Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 14 Ž1997.

1–17

Store atmosphere, mood and purchasing behavior

Kordelia Spies a , Friedrich Hesse b,)
, Kerstin Loesch a

a
¨
UniÕersity of Gottingen, ¨
Department of Psychology, Gottingen, Germany
b
German Institute for Research on Distance Education, Applied CognitiÕe Science Department, Konrad-Adenauer-Str. 40, D-72072
¨
Tubingen, Germany
Received 15 June 1995; accepted 7 June 1996

Abstract

The effects of store characteristics on customers’ mood, on their satisfaction, and on their purchasing behavior are
investigated. Two furniture stores differing with regard to their atmosphere, i.e. their condition, information rate and layout,
were selected. Customers’ mood – measured at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of their shopping – was shown to
improve in the pleasant and to deteriorate in the less pleasant store Ž n s 76 for each store.. Satisfaction with the store was
greater in the pleasant store. Regression analyses showed that this was due to a direct effect of store atmosphere as well as to
an indirect effect mediated by customers’ mood. Customers in the pleasant store spontaneously spent more money on articles
they simply liked. This effect was only due to customers’ mood.

Keywords: Customers’ mood; Store atmosphere; Purchasing behavior

1. Theoretical considerations assumed that stimulus characteristics, especially the

information rate, influences a person’s mood state as
Most shoppers share the experience that, irrespec-
an intervening variable. Mood state, on the other
tive of the stock offered, some stores are more
hand, exerts influence on a person’s response, i.e. on
attractive than others, some stores induce a feeling of
his or her approach or avoidance behavior.
wellbeing, while in other stores one becomes irri-
In the following article we aim to investigate
tated or even angry. And everybody also knows that
more closely what kind of relationship there is be-
one tends to buy more things and to spend more
tween store characteristics and customers’ behavior,
money when one is in a positive rather than in a
taking into account customers’ mood state as an
negative mood state. Thus, there might well be im-
intervening variable. Two lines of research have to
portant interactions between store characteristics,
be taken into account: Ža. consumer research as a
customers’ mood and purchasing behavior.
specially applied field of environmental psychology,
A broad theoretical model of environmental psy-
and Žb. general psychology as far as the generation
chology that may be applied to these interactions is
of mood and its influences on cognitive as well as
presented by Mehrabian and Russell Ž1974.. It is
behavioral processes are concerned.
How are physical aspects of a situation perceived
)
Corresponding author. Tel.: Žq49. 7071.979215; fax: Žq49. and evaluated by the individual? According to
7071 979100; e-mail: friedrich.hesse@uni-tuebingen.de. Berlyne Ž1971., the attractiveness of environmental

0167-8116r97r$17.00 Copyright q 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

PII S 0 1 6 7 - 8 1 1 6 Ž 9 6 . 0 0 0 1 5 - 8
2 K. Spies et al.r Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 14 (1997) 1–17
stimuli is a function of their complexity. Stimuli that
are characterized by an optimal level of complexity
are assumed to gain maximum attractiveness, whereas
stimuli deviating from this optimal level towards a
higher or lower complexity are considered less at-
tractive.
Important characteristics of environmental stimuli
that determine their complexity are information rate
and layout. By information rate we mean the number
of information units that are presented within a
certain time interval. The information rate usually is
higher for new and unusual than for familiar stimuli.
Thus, to assess the information rate in a store Bost
Ž1987. asked customers whether they considered the
store to be modern or obsolete, to be out of the
ordinary or commonplace, to be surprising or boring,
to be interesting or uninteresting etc. In addition,
perceptibility should become an important factor,
with easy perceptibility lowering the information
rate. With respect to a store, the perceptibility of
articles may be increased, for instance by providing
better lighting.
Careful layout of an environment helps people to
orientate, to find the way and learn to understand
signs, to get the feeling of personal control and
mastery ŽBitner, 1992.. According to Bost Ž1987.,
the successful layout of a store depends on whether
the store has a clear concept, whether one can easily
find things, whether different departments are clearly
separated from each other, whether one does not get
lost etc. Signs and information tables can help to
improve the layout of a store. Studies investigating
customers’ behavior in a store Že.g. Barth, 1993.
showed that certain layout patterns were especially
attractive for customers. It was found that most
customers move through the store in a counterclock-
wise direction with their attention being concentrated
on the wall-sides. They tend to avoid turns and are
rather reluctant to accept any attempts to divert the
direction in which they are going.
Following Berlyne Ž1971., it may be assumed that
if the information rate is too high customers will feel
overloaded, while they will become bored if the
information rate is too low. Similar assumptions can
be made for layout. The layout should be clear but
not too simple, so that there is the possibility of
surprise and unexpectedness.
How do these stimulus characteristics relate to
customers’ mood state? Here, general psychology
research dealing with the generation of mood is of
interest. Like Bower and Cohen Ž1982. or Lazarus
Ž1991., Scherer Ž1984. postulates that a cognitive
interpretation of a situation precedes and determines
the emotional reaction Žsee also Kuhl, 1983a..
Scherer assumes that there are five stages of cogni-
tive interpretation, called stimulus evaluation checks,
with different qualities of emotions being elicited at
each stage. At the first stage, the novelty and unex-
pectedness of physical stimuli are evaluated. For
moderate novelty and unexpectedness interest should
occur as emotional reaction, while for a high degree
of novelty and unexpectedness subjects tend to react
in a frightened way. At the second stage, a stimulus
is evaluated as good or bad according to prior expe-
riences. Here emotions of pleasure and displeasure
are commonly induced. At the third stage, a situation
is appraised with respect to its goal relevance. If a
situation is favorable to the attainment of a person’s
present goal, joy and contentment will be elicited. If
however, the situation is incongruent with the goal a
person will show anger or fear Žsee also Lazarus,
1991.. The fourth stage refers to coping potential. If
a person feels that he or she can cope with the
situation, competence and delight will be induced,
otherwise the person will experience anger or fear.
At the fifth stage, a comparison with norms and
standards takes place, stimulating feelings of pride or
shame and guilt.
From Scherer’s approach it can be deduced that
the novelty and unexpectedness of physical stimuli
in a store should not be too low, in order to make the
customers interested, but on the other hand they must
not be too high, as in that case customers would
react with fright. This corresponds to Berlyne’s as-
sumptions concerning the relationship between com-
plexity and attractiveness. Within consumer research,
similar assumptions are made by Donovan and
Rossiter Ž1982. or Gardner Ž1985.. Furthermore, in
order to induce pleasure, store characteristics should
remind customers of other positive experiences, like,
for instance, those one expects from holidays or
leisure time. In this case, the pleasure response,
originally induced by the positive experiences should
be associated with store characteristics, e.g. via clas-
sical conditioning Žsee for example Cohen, 1990;
Kroeber-Riehl, 1984.. The situation in the store
 K. Spies et al.r Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 14 (1997) 1–17
should be relevant and congruent to the customer’s
goal in order to elicit contentment and happiness. In
this respect Russell and his co-workers ŽRussell and
Snodgrass, 1987; Snodgrass et al., 1988; Ward et al.,
1988. found that how a person feels about an envi-
ronment is influenced by the purpose for being there.
Furthermore, customers should get the feeling that
they can cope with the shopping situation, that their
personal control is high. Hui and Bateson Ž1991.
could show that perceptions of personal control in a
shopping situation are positively related to increased
pleasure. The feeling of personal control may be
induced by a clear layout of the store Že.g. Bitner,
1992.. In Scherer’s approach, comparisons with
norms and standards mainly refer to a person’s eval-
uation of his or her own behavior. This stimulus
evaluation check, however, may be relevant for the
finding of Parasuraman et al. Ž1990. that customers
compare tangibles of a store with what they think a
store should look like. Satisfaction with the store
could be shown to increase with decreasing a gap
between customers’ perceptions and expectations.
With respect to assumptions referring to cognitive
and behavioral consequences of positive emotions, in
the present context mood-effects on evaluations and
on risk-taking are of special interest.
Isen et al. Ž1978. studied the effect of positive
emotions on the evaluation of consumer goods, e.g.
car, television etc., and found that the ratings of
subjects in a positive mood were much more favor-
able than those of the neutral control group. Similar
results were reported by Dawson et al. Ž1990., Gard-
ner Ž1985., Sherman and Smith Ž1987. or Srull
Ž1983.. Obermiller and Bitner Ž1984; see also Bitner,
1992. found that retail products are evaluated more
positively in an environment eliciting pleasant com-
pared to unpleasant emotional reactions. These ef-
fects of positive mood are in accordance with the
mood-congruity effect described by Bower Ž1981..
In a positive mood positive aspects of a situation are
assumed to come to mind more easily, to be more
accessible than negative aspects. As Morris states, a
person in a positive mood seems ‘‘to view the world
through rose-coloured glasses’’ ŽMorris, 1989, p. 87.
. Bower Ž1981. explains this mood-congruity effect
within the network theory of emotion. In a positive
mood, the corresponding emotion node is activated.
This activation spreads to neighbouring nodes.
3
Neighbouring nodes that are associated with a posi-
tive emotion node usually represent positive things,
events or aspects of a situation. Thus, through the
activation of the positive emotion node other nodes
that represent positive contents should be pre-
activated, so facilitating the perception of positive
aspects of a situation.
Schwarz Ž1990. claims that a positive mood serves
as additional information that is used when evaluat-
ing a certain situation. If a person feels good, he or
she may attribute this positive feeling to character-
istics of the present situation and thus evaluate this
situation more favorably. This should hold true also
for the evaluation of retail products.
With respect to risk-taking behavior, Isen and her
co-workers ŽIsen, 1987; Isen and Geva, 1987; Isen et
al., 1982; Isen et al., 1988; Isen and Patrick, 1983.
found that the readiness to take a risk rises in a
positive compared to a neutral mood for low risks,
while it decreases if the risk-level is high. This
differential effect depending on risk-level may be
explained by a motivational tendency towards mood
maintenance ascribed to subjects in a positive mood.
If the risk is low the expected positive outcomes are
assumed to outweigh negative consequences, as their
subjective probability and their value is high Žsee
Spies et al., 1996.. For high risk-levels, however,
there is the possibility of severe negative outcomes
that may endanger the positive mood and thus should
be prevented. With respect to consumer research it
has been found ŽBelk, 1975; Donovan et al., 1994;
Golden and Zimmer, 1986; Sherman and Smith,
1987. that customers in a positive mood often spend
more money than originally planned. Besides, im-
pulse buyers could be shown to be characterized by a
positive emotional state Že.g. Weinberg and Gottwald,
1982.. However, in these studies no differentiation
has been made with respect to risk-level.
While there are several studies within consumer
research dealing with the effects of either store atmo-
sphere or mood on customers’ behavior, only few
studies investigate the effects of store characteristics
on customers’ behavior taking mood as an interven-
ing variable. Donovan and Rossiter Ž1982. asked
graduate business students to visit one of several
different types of retail environments and to rate Ža.
aspects of the information rate, Žb. their pleasure and
arousal and Žc. their intentions to approach or avoid
4 K. Spies et al.r Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 14 (1997) 1–17
the store. It could be shown that pleasure was a
major predictor for approach-avoidance responses.
However, the effects of information rate on mood as
well as on shopping behavior were rather weak.
Bost Ž1987. studied genuine customers in five
supermarkets selling food, clothing, automobile ac-
cessories etc. and differing with respect to the condi-
tion the stores were in. The customers’ evaluation of
information rate and layout of the store, their mood-
change from entering to leaving the store, their
evaluation of the store’s stocks and their purchasing
behavior were assessed. It could be shown that the
customers’ mood improved more frequently in stores
which were kept in good condition. In addition,
positive mood-changes could be observed for those
customers especially who evaluated information-rate
and store layout as high. Positive mood-changes
could be shown to cause a more favorable evaluation
of the store and to make customers buy more things
and make more spontaneous purchases, the last being
defined as the number of articles which customers
did not intend to buy or which they bought for the
first time. Thus, the results of Bost’s study in partic-
ular are in accordance with the assumptions derived
from the theoretical and empirical considerations
mentioned above.
In the following investigation, instead of correla-
tional analyses we did a quasi-experiment. Two stores
differing with respect to store atmosphere were se-
lected and customers’ mood, satisfaction with the
store and purchasing behavior were investigated as
dependent variables.
Second, as did Bost Ž1987. but not Donovan and
Rossiter Ž1982. and as was claimed by Donovan et
al. Ž1994., we studied mood-change by assessing
mood at the beginning, in the middle and at the end
of shopping. By controlling for initial mood, it be-
comes more likely that observed mood-effects are
really due to differences in store characteristics.
Third, we investigated stores where experience-
oriented marketing plays a major role. The concept
of experience-oriented marketing ŽGroppel,¨ 1991.
assumes that customers who visit a store not only
intend to buy certain things but also want to enjoy
their shopping, to have a pleasant experience. In this
respect, store characteristics become especially im-
portant. Visiting a supermarket as was studied by
Bost Ž1987., however, seems to be motivated mostly
by the need for the articles sold there and not so
much by the intention of having a nice shopping
experience. Thus, we expect the effects of store
atmosphere on mood, satisfaction with the store and
purchasing behavior to become stronger if customers
are longing for a pleasant shopping experience. As
the concept of experience-oriented marketing is par-
ticularly prominent for such stores, we used two
furniture stores for our investigation.
Fourth, especially with respect to articles sold in a
supermarket, long-standing purchasing habits of the
customers must be taken into account. Moreover,
goods from different producers are offered and cus-
tomers may have developed preferences for special
brands. Such purchasing habits may attenuate the
effects of store characteristics and mood. To hold
preferences for special brands constant we chose
furniture stores selling the articles of one special
producer only.
Fifth, to control for effects of self-selection, fa-
miliarity with the store, intentions and expectations
of goal attainment were assessed as control variables.
For two such stores, differing with respect to store
atmosphere, operationalized via the stores’ condition,
information rate and layout, we first tested the ef-
fects of store atmosphere on customers’ mood. Sec-
ond, the effects of store atmosphere on satisfaction
and purchasing behavior were investigated and we
tested whether these effects could be ascribed to
customers’ mood as an intervening variable. Our
predictions become obvious from Fig. 1. Thus, for
satisfaction and for purchasing behavior, a direct
effect of store atmosphere as well as an indirect
effect mediated by mood were assumed. Familiarity
with the store, intentions, expectations of goal attain-
´
ment, actual goal-attainment, visiting the caferre-
staurant as well as sociodemographic variables were
added to the model as control variables if respective
differences between the two stores could be ob-
served.
Fig. 1. Expected relations between store atmosphere, customers’
mood, their satisfaction and purchasing behavior.
 K. Spies et al.r Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 14 (1997) 1–17
2. Methods
2.1. Independent Õariable
The study was carried out in two ‘Ikea’ stores,
which belong to a big Scandinavian furnishing com-
pany. The stores were located in two different Ger-
man towns. 1 The furnishings offered in the two
stores were completely comparable with respect to
assortment, quality and price. Additionally, both
stores followed the concept of experience-oriented
marketing. In a so-called exhibition area, along the
walls there were several departments presenting
completely furnished living-rooms, bedrooms,
kitchens, children’s rooms etc. Other departments
showed objects arranged according to their function,
i.e. various shelves, chairs, sofas etc. This exhibition
area was separated from a self-service area where
customers could find packages containing the things
they had decided to buy. In this area, various acces-
sories and additional goods, such as plants, mirrors,
candles, cutlery etc., were also available. Each of the
areas covered about 50% of the whole store. Within
´
the exhibition area there was a caferrestaurant.
There were, however, differences between the
two stores with respect to store atmosphere, opera-
tionalized as the store’s condition, its layout and the
information rate Žsee Table 1.. Store A had been
renovated in 1992, i.e. one year before the investiga-
tion took place. The entrance area was wide and
bright with plenty of natural light. The walls were
painted in white and the lighting was well-planned.
Store B, on the other hand, showed many signs of
deterioration. Walls were painted in dim colours
which, above all, made the ceilings look particularly
low. Lighting, brightness, colours and height are
considered to be important features creating store
atmosphere Že.g. Buckley, 1987..
With respect to layout, in Store A the rather
complex route through the store was well-structured
so that customers had no difficulty finding their way.
In the exhibition area the way was clearly marked by
the colour of the flooring. Its direction was counter-
clockwise, short-cuts were impossible so that cus-
tomers passed all exhibited objects. Throughout the
1
We thank the managers of both stores for their kind support.
5
exhibition there were several information desks as
well as many striking signs in different colours. In
the self-service area there were no marked paths;
here every customer could choose his or her own
direction. However, here, too, striking signs im-
proved orientation.
In Store B orientation was much more difficult.
As in Store A the route through the exhibition area
was marked. However, there were several crossings
where customers had to decide which path they
wanted to take. As signs were few and not very
striking customers could easily happen to miss ob-
jects. If they endeavoured to see all the objects they
had to move in a circle several times, thus running
the risk of losing their orientation. Within the self-
service area, hand-written cardboard signs were the
only help in finding the selected articles.
In Store A the presentation of the furniture was
much more out of the ordinary and unexpected for
the customer compared to Store B, i.e. the informa-
tion rate in Store A was higher. Different furnishings
were more frequently integrated into a complete
living-room, kitchen etc. so that customers were
given some inspiration on how to furnish their own
rooms at home. In Store B, on the other hand,
furnishings were more often grouped according to
their function, so that for instance several tables were
located one beside the other. In addition, new sup-
plies were presented much more noticeably in Store
A than in Store B. For example, in Store A a new
model of a chair hung down from the wall with a
special spotlight directed on it. No other chairs were
close by – only an attractive plant. Thus, the chair
drew the customers’ attention, they could not help
noticing it. In Store B, however, the same chair
stood amidst other chairs and was marked as new
only by a small sign.
In summary, the two stores were each in a differ-
ent condition – one modern, one rather dilapidated –
and had a different layout and information rate, thus
forming two levels of store atmosphere that served
as the independent variable of the present study.
2.2. Dependent Õariables
The first dependent variable was the customers’
mood state. It was expected that the good atmo-
sphere of Store A would induce a better mood in the
customers than the worse atmosphere of Store B.
6 K. Spies et al.r Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 14 (1997) 1–17
Table 1
Differences between the stores
Store A
Condition
Renovated one year ago
Bright colours
Layout
Well-structured route with no crossings and possible shortcuts
Many striking signs in different colours
Information rate
Presentation out of the ordinary, unexpected
Integration of furnishings to complete rooms
New supplies highlighted
Mood was assessed three times, first at the entrance,
second after customers had passed the exhibition
area and finally before they left the store. Referring
to the mood-questionnaire ŽSES. by Hampel Ž1977.,
mood-related adjectives were presented and subjects
had to indicate for each adjective on a seven-point
rating-scale how well it described their present mood.
We used three subscales of the SES with adjectives
for elated, depressed and angry moods respectively.
In order to not unduly extend the survey, we fol-
lowed Hampel in first presenting the short form A
and second the parallel form B. Both forms com-
prised seven adjectives of each scale. For the third
mood-assessment we used seven adjectives per scale
taken at random from either form A or form B.
In order to get information about customers’ sat-
isfaction with the store, after they had passed the
exhibition area we asked them to rate on a five-point
rating-scale how much they liked the exhibition of
furnishings Ž1: ‘‘I disliked the exhibition very
much’’; 5: ‘‘I liked the exhibition very much’’..
Before customers left the store, i.e. after they had
passed the self-service area, they were asked how
contented they were with their shopping on the
whole Ž1: ‘‘ very discontented’’; 5: ‘‘ very
contented’’., and if they intended to revisit the store
Ž0: no; 1: some time; 2: very soon..
As a more behavioral index of customers’ satis-
faction, we took the time they spent in the exhibition
and the self-service area respectively, i.e. the time
between entering the store and leaving the exhibition
area as well as the time between leaving the exhibi-
tion area and leaving the store was recorded.
Store B
Many signs of deterioration
Dim colours
Many crossings and possible shortcuts
Few, not very striking signs, some only hand-written
Expected, ordinary presentation
Functional grouping of furnishings
New supplies presented amidst others
It was assumed that a pleasant store atmosphere –
perhaps via inducing a positive mood state – should
favor a positive evaluation of the exhibition and of
the shopping as a whole, raise customers’ willing-
ness to revisit the store and make them spend more
time in the exhibition as well as in the self-service
area. Thus, there should be respective differences
between customers in Store A and Store B.
With respect to purchasing behaÕior, before they
left the store we asked customers to indicate how
much money they had spent altogether and how
much money they had spent on things they had not
actually intended to buy. With respect to their spon-
taneous purchases subjects had to specify whether
they had bought each object Ža. because it was a
good bargain, Žb. because it occurred to them that
they needed the object or Žc. because they simply
liked the object. It was assumed that a pleasant store
atmosphere – supposedly via the effect of a positive
mood state – should cause customers to spend more
money and to buy things more spontaneously if they
were not too expensive, i.e. if the risk of a bad
bargain was rather low. Respective differences were
expected between customers in Store A and Store B.
2.3. Control Õariables
In order to get information concerning the compa-
rability of customers visiting Store A and Store B,
we obtained the following data: age and sex of the
customers, income, number of persons living in the
household, distance between home and store, number
of accompanying adults, number of accompanying
 K. Spies et al.r Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 14 (1997) 1–17
children. With respect to customers’ familiarity with
the store, we asked whether they knew other stores
of the same company and whether the exhibition of
furnishings was new or familiar to them.
As for their actual shopping, when entering the
store customers had to indicate their intention,
whether they wanted to go for a look round, whether
they wanted to buy a certain object, e.g. a sofa or a
shelf, but had not yet decided about the specific
model, or whether they had come to buy just a
special article they had seen in the store’s advertise-
ments. In addition, we asked customers whether they
expected to attain their goal or not. After they left
the exhibition area customers had to indicate whether
– if they had pursued a goal in this area – they had
attained this goal or not. In the same way, customers
were asked about goal-attainment in the self-service
area before they left the store. Goal-attainment was
controlled because, apart from store atmosphere, it
was considered to be an important determinant for
customers’ mood as well as for their satisfaction
scores.
Furthermore, customers were asked whether they
´
had visited the caferrestaurant or not, as besides
store atmosphere this factor may influence mood as
well as increasing the time customers spend in the
exhibition area.
2.4. Procedure
The study was run with 76 customers per store. In
each store, the investigation took place for one week
ŽMonday to Friday. during the usual hours of sale.
Saturdays were excluded because a larger number of
customers were expected to attend the store on Sat-
Table 2
Dependent measures taken at the three times of assessment
First assessment Second assessment
Mood Questionnaire A Questionnaire B
Satisfaction Liking of the exhibition
Expectations of goal attainment
Purchase
Control Familiarity intentions Goal-attainment in the
Õariables exhibition area
Expectations of goal attainment ´
Visit of the caferrestaurant
7
urdays, rendering a survey more difficult, and be-
cause other types of customers would come impair-
ing the homogeneity of the sample. Customers were
met three times during their shopping by three differ-
ent researchers. Researcher A welcomed the cus-
tomer in the entrance area and asked him or her to
take part in the survey. In both stores about two
thirds of the customers agreed to participate. They
were given the first questionnaire to assess the de-
pendent measures listed in Table 2. Customers ran
into Researcher B after they had left the exhibition
area and had to work on the second questionnaire.
After they had passed the cash-desk, they were given
the third questionnaire by Researcher C.
To allow the three questionnaires of each person
to be identified without recording customers’ names
we asked customers to mark each questionnaire with
a code containing the initials of his or her name as
well as the day and month of his or her birth. All the
researchers tried to use relatively calm areas for the
survey. In all cases, customers were not actually
interviewed but left to work on the questionnaires by
themselves. Customers who went back from the
self-service to the exhibition area were excluded
from data-analysis because in this case the effects for
both areas could not be separated.
Of course, there is the risk of reactivity in inter-
rupting shoppers three times. But otherwise we had
no possibility to assess mood changes and would
have had no chance to ascribe effects to the exhibi-
tion and self-service area of the stores, respectively.
Moreover, as the procedure was the same in both
stores, it seems rather unlikely that observed differ-
ences are due to reactivity effects.
Third assessment
Questionnaire C
Satisfaction with shopping on the whole
Intention to revisit the store
Amount of money spent on the whole
Amount of money spent for spontaneous purchases
Goal-attainment in the self-service area
Sex, age, income, number of persons in the household
Distance home–store
Number of accompanying adults and children
8 K. Spies et al.r Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 14 (1997) 1–17
2.5. Design
In a first step, it was tested whether the two
stores, having different levels of store atmosphere,
induced different mood states. For mood at the sec-
ond and third time of assessment respectively, a
regression analysis was carried out with mood at the
first time of assessment Žbase mood. as well as store
atmosphere as predictors. In addition, a hierarchical
regression was performed introducing, after base
mood but before store atmosphere, those control
variables that proved different between the two stores.
In a second step, the effects of store atmosphere
on satisfaction and purchasing behavior were tested.
In this respect, a regression analysis was carried out
taking store atmosphere as predictor. With respect to
mood-effects we referred to changes in mood-scores
from the first to the second time of assessment.
Effects of mood-change were tested via regression
analysis. In a hierarchical regression analysis mood-
change was entered as the first and store atmosphere
as the second predictor. By doing so, it was checked
whether the effects of store atmosphere could be
explained via mood-effects. In a further hierarchical
regression, relevant control variables differing be-
tween the stores were introduced as predictors before
mood-change and store atmosphere. Depending on
the number of predictors the critical F-value for the
regression analyses varied between F Ž1, 150, 95%.
s 3.91 and F Ž5, 146, 95%. s 2.28.
With a s b s 0.05 and N s 152, the expected
amount of explained variance Žh 2 . for one, two,
three, four or five predictors was 0.08, 0.09, 0.10,
0.11 and 0.12 respectively. In the case of the hierar-
chical regression analysis, the increase of explained
variance that was expected by introducing a further
predictor amounted to h 2 s 0.08. According to the
Cohen Ž1988. conventions, all expected effects must
be said to be small to medium.
As the intention of revisiting the store was as-
sessed at nominal scale-level, for this variable we
referred to log-linear analysis. In order to test the
effects of mood-change within this analysis, the total
group of 152 customers was split at the median of
mood-change from the first to the second time of
assessment, thus getting one group of customers with
positive and a second group with mainly negative
mood-changes. It was tested whether models assum-
ing an interaction between intention and either store
atmosphere or mood-change or both fit the data. In a
second step, control variables were taken into ac-
count.
For a s b s 0.05 and N s 152 the expected ef-
fects size for x 2-tests with df s 28 amounts to B s
0.48. This must be considered a medium to large
effect according to the Cohen Ž1988. conventions.
For the log-linear analysis, B s 0.48 means an upper
effect size limit that must not be exceeded if the
assumed model fits the data.
3. Results
3.1. Control Õariables
Customers of Stores A and B did not differ with
respect to age Ž71% ranging between 20 and 40
years in both stores., sex Ž39 and 38 women in
Stores A and B respectively., number of persons
living in the household Žmostly 1 or 2 in both stores.,
income Žin both stores 70% of the customers either
belonged to the group with a higher income of more
than 4000 DM per month or to the group having a
low income of less than 1500 DM per month.,
accompanying adults Žmostly 1–2 in both stores. and
accompanying children Žabout 80% without children
and 20% with one child in both stores.. Distance
between home and store was somewhat greater for
Store A Ž20–100km. than for Store B Ž10–50km.
because of its being situated further away from the
city.
With respect to familiarity, for both stores 34 of
the 76 customers said they knew other stores of the
same company. Sixty-nine customers of Store A
compared to 62 customers of Store B knew the
present exhibition of furnishings Ž x 2 s 2.71 -
x 2 Ž1,95%. s 3.84..
20 customers in Store A compared to 30 cus-
tomers in Store B only intended to stroll around, 20
persons in Store A vs. 17 in Store B intended to buy
something without having decided which specific
model and 26 vs. 31 customers of Stores A and B
respectively came with the intention of buying just
one special article. Thus, intentions can be said to be
largely the same for the customers of both stores
Ž x 2 s 0.75 - x 2 Ž2,95%. s 5.99.. Expectation was
 K. Spies et al.r Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 14 (1997) 1–17 9

Table 3 customers of Store A, while it deteriorated for cus-

´
Frequencies for visiting the caferrestaurant and goal-attainment in tomers of Store B. From the second to the third
Store A and Store B
assessment there was a small deterioration of mood
Store A Store B
in both groups. Mood at the first time of assessment
´
Visiting the caferrestaurant Yes 29 18 Žbase mood. explained 36% of the variance of
No 47 58 mood-scores at the second time of assessment Ž F s
Goal-attainment in the Yes 50 44 83.60.. Introducing store atmosphere as a second
exhibition area predictor significantly Ž Finc s 46.48. increased the
No 11 20 amount of explained variance Ž R 2 s 0.51, F s
No goal 15 12 77.72..
Goal-attainment in the Yes 55 33 Apart from store atmosphere customers’ mood
self-service area may be influenced by whether they attain their goal
No 14 31 ´
and whether they visit the caferrestaurant. Thus, for
No goal 7 12 mood at the second time of assessment a hierarchical
regression was carried out introducing base mood,
goal-attainment in the exhibition area and visiting
exactly the same for customers of Stores A and B
with 28 persons having low and 48 having high ´
the caferrestaurant as predictors first before entering
store atmosphere. The set of base mood, goal-attain-
expectation with respect to goal-attainment. How-
ever, – as can be seen from Table 3 – there was a ´
ment in the exhibition area and visiting the caferre-
staurant accounted for 50% of the variance Ž F s
tendency for the number of customers who attained
49.69.. The proportion of variance explained was
their goal in the exhibition area to be larger in Store
significantly Ž Finc s 38.22. increased by introducing
A than in Store B Ž x 2 s 2.93 ) x 2 Ž1,90%. s 2.71..
store atmosphere Ž R 2 s 0.60, F s 56.19..
Interestingly, this effect held true above all for cus-
With respect to mood at the third time of assess-
tomers who intended to stroll around and to get some
ment, i.e. before customers left the store, base mood
useful ideas Ž x 2 s 3.71 ) x 2 Ž1,90%. s 2.71., while
accounted for 26% of the variance Ž F s 51.85.. The
there was no difference between stores for customers
amount of explained variance was significantly Ž Finc
who intended to buy something Ž x 2 s 0.70. or who
s 38.51. increased by introducing store atmosphere
came to get just one special article Ž x 2 s 0.00..
as a second predictor Ž R 2 s 0.41, F s 51.66.. The
Besides, more customers of Store A reached their
set of base mood, goal-attainment in the exhibition
goal in the self-service area Ž x 2 s 11.75 )
as well as – additionally – in the self-service area
x 2 Ž1,95%. s 3.84.. Again, this effect was due mostly
to customers who wanted to go for a stroll Ž x 2 s ´
and visiting the caferrestaurant explained 45% of
the variance of customers’ mood at this third time of
14.97., while customers who intended to buy some-
assessment Ž F s 30.44.. Again, the proportion of
thing Ž x 2 s 0.47. or just one special article Ž x 2 s
variance accounted for became significantly larger
0.65. did not differ between stores with respect to
Ž Finc s 22.56. when entering store atmosphere Ž R 2
goal-attainment. As a tendency more customers in
Store A compared to Store B visited the caferre- ´
Table 4
staurant Ž x 2 s 3.73 ) x 2 Ž1,90%. s 2.71.. Hence, in
Mood scores at the three times of assessment for Store A and
the following, goal-attainment in the exhibition and Store B Žmeans and standard deviations.
self-service area as well as visit of the caferre-´ Store A Store B
staurant were considered as control variables if ef-
SES1 35.79 33.34
fects on the respective dependent variable seemed Ž20.59. Ž22.95.
likely to be expected.
SES2 46.17 21.08
3.2. Mood Ž22.49. Ž30.84.

SES3 41.66 16.08

As can be seen from Table 4, mood improved Ž25.43. Ž30.22.
from the first to the second time of assessment for
10 K. Spies et al.r Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 14 (1997) 1–17

Table 5
Customers’ satisfaction for Store A vs. Store B and for positive vs. negative mood-change Žmeans and standard deviations.
Store A Store B
Positive Negative Positive Negative
mood-change mood-change mood-change mood-change
Ž n s 52. Ž n s 24. Ž n s 23. Ž n s 53.
Liking of the exhibition 4.25 3.79 3.78 3.26
Ž0.76. Ž0.83. Ž0.90. Ž0.81.

Satisfaction with shopping on the whole 4.12 3.29 3.48 3.00

Ž0.98. Ž0.95. Ž1.27. Ž0.92.

Time spent in the exhibition Žminutes. 56.69 46.75 31.00 25.70

Ž24.18. Ž19.21. Ž21.67. Ž14.20.

Time spent in the self-service area Žminutes. 63.21 65.63 45.09 41.57
Ž34.32. Ž33.24. Ž32.72. Ž23.75.

s 0.53, F s 32.44.. Thus, store atmosphere had a
considerable impact on customers’ mood that could
not be simply reduced to goal-attainment or visiting
´
the caferrestaurant.
3.3. Satisfaction
In Tables 5 and 6 data are given for Stores A and
B differentiating between customers with positive
and negative mood-changes. Only for the purpose of
a better tabular presentation of the data was the total
group of 152 customers split at the median of
mood-change from the first to the second time of
assessment Žmedians 2., thus obtaining one group
of customers with positive and a second group with
mainly negative mood-changes. For the purpose of
regression analysis, of course, we referred to the
undichotomized mood-change scores.
With respect to liking ratings of the exhibition
area customers of Store A attained higher scores
than customers of Store B Žsee Table 5.. Store
atmosphere alone accounted for 14% of the variance
Ž F s 25.25.. Customers with a positive mood-change
liked the exhibition of furnishings more than cus-
tomers with a negative mood-change. Mood-change
alone explained 24% of the variance of the liking
ratings Ž F s 48.28.. This proportion of explained
variance was significantly increased Ž Finc s 5.56. by
introducing store atmosphere as a second predictor
Ž R 2 s 0.27, F s 27.66..
In order to check whether the effects of mood-
change and store atmosphere on liking-scores for the
exhibition might have been due to goal-attainment,
goal-attainment was entered into the regression anal-
ysis as the first predictor followed by mood-change
and store atmosphere. Goal-attainment accounted for
12% of the variance Ž F s 21.25.. The introduction
of mood-change significantly Ž Finc s 36.86. in-
creased the proportion of explained variance Ž R 2 s
0.30, F s 31.59.. A further significant increase Ž Finc
s 5.97. was attained by entering store atmosphere
Ž R 2 s 0.33, F s 23.75.. Hence, the effects of

Table 6
Frequencies of customers’ intention to revisit the store in Store A vs. Store B and for positive vs. negative mood-change
Store A Store B
Intention to revisit the store Positive mood-change Negative mood-change Positive mood-change Negative mood-change
Ž n s 52. Ž n s 24. Ž n s 23. Ž n s 53.
Very soon 44 18 18 33
Sometime 4 2 2 7
No 4 4 3 13
 K. Spies et al.r Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 14 (1997) 1–17 11

mood-change and store atmosphere could not be
reduced to effects of goal-attainment.
Customers’ satisfaction with their shopping on the
whole was higher in Store A than in Store B. Store
atmosphere alone explained for 10% of the variance
Ž R 2 s 0.10, F s 17.46.. Satisfaction was also fos-
tered by a positive mood-change. Mood-change alone
accounted for 17% of the variance Ž F s 29.67.. The
proportion of variance was significantly increased
Ž Finc s 3.99. by entering store atmosphere as a sec-
ond predictor Ž R 2 s 0.19, F s 17.13..
Factors other than mood-change and store atmo-
sphere which may influence customers’ satisfaction
with their shopping as a whole are goal-attainment in
the exhibition area as well as in the self-service area.
Thus, for satisfaction with the shopping as the de-
pendent variable these two predictor variables were
entered into the hierarchical regression analysis be-
fore mood-change and store atmosphere. Goal-attain-
ment in the exhibition area accounted for 14% of the
variance Ž F s 24.45.. The amount of explained vari-
ance significantly increased Ž Finc s 54.68. by intro-
ducing goal-attainment in the self-service area Ž R 2 s
0.37, F s 43.94.. A further significant increase Ž Finc
s 8.79. was attained by entering mood-change Ž R 2
s 0.40, F s 33.75.. Store atmosphere, however, did
not significantly contribute Ž Finc s 1.91. to explain-
ing further variance Ž R 2 s 0.41, F s 25.94.. Thus,
the effect of store atmosphere – but not of mood-
change – can be attributed to goal-attainment.
More persons in Store A than in Store B intended
to reÕisit the store very soon Žsee Table 6.. For
log-linear analysis to be applied we referred to the
dichotomized mood-change data. A model that con-
sidered store atmosphere alone did not fit the data
Ž x 2 s 47.31 ) x 2 Ž28, 95%. s 41.34.. The same held
true for a model that only accounted for mood-change
Ž x 2 s 43.05 ) x 2 Ž28, 95%. s 41.34.. Entering both
store atmosphere and mood-change did not signifi-
cantly improve the fit Ž x 2 s 41.97 ) x 2 Ž26, 95%. s
2
38.89; xdiff s 1.08 - x 2 Ž2, 95%. s 5.99.. In a sec-
ond step, goal-attainment in the exhibition and in the
self-service area were introduced as predictors before
mood-change and store atmosphere. As otherwise
there would have been too many empty cells, sub-
jects who had no special goal in the exhibition or
self-service area were excluded from the respective
analysis. A model with goal attainment in the exhibi-
tion area did not fit the data Ž x 2 s 42.75 )
x 2 Ž28, 95%. s 41.34.. However, by considering both
goal-attainment in the exhibition and self-service
area a much better fit was attained Ž x 2 s 23.12 -
x 2 Ž26, 95%. s 38.89; xdiff
2
s 19.63 ) x 2 Ž2, 95%. s
5.99.. Mood-change as an additional predictor did

Table 7
Amount of money Žgiven in DM. customers with a positive vs. negative mood-change spent in Store A vs. Store B Žmeans and standard
deviations.
Store A Store B
Positive Negative Positive Negative
mood-change mood-change mood-change mood-change
Ž n s 52. Ž n s 24. Ž n s 23. Ž n s 53.
All purchases
Amount of money spent on the whole 131.04 108.33 96.13 106.79
Ž142.22. Ž168.02. Ž114.64. Ž139.87.

Spontaneous purchases
Amount of money spent for articles
– on the whole 38.73 22.92 18.35 16.85
Ž43.33. Ž29.71. Ž21.84. Ž27.13.
– that were needed 9.15 15.75 10.35 10.25
Ž19.71. Ž26.82. Ž13.05. Ž18.35.
– that were simply liked 26.6 24.25 3.74 3.94
Ž41.65. Ž9.19. Ž7.73. Ž9.89.
– that were good bargains 2.96 2.92 4.26 2.66
Ž12.63. Ž14.29. Ž11.29. Ž13.77.
12 K. Spies et al.r Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 14 (1997) 1–17
not further improve the fit of the model Ž x 2 s 21.07
- x 2 Ž24, 95%. s 36.42., neither did store atmo-
sphere Ž x 2 s 20.66 - x 2 Ž22, 95%. s 33.92..
The time customers spent in the exhibition area
Žsee Table 6. was longer in Store A than in Store B.
Store atmosphere alone explained 30% of the vari-
ance Ž F s 64.18.. Mood-change alone accounted for
20% of the variance, with duration of stay being
higher for customers with a positive compared to a
negative mood-change Ž F s 36.58.. The proportion
of variance was significantly Ž Finc s 33.27. in-
creased by entering store atmosphere as a second
predictor Ž R 2 s 0.34, F s 38.86..
Duration of stay in the exhibition area is depen-
´
dent on whether customers visit the caferrestaurant
´
or not. Hence, in a second step, visiting the caferre-
staurant was entered as a first predictor before
mood-change and store atmosphere. Visiting the
´
caferrestaurant accounted for 20% of the variance
Ž F s 37.83.. Entering mood-change significantly
Ž Finc s 16.55. increased the proportion of explained
variance Ž R 2 s 0.28, F s 29.15.. A further, even
larger, increase Ž Finc s 41.84. was attained by enter-
ing store atmosphere Ž R 2 s 0.44, F s 38.71.. Thus,
there was an effect of mood-change and especially of
store atmosphere on the time customers spent in the
exhibition area that could not be explained by the
higher frequency of persons visiting the caferre-´
staurant.
The time customers spent in the self-serÕice area
was longer in Store A compared to Store B. Store
atmosphere alone accounted for 11% of the variance
Ž F s 18.72.. Mood-change alone explained 3% of
the variance Ž F s 5.26.. The amount of explained
variance significantly increased Ž Finc s 13.07. by in-
troducing store atmosphere Ž R 2 s 0.11, F s 9.38..
3.4. Purchasing behaÕior
Looking at purchasing behavior ŽTable 7., the
amount of money spent altogether depended neither
on store atmosphere Ž R 2 s 0.01, F s 0.78. nor on
mood-change Ž R 2 s 0.00, F s 0.31..
However, the amount of money spent for sponta-
neous purchases was larger in Store A than in Store
B, although it usually did not amount to more than
50 DM, i.e. the risk of a bad bargain remained rather
low. Store atmosphere alone accounted for 6% of the
variance Ž F s 9.11.. Besides, the amount of money
spent for spontaneous purchases was larger for cus-
tomers with a positive compared to a negative
mood-change. Mood-change alone accounted for
10% of the variance Ž F s 16.24.. This proportion of
variance was not significantly affected Ž Finc s 1.78.
by introducing store atmosphere as a second predic-
tor Ž R 2 s 0.11, F s 9.05.. Taking into account the
reasons customers gave for their spontaneous pur-
chases, no effects of either store atmosphere or
mood-change appeared with respect to articles which
the customers felt they needed Žstore atmosphere:
R 2 s 0.00, F s 0.09; mood-change: R 2 s 0.00, F s
0.16. or that represented good bargains Žstore atmo-
sphere: R 2 s 0.00, F s 0.01; mood-change: R 2 s
0.00, F s 0.62.. However, customers of Store A
who showed a positive mood-change spent signifi-
cantly more money for objects they simply liked
than all the other customers. As can be seen from
Table 7 the standard deviation is very large for this
subgroup. Thus, the effect could have been due to
outliers. Data inspection revealed, however, that re-
sults did not change when excluding the one cus-
tomer with an extremely high value Ž246 DM. from
the analysis Ž x s 22.31, s s 28.08.. Store atmo-
sphere alone explained 8% of the variance in the
amount of money spent for articles that were just
liked Ž F s 13.33.. Mood-change alone accounted for
15% of the variance Ž F s 25.91.. This amount of
explained variance was left unaffected Ž Finc s 2.45.
by introducing store atmosphere as a second predic-
tor Ž R 2 s 0.16, F s 14.31..
4. Discussion
The present study dealt with the effects store
atmosphere has on customers’ satisfaction and pur-
chasing behavior taking mood state as an intervening
variable. Besides, goal-attainment and visit to the
´
caferrestaurant that proved to differ between the two
stores were considered as control variables. Cus-
tomers’ reactions were studied in two stores of fur-
nishings which were comparable with respect to
supply but different with respect to store atmosphere.
Store atmosphere was operationalized as the condi-
tion the store was in, the information rate and how
well the products were presented Žthe layout of the
products.. Results are summarized in Fig. 2.
 K. Spies et al.r Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 14 (1997) 1–17
Fig. 2. Observed relations between store atmosphere, customers’ mood, satisfaction and purchasing behavior considering goal-attainment
´
and visit of the caferrestaurant as control variables. ŽRelations corresponding to those assumed in Fig. 1 are marked by fat lines..
As predicted, it could be shown that customers’
mood improved with pleasant but deteriorated with
less pleasant store atmosphere. However, there was a
tendency for more customers in the pleasant com-
´
pared to the less pleasant store to visit the caferre-
staurant. Moreover, while customers of the two stores
did not differ in their goals and intentions with
respect to their shopping, more customers reached
their goal in the pleasant compared to the less pleas-
ant store. This held true especially for those cus-
tomers who intended to go for a stroll and get some
useful ideas. Obviously, a pleasant store atmosphere
fosters goal-attainment for these customers. Thus,
our results corroborate research on experience-ori-
ented marketing in stressing the importance of store
characteristics. As product supply was identical in
both stores, it is not astonishing that goal-attainment
with regard to finding the articles one was looking
for did not differ between stores.
It may now be claimed that the improved mood in
the pleasant store was due to visiting the caferre-´
staurant andror attaining one’s goal. Actually, a
considerable amount of the variance of mood-change
was accounted for by the joint effect of visiting the
´
caferrestaurant, goal-attainment and store atmo-
sphere. This finding accords with the Scherer Ž1984.
assumption that goal relevance instigates emotions of
13
pleasure and displeasure with pleasure being elicited
when a person reaches his or her goal and is in
accordance with the finding of Dawson et al. Ž1990.
that goal-attainment in a shopping situation induces a
positive mood state.
However, care must be taken in interpreting
´
goal-attainment and visiting the caferrestaurant as
possible causes for the mood-changes observed in
our investigation. As neither factor could be varied
experimentally, data are also open to the interpreta-
tion that a positive mood fostered by a pleasant store
´
atmosphere instigates customers to visit the caferre-
staurant and perhaps also makes goal-attainment eas-
ier. In addition, especially with respect to goal-at-
tainment, we could not obtain objective data but had
to rely on the subjective reports given by the cus-
tomers. Hence, it cannot be ruled out that customers
in a positive mood are more inclined to indicate that
they had reached their goals than customers in a
negative mood. This interpretation would corroborate
the tendency mentioned by Morris Ž1989. that in a
positive mood people see the world through rose-col-
oured glasses.
Beyond the joint effects of goal-attainment, visit-
´
ing the caferrestaurant and store atmosphere, how-
ever, there was a specific effect of store atmosphere
that could be ascribed neither to goal-attainment nor
14 K. Spies et al.r Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 14 (1997) 1–17
´
to visiting the caferrestaurant. Hence, it can be
concluded that a pleasant store atmosphere as such
improves customers’ mood. As the two stores dif-
fered mainly with respect to the condition they were
in, the information rate and their layout, in accor-
dance with the ideas of Berlyne Ž1971. and Scherer
Ž1984., these store characteristics can be said to have
important effects on mood. Our results also corrobo-
rate the findings reported by Bost Ž1987.. The fact
that Donovan and Rossiter Ž1982. found only weak
effects of information rate on customers’ mood may
be ascribed to the condition that customers’ initial
mood was not controlled.
With respect to marketing, the second research
question, of course, is even more intriguing, namely
what influence store atmosphere exerts on cus-
tomers’ satisfaction with the store and on their pur-
chasing behavior.
According to expectations, customers liked the
exhibition more and were more satisfied with their
shopping in the pleasant compared to the less pleas-
ant store. More customers in the pleasant compared
to the less pleasant store wanted to come back soon.
For all three variables, goal-attainment could be
shown to be an important predictor of the observed
differences. This is in accordance with the findings
of Russell and Snodgrass Ž1987., Snodgrass et al.
Ž1988. or Ward et al. Ž1988. stressing that a person’s
reaction to an environment is influenced by his or
her purpose for being there. As the supply of the two
stores was identical, customers did not differ in
goal-attainment with respect to things they had in-
tended to buy. However, a pleasant store atmosphere
helps people to have a nice shopping experience and
to get useful ideas and thus raised goal-attainment, in
particular for customers who only intended to stroll
around. This is in accordance with the concept of
experience-oriented marketing. Besides, our data
support the assumption that visiting a store of fur-
nishings is motivated to a considerable extent by the
desire to have a nice shopping experience.
The effect of goal-attainment was larger for cus-
tomers’ satisfaction with their shopping and for their
intent to revisit the store than for their liking of the
exhibition area. For the intent to revisit the store,
goal-attainment even proved to be the only signifi-
cant predictor. Compared to customers’ liking of the
exhibition area, evaluation of the actual shopping as
well as the intention to return are more related to
customers’ behavior. Customers evaluate their shop-
ping, i.e. the result of their former behavior, and
deduce whether they intend to repeat it or not.
According to Heckhausen Ž1989. such evaluation
processes usually refer to the subject’s present goal.
This would explain the outstanding role goal-attain-
ment had for the respective variables in the present
study. Thus, for a positive evaluation of the shopping
and the intention to return very soon, those store
characteristics seem to be most important which help
customers to reach their goals.
For liking the exhibition area as well as for
satisfaction with shopping on the whole, there was a
considerable joint effect of store atmosphere and
mood that could not be ascribed to goal-attainment.
Thus, satisfaction was higher for customers in a
positive compared to a negative mood. This result
corroborates similar findings from consumer re-
search Že.g. Bitner, 1992; Bost, 1987; Dawson et al.,
1990; Gardner, 1985; Isen et al., 1978; Obermiller
and Bitner, 1984; Sherman and Smith, 1987; Srull,
1983.. According to the network theory of emotion
proposed by Bower Ž1981. it may be interpreted that,
due to the positive emotion node being more acti-
vated in the pleasant compared to the less pleasant
store, activation spreads to adjacent nodes represent-
ing mood-related positive contents. This preactiva-
tion of ‘positive’ nodes makes positive aspects of the
situation more available and thus improved cus-
tomers’ satisfaction ratings. According to Schwarz
Ž1990. it can also be argued that, when judging how
much they liked something, customers referred to
their present mood as a criterion. Hence, customers
attribute their positive mood to characteristics of the
present situation and thus infer that the situation
must be pleasant because otherwise they would not
be in such a good mood.
For customers’ liking of the exhibition of furnish-
ings, results showed that beyond the described joint
effects store atmosphere also had a specific effect on
liking scores that could be ascribed neither to goal-
attainment nor to mood. This effect was small but
important. Thus, customers based their liking judge-
ments also on the direct impression they had ob-
tained of the exhibition. Obviously, the better layout
together with the more unfamiliar ware presentation
in the pleasant store improved its attractiveness. This
 K. Spies et al.r Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 14 (1997) 1–17
corroborates the assumption of Berlyne Ž1971. that
attractiveness is highest if complexity reaches an
optimal level, i.e. is neither too low nor too high.
Liking and satisfaction scores as well as the inten-
tion to revisit the store are subjective data based on
customers’ evaluations. As a more objective, behav-
ioral indicator of satisfaction, we additionally mea-
sured the time customers spent in the exhibition and
self-service area respectively. For both results, mood
and store atmosphere had a considerable joint effect,
but there was also a specific effect of store atmo-
sphere alone. In accordance with findings reported
e.g. by Donovan and Rossiter Ž1982., Donovan et al.
Ž1994. or Sherman and Smith Ž1987., it could be
shown that customers spent more time in the pleas-
ant compared to the less pleasant store. Thus, the
objection can be ruled out that instead of higher
satisfaction a longer time spent in the respective area
could also indicate that customers had more difficul-
ties finding the things they were looking for. The
time customers spent in the exhibition area was
´
lengthened if the caferrestaurant was visited. How-
ever, the effects of neither mood nor store atmo-
sphere could be completely ascribed to visiting the
´
caferrestaurant. Thus, customers stay longer in the
store if the store atmosphere is pleasant and if they
are in a positive mood. One has to keep in mind,
however, that the amount of variance explained by
the introduced predictors is much lower for the time
customers spent in the self-service area Ž11%. com-
pared to the exhibition Ž44%.. Thus, in the self-
service area other factors not considered in the pre-
sent context seem to determine the amount of time
customers spend there.
In summary, according to our expectations it could
be shown for all of our indices that customers’
satisfaction was higher in the pleasant compared to
the less pleasant store. Goal-attainment as well as
customers’ mood state proved to be important inter-
vening variables. However, except for satisfaction
with shopping on the whole and for the intent to
return, store atmosphere had an additional specific
effect that could be ascribed neither to goal-attain-
ment nor mood state. Thus, it may be interpreted that
a pleasant store atmosphere raises customers’ satis-
faction scores partly directly and partly by facilitat-
ing goal-attainment and by inducing a positive mood
state.
15
With respect to purchasing behavior, it could be
shown that store atmosphere did not affect the total
amount of money spent but only the amount of
money spent for spontaneous purchases. Customers
spent more money for spontaneous purchases in the
pleasant compared to the less pleasant store. This is
in accordance with Donovan and Rossiter Ž1982.,
Donovan et al. Ž1994. or Sherman and Smith Ž1987.
who found that customers in a positive mood bought
more items and spent more money than was origi-
nally planned. In the present study, the effect of store
atmosphere was completely coupled with mood-ef-
fects, i.e. there was no specific effect of store atmo-
sphere alone. Usually, the articles bought sponta-
neously were not very expensive. Thus, results come
up to the expectation that a positive mood fosters
risky behavior in the form of spontaneous purchases
– but only if the risk of a bad bargain remains rather
low. This finding is in accordance with respective
results of the effects of positive mood on risk-taking
behavior reported by Isen and co-workers Že.g. Isen,
1987. or by Spies et al. Ž1996.. Interestingly, mood-
effects occurred only for those spontaneous pur-
chases for which customers gave as a reason that
they simply liked the article. No mood-effects could
be observed for articles bought spontaneously be-
cause it had occurred to customers that they needed
these articles or because the article was a good
bargain. Hence, one might assume that spontaneous
purchases fostered by a positive mood are not con-
sidered analytically but that customers decide more
on intuitive grounds. This is in accordance with the
assumption – in Fiedler Ž1988. or Kuhl Ž1983b. –
that a positive mood fosters an intuitive holistic
processing strategy Žalso called ‘loosening’..
The present study shows that by integrating con-
sumer research and general psychology one can gain
very interesting insights into the effects of store
characteristics. Taking into account that results were
obtained for stores of furnishings as a special retail
context, the following conclusions can be drawn: In
accordance with the conception of experience-ori-
ented marketing a store’s good condition, careful
layout and relatively high information rate, all help-
ing to bring about a pleasant store atmosphere, facili-
tate goal-attainment. This is especially true for cus-
tomers who intend to stroll around, get some good
ideas and have a nice shopping experience. More-
16 K. Spies et al.r Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 14 (1997) 1–17
over, a pleasant store atmosphere also improves cus-
tomers’ mood state. Hence, there are three possible
ways in which store atmosphere may influence cus-
tomers’ satisfaction and purchasing behavior: Ža. di-
rectly, Žb. via goal-attainment, Žc. via mood-change.
For customers’ satisfaction with the store and for the
time they spend there, all types of influence could be
shown to exist. With respect to customers’ satisfac-
tion with their shopping and to their intention to
revisit the store, the effect of store atmosphere was
due to mood-change and even more to goal-attain-
ment. Finally, for purchasing behavior the effects of
store atmosphere could be completely ascribed to
mood-effects. Thus, depending on the type of reac-
tions shown by customers, different intervening vari-
ables are responsible for the effects of store atmo-
sphere. In all cases, however, the positive effect of a
pleasant store atmosphere on customers’ reactions
could be clearly demonstrated.
References
Barth, K., 1993. Betriebswirtschaftslehre des Handels. Wiesbaden:
Gabler.
Belk, R., 1975. Situational variables and consumer behavior.
Journal of Consumer Research 2, 157–164.
Berlyne, D.E., 1971. Aesthetics and psychobiology. New York:
Meredith Corporation.
Bitner, M.J., 1992. Servicescapes: The impact of physical sur-
roundings on customers and employees. Journal of Marketing
56 ŽApril., 57–71.
Bost, E., 1987. Ladenatmosphare ¨ und Konsumentenverhalten.
Heidelberg: Physica.
Bower, G.H., 1981. Mood and memory. American Psychologist
36, 129–148.
Bower, G.H. and P.R. Cohen, 1982. Emotional influences in
memory and thinking: Data and theory. In: M.S. Clark and
S.T. Fiske Žeds.., Affect and cognition. Hillsdale, NJ: Erl-
baum.
Buckley, P.G., 1987. The internal atmosphere of a retail store. In:
M. Wallendorf and P. Anderson Žeds.., Advances in consumer
research, Vol. 14. Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Re-
search.
Cohen, J., 1988. Statistical power analysis for the behavioral
sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Cohen, J., 1990. Attitude, affect, and consumer behavior. In: B.S.
Moore and A.M. Isen Žeds.., Affect and social behavior.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dawson, S., P.H. Bloch and N.M. Ridgway, 1990. Shopping
motives, emotional states, and retail outcomes. Journal of
Retailing 66, 408–427.
Donovan, R.J. and J.R. Rossiter, 1982. Store atmosphere: An
environmental psychology approach. Journal of Retailing 58,
34–57.
Donovan, R.J., J.R. Rossiter, G. Marcoolyn and A. Nesdale, 1994.
Store atmosphere and purchasing behavior. Journal of Retail-
ing 70, 283–294.
Fiedler, K., 1988. Emotional mood, cognitive style and behavior
regulation. In: K. Fiedler and J.P. Forgas Žeds.., Affect, cogni-
tion and social behavior. Toronto: Hogrefe.
Gardner, M.P., 1985. Mood states and consumer behavior: A
critical review. Journal of Consumer Research 12, 281–300.
Golden, L.M. and M.R. Zimmer, 1986. Relationship between
affect, patronage, frequency and amount of money spent with
a comment on affect scaling and measurement. In: R.J. Lutz
Žed.., Advances in consumer research, Vol. 13. Provo, UT:
Association for Consumer Research.
¨
Groppel, A., 1991. Erlebnisstrategien im Einzelhandel. Heidel-
berg: Physica.
Hampel, R., 1977. Adjektiv-Skalen zur Einschatzung ¨ der Stim-
mung ŽSES.. Diagnostica 23, 43-60.
Heckhausen, H., 1989. Motivation und Handeln. Berlin: Springer.
Hui, M.K.M. and J.E.G. Bateson, 1991. Perceived control and the
effects of crowding and consumer choice on the service
experience. Journal of Consumer Research 18, 174–184.
Isen, A.M., 1987. Positive affect, cognitive processes and social
behavior. In: L. Berkowitz Žed.., Advances in experimental
social psychology, Vol. 20. New York: Academic Press.
Isen, A.M. and N. Geva, 1987. The influence of positive affect on
acceptable level of risk: The person with the large canoe has a
large worry. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision
Processes 39, 145–154.
Isen, A.M. and R. Patrick, 1983. The effect of positive feelings on
risk taking: When the chips are down. Organizational Behav-
ior and Human Performance 31, 194–202.
Isen, A.M., T.E. Nygren and F.B. Ashby, 1988. Influence of
positive affect on the subjective utility of gains and losses: It
is just not worth the risk. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology 55, 710–717.
Isen, A.M., T.E. Shalker, M.S. Clark and L. Karp, 1978. Affect,
accessibility of material in memory and behavior: A cognitive
loop? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 36, 1–12.
Isen, A.M., B. Means, R. Patrick and G. Nowicki, 1982. Some
factors influencing decision-making strategy and risk taking.
In: M.S. Clark and S.T. Fiske Žeds.., Affect and cognition.
Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Kroeber-Riehl, W., 1984. Konsumentenverhalten Ž3. Aufl..
¨
Munchen: Vahlen.
Kuhl, J., 1983a. Emotion, Kognition und Motivation: I. Auf dem
Wege zu einer systemtheoretischen Betrachtung der Emotions-
genese. Sprache und Kognition 2, 1–27.
Kuhl, J., 1983b. Emotion, Kognition und Motivation: II. Die
funktionale Bedeutung der Emotionen fur ¨ das problemlosende
¨
Denken und Handeln. Sprache und Kognition 4, 228–253.
Lazarus, R.S., 1991. Emotion and adaptation. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Mehrabian, A. and J.A. Russell, 1974. An approach to environ-
mental psychology. Cambridge: MIT Press.
 K. Spies et al.r Intern. J. of Research in Marketing 14 (1997) 1–17
Morris, W.N., 1989. Mood: The frame of mind. New York:
Springer.
Obermiller, C. and M.J. Bitner, 1984. Store atmosphere: A periph-
eral cue for product evaluation. In: D.C. Stewart Žed.., Ameri-
can Psychological Association Annual Conference Proceed-
ings Žpp. 52–53.. American Psychological Association.
Parasuraman, A., L.L. Berry and V. Zeithaml, 1990. Guidelines
for conducting service quality research. Marketing Research 2
ŽDecember., 34–44.
Russell, J.A. and J. Snodgrass, 1987. Emotion and the environ-
ment. In: D. Stokols and I. Altman Žeds.., Handbook of
environmental psychology. New York: John Wiley.
Scherer, K.R., 1984. On the nature and function of emotion: A
component process approach. In: K.R. Scherer and P. Ekman
Žeds.., Approaches to emotion. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Schwarz, N., 1990. Feelings as information: Informational and
motivational functions of affective states. In: E.T. Higgins and
R. Sorrentino Žeds.., Handbook of motivation and cognition:
Foundations of social behavior, Vol. 2. New York: Guilford
Press.
Sherman, E. and R.B. Smith, 1987. Mood states of shoppers and
17
store image: Promising interactions and possible behavioral
effects. In: M. Wallendorf and P. Anderson Žeds.., Advances
in consumer research, Vol. 14. Provo, UT: Association for
Consumer Research.
Snodgrass, J., J.A. Russell and L.M. Ward, 1988. Planning, mood
and place-liking. Journal of Environmental Psychology 8,
209–222.
Spies, K., F.W. Hesse and F. Brandes, 1996. Influence of positive
mood on risk-taking behavior. Unpublished manuscript. Uni-
¨
versity of Gottingen.
Srull, T., 1983. Affect and memory: The impact of affective
reactions in advertising on the representation of product infor-
mation in memory. In: R. Bagozzi and A. Tybout Žeds..,
Advances in consumer research, Vol. 10. Ann Arbor, MI:
Association for Consumer Research.
Ward, L.M., J. Snodgrass, B. Chew and J.A. Russell, 1988. The
role of plans in cognitive and affective responses to places.
Journal of Environmental Psychology 8, 1–8.
Weinberg, P. and W. Gottwald, 1982. Impulsive consumer buying
as a result of emotions. Journal of Business Research 10
ŽMarch., 43–57.