Four Terms: One Over-Arching Theory

Upon reviewing the literature, it was noted that four terms are commonly used to describe the same concept, these being; environmental psychology, atmospherics, store environment and servicescapes. The literature surrounding each of these is derived from Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) work on environmental psychology however, upon further inspection it became evident that this quadripartite terminology appears to be attributed to the literary body from which they are derived.

The first term popularly used is ‘Environmental Psychology’, and those that coined this expression are not surprisingly, from a psychology background (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974; Russell and Mehrabian, 1976). Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) theory lies at the core of this work with researchers directly applying their theory albeit in a consumer context. Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) influential theory is discussed foremost along with those studies that have made a direct application of it in a consumer context (Donovan and Rossiter, 1982). The second term used in the literature, ‘atmospherics’, can be traced back to Kotler’s (1973-1974, p. 50) seminal article in which he argued that

atmospherics is ‘the conscious designing of space to create certain effects in buyers’. He contended that environmental elements within the service environment such as noises, shapes, scents, music and colour can be modified so that particular emotional effects will be elicited which in turn enhance purchase probability. This conceptualisation is similar to Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) in that they both infer that environmental stimuli can be manipulated so that certain behaviours manifest. Although some see Kotler (1973-1974) as the first to advocate the manipulation of environmental cues in order to effect consumer behaviour (Bitner, 1992; Yalch and Spangenberg, 2000), a number of studies previous to this had manipulated environmental elements (Smith and Curnow, 1966;

Kotzan and Evanson, 1969; Chevalier, 1975). In general, researchers who use the term atmospherics tend to focus on one or two environmental stimuli and measure how they impact upon internal responses (such as emotions) and behavioural responses (such as spending more time in-store). There are a wealth of studies within this area which has provided interesting insights into the effects that individual stimuli can have on consumers. However, one major problem with this research is that the influence of stimuli which are excluded from the study cannot be gauged. Despite this flaw, the literature in this area is reviewed following a discussion on Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) theory.

The third stream of study has emerged from the retail literature and aptly refers to this area of research as the ‘Store environment’ (Baker, 1987; Baker et al, 1994; Baker et al, 2002). Unlike the work of atmospherics authors, those who have taken this view have attempted to take an all-inclusive approach to the measurement of the environment by

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including multiple environmental stimuli (Baker et al, 1992; Baker et al, 1994; Baker et al, 2002). The final term, ‘servicescapes’, is a portmanteaux of ‘services’ and

‘landscape’ and was first introduced by Bitner (1992) and is used predominantly by academics within the services marketing realm. Bitner’s (1992) conceptual framework expanded the earlier work of environmental psychologists (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974;

Donovan and Rossiter, 1982) to include cognitive and physiological responses. In many ways Bitner’s (1992) work is very similar to that of Baker et al (1992; 1994; 2002) as they both conceptualise the environment in terms of a number of discrete dimensions which work together to give a consumer an overall impression of the service environment. A number of differences do exist between their theoretical frameworks and this will be discussed in more detail later in the chapter.

While business academics use these four terms interchangeably (environmental psychology, store atmospherics, store environment, servicescapes), they are inextricably linked to Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) stimulus-organism-response theory upon which each are based. The next section discusses this theory in more detail and then provides an insight into those studies that have implemented this theory in a consumer context.

Following this, a review of the studies on atmospherics studies is provided. Finally, multi-dimensional models of service environments are presented. This section first introduces Bitner’s (1992; 2000) work on the area and the various proponents of her model. Following this, the various servicescape dimensions that have appeared in the literature are discussed. Within this section, theoretical advances made by Baker (1992;

1994; 2002) are presented. Finally a theoretical conceptualisation is developed. This

conceptualisation clarifies the earlier conceptualisations of the model by bringing together the various research streams that exist in this area.

1.3 The Mehrabian and Russell Model of Environmental Psychology (M-R Model) As earlier highlighted, Mehrabian and Russell (1974) are widely recognised as the founding fathers of environmental psychology (Foxall, 1984). They developed a model which draws from the cognitive psychology school of thought wherein it uses the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) paradigm (see Figure 1.1). In this model, the stimulus refers to the physical environment and it includes physical features such as colour, lighting, décor and temperature. Only a general measure for stimulus is provided by Mehrabian and Russell (1974) and is measured in terms of how novel or complex the environment is. This is referred to as ‘information rate’. Novelty involves the unexpected, the surprising and new, while complexity refers to the number of features and the extent of the motion within the environment. These stimuli are then thought to trigger internal responses in the individual which are referred to as the organism. The organism consists of three affective responses; pleasure, arousal and dominance (PAD).

Pleasure is indicated by respondents’ verbal assessments of the environment: happy rather than unhappy, pleased rather than annoyed, satisfied rather than dissatisfied, content rather than melancholy, hopeful rather than despairing and finally, relaxed rather than bored. Arousal is determined on the basis of how respondents rate the following extremes; stimulated to relaxed, excited to calm, frenzied to sluggish, jittery to dull, wide-awake to sleepy and aroused to unaroused. The final dimension, dominance is then measured using the following polar opposites; controlling to controlled, influential to

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influenced, in control to cared-for, important to awed, dominant to submissive and autonomous to guided. These emotional responses are then followed by either one of two behavioural responses; approach or avoidance. Approach behaviours are positive responses to the environment such as a desire to stay, to explore and to communicate with others in the environment. On the other hand, avoidance behaviours include not wanting to stay, not wanting to explore, or to avoid communicating with others present. From a consumer behaviour perspective, wanting to explore an environment relates to the decision to shop or not to shop in a store and may also relate to the length of time spent in the store, while communication involves the willingness to communicate with sales staff (Donovan et al, 1994; Yalch and Spangenberg, 2000).

Mehrabian and Russell (1974) found the PAD dimensions to be factorially orthogonal, however the model does specify an interaction between pleasure and arousal. For example, if the environment is pleasant, it will result in higher levels of arousal which in turn leads to higher approach behaviours. However, if the environment is unpleasant, the greater the arousal and the propensity to avoid the environment becomes greater. From this it seems that arousal attenuates behavioural responses and it is likely that when arousal does not exist then behavioural responses will be less exaggerated. Using the measurement scales devised by the authors, the model was used to examine the interaction between the physical environment and human behaviour in a number of situations including, housing, offices, schools and prisons and all results generally supported the model.

Figure 1.1: Mehrabian and Russell Model (1974)

1.3.1 Consumer Behaviour Applications of Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) Model This model was introduced with the primary intention of being applied to organisational settings such as hospitals, schools and work environments. However, since its inception numerous marketing scholars have applied it to consumer behaviour situations (e.g.

Donovan and Rossiter, 1982; Donovan et al, 1994; Sherman et al, 1997). The first of these is Donovan and Rossiter’s (1982) seminal article on retail atmospherics. This study demonstrated that the Mehrabian and Russell (M-R) model could be successfully applied to consumer behaviour. In measuring the environment, no particular environmental