataxonomyofstimuliforstoreandserviceenvironments(Bakeretal.,2002;TurleyandMilliman,2000).Thepleasure-arousal-dominance(PAD)modelofemotions(DonovanandRossiter,1982;MehrabianandRussel,1974),thatbuildsfromenvironmentalpsychologyandtheS-O-Rframework(Spangenbergetal.,1996;TurleyandMilliman,2000),dominatestheliteratureonstoreatmospherics.Themodelpositsthataconsumer'semotionalresponsestoproductsandservicescanbedecomposedalongthreeindependentdimensions:pleasure–displeasure,arousal–nonarousal,anddominance–submissiveness.

SeveralinherentlimitationsofthePADmodelrestrictitspracticalvalueinpredictingshoppingbehavior.First,thePADliteraturepaysscantempiricalattentiontoexternalvalidityormoderatorvariables(e.g.,shoppingorientation)inassessingemotionalreactionstostoreatmo-spherics,leadingtoinconsistentand,attimes,contradictory ndings(KaltchevaandWeitz,2006;Massara,2003).Second,PADdiscountsthe

Correspondingauthor.IULMUniversity,DepartmentofEconomicsandMarketing,8,ViaCarloBò,Room2210,20143Milano,Italy.

E-mailaddress:francesco.massara@iulm.it(F.

Massara).0148-2963/$–seefrontmatter©2009ElsevierInc.Allrightsreserved.doi:

10.1016/j.jbusres.2009.05.004

in uenceoftheconsumerontheenvironment(Massara,2003;Ng,2003).Third,thePADliteraturefrequentlyignoresthefunctionalrelationshipsamongenvironmentalvariables(Babinetal.,2003;Chebatetal.,2001;Erogluetal.,2005;Michonetal.,2005).Fourth,fewbehavioralstudiesrelatedirectlytoemotions,leavingmuchoftheknowledgeofconsumeremotionalreactionswithoutsubstantiveapplication(Erogluetal.,2005;TurleyandMilliman,2000).Finally,PADdoesnotdistinguishamongemotionalstates(e.g.,joy,hope,anger,orfear),limitingtheanalysistothevalenceofemotions(LernerandKeltner,2000).

Toaddresstheselimitations,thisstudyproposesareinterpretationofthePADmodelthatmakesexplicitreferencetotheappraisalframework.Theapproachblendstwostagesinthedevelopmentoftheconsumer–environmentrelationship.The rstisbasedontheemotion–cognitiontraditionespousedbythePADmodel(DonovanandRossiter,1982;HavlenaandHolbrook,1986).Researcheffortsinthistraditionaimatunderstandingtheatmosphericfactorsthattriggerapproachbehavior(DonovanandRossiter,1982;Kotler,1973),withemotionalandcognitivefactorsassumedtoactindependently(Donovanetal.,1994).Signi cantly,recentstudiesinthistradition(Dawsonetal.,1990;ErogluandMachleit,1990;McGoldrickandPieros,1998;Shermanetal.,1997)havebeguntoaddresstwooftheaforementionedlimitations,namely,thein uenceofpersonalandsituationalmoderatorsonemotionswithinastoreenvironment(seealsothespecialissueoftheJournalofBusinessResearcheditedbyChebatandRobicheaux,(2003).