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Ž . Inte rn. J. of R esear ch in Marke ting 1 4 1997 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 Cogniti Õe Science Department, Konrad-Adenauer-Str. 40, D-72072 Tubingen, Germany ¨ Received 15 June 1995; accepted 7 June 1996 Abstract The effects of stor e char acte risti cs on customers’ mood , on their satisfa ction, and on their purchas ing 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 Ž . improve in the pleasant and to deteriorate in the less pleasant store n s76 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. Theor etical consi derati ons Most shoppers share the experience that, irrespec- tive of th e st ock of fe re d, some st ores ar e more attractive than others, some stores induce a feeling of wel lbeing, while in other stor es one becomes irr i- tated or even angry. And everybody also knows that one tends to buy more things and to spend more money when one is in a positive rather than in a negative mood state. Thus, there might well be im- por tan t int era cti ons bet ween store cha rac ter isti cs, customers’ mood and purchasing behavior. A broad theoretical model of environmental psychology that may be applied to these interactions is Ž . prese nt ed by Meh rabian and Russe ll 1974 . It is ) Ž . Ž . Corresponding author. Tel.: q49 7071.979 215; f ax: q49 7071 979100; e-mail: friedrich. hesse@uni-tueb ingen.de. assumed that stimulus characteristics, especially the information rate, influences a person’s mood state as an inter veni ng variable. Mood state, on the ot her hand, exerts influence on a person’s response, i.e. on his or her approach or avoidance behavior. In the foll owing ar tic le we ai m to investi gate more closely what kind of relationship there is be- tween store characteristics and customers’ behavior, taki ng into account custo mers’ mood sta te as an intervening variable. Two lines of research have to Ž . be taken into account: a consumer research as a specially applied field of environmental psychology, Ž . and b gen era l psyc hol ogy a s far as the gen era tion of mood and its influences on cognitive as well as behavioral processes are conce rned. How are physical aspects of a situation perceived and eval ua te d by th e in di vi du al ? Acco rd in g to Ž . Ber lyn e 1971 , the attrac tiv eness of environme nta l 0167-8116r97r$17.00 Copyright q 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Ž . PII S0167-8116 96 00015-8

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