| Abstract: | This study investigated the influence of retail store environments on consumer perceptions, using Zeithaml's (1988) model of quality, price and value. This model suggests that the retail store environment provides informational cues to consumers about product, service and store quality, monetary and nonmonetary price and value. A laboratory experiment was conducted wherein videotapes of a retail card and gift store were shown to small groups of student subjects. Eight videotapes were used that reflected different combinations of high and low image ambient, design and social factors in the store. Multiple environmental characteristics were manipulated within each factor. Each group of subjects watched a video, then completed a self-administered questionnaire. A total of 297 students participated in the experiment. Factorial analyses of variance (ANOVAs) showed that the ambient factor resulted in higher perceptions of product, service and store quality, specific monetary price and nonmonetary price. The interpretation of "higher perceptions" of price (monetary and nonmonetary) in this study was that higher prices would be more palatable in a high image store environment. No effect of the store environment was found on subjects' perceptions of value. In addition, the social factor contributed to higher perceptions of store quality and specific monetary price. The predominance of the ambient factor was thought to be a function of the music manipulation. Eight-treatment ANOVAs were also used to examine the effects of the high/low combinations of the factors. These analyses found that the store environment that was high on all three factors (ambient, design, social) resulted in significantly higher perceptions of product quality, service quality, store quality, specific monetary price and nonmonetary price than did the store environment that was low on all three factors. |
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