Adapting to a retail environment Modeling consumer–environment interactions

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Adaptingtoaretailenvironment:Modelingconsumer–environmentinteractionsFrancescoMassaraa,⁎,SandraS.Liub,RobertD.MelaracaIULMUniversity,Italy

bPurdueUniversity,UnitedStates

cCityCollege,CityUniversityofNewYork,UnitedStates

abstractarticleinfoArticlehistory:Received1April2008Receivedinrevisedform1February2009Accepted1May2009

Keywords:StoreatmospherePADCognitiveappraisalsEnvironmentaladaptationShoppinggoalsIn-storeexperience

Thispaperextendscurrentthinkingontherelationshipbetweenconsumersandtheretailenvironmentbyassessingatheoryofconsumer–environmentinteractionthatreinterpretsarousalanddominance,twodimensionsofthePADmodel(Mehrabian,Albert,Russel,JamesA.,Anapproachtoenvironmentalpsychology.Cambridge,MA:MITPress,1974.),asappraisaldimensions(affectiveexpectations).Accordingtothenewaccount,themorespecificthetask,thelesstolerantconsumersareaboutdiscrepanciesbetweenexpectedandexperiencedarousalanddominance.Thestudyevaluatedtheeffectsofmatchingormismatchingappraisalsonjudgmentsofemotionaldimensionsasparticipantsshoppedwithinavirtualstoreenvironment.Appraisalsweremanipulatedbycombiningtwogoalconditions(goalspecificityvs.goalambiguity)withtwolevelsofstorearousal(highvs.low)toproducefourseparatehypotheticalstates:hedonicfit(ambiguousgoalandhigharousal),utilitarianfit(specificgoalandlowarousal),rationalcontrol(ambiguousgoalandlowarousal),andemotionalsubmissiveness(specificgoalandhigharousal).Whenperceptualandcognitiveappraisalsmatched(i.e.,hedonicorutilitarianfit),participantsjudgedpleasuretobesignificantlygreaterthanwhenexpectationsmismatched(i.e.,rationalcontroloremotionalsubmissiveness).Affectiveexpectationsconcerningarousalanddominancethusareastrongdeterminantofconsumerpredispositiontowardtheenvironment.©2009ElsevierInc.Allrightsreserved.

Consumerdecision-makingstudiesfocusonproductchoice,agoods-centeredviewofmarketing(VargoandLusch,2004).Theliteraturereflectsagrowinginterestinincorporatingatmosphericsandtheeffectsofthestoreenvironmentintoconsumerdecision-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,contradictoryfindings(KaltchevaandWeitz,2006;Massara,2003).Second,PADdiscountsthe

influenceoftheconsumerontheenvironment(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.Thefirstisbasedontheemotion–cognitiontraditionespousedbythePADmodel(DonovanandRossiter,1982;HavlenaandHolbrook,1986).Researcheffortsinthistraditionaimatunderstandingtheatmosphericfactorsthattriggerapproachbehavior(DonovanandRossiter,1982;Kotler,1973),withemotionalandcognitivefactorsassumedtoactindependently(Donovanetal.,1994).Significantly,recentstudiesinthistradition(Dawsonetal.,1990;ErogluandMachleit,1990;McGoldrickandPieros,1998;Shermanetal.,1997)havebeguntoaddresstwooftheaforementionedlimitations,namely,theinfluenceofpersonalandsituationalmoderatorsonemotionswithinastoreenvironment(seealsothespecialissueoftheJournalofBusinessResearcheditedbyChebatandRobicheaux,(2003).