Service environment research opportunities

Julie Baker
Department of Marketing, Neeley School of Business, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas, USA
Kara Bentley
Department of Marketing, Chapman University, Orange, California, USA, and
Charles Lamb, Jr
Department of Marketing, Neeley School of Business, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas, USA

Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to explore the evolution of the service environment literature and speculates about future research in this area. This
paper focuses on studies regarding how the interior and exterior environments of physical service settings (including retail stores) influence
consumer response. Web atmospherics are not covered in this paper. In addition, while a number of studies have been conducted on retail and
service atmospherics elements in other disciplines, such as environmental psychology and leisure and hospitality, the focus is on research published
in marketing and consumer-related journals.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper reports the results of empirical studies; however, as there are few empirical studies on the effects of
exterior environmental characteristics (e.g. storefronts) in marketing, two conceptual papers on this topic will be reviewed to set the stage for future
research on exterior design.
Findings – Over the past 40 years, there has been a proliferation of articles on how service environments influence consumer responses. The review
covers illustrative examples of articles in several categories of environmental topics. The areas for future research based on the review are
suggested.
Originality/value – An up-to-date review of service environment research that is broad in scope is provided. The authors also propose 41 different
research questions based on the review that services scholars can use to take this area of inquiry forward.
Keywords Emotion, Atmospherics, Servicescape, Behavioral insight
Paper type Literature review

Service environment research opportunities
Some of the biggest service firms spend billions of dollars to
build and remodel their physical settings to attract and keep
customers. Albert Chan, a retail analyst, noted that “brick-and-
mortar retailers need to give consumers a reason to visit stores
instead of making online purchases, and an increasing number
of companies have started investing in stores.” Thomas (2018).
For example, Target has recently spent $470m to remodel 56
of its stores and plans to have remodeled 1,100 stores by the
end of 2020. Target CEO Brian Cornell said that remodeled
stores have reliably provided a sales increase of 2–4% within 6–
8 months (Crosby, 2019).
Marketing scholars have been investigating how different
aspects of the service environment influence consumer decision-
making since 1973, when Kotler introduced the term
“atmospherics” into the marketing literature. “Atmospherics” is
defined as designing a commercial space to create certain
(sought) perceptions in customers (Kotler,1973/1974).
Managing tangible evidence is a central concept for services
marketing scholars (Berry, 1980; Berry and Parasuramun, 1991).
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald
Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/0887-6045.htm
This article explores the evolution of the service environment
literature and suggests future topics that remain to be
researched in this area. Our focus is on studies regarding how
the interior and exterior environments of physical service
settings influence consumer response. Given space limitations
and our desire to focus on physical (“bricks and mortar”)
aspects of the service environment, we do not cover Web
atmospherics in this paper. In addition, while studies have been
conducted on retail and service atmospherics elements in other
disciplines, such as environmental psychology and leisure and
hospitality, our focus is on research published in marketing and
consumer-behavior related journals. Our review is meant to
highlight illustrative studies on the topics covered, and we do
not claim to have conducted an exhaustive review of all
published work in the area.
Defining and categorizing the service
environment
Despite the proliferation of online shopping over the past 20
years, trade research has shown that physical retail stores are
still the most popular place for consumers to shop. In fact,
nearly 80% of consumers preferred physical stores to online
shopping (www.retailcustomerexperience.com 2018). This has

Received 15 February 2019

Journal of Services Marketing
Revised 6 September 2019
34/3 (2020) 335–346 21 January 2020
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 0887-6045] 2 March 2020
[DOI 10.1108/JSM-02-2019-0077] Accepted 2 March 2020

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 Service environment research opportunities
Julie Baker, Kara Bentley and Charles Lamb, Jr
been found to be particularly, and perhaps counter intuitively,
true of Gen Z and Millennial shoppers (Thomas, 2017; www.
retailcustomerexperience.com 2018; www.retailcustomerexp
erience.comc 2018).
Academics have also emphasized the importance of physical
retail stores. Grewal et al. (2014) suggest that the in-store
experience is critical because it forms the foundation of a long-
term relationship with customers. Moreover, a store’s
environment can be a unique source of competitive advantage
for a retailer (Brüggen et al., 2011). Lund and Marinova (2014)
conclude that consumer perceptions of the retail environment
interact with other marketing investments to affect a company’s
bottom line.
There have been several ways academic researchers have
defined the physical environment of the service organization
and/or retail stores. Kotler (1973/1974) suggested that
atmospherics include visual, olfactory, tactile and aural cues
that could influence consumers’ emotions that, in turn, would
enhance the probability of purchase. Subsequently, Baker
(1986) defined the service environment as the built, physical
facilities (interior and exterior) within which a service is offered.
She proposed a typology describing three basic components, or
factors, that make up service environments: ambient
(background conditions such as music, temperature), design
(stimuli existing at the forefront of consumers’ awareness, such
as layout, color) and social, which includes both employees and
other customers. Bitner (1990) added to the conversation by
proposing that the environmental dimensions of a
“servicescape” were ambient conditions, space/function and
signs, symbols and artifacts.
Collectively, these authors moved the atmospherics literature
forward in services marketing by providing comprehensive
models that aided theory-building, empirical testing and
developing measures for understanding how the service
environment influences consumer response cognitively,
emotionally and behaviorally. For purposes of this paper, we
define the service environment as the physical, built interior
and exterior facilities within which a service encounter between
an employee and a customer occurs.
Research suggests that there are three overarching
psychological and physical mechanisms through which the
service environment influences customers. The first one, which
was the focus of studies throughout the 1980s and early 1990s,
is consumer affect. In particular, these studies were based on
the Mehrabian and Russell (1974) stimulus – organism –
response (SOR) model rooted in the environmental psychology
literature. In this model, environmental stimuli (e.g. music,
color, layout) are posited to affect consumers’ emotional states
of pleasure and arousal, which, in turn, affect their approach or
avoidance behaviors (Donovan and Rossiter, 1982).
The second psychological mechanism that is key to
understanding how the service environment influences
consumers is cognition (Baker et al., 2002; Bitner, 1990).
Cognition in this context refers to what an environment, or
elements of an environment, make people think about, or infer
regarding an organization, its merchandise and/or its service. A
growing number of empirical studies have tested how cognition
mediates and/or moderates the relationship between the service
environment and consumers’ behavioral tendencies (Mazursky
and Jacoby, 1986).
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The study of how the service environment can impact
perceptions of the physical aspects of a consumer’s service
experience is a relatively new research area in marketing and
consumer behavior. Studies have been done, for instance, on
how bodily sensations induced by flooring influence
consumers’ product assessments (Meyers-Levy et al., 2009)
and how spatial confinement can impact consumer choice
(Levav and Zhu, 2009).
We review past research to determine what we know about
the effects of the service environment, which helps us in
identifying opportunities for future research. As an overall
organizing framework, we use Baker’s (1986) three
environmental components, as they have been supported
empirically (Brady and Cronin, 2001). For each of these
components, we review illustrative studies on the effects of
specific environmental characteristics.
Ambient factors
The ambient factors researchers have tended to study the most
are music and scent. There are far fewer studies on the effects of
temperature and lighting. Furthermore, the effects of
cleanliness have been all but ignored by service scholars.
Music
Service providers often play background music to create a
certain atmosphere in a setting or store and to support the
experience offered to their target customers. The effects of the
presence vs absence of music, music style, volume, tempo,
likability, familiarity and congruity with the good/service have
all received research attention. Two meta-analyses have been
conducted in the past 13 years that capture much of the essence
of music’s influence on consumers and can be referred to for
more details on specific studies (Garlin and Owen, 2006;
Roschk et al., 2017).
Garlin and Owen’s (2006) meta-analysis examines three
categories of dependent variables: value (e.g. purchase behavior
or intentions) affect and duration (time spent, or perception of
time spent). Findings show small to moderate effects of music,
which makes sense considering music is only one element of
many in a service environment. The mere presence of music
and music liking/familiarity have a positive effect on patronage,
while the former also affect felt pleasure. Slower tempo, lower
volume and familiar music result in consumers staying longer at
an establishment than faster, louder, unfamiliar music. As
volume and tempo increase and liking decreases, consumers
perceive longer time duration. Finally, music tempo has the
greatest effect on arousal. These findings are consistent with
previous research in marketing (Caldwell and Hibbert, 2002;
Cameron et al., 2003; Milliman, 1986; Morrin et al., 2007;
Yalch and Spangenberg, 2000). A recent study shows that low
levels of music volume and noise lead to higher sales of health
foods through relaxation, while high volume music tends to
enhance excitement, resulting in unhealthy food choices
(Biswas et al., 2019).
Roschk et al. (2017) meta-analysis included only the
presence (vs absence) of music. Using the Mehrabian and
Russell (1974) SOR model as a theoretical framework, they
examined satisfaction with the shopping experience as the
response variable. Similar to Garlin and Owen (2006), they
 Service environment research opportunities
Julie Baker, Kara Bentley and Charles Lamb, Jr
found that the presence of music was positively related to
pleasure, satisfaction and behavioral intention.
The congruency of music with the context in which it is
played is also a topic of interest to service marketers. Generally,
if background music is congruent with its service/retail context,
consumers respond positively. For example, North et al. (2016)
find background music that is congruent with a store’s
merchandise facilitates recall and increases consumers’
willingness to pay more. Similarly, Demoulin (2011)
discovered that music that is congruent with its overall
atmosphere leads to low arousal, and in turn high pleasure, in
evaluations of environmental quality and service quality.
Music can also affect consumers’ perceptions of time.
Investigating the effects of music tempo and liking, Oakes and
North (2008) find that perceived wait time is a positive function
of the tempo, but a negative function of musical liking. Slow
tempo music produces more positive affect than fast tempo
music. In a recent study regarding the effect of music on price
computation avoidance, Feng et al. (2014) find that slow tempo
classical background music provides relief for math-anxious
consumers who tend to avoid choice alternatives that require
price computations. By contrast, no music or fast tempo music
causes those with high math anxiety to avoid choices requiring
them to compute prices.
Lighting
Only two studies were located that tested the single effects of
ambient lighting on consumer response in a service
environment. Biswas et al. (2017) found that consumers tended
to choose less healthy foods when ambient lighting was dim (vs
bright). The authors attributed this result to the theory that
light influenced consumers’ mental alertness, which in turn
influenced their choice behaviors. In the context of lighting
focused on merchandise displays, Summers and Hebert (2001)
found that consumers touched and picked up more items when
display lighting was used than when it was not used.
Another study did not examine the effects of ambient lighting
per se, but instead looked at the brightness (light-emitting quality)
of goods contrasted with their background environment, along
with the level of merchandise disarray. Findings indicated that
consumers preferred goods whose brightness levels contrasted
more with their background because they were easier to see.
However, the authors showed that this effect was reversed when
the merchandise was in disarray, because the goods were more
likely to be perceived as contaminated and less pleasant by
consumers (Reynolds-McIlnay et al., 2017).
Scent
Ambient scent refers to scent that is present in the environment
that does not emanate from a specific object (Bone and Ellen,
1999). A meta-analysis of the effects of scent reveals that the
presence of scent is positively related to pleasure, satisfaction
and behavioral intention (Roschk et al., 2017). The cognitive
effects of scent are found to enhance consumer memory for
branded goods by increasing their attention in terms of longer
product viewing times (Morrin and Ratneshwar, 2003).
Moreover, a simple, more easily processed scent leads to
increased ease of cognitive processing and actual retail
spending than does a more complex one (Hermann et al.,
2013).
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Like music, researchers have examined congruity of scent
with its context. Spangenberg et al. (2006b) showed that the
congruity of the perceived gender of a scent and goods in a store
influenced consumer perceptions of the store, its merchandise
and sales. Appropriately fragranced merchandise displays had
the most positive effect on approach and pleasure (Fiore et al.,
2000). Bosmans (2006) argued that as long as ambient scents
are congruent with a category of goods, they will have a positive
effect on consumer judgments, regardless of how salient the
scent is, or how involved consumers.
However, not all scents are created equal in terms of their
effects on consumers. Madzharov et al. (2015) test differences
in consumer response to warm scents (cinnamon and vanilla)
and a cool scent (peppermint). Results show that a warm scent
(vs cool) leads to perceptions of higher social density,
preferences for prestige vs. performance goods, increased
spending on premium merchandise and increased multiple-
item purchases/higher overall spending in the store. By contrast
to previous studies, Teller and Dennis (2012) find no impact of
ambient scent on mall perceptions and consumers’ emotions.
Temperature
Cheema and Patrick (2012) studied the effects of temperature
on complex choices, finding that people were less likely to make
difficult gambling choices in warmer temperatures. Warm
temperatures decreased the resources needed to perform
cognitive tasks and thus decreased the willingness of consumers
to make a difficult choice. Huang et al. (2014) revealed that
warm temperatures increased subjects’ perceptions of social
closeness to other decision-makers, leading them to consider
the opinions of those decision-makers to have higher validity.
On the other hand, Hong and Sun (2011) found that physical
coldness from ambient temperatures increased the liking of and
willingness to pay for romance movies. These effects, however,
were found only for those who associated psychological warmth
with romance movies.
Cleanliness
Some researchers have included cleanliness as a dimension in
an overall measure of environmental quality (Wakefield and
Blodgett, 1994). However, service environment cleanliness has
rarely been empirically tested as a stand-alone variable. Using
an environmental cleanliness scale they developed, Barber and
Scarcelli (2010) find that customers make decisions to select,
stay, or return to an establishment based upon the cleanliness
of a service provider’s facilities.
Design factors
Color
Most research on environmental color focuses on how the
warmth (e.g. red, orange) vs the coolness (e.g. blue, green) of a
color influences consumer response. A recent meta-analysis
concluded that warm colors results in higher levels of arousal
than cool colors, while cool colors tend to be positively related
to satisfaction (Roschk et al., 2017). Labreque et al. (2013)
review of color research in marketing shows that while there are
a number of studies on color in advertising, branding, package
design, food marketing and website design, there are only five
studies on color focusing on service atmospherics. These
 Service environment research opportunities
Julie Baker, Kara Bentley and Charles Lamb, Jr
studies revealed that color influences affect, physical attraction,
perceptions of environment, and merchandise quality, price
fairness, patronage and purchase intentions. Bellizzi et al.
(1983) and Crowley (1993) showed that merchandise in a
warm-colored environment is perceived by consumers to be
more up to date than merchandise in a cool-colored one. In
another study, interaction of light and color is shown to affect
purchase and price fairness perceptions (Babin et al., 2003).
Spatial factors
A focus on spatial factors within the service environment has
emerged in recent years. These factors were found to influence
consumers’ cognitive processing. Researchers investigated
topics such as architecture, seating arrangements and visual
design complexity.
Architectural features that have been investigated are ceiling
height and aisle width, each contributing to our knowledge
about consumer responses to confinement due to store design
features. Meyers-Levy and Zhu (2007) found that high (versus
low) ceilings primed concepts of freedom (vs confinement),
which led consumers to predominately use relational (item-
specific) processing. Subjects in a high (vs low) ceiling room
evaluated brands as sleeker even when the brands possessed
some features that were crude. Similarly, narrow aisles vs wide
aisles in a store caused feelings of confinement that result from
consumers’ reactions against incursions into their personal
space. Feelings of confinement, in turn, were shown have a
positive effect on more varied and more unique choices (Levav
and Zhu, 2009).
The influence of layout in store/service interiors has been
studied in terms of seating arrangements. Zhu and Argo (2013)
showed that circular arrangements primed a need to belong,
which led to subjects evaluating persuasive material more
favorably when it conveyed belonging (e.g. family-oriented),
information and majority endorsement. On the other hand,
angular seating arrangements primed a need to be unique,
which resulted in individuals responding more favorably to
uniqueness (e.g. self-oriented information and minority
endorsement).
Another interesting element of a service interior is the
influence of the visual complexity of a store’s design on
consumers. Orth and Wirtz (2014) find that visual complexity
reduces a service environment’s attractiveness through the
mechanism of processing fluency and pleasure. The enhanced
processing fluency of visually less complex environments
generates more positive affect than visually more complex
environments, which in turn increases the attractiveness of the
store.
Surface materials
Surface materials used within a service environment can
influence consumer response. In a study of floor texture,
subjects perceive a good as more comforting when they stood
on carpet, compared to a hard tile floor, especially when people
stood at a moderately far distance from the product (Meyers-
Levy et al., 2009). Zhu and Meyers-Levy (2009) found that the
surface material used on a display table influences how
consumers evaluate merchandise on those surfaces. Moreover,
the effects of display materials on consumers are found to
depend on the type of cognition consumers’ use.
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Social factors
Social factors include other customers and employees and are
important components in understanding how customers
respond to service environments (Baker, 1986; Bitner, 1990).
Researchers have examined the observable characteristics of
other customers and crowding. We also found evidence about
the effects of service employees’ physical characteristics on
customer response.
Other customers
More customers than a space can handle may result in crowding.
Crowding has been defined either in terms of human density and/
or spatial density caused by design factors in the environment (e.
g. crowded aisles due to too many fixtures or displays). Early
research showed crowding to be a negative experience for
customers (Harrell et al., 1980; Hui and Bateson, 1991).
However, subsequent studies discovered factors that expanded
and refined that perspective. Eroglu and Machleit (1990) showed
that retail shoppers who were task shopping experienced higher
levels of crowding and less satisfaction than those who were
shopping for pleasure. The negative relationship between
crowding (human and spatial) and consumer satisfaction was
found to be moderated by expectations of crowding, personal
tolerance for crowding and store type (Machleit et al., 2000). In
addition, there were stronger negative effects of spatial crowding
relative to human crowding.
Some studies have revealed that crowding can be a positive
experience in some situations, for some customers. Baker and
Wakefield (2012) suggest that for shopping-oriented
consumers, perceived mall crowding leads to excitement and
approach, while for task shoppers, perceived crowding leads to
stress and a desire to avoid the mall. Eroglu et al. (2005a, 2005b)
showed that when mediating emotional states were accounted
for, perceived human crowding has a positive, direct effect on
shopping satisfaction. These studies are consistent with research
showing that perceived crowding has an inverted U-shaped
relationship with consumer responses such as store attitudes and
behavioral intentions (Mehta et al., 2012; Pan and Siemens,
2011). In another study, Maeng et al. (2013) showed that a
higher level of crowdedness leads to a greater preference for
safety-oriented choice options. For a comprehensive review of the
crowding literature, Mehta (2013).
The social pressure of long queues may be viewed as similar
in effect to crowding. Dahm et al. (2018) found that customers
experience social pressure when queues formed behind their
backs, which, in turn, leads to less positive affect. This effect
was found to be moderated by customers’ own waiting time, in
that they are more influenced by queues forming at their backs
when their own waiting time decreased.
Research on the effects of specific observable characteristics
of other customers is rare. Grove and Fisk (1997) identify both
positive and negative behavioral incidents caused by other
customers within a theme park setting. This study also found
that an individual’s evaluations of other customers’ behaviors
are based on easily observable characteristics, such as age or
nationality. Martin and Pranter (1989) investigate the issues of
customer compatibility and customer behavior, finding that the
classification of compatible and incompatible behaviors is often
situation specific. Recently, Brocato et al. (2012) developed a
 Service environment research opportunities
Julie Baker, Kara Bentley and Charles Lamb, Jr
scale to measure consumer perceptions of observable
characteristics of other customers in a service environment.
When testing this scale, the authors found that perceptions of
other customer similarity, appearance and behavior has positive
effects on approach and negative effects on avoidance
behaviors.
Employees
Social factors also include employees in the service
environment. The topics researched include gender, employee
dress and physical attributes of service employees. For
example, server gender stereotypes can influence customers’
assessments of service quality. Fischer et al. (1997) suggest that
biases favoring men do not have a positive effect on male
servers. However, in contrast, they find that biases affecting
women have a positive effect on ratings of some dimensions of
service quality for female servers. Shao et al. (2004) discovered
that how a service employee dresses influences consumers’
expectations of service quality and patronage intentions. In
another study, consumers perceived the information provided
them to be more accurate when the communicator is wearing
red (vs white or blue) or possess a high vs low facial width-to-
height ratio (Bashir and Rule, 2014).
Research also has examined how the physical attributes of
service employees influence customers. Customers tended to
evaluate a service firm more negatively if the frontline worker is
obese compared to average weight workers (Cowart and Brady,
2014). In a restaurant setting, when a server is perceived to be
attractive, good food tasted better, but bad food tasted worse
for only male customers who were low in need for cognition
(Lin et al., 2018). Service provider attractiveness is found to
interact with congruency with the image of the service (Koernig
and Page, 2002) and mimicry of the customer by the
salesperson (Kulesza et al., 2014) to influence customer
response. Finally, Keh et al. (2013) found that employee
helpfulness has the strongest impact, and that displayed
emotion interacts with employee physical attractiveness and
helpfulness in influencing customer satisfaction.
The number of employees visible to a customer is also an
important topic. Baker et al. (1992) show that a high social
store environment (more employees on the floor, friendly
employees) initiates greater feelings of arousal in study
respondents than does a low social store environment (one
employee, ignoring customers). They also find that type of
background music interacts with these social cues to influence
pleasure.
Multiple environment characteristics
While many service environment studies have focused on the
effects of one atmospheric element, such as music or lighting,
fewer studies have looked at the simultaneous effects of
multiple elements. One comprehensive model of the retail store
environment tested found that store design, music and
employee characteristics had positive relationships with
perceptions of service and merchandise quality, monetary
price, time/effort and psychic cost perceptions. These
perceptions in turn influenced merchandise value perceptions
and store patronage intentions (Baker et al., 2002).
Harris and Ezeh (2008) discovered that while the effects of
music, aroma, cleanliness, furnishings and employee physical
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attractiveness, along with the behavioral characteristics of
employees, all had an influence on customer loyalty intentions.
Sharma and Stafford (2000) showed that ambient and design
elements positively affected customers’ persuasion, as well as
their positive perceptions of salespeople. Moreover, in
“prestige” store environments, a reduction in the number of
salespeople did not significantly affect customers’ buying
decisions, while in “discount stores,” an increase in the number
of salespeople dramatically enhanced buying intentions. Across
three different leisure settings, layout accessibility and facility
aesthetics were the main environmental drivers of consumers’
perceived quality of the environment. This, in turn, had a
positive influence on satisfaction with the environment,
repatronage intentions and desire to stay (Wakefield and
Blodgett, 1996).
Congruency between music and scent leads to more
favorable evaluations of a store, its environment and its
merchandise as compared to the incongruence between those
environmental elements (Matilla and Wirtz, 2001;
Spangenberg et al., 2006a). Both music and scent were found
to have indirect effects on loyalty. These effects were mediated
by arousal, pleasure and satisfaction (Walsh et al., 2011).
Several researchers have investigated the dual effects of
music and crowding. Grewal et al. (2003) showed that music
and the number of employees and customers within a store
influenced perceived crowding, wait expectations and
patronage intentions. Fast tempo music, relative to slow or no
music, mitigated the effects of high customer density and
increased spending in a retail setting (Knoeferle et al., 2017).
Shopper hedonic and utilitarian evaluations of the shopping
experience were found to be highest under conditions of slow/
music/high/density and fast music/low density (Eroglu et al.,
2006).
Overall measure of environmental quality
Instead of trying to parse out the effects of single, or multiple,
elements in the service environment, some researchers have
investigated the contribution of perceptions of the
environmental quality on consumer response. For example,
Hightower et al. (2002) and Wakefield and Baker (1998) found
positive effects of the quality of the service environment on
perceived value, excitement, desire to stay and patronage
intention. Voorhees et al. (2009) showed across four service
industries that if consumers perceived the service environment
as high quality, the negative emotions stemming from waiting
time and regret associated with a service choice were
attenuated. Wakefield and Blodgett (1999) found that
consumer perceptions of the physical environment in leisure
services had a significant, positive impact on consumers’
subsequent behavioral responses.
Customers form service quality perceptions based on their
evaluations of three primary dimensions: outcome of the
service, interaction with service employees and service
environment quality (Brady and Cronin, 2001). Moreover,
service environment quality perceptions were found to impact
place identity, which, in turn, positively influenced a sense of
place attachment and positive customer behavioral outcomes,
in atmosphere-dominant service firms such as restaurants
(Brocato et al., 2015).
 Service environment research opportunities
Julie Baker, Kara Bentley and Charles Lamb, Jr
Individual and contextual effects
Relatively little research has specifically examined the influence of
individual and contextual factors that impact consumer response
to a service organization. The contextual effects studied include
store type, magnitude of change in remodeling, newness of
customers and culture. Individual factors include shopper
motivation (utilitarian vs hedonic), consumer expectations, field
dependence, personal tolerance for crowding and gender.
Wakefield and Blodgett (1999) showed that, in leisure
services, different aspects of the service environment might be
more important depending on the specific setting. Several studies
have found that whether a consumer’s shopping motivation is
utilitarian or hedonic can enhance or detract from perceptions
and emotions towards an environment (Eroglu and Machleit,
1990; Kaltcheva and Weitz, 2006; Orth and Wirtz, 2014).
Several factors have been found to influence how consumers
respond to crowded service settings. Orth and Wirtz (2014)
showed that a consumer’s field dependence moderated the
relationship between the environment and consumer response.
Moreover, personal tolerance for crowding, expectations of
crowding and store type (Machleit et al., 2000) have been
found to be important in determining consumer response to the
service environment.
Gender and culture play roles in how consumers react to
service environments. Females respond more positively to
scented environments (Roschk et al., 2017) and to employee
dress (Shao et al., 2004) than do males. Consumers’ culture
influences their reactions to a crowded space (Pons et al., 2006;
Pons and Laroche, 2007) and moderates the relationship
between color and merchandise quality perceptions (Chebat
and Morrin, 2007).
For a remodeled store, Bruggen et al. (2011) found that
customers on a spontaneous trip, or in a group, were more
responsive to store remodeling than those shopping alone, or
on a planned trip. The influence of remodeling on sales was
stronger for new customers than for existing customers, a trend
that persisted for a year (Dagger and Danaher, 2014). Finally,
the perceived magnitude of change between the original and
final condition of a remodeled store had a positive influence on
consumer psychological and sales responses for a year after the
remodeling (Ferraro et al., 2017).
Exterior storefront atmospherics
Store exteriors represent a critical set of factors influencing
consumer cognitions, affect and behavior (Berman and Evans,
1998). However, there are few studies in the marketing
literature regarding storefront atmospherics. This is surprising
given that 95% of respondents to a retail industry survey
reported that external appearance was important in the
selection of a place to shop. Additionally, over two-thirds of
respondents in the study reported that they had avoided a
business based on its external appearance (Report: Consumers
Influenced by a Retailer’s Physical Appearance, 2011).
Two conceptual models of retail storefront atmospherics
have recently been proposed to provide frameworks for
researchers to design empirical studies on how service business
exteriors influence customers. Baker and Sirianni (2018) based
their conceptualization on the informational model of
environmental preference that is rooted in environmental
psychology. In their perspective, a storefront includes the
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architectural and physical elements that make up the visual
field (e.g. decorative plants, awnings, tables and chairs in front
of the building). It does not include people, such as a firm’s
customers or employees that are visible in or around the
building, window displays, or signage, allowing the authors to
focus on the bigger picture of architectural elements. The
underlying theoretical foundation is based on the notion that
people need to understand and to explore environmental settings
(Kaplan et al., 1989). Understanding focuses on how a space is
organized and has two components: legibility and coherence. In
marketing, a desire for exploration has been found to be an
important influence on buying behavior (Baumgartner and
Steenkamp, 1996). Complexity and mystery are the two
components that relate to exploration. The model suggests how
exterior architectural elements can impact the informational
components of storefront design, and, in turn influence
consumers’ approach and avoidance behaviors. Shopper and
store characteristics are posited to moderate this relationship.
Bloch and Kamran-Disfani (2018) defined outdoor
atmospherics in a broader way than Baker and Sirianni (2018)
to include location, surroundings and signage. Their
conceptual framework considers the impact of outdoor
atmospherics on shoppers’ psychological (cognitive, affective and
store image) and behavioral responses (desire to enter, time
spent, loyalty and word-of-mouth). Outdoor atmospherics are
divided into two interrelated subcategories: store location and
surroundings and architecture. The suggested measurement
items include size/scale, architectural style and age, color,
signage, windows/transparency, entrances, lighting and
landscapes. Both models point the way for researchers interested
in this underdeveloped, yet important, topic in marketing.
There have been a few empirical studies that support the
notion that exterior architecture contributes to store success in
a variety of ways. For example, Ward et al. (1992) found that
consumer’ perceptions of the prototypicality of fast food
restaurants and their attitudes toward these restaurants, were
influenced strongly by external environmental cues. Studies
show that window displays, especially more creative ones,
influenced store entry decisions (Cornelius et al., 2010; Lange
et al., 2016; Oh and Petrie, 2012). Similarly, Sen et al. (2002)
showed that store entry decisions were directly and indirectly
related to the acquisition of store related information from
window displays. The positive effects of store windows may
even occur in familiar stores and among customers who had
negative attitudes toward displays (Cornelius et al., 2010).
Service environment research questions
The research reviewed shows that the service environment
influences consumer emotion, cognition, physical response and
behavior. In addition, Lund and Marinova (2014) discover that
components of the service environment can enhance the
effectiveness of other marketing strategies. Specifically, they
find that the service environment positively impacts objective
service performance and direct marketing intensity on retail
revenue Collectively the results of nearly 40 years of study thus
support the notion that the service environment is a critical
contributor to services marketing strategy. We now propose
research questions (RQs) to help scholars identify the research
that is likely to be needed as they further explore important
concerns in each of the areas of inquiry identified below.
 Service environment research opportunities
Julie Baker, Kara Bentley and Charles Lamb, Jr
Internal service environments
Our review identifies several ambient, design and social factors
where research is limited. Each RQ identified below represents
a gap in the existing marketing and services literatures where
future research appears needed. In this first section, RQs are
proposed to address the following questions about aspects of
the service environment where the preceding review identified
such a gap.
Ambient factors
Music
Music has been the focus of numerous studies in marketing.
However, there are still research avenues available to explore.
For a more detailed list of questions regarding future research
on music Garlin and Owen (2006):
RQ1. How do cognitive and affective processes influence the
relationships between background music and
consumer response?
RQ2. What are the relationships between background music
and other elements of the ambient environment (e.g.
temperature, lighting) and how might these
relationships influence consumer behavior?
RQ3. What are the similarities and differences between the
effects of background music on consumers versus
employees (Baker, 1986; Huang et al., 2014)?
RQ4. Is background music always a positive element across
service types?
Lighting
The effects of lighting are tricky to tease out, because such effects
interact with color, shape and perceptions/physical feeling of
temperature. Nonetheless, this topic represents an important
research gap as lighting is necessary in all physical facilities.
Moreover, it unquestionably influences consumer responses.
RQ5. Does lighting level (bright versus dim) influence
consumer response?
RQ6. Does lighting temperature (warm color lighting versus
cool color lighting) influence consumer response?
RQ7. What types/levels of lighting are appropriate for
different service settings?
Scent
Researchers have investigated how a scented environment
impacts consumer psychology and behavior. However, there
remain substantial gaps in the marketing and services
literatures relative to the impact of environmental smells.
Specific questions that define such gaps are identified below:
RQ8. What are moderating factors that might influence the
effects of ambient scent on consumer behavior?
Examples of moderators that might be studied include
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personal space standards, culture, store type and store
personality (Madzharov et al., 2015).
RQ9. How does congruency between scent and other aspects
of the service environment, such as music, or design,
influence consumers? For example, does a scent that
might be considered masculine by consumers influence
responses in a feminine environment, or by female
consumers?
Temperature
Research investigating the effect of ambient temperatures in the
retail environment is sparse. The onset of climate change and
energy conservation suggests that such issues are likely to make
this issue more important. Future research is needed to
addressed issues such as those identified below:
RQ10. What are the ranges of comfortable temperatures for
consumers in various settings? When these ranges are
exceeded (for both warmth and coolness), how do
these conditions influence consumer psychology and
behaviors?
RQ11. Why does physical warmth not weaken the desire for
social warmth and when do physical temperatures
lead to a compensatory effect vs an assimilative effect
(Huang et al., 2014)?
Cleanliness
Research on the effects of cleanliness is almost non-existent.
However, it has been shown to be a critical factor in both
academic and trade research. The cleanliness scale that has been
developed by Barber and Scarcelli (2010) should encourage
more study in this area. This suggests the following RQ:
RQ12. How does perceived cleanliness of the service
environment influence consumer responses and does
it differ based on the nature of the products sold (e.g.
goods vs services)?
Design factors
In the design area, the effects of color, spatial factors and surface
materials on customer perception and behavior have received
some attention. These studies typically focus on retail stores.
More research needs to be done on the effects of design in the
context of more “pure” service environments where merchandise
is not sold. Future research is needed to address a number of
research gaps as is suggested by the questions identified below:
RQ13. How do light and color interact to influence
consumers?
RQ14. The color studies we reviewed focused on warm vs cool
hues. What other aspects of color are important to
perception and emotion, such as value (lightness and
darkness) and saturation (dullness and brilliance)?
RQ15. Labrecque et al.s (2013) meta-analysis proposed a
number of RQs regarding color. A few examples are as
 Service environment research opportunities
Julie Baker, Kara Bentley and Charles Lamb, Jr
follows: Do effects differ by shopper motivation? How
does color on retail signage affect consumer purchase
decisions? Does color interact with shape to affect
consumer perceptions? What is the role of color in
variety seeking?
RQ16. The visual complexity study by Orth and Wirtz
(2014) examined deli stores and coffee shops. How
might complexity influence consumers in other
categories of service provision? What is the relative
impact of complexity in relation to other design
properties in a service environment?
RQ17. How do visual design, ambient and social factors
contribute to a service firm ‘s positioning and value
proposition? Are there contexts/individual factors
where one factor is more important than another?
RQ18. Spatial elements that have been studied include
ceiling height and aisle width. What other
architectural elements might affect consumer
response (e.g. layout, windows, etc.)?
RQ19. Floor texture and display table materials have been
studied. How might other surface materials influence
consumer response?
RQ20. How does the style (e.g. traditional, modern, country)
of a service environment influence consumer
response? How important is style in supporting a
service firm’s positioning?
Social factors
Among social factors, the influence of people, both employees
and other customers, within the service environment has not
received much attention. Brocato et al. (2012) developed and
tested a scale to measure individuals’ perceptions of other
customers in the environment. This scale can aid the
development of research regarding social factors in the
environment. Future research is thus needed to addressed
issues such as those identified below:
RQ21. How do consumer perceptions of other customers
sharing a service setting influence their responses to the
firm?
RQ22. How does perceived crowding impact store image?
RQ23. How does perceived density interact with other
atmospheric variables on perceived crowding and
shopper responses? Additionally, the employee aspect of
social factors within the service environment needs more
empirical research. The effects of gender, physical
attractiveness, employee dress and number of employees
on a retail floor have been investigated. These topics
could be expanded upon in future research.
RQ24. What are the effects of employee characteristics that
have not been studied (e.g. ethnicity, hair color, etc.)
in the context of service environments?
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RQ25. How do the characteristics of service employees
interact with ambient and/or design factors to
influence consumer behaviors?
RQ26. How do service atmospheric elements simultaneously
influence both customers and employees? What
happens when the atmospheric needs/wants of these
two groups diverge?
External service environments
Store exteriors represent an important set of factors influencing
consumer responses (Berman and Evans, 1998). Understanding
how these factors impact consumers enables design professionals
and service firms to better fit service environments with the
preferences and activities of their customers and to effectively
represent the sought positioning of the retailer (Nasar, 1994).
Given the limited amount of empirical work in the area of retail
storefront architecture and design, there are many opportunities
for qualitative and quantitative contributions, as is indicated in
the RQs identified below:
RQ27. Are the effects of a service environment’s
attractiveness different for firms offering utilitarian
goods and services compared to firms offering
hedonic goods and services?
RQ28. How can neighborhood and community shopping
centers (strip centers) manage their external
storefront atmospherics to attract attention and create
a warm and welcoming environment?
RQ29. What consumer responses are most affected by
outside atmospherics? What components of the
exterior design should be dominant for a particular
store or store type? How and when should the
components be balanced?
RQ30. How does the congruence between a specific store’s
outdoor atmospherics and the neighborhood in which
it is located influence consumer behavior?
RQ31. How do signage and entrance design influence
consumer response?
RQ32. What exterior elements most impact store image and
positioning? Do these elements differ based on service
type?
RQ33. How can window displays most positively affect
consumers?
RQ34. How might consumers respond to incongruence
between the exterior and interior of a service firm?
What elements might lead to congruence/incongruence
between exterior and interior environments?
Other aspects of service environment
Relatively little research has specifically examined how
contextual and individual factors influence environmental
response. Furthermore, much of the empirical research
 Service environment research opportunities
Julie Baker, Kara Bentley and Charles Lamb, Jr
conducted has focused on environments such as restaurants
and retail stores. Different aspects of the service environment
might be more important depending on the type of service
(Wakefield and Blodgett, 1999). This suggests that research is
needed to addressed issues such as those identified below:
RQ35. Do the same environmental factors that influence
customers’ responses to tangible-dominant services
(e.g. retail) hold in more intangible dominant services
(e.g. banks, health-care facilities)?
RQ36. How does consumer motivation to shop influence
perceptions of the service environment?
RQ37. When and how do consumers’ environmental
expectations influence their responses to a service firm?
RQ38. Does gender influence consumer responses to the
service environment, and if so, how?
RQ39. What is the influence of culture on consumer
reactions to service environments?
RQ40. How and for whom does a service environment
remodel influence consumer response?
Finally, d’Astous (2000) conducted a descriptive study that
identified several irritating aspects of shopping environments
across ambient, design and social factors. However, researchers
have not systematically addressed these aspects (for an
exception Biswas et al., 2017). An opportunity thus exists to
undertake research designed to understand more about what
consumers consider negative environmental elements. The
following RQ identifies the need for such research.
RQ41. What are the negative or unintended effects of
atmospheric factors?
Final note
We have reviewed the literature on how service environments
affect consumers’ responses to service firms and offered thought
as to how this research area could move forward. The overarching
conclusion from this review is that service environments indeed
do have an important influence on how consumers think, feel and
behave. Moreover, service environments contain multiple
elements that can be subtle, interactive and complex. Many
opportunities exist for service researchers to continue investigating
this important and challenging area.
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Further reading
Good Number of Gen Z Shoppers Like Brick-and-Mortar
More than Online Retail (2018), “Good number of gen Z
shoppers like brick-and-mortar more than online retail”,
available at: www.retailcustomerexperience.com/news/good-
number-of-gen-zshoppers-like-brick-and-mortar-more-than-
online-retail/
Survey: Younger Shoppers Hitting Brick-and-Mortar Retailers,
Older Consumers Jumping Online (2018), “Survey: younger
shoppers hitting brick-and-mortar retailers, older consumers
jumping online”, available at: www.customerexperience.
com/news/survey-youngershoppers-hitting-brick-and-mortar-
retailers-older-consumers-jumping-online/.
Survey: In-Store Still Most Popular Place for Consumers
(2018), “Survey: in-store still most popular place for
consumers”, available at: www.retailcustomerexperience.
com/news/survey-in-store-still-most-popularplace-for-consumers/
Corresponding author
Julie Baker can be contacted at: j.baker@tcu.edu
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