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IJRDM
42,4
298
Received 2 April 2013
Revised 10 April 2013
19 August 2013
Accepted 7 October 2013
International Journal of Retail
& Distribution Management
Vol. 42 No. 4, 2014
pp. 298-314
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0959-0552
DOI 10.1108/IJRDM-04-2013-0074
Moderating effects of situational
characteristics on impulse buying
Hyo Jung Chang
Department of Nutrition, Hospitality, and Retailing, Texas Tech University,
Lubbock, Texas, USA, and
Ruoh-Nan Yan and Molly Eckman
Department of Design and Merchandising, Colorado State University,
Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
Abstract
Purpose – Guided by the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) model, this study aimed to
investigate direct and indirect effects of apparel store environmental characteristics and consumers’
positive emotional responses to the environment on impulse buying behavior. Also, this study sought
to examine how situational variables interact with consumers’ positive emotional responses in
influencing impulse buying behavior.
Design/methodology/approach – Survey data were collected using a store intercept method from
118 female consumers of an outdoor retail store in the western region of the USA.
Findings – The study found direct effects of ambient/design characteristics on consumers’ positive
emotional responses and direct effects of consumers’ positive emotional responses to the retail
environment on impulse buying behavior. Money availability and task definition moderated the
relationship between consumers’ positive emotional responses and impulse buying behavior.
Research limitations/implications – The conceptualization of a theoretical framework of impulse
buying behavior for apparel resulted from this study.
Practical implications – Managing appealing store design characteristics may increase consumers’
positive emotions and impulse purchases. Displays designed to attract impulse purchasers should
target browsers without restricted budgets.
Originality/value – This study expands the application of the S-O-R model in the context of apparel
by including situational factors as moderating variables.
Keywords Apparel, Impulse buying, S-O-R model, Shopping situations, Store environment
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Impulse buying is a pervasive aspect of consumer behavior and one of the primary
considerations for marketing activities due to the complexity and wide-spread
incidence of impulse buying across various types of products (Sharma et al., 2010a).
Reasons for impulse buying may include environmental factors such as stimuli in the
retail store environment (e.g. helpful suggestions by friendly salespeople), individual
factors (e.g. shopping enjoyment), and situational factors such as circumstances
consumers may face when shopping (e.g. time availability) (Beatty and Ferrell, 1998).
Recent research also has suggested that consumers may be intrinsically motivated to
engage in impulse buying behavior to allow themselves to change the pace of life or to
relieve boredom through sensory and cognitive stimulation (Sharma et al., 2010a).
 Impulse buying refers to unplanned, sudden buying behavior, which is often Effects of
accompanied by feelings of excitement and pleasure and/or a powerful urge to buy situational
(Beatty and Ferrell, 1998). Similar to other types of self-indulgent behavior such as
alcohol consumption, impulse buying at low to moderate levels can be an enjoyable characteristics
activity encouraged by the pursuit of hedonistic goals; high levels of impulse buying
can be harmful and potentially self-destructive. Research has suggested that
consumers who try to avoid negative psychological self-perceptions such as low 299
self-esteem and/or negative moods may be more likely to behave impulsively including
engaging in high levels of impulse buying (Verplanken and Herabadi, 2001).
Extant literature suggests that retail environmental characteristics or store
atmospherics influence consumers’ current store behavior, and future store patronage
decisions (Hultén, 2012). For instance, Hult?n (2012) performed a field experiment in a
home furnishing store, which was based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R)
paradigm and the retail atmospherics literature; visual sensory cues had a positive
impact on consumers’ tendency to touch merchandise, purchase intentions, and total
amount of money spent.
The effects of environmental characteristics or store atmospherics have been
further investigated to understand consumers’ impulse purchase behavior. Several
studies (e.g. Beatty and Ferrell, 1998; Mohan et al., 2012; Sharma et al., 2010b) focus on
understanding impulse buying behavior by investigating direct effects of individual
characteristics (e.g. shopping enjoyment, consumer impulsiveness, or optimum
stimulation level) and environmental factors (e.g. store attractiveness or product
assortment); however, whether and how situational variables (e.g. time availability,
money availability, task definition) may influence impulse purchase behavior as
suggested by Belk (1975), especially in the context of apparel, has not been widely
studied. Belk (1975) suggested that a consumer who has reasons to shop, such as
buying a birthday gift, should be less involved in impulse buying behavior.

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate how store environments, consumers’
emotions, and their situations affect female consumers’ impulse buying behavior.
Specifically, there are two objectives. First, this research attempts to contribute to a
better understanding of direct and indirect effects of apparel store environmental
characteristics and consumers’ positive emotional responses to the environment on
impulse buying behavior. Second, this study is designed to identify whether and how
consumers’ situational variables interact with their positive emotional responses in
influencing impulse buying behavior. This study focuses on the apparel context partly
because apparel purchases may be associated with consumers’ emotions (Kim, 2005).
That is, apparel not only conveys functional attributes (e.g. quality), but also elicits
positive or negative emotional responses from consumers (Zhou and Wong, 2004).
Additionally, the revised S-O-R model has not been applied extensively in the apparel
context (Solomon, 2004), particularly to consumers’ impulse purchase behaviors.
Female consumers are chosen for this study because females are more likely to make
impulse purchases than are males when it comes to fashion or apparel products
(Fitzmaurice, 2008). Women are more likely to buy fashion items as material symbols
or to express personal identity (Fitzmaurice, 2008).
IJRDM Theoretical framework
42,4 The theoretical framework developed for this study is based on the
Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) Model (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974) and the
impulse buying literature. Within the S-O-R framework, stimulus stimulates the
individual and affects internal and organism states. Organism refers to internal
processes that intervene between stimuli external to the person and behaviors. These
300 processes consist of perceptual, physiological, emotional, and cognitive activities.
Lastly, responses are the outcome or final action toward organism, such as consumers’
behavioral reactions.
In the current study, stimulus refers to apparel store environmental characteristics.
Consumers’ positive emotional responses, internal responses following exposure to
apparel store environmental characteristics, represent organism. Consumers’ impulse
buying behavior represents behavioral response in the S-O-R paradigm. An expanded
version of the S-O-R paradigm, which includes situational characteristics such as time
availability, money availability, and task definition, is presented in Figure 1. In this
proposed framework, the three characteristics of the apparel store environmental
(i.e. ambient, design, social) will influence consumers’ positive emotional responses to
the environment, which in turn, impact impulse buying behavior. Additionally, three
situational variables are hypothesized to moderate the relationship between positive
emotional responses to the apparel store environmental characteristics and impulse
buying behavior as Belk (1975) suggested.

Literature review
This examines relationships among apparel store environmental characteristics,
consumers’ positive emotional responses to the environment, and their behavioral
responses (i.e. impulse buying). Situational characteristics are studied as moderators
for the relationship between consumers’ emotional responses to the environment and
behavioral responses (i.e. impulse buying).

Apparel store environmental characteristics and positive emotional responses

Store atmospherics are defined as the conscious effort to design retail environments to
produce specific emotional effects in the consumer that enhance purchase probability
(Zhou and Wong, 2004). Store environment has been found to influence consumers’
perceived image of and attitude toward a store. For instance, store environment

Figure 1.
Theoretical framework of
current study
features such as physical attractiveness (e.g. physical features of the retail Effects of
environment) and store characteristics (e.g. odours, window displays, sign clutter) situational
were found to affect consumers’ inferences about merchandise quality (Ailawadi and
Keller, 2004). Research has also examined the effects of store environment on consumer characteristics
behavior from three different perspectives (i.e. ambient, design, social) (Turley and
Milliman, 2000).
Ambient characteristics. Ambient characteristics are non-visual conditions in the 301
apparel retail environment, such as lighting and cleanliness (Baker et al., 1994). For
example, lighting can influence both store image and examination of merchandise
(Areni and Kim, 1994). However, lighting levels did not influence consumers’ buying
behavior. The authors proposed that clean stores and painted ceilings affect consumer
response positively.
Ambient conditions are found to influence consumers’ emotional responses (Tai and
Fung, 1997). Consumers’ cognitive (beliefs or symbolic meaning), emotional (mood or
attitude), and physiological (pain or comfort) responses might be affected by ambient
characteristic of a retail store. For instance, the store’s physical attractiveness
influences consumers’ inferences about merchandise quality (Baker et al., 1994). Also,
in-store environmental stimuli (e.g. novel displays) are positively related to the level of
pleasure experienced in the store (Kim and Kim, 2012). Recent research by Mohan et al.
(2013) concluded that store environmental characteristics such as music and light have
effects on consumers’ positive affect, which, in turn, influence impulse buying. Thus,
the following hypothesis was developed.
H1a. There will be a positive relationship between female consumers’ perceptions
of the ambient retail environmental characteristics and positive emotional
responses to retail environmental characteristics.
Design characteristics. Design characteristics are visual and physical elements of retail
environments that include architecture, color, materials, and style and may
differentiate one retailer from another (Baker et al., 1994). Design characteristics,
which influence consumers’ emotional states and buying decisions, may be
particularly crucial when product and price differences are small or when the
product mix is aimed at distinct social classes or lifestyle consumer groups (Tai and
Fung, 1997). Many elements of the retail environment serve as explicit or implicit
signals that communicate information to consumers. Signs are examples of explicit
communicators. Implicit signs are less obvious, such as background color of the retail
store. Design elements, specifically explicit signals of the store, affect consumers’
evaluations of stores and the merchandise carried (Bellizzi and Hite, 1992).
Retail environments are usually designed to elicit positive emotional responses from
consumers. Color appears to influence consumer behavior, such as impulse purchases,
purchasing rates, time spent in the store (Bellizzi and Hite, 1992), pleasant feelings,
arousal, store and merchandise image, and ability to attract a consumer toward a retail
display (Bellizzi and Hite, 1992). Thus, appealing design characteristics of retail store
environment may influence consumers’ positive emotional responses.
H1b. There will be a positive relationship between female consumers’ perceptions
of the design retail environmental characteristics and positive emotional
responses to retail environmental characteristics.
IJRDM Social characteristics. Social characteristics include density, privacy, types of
42,4 customers, and appearance of retail employees (Turley and Milliman, 2000). The
social interaction between a salesperson and a consumer is reported to be one of the
most influential factors in the retail environment. Also, the consumer may feel
reassured because the salesperson is a likable person whose tastes are similar and who
is perceived as trustworthy. Researchers have found that fairly warm personal
302 relationships between consumers and salespeople are similar to other friendships,
which involve affection, intimacy, social support, loyalty, and reciprocal gift giving.
The relationships may also support marketing objectives such as satisfaction, loyalty,
and positive word of mouth among consumers (Hu and Jasper, 2006). Thus, H1c was
developed as follows.
H1c. There will be a positive relationship between female consumers’ perceptions
of the social retail environmental characteristics and positive emotional
responses to retail environmental characteristics.

Consumers’ emotional behavioural responses

Positive emotional response to the retail environment is considered an intervening
variable in the S-O-R model, influencing consumers’ behavioral responses such as
impulse buying behavior. Emotion is typically classified into two orthogonal
dimensions, positive or negative (Isen, 1984). Positive emotion, such as excitement, can
be elicited by an individual’s pre-existing mood, affective nature, and reaction to
current environmental encounters (e.g. desired products, sales promotions).
A consumer’s emotional state impacts buying behavior. That is, positive emotion,
such as excitement may positively influence impulse buying behavior. Consumers who
are in positive emotional states are inclined to experience less decision complexity and
shorter decision times (Isen, 1984) and are more willing to spend more time and money
in the store (Donovan and Rossiter, 1982). Consumers with positive emotions exhibit
greater impulse buying because of feeling less restrained, the wish to reward
themselves, and high energy levels (Rook and Gardner, 1993). Thus, H2 was stated as
follows.
H2. There will be a positive relationship between female consumers’ positive
emotional responses to the retail environmental characteristics and their
impulse buying behaviour.

Moderating effects of situational characteristics

Apparel retail environments are composed of important characteristics, along with
consumers’ situational characteristics, that influence consumer choices (Belk, 1975).
That is, impulse buying can be related to situations consumers encounter during
shopping (e.g. shopping during lunch time, shopping with limited money) (Sharma
et al., 2010a). Especially, consumers’ perceptions and behaviors are often moderated by
situations that consumers have at that moment (Grewal et al., 1996). Therefore,
temporal perspective, antecedent states, and task definition are included in this study
to examine the moderating effects of situational characteristics (Zhou and Wong, 2004).
Time availability. Time refers to the temporal perspective of situations (Belk, 1975).
In this study, time availability is used to measure the temporal perspective of
situational characteristics, which refers to the perception of time available for
performing a task and has been found to affect shopping (Gehrt and Yan, 2004).
Consumers in time-deprived situations may change their shopping habits or store
choices (e.g. Van Kenhove et al., 1999). For example, consumers in a hurry may focus
on what product to buy and where to buy it. They may select the most convenient store
rather than a store that offers the quality or brand they typically purchase. Consumers
may encounter purchase risk and feel more stressed under a time-pressured condition
(Van Kenhove et al., 1999). On the contrary, consumers who have enough time to shop
would experience less pressure on choosing products and thus pay more visual
attention to the store environment (Pierters and Warlop, 1999), which could result in
IJRDM definition may neutralize the positive relationship between consumers’ emotional
42,4 responses to the apparel store characteristics and impulse buying behaviour. When
shopping for a gift, consumers tend to focus on their task and are less likely to spend
time enjoying the shopping experience as compared to situations in which they shop
for themselves. Thus, consumers with specific tasks may respond less emotionally to
the buying environments and make more rational decisions based on their neutral
304 feelings toward the environments (Rook and Gardner, 1993). Therefore, it is predicted
that high task definition (i.e. shopping for a gift) may have no influence on consumers’
emotional responses because it requires rational decision making.
H3c. Task definition will neutralize the relationships between female consumers’
positive emotional responses to the retail environmental characteristics and
impulse buying behaviour.

Method
The sample consisted of 118 female American apparel consumers in a retail store in a
city in the Rocky Mountain region of the US. This locally-owned outdoor gear store
was selected for data collection for two reasons. First, the company’s specific
environmental characteristics include ambient, design, and social feature (e.g. unique
store layout, colors, choice of music, and employee dress code and attitudes) that are
intended to stimulate consumers’ emotions and behaviors. Second, this store has
operated in the community for more than 50 years and the target market is broad,
attracting both male and female consumers.

Instrument development
The questionnaire consisted of items that addressed apparel retail environmental
characteristics, consumers’ positive emotional responses, consumers’ behavioral
responses, situational characteristics, and demographic information. To measure
consumers’ perceptions of apparel retail environmental characteristics, the researcher
modified the scale developed by Baker et al. (1994) to include ambient, design, and
social characteristics. Three items for each of the ambient, design, and social
characteristics were included in the questionnaire. This portion of the questionnaire
asked consumers to evaluate apparel retail environmental characteristics on a
seven-point Likert-type scale (1 ¼ strongly disagree to 7 ¼ strongly agree). One
example of a statement to evaluate ambient environmental characteristics was “This
store was clean.”, design environmental characteristics was: “The store was
attractive.”, and social environmental characteristics was: “Employees of this store
gave consumers personal attention.”
The scale developed by Beatty and Ferrell (1998) was adapted to measure
consumers’ positive emotional responses. For example, to measure emotional states
using a seven-point Likert-type scale participants were asked whether they are
“excited” or “enthusiastic.” Seven items addressing positive emotional responses were
included in the questionnaire.
The scale developed by Beatty and Ferrell (1998) was adapted to measure
consumers’ impulse buying behavior using a seven-point Likert-type scale. One
example of a statement regarding impulse buying was: “I bought things I had not
planned to purchase on this trip.” Three items for impulse buying behaviors were
included.
 The scale developed by Beatty and Ferrell (1998) was modified to measure Effects of
situational characteristics, such as time and money availability, and task definition. situational
Especially, situations can strengthen or lessen consumers’ feelings toward apparel
retail store environmental characteristics and influence consumers’ emotional characteristics
responses. Thus, these situational characteristics were tested as moderators on the
relationship between emotional states and impulse buying behavior in this study. An
example of a statement measuring time availability was: “I have limited time available 305
to me for this particular shopping trip.”, to measure money availability was: “I do not
feel I can afford to make any unplanned purchases on this trip.”, and to measure task
definition was: “I visit this store for a gift.” Nine items for time availability, money
availability, and task definition were included. Certain items were reverse coded to
reflect that the higher the value, the more time/money available.

Data analysis procedures

Exploratory factor analyses with Varimax rotation were used for the multi-item scales.
Items with factor loading of at least 0.60 were retained to ensure inclusion of reliable
items (Nunnally, 1978). Items were cross-loaded and removed from further analyses if
the items were included in more than one factor. Regressions were conducted to test the
hypotheses.

Data analysis and results

The mean age of the participants was 40.8, ranging from 18 to 76 (SD ¼ 15.02).
Participants’ household income was generally high with 32 percent of participants
earning $100,000 or above. A majority of participants identified themselves as
White/Caucasian (94 percent) and were highly educated, having completed at least
college or graduate schools (70.3 percent). Exploratory factor analysis revealed two
factors of apparel retail environmental characteristics, ambient/design and social
factors (see Table I), instead of three, as hypothesized.

Hypothesis testing
Regarding H1, the ambient/design factor and social factor of the retail environmental
characteristics were entered in the regression model as independent variables and
consumers’ positive emotional responses as the dependent variable. The overall model
was significant (R 2 ¼ 0.178, F ¼ 12,485, p , 0.001) (see Table II). Ambient/design
characteristics positively affected consumers’ emotional responses (b ¼ 0.362,
p , 0.001). However, social characteristics of the store environment did not predict
consumers’ positive emotional responses (b ¼ 0.101, p . 0.05). Therefore, H1,
predicting direct effects of retail environmental characteristics on consumers’
positive emotional responses, was partially supported.
H2 examined the relationship between consumers’ positive emotional responses
and impulse buying behavior. Consumers’ positive emotional responses were entered
in the regression model as independent variable and consumers’ impulse buying
behavior as dependent variable. The overall model was significant (R 2 ¼ 0.128,
F ¼ 17.099, p , 0.05) (see Table III). Consumers’ positive emotional responses to the
retail environmental characteristics influenced their impulse buying behavior
positively (b ¼ 0.358, p , 0.001). Thus, H2 was supported.
IJRDM
Factor Variance
42,4 Items loading Reliability extracted

Ambient/design 0.89 60.08

This store was clean 0.78
This store was a relaxing place to shop 0.86
306 The store was a pleasant place to shop 0.84
The store has an impressive interior design 0.80
The color of this store was bright 0.72
Social 0.90 16.42
Employees of this store gave customers personal attention 0.93
This store’s employees were willing to help customers 0.91
Consumers’ positive emotional responses 0.91 67.15
Excited 0.89
Enthusiastic 0.88
Fun 0.84
Happy 0.82
Interested 0.82
Inspired 0.75
Joyful 0.72
Consumers’ impulse buying behaviour 0.77 68.74
I bought items I had not planned to purchase on this trip 0.90
On this trip, I felt a sudden urge to buy something and I bought 0.82
it
On this trip, I felt excitement of the hunt 0.76
Time availability 0.73 25.50
I had limited time available to me for this particular shopping 0.83
trip (R)
The amount of time pressure I felt on this shopping trip was 0.86
“high” (R)
I was not rushed for time on this shopping trip 0.71
Money availability 0.72 24.48
I did not feel I could afford to make any unplanned purchases 0.85
on this trip (R)
I was on a tight budget while on this shopping trip (R) 0.84
I felt that I had enough extra money on this shopping trip so 0.69
that I could splurge a little if I found something I really like
Table I. Task definition 0.60 16.42
Results of exploratory I visited this store for a gift 0.80
factor analyses While shopping, I found just the item(s) I was looking for 0.84

df R2 F b t-value Sig
Table II.
Retail environmental Dependent variable:
characteristics and Positive emotional response 117 0.178 12.485 0.000 * * *
positive emotional Ambient/design factor 0.362 3.692 0.000 * * *
responses (H1) Social factor 0.101 1.029 0.306
H3 examined moderating effects of the three situational variables (i.e. time availability, Effects of
money availability, and task definition). For testing the moderating effects, situational
hierarchical regression analyses were performed. First, hierarchical regression
analysis was performed to test for linear and interaction effects of consumers’ characteristics
positive emotional responses and time availability. Variables were entered into the
model in the following order: positive emotional responses, time availability, and
positive emotional responses £ time availability. Table IV shows the results of 307
hierarchical regression analysis for the main and interaction effects on impulse buying
behavior. Significant R 2 change, the last column, represents the significant moderating
effect of the moderator (Liao and Wang, 2009). The main effect of consumers’ positive
emotional responses (b ¼ 0.358) remained significant at the first and second steps. The
main effect of time availability (b ¼ 2 0.100) and the interaction effect between
consumers’ positive emotional responses and time availability (b ¼ -0.012) on impulse
buying behavior were not significant (DR 2 . 0.05). Thus time availability did not
moderate the relationship between consumers’ positive emotional responses and
impulse buying behavior. H3a was not supported.
Second hierarchical regression analysis was performed to test the moderating effect
of money availability. Variables were entered into the model in the following order:
positive emotional responses, money availability, and positive emotional responses £
money availability. The main effect of consumers’ positive emotional responses
(b ¼ 0.358) remained significant at the first and second steps. The main effect of
money availability was not found; the significant interaction effect between
consumers’ positive emotional responses and money availability (b ¼ 0.753) on
impulse buying behavior was found. Money availability moderated the relationship
between consumers’ positive emotional responses and impulse buying behavior
positively. H3b was supported (see Table V).
H3c, stating the moderating effect of task definition on the relationship between
consumers’ positive emotional responses to the store environment and impulse buying
behavior, was tested by hierarchical regression analysis. Variables were entered into
the model in the following order: positive emotional responses, task definition, and

df R2 F b t-value Sig Table III.

Consumers’ positive
Dependent variable: emotional responses and
Impulse buying behaviour 117 0.128 17.099 0.05 * impulse buying
Positive emotional response 0.358 4.135 0.000 * * * behaviour (H2)

b t-value F R2 Adjusted R 2 DR 2

PE 0.358 4.135 17.099 * * * 0.128 0.121 0.128 * * *

TA 2 0.100 2 1.156 99.243 * * * 0.138 0.123 0.010
PE £ TA 2 0.012 2 0.030 96.108 * * * 0.138 0.116 0.000
Notes: F-statistics are for overall models. PE ¼ Consumers’ positive emotional responses, Table IV.
TA ¼ Time availability, Dependent Variable ¼ Impulse buying behaviour *p , 0.05; * *p , 0.01; The moderating effect of
* * *p , 0.001 time availability
IJRDM positive emotional responses £ task definition. The main effect of consumers’ positive
42,4 emotional responses (b ¼ 0.358) remained significant at the first and second steps. The
main effect of task definition was not found; the significant interaction effect between
consumers’ positive emotional responses and task definition (b ¼ 2 0.942) on the
actual impulse buying behavior was found. Task definition moderates the relationship
between consumers’ positive emotional responses and impulse buying behavior
308 negatively. H3c was supported (see Table VI).
Based on the analyses, some of the relationships in the proposed framework were
supported. There was direct effect of social characteristics of retail store environment
on consumers’ positive emotional responses to the retail store environment. Money
availability and task definition moderate the relationship between consumers’ positive
emotional responses to the retail store environment and impulse buying behavior (see
Figure 2).

b t-value F R2 Adjusted R 2 DR 2

PE 0.358 * * * 4.135 17.099 * * * 0.128 0.121 0.128 * * *

MA 0.327 * * * 3.997 17.642 * * * 0.235 0.221 0.106 * * *
PE £ TA 0.753 * 2.022 13.441 * * * 0.261 0.242 0.027 *
Table V.
The moderating effect of Notes: F-statistics are for overall models. PE ¼ Consumers’ positive emotional responses,
money availability MA ¼ Money availability, Dependent Variable ¼ Impulse buying behaviour *p , 0.05; * *p ,
0.01; * * *p , 0.001

b t-value F R 2 Adjusted R2 DR 2

PE 2 0.358 * * * 4.135 17.099 * * * 0.128 0.121 0.128 * * *

TD 2 0.221 * * 2 2.603 12.364 * * * 0.177 0.163 0.049 * *
PE £ TD 2 0.942 * 2 1.987 09.771 * * * 0.205 0.184 0.028 *
Table VI.
The moderating effect of Notes: F-statistics are for overall models. PE ¼ Consumers’ positive emotional responses, TD ¼ Task
task definition defnition, Dependent Variable ¼ Impulse buying behaviour *p , 0.05; * *p , 0.01; * * *p , 0.001

Figure 2.
Results of hypothesis
testing
Discussion Effects of
H1 predicted the influence of apparel retail environmental characteristics (i.e. ambient, situational
design, and social) on female consumers’ emotional responses to the retail environment.
Results revealed a relationship between ambient/design characteristics of the retail characteristics
environment and female consumers’ positive emotional responses to that environment.
The results supported the literature (Kim and Kim, 2012) that retail environmental
characteristics may affect consumers’ positive emotions. In particular, the current 309
study supported direct effects of apparel retail environmental characteristics on
consumers’ positive emotional responses to the apparel retail environment. For
instance, consumers who felt the store was clean were more likely to feel excited or
joyful. This finding contributes to the understanding of retailers’ roles. Retailers who
offer a clean, relaxing, impressive environment may be more likely to attract customers
and to make them satisfied with their shopping experiences. Social characteristics of
the store did not influence positive emotional responses to the apparel retail
environment. Female consumers’ positive emotional responses were not directly
related to salespeople’s willingness to help them. Although the social interaction
between the salesperson and customer has long been considered as very influential,
this research suggests that design characteristics are more influential than are social
characteristics in generating consumers’ positive responses in this retail setting.
H2 predicted the influence of consumers’ positive emotional responses to the
apparel retail environmental characteristics on impulse buying behavior. The result
indicated a relationship between consumers’ positive emotions and impulse buying
behavior. That is, female respondents with more positive emotional responses to the
apparel retail environmental characteristics were more likely to engage in impulse
buying behavior, which supports the findings from Park et al. (2006). Thus, female
consumers who felt more excited, enthusiastic, fun, happy, interested, inspired, and
joyful were more likely to make purchases that were not planned. The result of this
study supported previous literature that consumers’ purchase behavior was not
always well planned (Rook and Gardner, 1993) and their emotional states may be
reasons for impulse buying behavior.
H3 predicted moderating effects of situational characteristics (i.e. time availability,
money availability, task definition) on the relationships between apparel retail
environmental characteristics and emotional responses to the apparel retail
environment. Contrary to findings of previous studies (Gehrt and Yan, 2004; Zhuang
et al., 2006), time availability did not moderate the relationship between consumers’
positive emotional responses and impulse buying behavior. Perhaps female consumers
who agreed to answer the questionnaire had more time compared to those consumers
who did not agree to participate in the study, implying that little variance appeared in
their responses to the survey items related to time availability.
Money availability interacted with consumers’ positive emotional responses in
influencing impulse buying behavior positively. Similar to the literature (e.g. Wood,
1998), this study found that female respondents who believed that they had a generous
budget for shopping were more likely to have positive emotional responses to the retail
environment, and tended to make an impulse purchase. This result can help retailers to
better understand female consumers’ buying behavior based on monetary situations.
For example, when attempting to encourage impulse purchases, retailers may develop
IJRDM strategies to emphasize aspects of the retail environment and products that appeal to
42,4 less budget-conscious consumers.
Furthermore, task definition moderated the relationship between consumers’
positive emotional responses to the retail environment and impulse buying behavior
negatively. Similar to findings of past studies (Punj, 2011), this study found that when
shopping was task specific, female consumers were less likely to feel excited or positive
310 about their shopping trip and thus less likely to make impulse purchases. The design
of the retail environment may be more crucial in encouraging impulse purchases
among “browsers” than among consumers with a particular shopping goal in mind.
These findings contribute to a better understanding of the direct and indirect effects
of apparel store environments and consumers’ positive emotional responses to the
retail environment on impulse buying behavior, especially in apparel context (Kim,
2005). To summarize, there were direct effects of the store ambient/design
characteristics on positive emotional responses to the retail environment and direct
effects of positive emotional responses on impulse buying behavior. Also, this study
examined whether and how female consumers’ situational characteristics interact with
their positive emotional responses in affecting impulse buying behavior. Two
situational characteristics (i.e. money availability, task definition) moderated the
relationships between retail environmental characteristics and consumers’ emotional
responses to the environment.

Conclusions
Apparel retail ambient/design characteristics influenced consumers’ positive
emotional responses to apparel retail environment. Consumers’ positive emotions
influenced consumers’ impulse buying behavior. Impulse buying behavior was
accompanied by feelings of excitement and pleasure and was directly influenced by
consumers’ positive emotions. This study contributes to a better understanding of the
influence of consumers’ situations in the relationship between consumers’ positive
emotions and impulse buying behavior based on the revised S-O-R model. Money
availability positively influenced the relationship between consumers’ positive
emotional responses and their impulse buying behavior while the influence of task
definition was negative. This suggests the importance of understanding the target
consumers’ money availability and the task for which they are shopping. For example,
an appealing retail store environment may encourage impulse buying behavior among
consumers having more available money and more time to browse. If a consumer visits
a store for a specific task, he/she may make more rational decisions and fewer impulse
purchases than a when just browsing. Therefore, it is important for retailers to offer
consumers the appropriate store environments and to develop strategies to better
understand consumers’ situations.

Theoretical implications
The study enabled the conceptualization of a theoretical framework of impulse buying
behavior for apparel products by including three sets of variables identified as
important factors in consumer behavior. Three major theoretical implications result
from this study. First, this study advances the understanding of female consumers’
impulse buying behavior of apparel by applying the revised S-O-R model (Belk, 1975)
to include all three aspects of retail environmental characteristics and the moderating
effects of situational variables. These findings will enable researchers to apply this Effects of
theoretical framework to other contexts of consumers’ buying behaviors, such as situational
compulsive buying behaviors. Also, this framework can be applied to impulse buying
behaviors for other products, such as food or electronic products. characteristics
Second, this research reveals moderating effects of two situational characteristics,
(i.e. money availability and task definition) on the relationships between apparel retail
store environmental characteristics and consumers’ emotional responses, which were 311
not examined in previous research. The inclusion and discovery of the moderating
variables contributes to a better understanding of impulse buying for apparel.
Consumers’ money availability and shopping task definition need to be considered
when examining consumer’ impulse buying behavior, especially in the apparel
environment, because these specific situational factors may influence how consumers
feel and thus trigger impulse buying behavior.
Third, most previous studies examining the effects of store environments utilized
the experimental approach; however, this research utilized a field study approach and
data were collected in the real store setting as recommended by Holbrook (1983).
Therefore data from the current research, conducted in the field, may provide more
external validity than the experimental approach, which tends to focus on internal
validity (Kerlinger and Lee, 2000).

Practical implications
The findings also provide practical implications for the apparel industry. While
ambient/design characteristics of the store affected female consumers’ positive
emotions, positive emotions also affected their impulse buying behavior. Therefore,
managing ambient/design store characteristics may increase female consumers’
positive emotional responses to ambient/design store characteristics and influence
impulse purchases. That is, clean atmosphere and impressive interior store design may
evoke positive emotions among female consumers and encourage more impulse
purchases, which may contribute to higher retail sales.
Moderating effects of situational characteristics were interesting findings.
Consumers having more available money for shopping may respond more positively
to the store environment and purchase impulsively. This suggests the importance of
understanding the target consumers’ education or household income levels to adjust a
company’s strategies. Wood (1998) indicated that consumers with higher
socio-economic status were more likely to make rational decisions. Consumers with
high task definition for shopping may respond less positively to the store environment
and more likely to make a planned purchase, than an impulse purchase.

Limitations
The results may not be generalizable for several reasons. First, this research was a
store intercept study and there were limitations to controlling internal and external
factors. Each aspect of the apparel retail environment may interact with one another
and simultaneously influence consumers. For example, consumers’ perceptions of
ambient/design characteristics of the store may be affected by their perceptions of
social characteristics of the store. The effects of those potential interactions are beyond
the focus of this study.
IJRDM Secondly, respondents at this specific retail store may have different characteristics
42,4 compared to those of customers of other retail stores. Female respondents in this study
reported that they shopped frequently at the store where data were collected, which
may have influenced their perception of apparel retail environmental characteristics.

Future research
312 The seemingly positive emotional responses to the apparel retail store environment
were related to impulse buying behavior in this specific locally-owned retail
environment. However, these results may be different in other stores and among male
consumers. Therefore, it would be interesting to test the relationships between male
and female consumers’ emotional responses and impulse buying in other stores with
different types of merchandise offerings and environmental characteristics. For
example, male consumers’ impulse buying behaviors of electronic products can be
further studied and compared with this study’s findings. Additionally, consumers’
product involvement may be examined as well to see how it is related to consumers’
impulse buying behaviors depending on gender and types of products.
Many factors influencing impulse buying exist; however, only a few factors were
examined in this study. As indicated by the R 2 values of the regression analyses, other
factors concerning individual characteristics such as self-assessment, (e.g. evaluation
levels determined by themselves) and self-classification (i.e. socio-economic status
determined by themselves) (Wood, 1998) as well as situational characteristics such as
physical surroundings (e.g. unexpected sales promotion in the store) may moderate the
relationships between apparel retail environmental characteristics and emotional
responses or directly influence impulse buying. Also, consumers’ individual
characteristics (e.g. hedonic motivation or store loyalty) can be studies for future
research as antecedents of consumers’ impulse buying behaviors. It is also necessary to
expand the scope of this study by conducting additional in-store field studies.

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About the authors

Hyo Jung ( Julie) Chang, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition,
Hospitability, and Retailing at Texas Tech University, USA. Her research interests include retail
managements, social psychological aspects of apparel and consumers, consumer behavior,
fashion merchandising, and sustainable consumption. Her research has appeared in The
International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research. Hyo Jung Chang is the
corresponding author and can be contacted at: julie.chang@ttu.edu
Ruoh-Nan Yan, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Design and
Merchandising at Colorado State University. She researches in the area of services retailing,
sustainable retailing and consumption, and cross-cultural studies. Her research has appeared in
Journal of Marketing Communication, Journal of Marketing Management, International Journal
of Retail and Distribution Management, Clothing and Textile Research Journal, and other
journals.
Molly Eckman, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Design and Merchandising at
Colorado State University. Her research interests include the effect of culture on consumer
behavior and business practices, internationalization of retailing, and social responsibility in
global apparel production. Most recently, along with colleagues, she has published journal
articles in such journals as International Marketing Review, Journal of Fashion Marketing and
Management, and International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management.

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