Music congruencyinaservicesetting Themediatingroleofemotionaland

Music congruency in a service setting:The mediating role of emotional and cognitive responses

Nathalie T.M.Demoulin n

IESEG –School of Management,Catholic University of Lille,Marketing Department,LEM (Lille Economics &Management,UMR CNRS 8179)3,Rue de la Digue,Lille 59800,France

a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords:

Music congruency

Servicescape atmosphere Emotional responses Service quality

Environment quality Return intention

a b s t r a c t

We conducted a ?eld experiment to evaluate the effect of music congruency with the whole atmosphere in a service setting.We adopted a holistic approach and tested Bitner’s (1992)model by considering the impact of music congruency on emotional,cognitive responses and behavioural intentions.Speci?cally,we proposed that emotional responses mediate the effect of music congruency on cognitive responses,whereas the latter mediate the relationship between emotional responses and return intention.We conducted the experiment in a restaurant with two treatment conditions,i.e.congruent and non-congruent music.Our results con?rmed the expected mediations.We demonstrated that music congruency leads to low arousal,which creates high pleasure.Pleasure induced by music congruency increases customers’evaluation of environment quality and service quality,which positively affects the customers’return intention.

&2010Elsevier Ltd.All rights reserved.

1.Introduction

The atmosphere of the service setting is being considered increasingly as a strategic variable for companies.Many service providers build their company identity by using atmospherics especially tailor-made for https://www.360docs.net/doc/f116655980.html,panies try to create distinctive emotional environments where music ?ts with architecture,light,odours and their company identity.For example,many hotels and restaurants engage specialist sound designers (e.g.Mood Media,Time 4Play)to create a unique and personalized musical environment.Prestigious hotels and restau-rants around the world (e.g.Hyatt hotels)have designed sensorial strategies,in which music is chosen in accordance with the whole atmosphere in order to enhance customers’shopping experience.

From Kotler (1973)and Russell and Mehrabian (1976),atmo-spherics have been widely investigated in academic research.A famous contribution was made by Bitner (1992),who proposed a conceptual framework for the in?uence of atmospherics on the behavioural,affective and cognitive responses of consumers.Most previous empirical studies evaluated the impact of just one atmospheric cue,ignoring the others.Music has probably been the most investigated element of atmospherics because it can be modi?ed easily and at low cost.Several authors have examined the effect of music style (classical versus variety)(Areni and Kim,1993),volume (Smith and Curnow,1966),familiarity (Yalch and Spangenberg,2000),tempo (Kellaris et al.,1996;Milliman,1986)

and nationality (North,Hargreaves and McKendrick,1999)in service and retail settings.Results of empirical studies of the effect of physical characteristics of background music are mixed (Herrington and Capella,1994).Overall,background music positively affects affective,attitudinal and behavioural responses (Garlin and Owen,2006).Yet,there is a need to evaluate the context effect,that is,the relationship of background music with the servicescape (Garlin and Owen,2006),because consumers perceive the service environment holistically:environmental factors collectively in?uence their total shopping experience (Bitner,1992).Babin et al.(2004)evaluated the effect of environmental cues appropriateness in a shopping mall and showed that they affect the customers’emotions and perceptions of quality and shopping value.Morin et al.(2007)demonstrated that a holistic approach is appropriate to understand the effect of music on consumers’responses.They showed that music modi?es the background within which consumers perceive and evaluate the service environment and the service provider.Other studies (Mattila and Wirtz,2001;Spangenberg et al.,2005)adopted a holistic approach to evaluate two atmospheric cues.They studied the effect of matching music and scent.Their results show that consumers evaluate the environment and their experience in the store more highly when music and scent are congruent.Congruency with only one element of the environment is not suf?cient.There is a need for research into the interplay of other elements of the environment (Morin et al.,2007),as all the elements of a store’s atmosphere interact with each other (Oakes,2000).Other studies considered the effect of context regarding the use of music in retailing (Areni and Kim,1993;North et al.,1999;Jacob et al.,2009).Their results demonstrated that in the retail

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

journal homepage:https://www.360docs.net/doc/f116655980.html,/locate/jretconser

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

0969-6989/$-see front matter &2010Elsevier Ltd.All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2010.08.007

n

Tel.:+33320545892;fax:+33320574855.E-mail address:n.demoulin@ieseg.fr

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 18(2011)10–18

context music in?uences the type of product purchased.Vida et al.(2007)investigated the effect of music valence on the consumers’behaviour and their evaluation of the store’s offering and personnel.They postulated that getting the right music to?t the store image increases the time customers spend in the store. Nevertheless,they did not test the effect on other variables. Therefore,there is a need to assess the effect on consumers’internal responses and behaviour of music congruency with more than just one element of a store’s atmosphere.

Many service providers acknowledge that music can be used to enhance the service experience,but it is not always easy to choose the right music to play.We make the assumption that the music must?t with the perceived servicescape atmosphere.We thus assess the effect of background music that is congruent with the service atmosphere on customers’affective,cognitive and beha-vioural responses in a catering setting.Our contribution is twofold.First,we take congruency into account by testing the impact of background music that matches the restaurant’s atmosphere.Borrowing from advertising and scent literature (Mitchell et al.,1995;Bone and Ellen,1999),we postulate that music must be congruent with the restaurant’s atmosphere to have a positive impact on consumers’responses and behaviour. We adapt MacInnis and Park’s(1991)de?nition of congruency in advertising research to a service setting.We consider congruency as the extent to which consumers’subjective perceptions of the music?t with their perception of the servicescape atmosphere.

Second,Bitner’s(1992)model has only been partially tested. The impact of atmospheric variables on cognitive,emotional and behavioural responses has been tested without considering the mediating role of emotional and cognitive responses(e.g.Mattila and Wirtz,2001;Spangenberg et al.,2005).Past research examined the effect of atmospherics on cognitive processes such as perceptions of service and merchandise quality,service environment,service or store evaluations(Dube′and Morin, 2001;Bosmans,2006;Morin et al.,2007).Other studies only consider affective variables as mediators between atmospherics and consumer behaviour(Sherman et al.,1997).Garlin and Owen’s(2006)meta-analysis clearly indicates that research analyzing the relationship between background music and behaviour must integrate cognitive and affective processes as mediating variables.In this research,we consider that emotional variables mediate the relationship between music congruency and cognitive responses.The latter mediate the link between emotional and behavioural responses.In the following sections, we present the conceptual background and our research hypoth-eses.Then,we explain the?eld experimental design,as well as the results.We conclude with a discussion of the results, managerial implications and research limitations.

2.Theoretical background and research hypotheses

Research has widely acknowledged that consumers respond to more than the product or the service being offered when they make purchase decisions:atmospherics do in?uence consumer behaviour(Turley and Milliman,2000;Jang and Namkung,2009). In the environmental psychology literature,Mehrabian and Russell(1974)presented a model that explains the effects of store atmosphere on shopping behaviour.The model assumes that customers’emotions in?uence their shopping behaviour. According to their Stimulus-Organism-Response(SOR)model,the atmosphere is the stimulus(S)that provokes consumers’evalua-tions(O)and causes behavioural responses(R).More precisely, Mehrabian and Russell’s theoretical model posits that emotional states(i.e.PAD:pleasure,arousal and dominance)are mediators between environmental stimuli and consumer behaviour (i.e.approach or avoidance).In retail settings,Donovan and Rossiter(1982)showed that only two emotional states could predict consumer behaviour:pleasure and arousal,pleasure being the degree to which a person feels happy,joyful,good or satis?ed, while arousal is the degree to which a person feels alert,excited, stimulated or active in the situation.

Under the SOR paradigm,researchers have manipulated a large number of atmospheric stimuli in retail and service settings: colours,music,crowding,scents.Music is certainly one of the most researched topics(Bruner,1990;Turley and Milliman, 2000).Literature(Turley and Milliman,2000)and meta-analytic (Garlin and Owen,2006)reviews highlight numerous results showing that music played in a store can affect affective variables (e.g.mood,arousal,pleasure),?nancial returns(e.g.quantity purchased,gross margin),cognitive variables(e.g.perception of product and service quality)and behaviours(e.g.patronage frequency,actual time spent or in-store traf?c?ow).Nevertheless, the vast majority of studies do not consider mediating variables (affective and cognitive responses)between background music and behaviours(Garlin and Owen,2006).Some studies evaluate the impact of atmospherics on customer behaviours,considering either emotional responses or cognitive responses as mediators (Sweeney and Wyber,2002;Chebat and Michon,2003;Babin et al.,2004).Jang and Namkung(2009)evaluate the mediating role of emotions between atmospherics,perceived quality and behavioural intentions.Yet,several atmospherics are combined (lighting,colours,design and convenient layout).Their results are not convincing,given that they show that only positive emotions play a mediating role between service quality and behavioural response.Atmospherics and product quality also stimulate negative emotions,which do not in?uence behavioural intentions. As far as background music is concerned,Sweeney and Wyber (2002)are the only ones to consider both emotional and cognitive responses.But they do not consider the relationship between these two responses.Past researches show that music leads to affective responses within the individual,which can modify consumer behaviour(Dube′et al.,1995;Hui et la.,1997;Sweeney and Wyber,2002).Morrin and Chebat(2005)explain that the literature on atmospherics shows that the mediational routes responsible for the effects of music on consumers’responses tend to be predominantly affective in nature,whereas they are mainly cognitive in nature where the effects of ambient scent are concerned.Moreover,affective responses(mood,pleasure and arousal)in?uence cognitive responses(Chebat et al.,1995).The main contribution of our conceptual framework(see Fig.1)is(1) to evaluate the effect of music congruency with the servicescape atmosphere and(2)to position the effect of emotional responses as mediators between music and cognitive variables.

2.1.Music congruency

Music is a powerful stimulus for affecting mood(Bruner, 1990).In certain circumstances,music in?uences consumers’emotional responses,which in turn affect their behaviour.Past research(see Garlin and Owen’s(2006)meta-analysis research) has investigated the effect of music characteristics such as tempo (Milliman,1982,1986),style/genre(e.g.Areni and Kim,1993; Yalch and Spangenberg,1993;Gulas and Schewe,1994),volume (e.g.Smith and Currow,1966;Yalch and Spangenberg,1990)and complexity and valence(e.g.Hui et al.,1997).But,there is a need to study the context effects that in?uence the different variables (Garlin and Owen,2006).Background music cannot be considered as an isolated factor because it interacts with other elements of the environment(Oakes,2000).Lam(2001)postulates that the congruence between environmental elements may facilitate

N.T.M.Demoulin/Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services18(2011)10–1811

consumers’categorization of a retail outlet and positively affects internal response variables (emotions and cognitions)as well as the overall store evaluation.

Congruency is the match between different elements of the service setting.In this study,we de?ne congruency in a contextual way as the match between the restaurant’s atmosphere and the background music.The effect of congruency has been tested in several studies.In the advertising context,MacInnis and Park (1991)demonstrate that music congruent with the advertise-ment’s message creates more positive emotions,as well as better attitudes toward the brand.In retailing,several studies have investigated the effect of congruency between music and the product sold.Areni and Kim (1993)and North et al.(1999)look at the ?t between background music and the type of wine purchased.Shoppers purchase more expensive wine when classical background music is played and store sales increase (Areni and Kim,1993).In the wine section of a supermarket,consumers purchase more French wines when French music is broadcast and more German wines when German music is played (North et al.,1999).In a ?orist,when love songs and romantic music are played,the mean amount of money spent increases compared with pop music or no music (Jacob et al.,2009).Similarly,when cartoon music is played instead of Top Forty music in a candy store,customers aged from 12to 14years old spend more time in the store (Le Guellec et al.,2007).Two studies evaluate the effect of congruency between scent and music in a retail setting (Mattila and Wirtz,2001;Spangenberg et al.,2005).Their results demonstrated that music and scent congruency leads to higher pleasure and arousal,more favourable store evaluation,better store environment evaluation,and a higher level of approach and impulse-buying behaviour.To sum up,congruency with the type of products has an impact on the type of products purchased,the time spent and the amount of money spent.Congruency with one other element of the atmosphere affects consumers’emotional and cognitive responses as well as their behaviour.Our research differs from previous work by considering the congruency of music with the whole servicescape atmosphere,instead of just one other component.

2.1.1.Effect of music congruency on emotional responses

According to Gibson et al.(1979),the ?rst response to an environment is affective.It is well established in environmental psychology that people respond emotionally to places (Mehrabian and Russell,1974).In advertising research,Oakes (2007),in his review of empirical studies on music congruity,reports that music congruity enhances affective responses to advertisements.In retail settings,when the arousal qualities of scent and music match,customers’pleasure increases (Mattila and Wirtz,2001).Provided they both match,irrespective of whether they both have low or high arousal properties,this pleasure level is higher than with mismatched conditions or no music.Babin et al.(2004)took

a broader perspective.They evaluated the effect of environmental appropriateness and demonstrated that perceived environmental appropriateness positively in?uences customers’affective responses.Therefore,creating a more harmonious service setting by playing background music that ?ts with the atmosphere of the restaurant will elicit positive emotional responses.

2.1.2.Effect of arousal on pleasure

According to the Mehrabian and Russell model,pleasure and arousal are orthogonal dimensions.Past research nevertheless shows linear relations between pleasure and arousal reactions (Ito et al.,1998;Lang et al.,1998;Poels and Dewitte,2008).This linear pattern was found when subjects were exposed to sounds (Bradley et al.,2001),odours (Bensa?et al.,2002)and advertising (Poels and Dewitte,2008).Several studies demonstrate a link between arousal and pleasure (Babin and Attaway,2000;Chebat and Michon,2003;Ryu and Jang,2008).Therefore,we expect that arousal induced by music congruency will lead to high pleasure levels,and hypothesize that the following.

H1.The perceived music congruency directly and indirectly increases customers’pleasure.

H1a .Perceived music congruency increases customers’pleasure.

H1b .Perceived music congruency positively in?uences customers’arousal.

H1c .Arousal induced by perceived music congruency increases customers’pleasure.2.2.Cognitive responses

2.2.1.Effect of music congruency on cognitive responses

Both tangible and intangible features are important in a restaurant setting.In this study,we consider two particular cognitive responses:to the service environment quality and the service quality.Past research shows that background music in?uences customers’perception of the store (Yalch and Spangen-berg,1993)or the restaurant (North and Hargreaves,1998).Classical music gives a top of the line image to stores and restaurants and provides customers with incentives to spend more money (Yalch and Spangenberg,1993).The music’s pleasantness or valence positively in?uences their perception of

the servicescape (Dube

′and Morin,2001;Morin et al.,2007).Congruency of music with scent enhances customers’evaluation of the store environment (Mattila and Wirtz,2001;Spangenberg et al.,2005).We thus foresee that music congruency will positively in?uence customers’perception of the servicescape.According to the inference principle,when quality is dif?cult to evaluate (e.g.service,experience),customers use the service environment as a service quality indicator (Zeithaml,1988).In advertising research,McInnis and Park (1991)show that in an

Fig.1.Music congruency effects on affective and cognitive responses.

N.T.M.Demoulin /Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 18(2011)10–18

12

advert,music which?ts with the persuasion context positively affects the evaluation of the product’s characteristics.In a service context,customers use intangible features to evaluate service quality.Some features of the service environment,such as music, may be used as information cues to evaluate service quality. According to Sweeney and Wyber(2002),music affects customers’perceptions of service quality and merchandise quality.Babin et al. (2004)demonstrate that the appropriateness of the store’s atmo-sphere positively in?uences perceived product quality.Their ?ndings are explained by the fact that congruent cues are more easily processed.Products are evaluated more highly when customers are faced with fewer mismatches.Consequently,in addition to in?uencing environment quality,stimulus congruency should lead to better perception of service quality.Therefore,we expect that music congruency will indirectly increase customers’perception of the service and the environment.

2.3.Mediating role of emotional responses

According to Mehrabian and Russell’s(1974)framework,mood (pleasure and arousal)is a mediating variable between environ-mental cues and behaviour.Bitner(1992)postulates that both cognitive and affective responses mediate the relationship between the environment and behaviour.Moreover,she suggests that internal responses may be interdependent:emotional responses may affect the cognitive responses and vice versa.

Psychological research has demonstrated that good moods have a positive effect on consumers’cognitive processes.For example,when the consumers’mood is improved by giving them a gift,their evaluation of the service is higher(Isen et al.,1982).In advertising research,a happy advert viewed in a happy pro-gramme results in fewer unfavourable cognitions and is evaluated more positively than when seen in the context of a sad programme(Kamins et al.,1991).Oakes(2007),in his literature review on music congruity in advertising,noted that affective responses to music are antecedents of cognitive responses.

In a retail context,products presented in an emotionally pleasing environment make consumers evaluate products more favourably than in an unpleasant environment(Obermiller and Bitner,1984).Pleasant music leads to a better perceived product quality(Gorn et al.,1993).In a service setting,pleasure resulting from background music in?uences cognitive responses such as customers’perception of the service environment,sales personnel or the service provider(Dube′and Morin,2001;Morin et al.,2007). Similarly,in a retail context,pleasure derived from music enhances the customers’evaluation of the store offering and sales personnel(Vida et al.,2007).

We postulate that music congruency will generate positive emotional responses(i.e.pleasure and arousal),which will affect the evaluation of both the service environment and service quality.Emotional responses mediate the music congruency/ service quality relationship and the music congruency/environ-ment quality relationship.Hence we hypothesize the following.

H2.Perceived music congruency indirectly increases consumers’cognitive responses(the perception of environ-ment quality and service quality).

H2a.Consumers’pleasure induced by music congruency

positively affects perceptions of environment quality.

H2b.Consumers’pleasure induced by music congruency

improves perceptions of service quality.

H2c.Consumers’arousal induced by music congruency

positively affects perceptions of environment quality.

H2d.Consumers’arousal induced by music congruency

improves perceptions of service quality.2.4.The effect of environment quality on service quality

Bitner(1992)suggests that that perception of the service environment affects beliefs about service attributes.Conse-quently,the perception of the environment quality may affect the perception of service quality.Given that service is rather intangible,it is not easy for customers to form beliefs about service quality.Hence,the service environment is a key factor of the tangible elements of the service(Parasuraman et al.,1988). Consumers use extrinsic cues,such as the servicescape environ-ment,to infer service quality(Zeithaml,1988).Morin et al.(2007) test a dual model of environmental perception using the Gestalt theory.This model states that a consumer’s response to an environment is holistic in nature:the authors posit a double mediating process between music valence and service evaluation, through servicescape attitude and provider attitude.Consumers use the servicescape as a background to evaluate the service provider.Here,we expect the same effect for service quality. Therefore,we hypothesize that the following.

H3.Positive perceptions of the service environment quality improve customers’perceptions of service quality.

2.5.The effect of cognitive responses on customers’behaviour

Mehrabian and Russell’s(1974)model suggests that people react to their environment with two types of behaviour:approach and avoidance.In a service setting,?rms encourage approach behaviour.In this research,we consider the customers’return intention as a behavioural intention variable.Several studies show that music in?uences customers’approach behaviour (Mattila and Wirtz,2001)and their return intention(Spangenberg et al.,2005).Nevertheless,according to Bitner’s(1992)model,it is the cognitive responses that determine the customers’behaviour. Indeed,perceptions of the retail environment shape the approach behaviour of those who return(Donovan and Rossiter,1982). Consequently,we expect that customers’positive perception of environment quality and service quality will increase their return intention.Thus,we hypothesize that the following.

H4.A positive perception of the service environment quality (H4a)and a positive perception of service quality(H4b)increase customers’return intention.

3.Research methodology

3.1.Experimental design and stimulus selection

Many studies have used laboratory experiments to evaluate the effect of music.In this research,we conducted a?eld experiment in a French restaurant to test the hypotheses.The experimental design compares music that is congruent and non-congruent with the restaurant’s atmosphere.To de?ne the restaurant’s atmosphere,a focus group was used,made up of six regular customers of the restaurant.The group’s objective was to identify several attributes characterizing the restaurant atmo-sphere,and they de?ned it as being balanced,modern,fresh, colourful,convivial and prompt.Then,the restaurant owner and her employees selected pieces of music to?t the restaurant’s atmosphere as described by these customers.The music selection was then submitted to the same six regular customers,who were asked to state whether each piece of music?tted their perception of the restaurant’s atmosphere.In the end,we obtained2h of music rated by these regular customers as congruent with the restaurant’s atmosphere and this music could be characterized as modern,pop and dynamic.The non-congruent music was music played by a well-known French radio station,Che′rie FM,which

N.T.M.Demoulin/Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services18(2011)10–1813

broadcasts timeless popular music hits.This music did not?t the restaurant’s atmosphere as described by the customers,who evaluated it as old-fashioned.Background music in the restaurant was played at the same moderate volume over the course of the experiment.

3.2.Experimental procedures

The experiment took place in a French restaurant over two consecutive weeks(1week with the congruent music and1week with the non-congruent music).The2weeks were considered by the restaurant owner to be identical in terms of sales volume and customers’traf?c.The venue was a new type of restaurant in the French catering industry,offering an original mix of balanced meals(based on quality products and trendy recipes)and the express service of a fast-food restaurant.The restaurant aims at a strong identity based on a modern,comfortable and convivial atmosphere in addition to the service.We used face-to-face interviews to collect data.Respondents were interviewed after their meal at the restaurant exit.The data collection took place every day at the same time(between noon and two o’clock p.m.) because the restaurant is only open at lunch time.In the questionnaire,they?rst had to state whether they experienced hearing problems,which enabled us to discard two respondents with hearing problems from the?nal data set.Finally,199 questionnaires(104for the non-congruent music treatment and 95for the congruent music treatment)were collected.We compared the distribution of several variables(i.e.age,gender, employment,overall music interest and the restaurant visit frequency)between the two treatment conditions.The two distributions of each variable were not signi?cantly different from each other.Respondents had the same demographic characteristics over the2weeks of experiment.The sample consisted of60.3%females and51.2%were younger than34years old.

3.3.Manipulation checks

In order to check whether the two treatment conditions were perceived by customers as congruent or non-congruent,we asked respondents to evaluate the atmosphere of the restaurant,its music and the music congruency.The atmosphere of the restaurant and music was measured on the same items,based on atmosphere attributes derived from the focus group results. We used a seven-point Likert scale measuring their degree of agreement with the six items describing restaurant atmosphere and music(ranging from totally disagree to totally agree).The restaurant atmosphere scale appears to be one-dimensional (a factor analysis reveals that the six items load on the same factor and explain68.548%of the total variance)with a high reliability(Cronbach alpha?0.906).Results show that the attributes used to evaluate the restaurant atmosphere correctly describe it.Indeed,the restaurant atmosphere mean is 6.17 (standard error?0.069)with no signi?cant difference between the two treatment groups(means of6.085for the non-congruent group and6.253for the congruent group,p?0.126).The music evaluation scale is one-dimensional(one factor explains86.412% of the total variance)with an excellent reliability(Cronbach alpha?0.968).The music evaluation for the two experimental conditions(i.e.congruent versus non-congruent music)was perceived as different(means of 5.402and 3.309with p o0.0001).The congruent music was perceived by respondents as being more balanced,modern,fresh,colourful,convivial and prompt than the non-congruent music.The evaluation of the congruent music was closer to the restaurant atmosphere than the non-congruent music.Indeed,the absolute difference between music evaluation and restaurant atmosphere was smaller for congruent music than for non-congruent music (means of0.981and2.779with p o0.0001).

As an additional manipulation check,respondents rated the following statements on a seven-point Likert scale(1–7:strongly disagree/strongly agree):(1)For this restaurant,the music broadcast suits well;(2)I’m not surprised to hear this music in this restaurant.This congruency measure is adapted from Heckler and Childers(1992).These manipulation check items were placed at the end of the questionnaire to avoid any response bias.The two items were found to be one-dimensional(the factor explains 93.349%of the total variance)with a good reliability(Cronbach alpha?0.927).The congruent music was perceived as more congruent with the restaurant than the non-congruent music (means of5.378and2.913with p o0.0001).

3.4.Measures

Mehrabian and Russell’s(1974)seven-point semantic differ-ential scale was employed to measure emotional responses to the environment.Four item pairs measured the pleasure dimension of emotions.Three item pairs measured the arousal dimension. Service quality was measured on a seven-point Likert scale measuring the degree of agreement with eight items(adapted from Parasuraman et al.,1991).Reliability,responsiveness, assurance and empathy dimensions were each measured with two items.As in Bosmans(2006)and Mattila and Wirtz(2001), the evaluation of service environment quality was measured using items from Fisher’s(1974)scale.A seven-point semantic differential scale with seven items was used.We measured restaurant patronage intentions on a seven-point Likert scale measuring the degree of agreement with three items.These variables represent the behavioural intention dimension of loyalty (Zeithaml et al.,1996;Chaudhuri and Holbrook,2001).

4.Analysis and results

The data were analyzed using SmartPLS version2.0.M3(Ringle et al.,2005)in two stages:the measurement model and the structural model.SmartPLS is a structural equation modelling technique that is recommended when either the model is complex or the sample size is quite small or assumptions of normality are not satis?ed(Chin and Newstead,1999).In this research,the sample size is rather small.

4.1.Measurement model

First,we tested the measurement model by performing a validity and reliability analysis for each measure of the structural model.Table1shows the?nal scales.All of the item loadings were satisfactory and the t-values were signi?cant.The composite reliabilities(CR)and coef?cient alpha’s were over the recom-mended0.7for each construct(Fornell and Larcker,1981).The convergent validity was tested with the average variance extracted(AVE)and was higher than0.5for all the constructs. Discriminant validity was assessed through the variance extracted test(Fornell and Larcker,1981).All variables achieved good discriminant validity.The measures of the model are reliable and valid overall.Table2shows the descriptive statistics for each construct as well as the correlation between constructs.

N.T.M.Demoulin/Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services18(2011)10–18 14

4.2.Hypotheses testing

We used SmartPLS to test our hypotheses(Ringle et al.,2005). Several of our hypotheses include partial or complete mediation. We used the Baron and Kenny(1986)procedure as well as Sobel’s (1982)test to check mediating effects.Table3presents the path coef?cients and their statistical signi?cance(obtained by using the bootstrapping resampling technique).Fig.2reports path coef?cients as well as the R2values which provide an indication of the predictive ability of independent variables.The Goodness of Fit of the?nal model is quite good(GoF?0.469).

H1postulates a partial mediation of arousal in the music congruency-pleasure relationship.Results show that perceived music congruency has an impact on arousal(b?à0.203,p o0.01) but not directly on pleasure(b?0.094,p?0.114).Arousal signi?cantly decreases pleasure(b?à0.550,p o0.001).H1a, H1b and H1c are not supported.Nevertheless,perceived music congruency has a positive impact on pleasure through arousal. The Sobel test con?rms a full mediation(z?2.9335,p o0.01).H1 is partially supported,given that we demonstrate that music congruency increases customers’pleasure through a full media-tion of arousal.The combined effect of music congruency on customers’pleasure is positive((à0.203?à0.55)+0.084?0.196).

H2proposes that pleasure and arousal mediate the relation-ship between music congruency and perceptions of both environment and service quality.Given that the direct link between music congruency and pleasure is not signi?cant,the mediating role of pleasure in the music congruency/environment (vs.service)quality relationship cannot be tested as such.Instead, we look at the mediating role of pleasure in the link between arousal and perceived environment(vs.service)quality,given that there is a full mediation of arousal between music congruency and pleasure.Our results reveal that pleasure partially mediates the link between the arousal and the evalua-tion of environment quality.Pleasure makes the perception of environment quality better(b?0.313,p o0.001),whereas arousal has a negative effect on the customers’evaluation of the environment quality(b?–0.251,p o0.005).H2a is supported. According to the Sobel test,the partial mediation of pleasure between arousal and perceived environment quality is signi?cant (z?3.6672,p o0.001).Similarly,pleasure increases customers’evaluation of service quality(b?0.164,p o0.05).H2b is sup-ported.According to the Sobel test,the full mediation of pleasure between arousal and service quality is signi?cant(z?2.0223, p o0.05).The total effect of arousal on perceived environment quality is negative(à0.555?0.313à0.251?à0.425).

H2c and H2d predict the mediating role of arousal in the relationship between music congruency and perceived service/ environment quality.Arousal negatively in?uences environment quality perception(b?à0.251,p o0.05).The Sobel test con?rms the full mediating role of arousal in the relationship between music congruency and service environment perception (z?2.1143,p o0.05).The link between arousal and service quality perception is not signi?cant(b?à0.118,p40.1).However,music congruency has a direct effect on the perception of service quality (b?0.159,p o0.05).In accordance with H3,perceived environ-ment quality increases customers’evaluation of service quality (b?0.333,p o0.001).Consequently H2c and H2d are not supported,whereas H3is supported.However,our results demonstrate a full-mediation between arousal and perceived service quality through the perceived environment quality (z?2.4554,p o0.05).

Service and environment quality positively in?uence custo-mers’return intentions(b?0.304,p o0.001;b?0.428,p o0.001). Consequently,H4a and H4b are supported by the results.

Table1

Standard loadings,composite reliability and average variance extracted.

Constructs and measured items Standard

loadings

Music congruency(Cronbach’s alpha?.929;CR?.961;

AVE?.926)

For this restaurant,the music broadcast suits well.986

I’m not surprised to hear this music in this restaurant.938

Pleasure(Cronbach’s alpha?.951;CR?.964;AVE?.871)

Annoyed–pleased.945

Melancholy–contented.930

Depressed–hopeful.935

Unhappy–happy.923

Arousal(Cronbach’s alpha?.889;CR?.931;AVE?.818)

Stimulated–relaxed(reversed).915

Excited–calm(reversed).916

Jittery–quiet(reversed).882

Service quality(Cronbach’s alpha?.909;CR?.927;

AVE?.614)

When employees promise to do something by a certain time,

they do so

.708

Employees perform the service right the?rst time.711

Employees tell you exactly when services will be performed.817

Employees are always willing to help you.850

The behaviour of employees instils con?dence in customers.831

Employees have the knowledge to answer your questions.874

Employees give you individual attention.721

Employees understand your speci?c needs.735

Environment quality(Cronbach’s alpha?.936;CR?.948;

AVE?.77)

Unattractive–attractive.824

Uninteresting–interesting.997

Bad–good.720

Depressing–cheerful.881

Dull–bright.825

Uncomfortable–comfortable.817

Unpleasurable–pleasurable.876

Return Intention(Cronbach’s alpha?.887;CR?.931;

AVE?.818)

I will come back to this restaurant.926

I will recommend this restaurant to my friends.955

If I have to go to a restaurant,I will come back to this

restaurant

.827

Table2

Descriptive statistics and the latent variable correlation matrix:discriminant validity(n?199).

Mean SD Congruency Arousal Pleasure Environment

quality Service

quality

Return

Intention

Congruency 4.082 1.7250.962

Arousal 2.1900.977à0.2030.904

Pleasure 5.4920.9750.196à0.5680.933

Environment

quality

6.1960.7010.075à0.4280.4550.852

Service quality 5.7860.8510.240à0.3850.4130.4700.783

Return Intention 6.0850.9050.173à0.4780.3820.5840.6420.904 Bold numbers on diagonal show the square root of AVE.

N.T.M.Demoulin/Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services18(2011)10–1815

The combined effect of the evaluation of environment quality on

return intention is quite high ((0.333?0.428)+0.304?0.447).5.Conclusion

A congruency between music and the service atmosphere improves customers’perceptions of the service environment and service quality in a catering setting.Pleasure and arousal mediate the latter relationship.However,pleasure plays a mediating role after arousal.Indeed,music congruency increases customers’pleasure where there is low arousal.Music congruency also directly improves customers’evaluation of service quality.Cognitive responses,i.e.,to environment quality and service quality,play a mediating role in the relationship between affective responses and return intentions.Nevertheless,low arousal induced by music congruency directly increases custo-mers’return intentions.Customers’positive evaluation of envir-onment quality and service quality increases their intention to return to the restaurant.5.1.Discussion

Our results demonstrate that music congruency has a negative effect on arousal in a fast-food restaurant context.But the music congruency,while leading to a low level of arousal,generates high pleasure,by making customers relaxed and calm.Surprisingly,this result is inconsistent with Ryu and Jang’s (2008)?ndings.They found a positive relationship between arousal and pleasure in an upscale restaurant setting.These contradictory results can be explained by considering motivation orientations (Kaltcheva and Weitz,2006)in a retail context.According to Kaltcheva and Weitz,the effect of arousal on pleasure depends on the customers’motivation orientation.They distinguish two motivation orientations:task-oriented and recreational.Customers with a task-oriented motivational orientation want to complete their shopping ef?ciently without expending much energy,whereas customers with a recreational motivational orientation expect to gain intrinsic satisfaction from the shopping activity itself.Their results demonstrated that when subjects have a task-oriented motivation,arousal has a negative effect on pleasure,whereas when they have a recreational motivation,arousal positively in?uences pleasure.In this research,we may consider that customers have a task-oriented motivational orientation because they are looking for healthy and fresh food served in a minimum amount of time.By contrast,in an upscale restaurant,customers have a recreational motivation,expecting to be served with ?ne food,but above all to have a good time.

Our results are in accordance with the approach-avoidance model (Mehrabian and Russell,1974;Donovan and Rossiter,1982),according to which pleasure and arousal play a mediating role in the relationship between environmental stimulus and customers’perceptions and behaviour.As expected,arousal and pleasure mediate the link between music congruency and cognitive responses.However,the effect of music congruency on pleasure goes through arousal.For service quality,the mediation is partial,given that music congruency directly in?uences the perception of service quality.On the contrary,for environment quality,our results demonstrate a full mediation which goes through arousal and pleasure.We notice that pleasure has a partial mediating role between arousal and perceived environ-ment quality.In fact,arousal has a direct and negative impact on the perception of environment quality.Consequently,when customers feel low arousal and high pleasure induced by music congruency,they evaluate service quality and environment quality more highly.Previous studies (Mattila and Wirtz,2001;Spangenberg et al.,2005)have shown the signi?cant impact of music and scent congruency on the environment evaluation,but

Table 3

Model testing.Hypotheses

Bs T p Comments H1a Music congruency )Pleasure .084 1.5850.114Not supported H1b Music congruency )Arousal à.203 3.115o 0.01Not Supported H1c Arousal )Pleasure

à.5508.720o 0.001Not Supported H2a Pleasure )Environment quality .313 4.042o 0.001Supported H2b Pleasure )Service quality

.164 2.079o 0.05Supported

H2c Arousal )Environment quality à.251 2.879o 0.005Not Supported H2d Arousal )Service quality

à.118 1.5150.132Not Supported H3Environment quality )Service quality .333 4.703o 0.001Supported H4a Environment quality )Return intention .304 5.205o 0.001Supported H4b Service quality )Return intention

.428

6.244

o 0.001

Supported

Fig.2.Diagram of structural model with the standardized parameter estimates.

N.T.M.Demoulin /Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 18(2011)10–18

16

no mediation through customers’emotional states.Therefore,the mediation effect of emotional responses underlined in this paper is a signi?cant contribution to the literature.

The environment quality also directly increases customers’perception of service quality.Past research about music valence (Dube′and Morin,2001;Morin et al.,2007)shows similar effects. Indeed,servicescape attitude positively affects sales personnel in a store or the service provider’s attitude in a service context. Finally,good perceptions of the service environment and service quality increase the customers’intention to come back to the restaurant.Contrary to our expectation,low arousal directly increases customers’return intention.Consequently,environment quality partially mediates the effect of arousal on consumers’behavioural intentions.

5.2.Managerial implications

The most important implication from this study is the crucial importance of congruency between music and servicescape atmosphere.The music broadcast should be a well-considered choice.Higher music congruency leads to lower arousal and higher pleasure.Music congruent with the servicescape atmo-sphere creates relaxed,calm and pleasant feelings.Customers in a pleasant mood then evaluate the service environment and service quality more highly.Music congruency directly improves the customers’perception of service quality.Consequently,in addi-tion to improving the overall perception of the environment, music congruency can be used by restaurant owners to enhance the perception of the service delivered by waiters.It is thus important to select music that is congruent with the whole servicescape atmosphere,so that customers are then more willing to come back to the restaurant.

Music choice might be carried out by evaluating the image of the servicescape atmosphere.Customers may help service providers to de?ne the atmosphere clearly by selecting several terms that describe it clearly.Then,pieces of music can be selected to match that description.These pieces can then be submitted to customers to assess their level of congruency with the overall atmosphere.Only pieces with high congruency should be played in the servicescape.

Any change made in the servicescape environment must enhance the coherence of the service environment.According to Bitner(1992),the servicescape environment has several dimen-sions:ambient conditions,spatial layout and functionality,as well as signs,symbols and artefacts.The most easily changeable elements are the ambient conditions.They are related to the?ve senses and are temperature,lighting,noise,music and scent. Because they can easily be modi?ed,restaurant owners must ensure that they are constantly in accordance with each other. Spatial layout and functionality,as well as signs,symbols and artefacts are most often designed by architects or design consultants at the servicescape?tting.They must also be chosen in accordance with the service strategy.

5.3.Limitations and future research

Our research has several limitations.Firstly,the experiment was conducted in a single fast-food restaurant.Replications of this study are needed to generalize the results.Secondly,music is a complex stimulus that may differ in several aspects.In our study, the type of music(pop)and the volume(moderate)were the same for both treatment conditions.However,we did not control other music characteristics such as tempo,familiarity and liking.Yet, previous research(Oakes,2000;North and Hargreaves, 1996,1998)showed that these variables in?uence consumers’perceptions and behaviour.Our third limitation concerns the omission of product quality from our conceptual framework. Nevertheless,previous research shows that music congruent with scent does not affect the attitude towards merchandise in a retail setting(Spangenberg et al.,2005)and that product quality does not in?uence the behavioural intention in a restaurant setting (Jang and Namkung,2009).

Finally,we cannot consider that low arousal is equivalent to sleepy states,as is indicated in Mehrabian and Russell’s(1974) scale.According to Russell(1980),the two dimensions of affect are pleasantness–unpleasantness and arousal–quietness.Low arousal can thus be considered as quietness.Indeed,the terms we used in the arousal scale,i.e.,relaxed,calm and quiet,are more similar to the quietness items on Mano’s scale(1991).Many French researchers encounter similar problems with the PAD arousal items(Lichtle′and Plichon,2005).The eight Mano(1991) dimensions derived from two primary dimensions of the affect circumplex(Russell,1980)might be more appropriate in a French context than the PAD(Mehrabian and Russell,1974).Indeed, according to Lichtle′and Plichon(2005),the affective states that are most often experienced in French stores are relaxation and well-being.The latter cannot be easily measured in terms of PAD.

Future research should be conducted to better understand how service providers might use their service environment to improve their customers’mood.Other environmental cues such as light, colour and scent could be modi?ed to create a more coherent ambience and to increase customers’feelings of pleasure.Other experiments could be conducted to demonstrate which of these environmental cues best enhance customers’pleasure and improve their perception of the servicescape environment. Acknowledgments

The author warmly acknowledges Aline Le Bo¨edec for her insights during the experiment and for her valuable comments on previous drafts of this paper as well as Josephine Campion for her cooperation during the data collection.

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