The theoretical framework of this thesis is based on the literature on retail environmental psychology as well as retail atmospherics’ literature. The study’s conceptual model is basically based on Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974) model which is initially based on the S- O-R environmental psychology paradigm. As indicated earlier, the M-R model originated in the field of psychology to understand how human behaviour is linked to humans’ surroundings. However, the M-R model has inspired much of previous research on the effect of environmental factors on customers’ behaviour in buying contexts. The dominant belief of this research is that the characteristics of a retail environment (S) affect customers’ internal states involving emotion and/or cognition (O) which, in turn, lead to certain behavioural responses (R).
As indicated in the previous chapter, according to the M-R model the term “stimuli” refers to any factor having a changing impact on individuals’ internal states (Vieira, 2013). “Organism” represents the processing stage involving a set of perceptual, physiological,
66 feeling and thinking activities that make up the emotional and cognitive states of the consumer (Koo & Ju, 2010) and this, ultimately, leads to certain “responses” which may involve positive or negative actions directed towards a particular setting (Chang et al., 2011).
3.2.1 Stimulus-The Shopping Environment
In the S-O-R paradigm, a stimulus may involve any factor which influences individuals’ internal states. However, when the paradigm is brought to consumer behaviour research, a stimulus is then external to an individual and is either a marketing mix element or environmental cues (Bagozzi, 1986). Therefore, when the model is applied to investigate customer behavioural responses in a retail context, such as shopping malls, the shopping environment can then act as a stimulus. Accordingly, the mall’s shopping environment is depicted in this thesis as a stimulus (S), affecting customer internal emotional and cognitive states (O) which, in turn, drive customer behavioural response (R).
For mall operators, the shopping environment or atmosphere represents the physical and non-physical elements of the mall that can be used as a medium to produce a positive customer response towards the mall (Eroglu et al., 2001). However, from a customer’s perspective, it refers to the perceived quality of the surroundings that are recognised via customers’ sensations (Tai & Fung, 1997). The elements of a shopping environment are numerous. Therefore, several typologies categorising shopping environmental factors have been proposed in order to simplify the studying and understanding of these factors (e.g. Baker, 1986; Ballantine et al. 2010; Bitner, 1992; Turley & Milliman, 2000). Among the typologies discussed in the relevant literature, Baker’s (1986) typology deals exclusively with the internal aspects of the shopping environment, which are the focus of this study. Moreover, this typology has been substantially cited in previous similar studies (Baker et
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al., 2002; Chang et al. 2014; Chen & Hsieh, 2011; Kumar & Kim, 2014; Yang, Xu & Gu, 2011) which, therefore, asserts its validity and appropriateness for the current study.
Therefore, this thesis applies Baker’s (1986) approach to classifying shopping environment factors. Following Baker’s approach, the factors of a shopping environment are classified into three major groups: ambient factors, design factors; and social factors. Ambient factors are the background conditions that exist below the level of a customer’s immediate awareness, such as the mall’s background music, noise, and temperature. Design factors involve the stimuli apparent to customer awareness, such as the mall’s interior colours, design and layout. Social factors relate to the people who are present in the shopping mall such as employees and other customers. All of the preceding factors construct a shopping environment which can be manipulated to enrich customer experience and generate a desirable customer response.
3.2.2 Organism- Customer Emotions and Cognition
Referring to Mehrabian and Russell’s model, after being exposed to shopping environmental cues, some of these cues are captured by a customer’s sensory channels, such as sight suggesting (stimulus), then transmitted to be processed (organism) and, ultimately, results in positive or negative responses towards the shopping environment (response). More specifically, the model suggests that the shopping environment has an emotion-triggering power, generating different emotional states which, in turn, lead to approach-avoidance behaviour.
Emotion as an intervening organism variable is conceptualised in the M-R model as a tri- dimensional concept involving three independent states: pleasure, arousal and dominance (known as the PAD states). This model has been modified based on empirical evidence
68 from a retail marketing context by Donovan and Rossiter (1982) to include only pleasure and arousal. Furthermore, theoretically, dominance has been believed to be generated by a cognitive rather than an emotional process (Russell & Pratt, 1980). Consequently, only pleasure and arousal dominate the vast majority of subsequent marketing research which has applied the M-R model (Donovan et al., 1994; Loureiro et al., 2013; Morrison et al., 2011; Osman et al., 2014; Ryu & Jang, 2007; Sherman et al, 1997; Walshet al., 2011). Thus, in the present study, only pleasure and arousal are used to capture customer emotional states in the shopping environment.
The results of several studies verify the mediating role of customer pleasure and/or arousal induced by the shopping environment in affecting customer behavioural responses (Baker
et al., 1992; Holmqvist & Lunardo, 2015; Raajpoot et al., 2013; Ryu & Jang, 2007; Walsh
et al., 2011). However, the effect can be also channelled through a cognitive route (Babin
et al., 2003; Bitner, 1992; De Nisco & Warnaby, 2013; Wan et al., 2014). In this regard, whilst the emotional path relates to customer affective states or feelings, the cognitive path represents the rational sense of customer evaluations (Oh et al., 2008).
A number of scholars have considered the interplay mediating role of customer emotions and cognition on the relationship between the retail environment and customer behavioural responses (e.g. Bigdeli & Bigdeli, 2014; Chebat & Michon, 2003; Kwon et al., 2015; Kumar & Kim, 2014). Their results revealed two different perspectives in terms of the direction of the causal interactions between the two organisms (e.g. emotion and cognition). The first perspective is aligned with the assumptions of “affect as information theory” (Schwarz & Clore, 1983) or with the emotion-cognition approach (Zajonc & Markus, 1984; 1985). According to this school of belief, emotions are generated directly without any forerunner cognitive processes, suggesting an emotion-cognition sequence of mediation in
69 the effect of a shopping environment on customer behaviour. This was empirically evidenced by the findings of some studies in the relevant literature (e.g. Bigdeli & Bigdeli, 2014; Kwon et al., 2015; Laroche et al., 2005). The second perspective is based on the cognitive theory of emotions or cognition-emotion approach (Lazarus, 1991), whereby cognitive evaluation is a vital antecedent before emotion is elicited. The cognition-emotion approach was supported by the results of other scholars, who assert a cognition-emotion sequence in the flow of the mediating organisms (e.g. Chebat & Michon, 2003; Dennis et al., 2012; Kumar & Kim, 2014).
In the light of the aforementioned discussion, this thesis applies both emotions and cognition as mediating variables in the relationship between mall shopping environment and customer behavioural response. Furthermore, it also addresses the interplay effect of customer emotions and cognition in directing customer behavioural responses through considering two contrasting perspectives: emotion-cognition and cognition-emotion. Customer emotions while being in a shopping mall, on the one hand, are operationalised using the commonly cited emotional states in the extant literature: pleasure and arousal. Pleasure describes “the extent to which individuals feel good, happy, pleased, or joyful in a situation”, while arousal reflects “the degree to which individuals feel stimulated, excited, or active” (Ryu & Jang, 2007, p. 58). Customer cognition, on the other hand, is represented by customers’ evaluation of a mall’s overall shopping environment, which is the core focus of this study.
3.2.3 Response-Customer Behavioural Response
In the M-R model, a response in general is the final outcome in the causal chain. As indicated before, Mehrabian and Russell (1974) depicted an individual’s response towards an environment simply as approach or avoidance behaviours. Approach behaviours reflect
70 positive reactions toward a certain setting involving approaching it, remaining, exploring, interacting and holding a good impression and intention to revisit it again, while avoidance behaviours imply the opposite.
In marketing research, response is defined as the “final outcomes and the final decisions of consumers” (Chang et al., 2011, p. 236) which are mainly operationalised using behavioural outcomes (Im & Ha, 2011). Amongst the most common behavioural outcomes addressed in the relevant literature are: money spent (Lin & Liang, 2011; Novak et al., 2010; Spangenberg et al., 2003); time spent (Donovan et al., 1994; Novak et al., 2010; Wakefield & Baker, 1998); unplanned buying (Chang et al., 2011, 2014; Li, Kim, & Lee, 2009; Mattila & Wirtz, 2001), word of mouth (WOM) (Hyun & Kang, 2014; Jang & Namkung, 2009; Lin & Liang, 2011; Loureiro et al., 2013; Lucas, 2003), and re-patronage intentions (Chebat & Michon, 2003; Kim & Moon, 2009; Loureiro et al., 2013; Wakefield & Blodgett, 1996). Accordingly, these five behavioural dimensions (e.g. money spent, time spent, unplanned buying, WOM, and re-patronage intentions) are considered together in the current study to operationalise the construct, customer behavioural response.