Do emotions bring customers to an environment: Evidence from Pakistani shoppers?

The purpose of this study is twofold: First, it examines the impact of emotional states and shopping evaluations on customers’ store choice intentions before entering the store; second, what atmospheric factors and shopping value evaluations affect customers’ emotions after entering the store, which, in turn, influence their final choice decision? To test the proposed hypothesis, data were collected in Pakistan from the real-life customers at a specialty apparel store. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were performed to analyze the data results. Study results disclose that the customers do experience pleasure before being exposed to any environment. The utilitarian value and hedonic value positively affect the store choice intentions of customers before entering a store. While the in-store environmental stimuli influence the pleasure and arousal experienced after entering the store, which, in turn, affects customers’ store choice decisions. This particular study adds to the literature by quantitatively ABOUT THE AUTHORS Saira Aziz is an assistant professor in Marketing at COMSATS University Islamabad, Sahiwal Campus, Pakistan. She has obtained her PhD degree from School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China. Her research interests include consumer behavior and customer shopping behavior issues in retailing. Waseem Bahadur is a PhD scholar at School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China. His research interests include service interactions and corporate social responsibility. Khurram Ejaz Chandia is a PhD scholar at School of Public Affairs, University of Science and Technology of China. His research interests are economic policy and management. Muhammad Badr Iqbal is an assistant professor in Humanities at COMSATS University Islamabad, Sahiwal Campus, Pakistan. Salman Zulfiqar is an assistant professor at COMSATS University Islamabad, Sahiwal Campus, Pakistan. His research interests include entrepreneurship. Binesh Sarwar is a PhD scholar at School of Public Affairs, University of Science and Technology of China. Her research interests are social networking and learning success. PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT This study investigates the impact of emotions on shopper’s store choice intentions before and after entering the store. It is well documented in the previous literature that emotions are induced in response to certain environmental stimuli present at the retail stores. This study’s findings suggest that emotions are not always induced by the environmental factors; however, shoppers may have certain emotions before entering the particular store for shopping, consuming, and experiencing. Similarly, shopping value (hedonic and utilitarian), which shoppers seek from their shopping trips, may drive shoppers to visit a particular store. The utilitarian and hedonic shopping values positively influence the store choice intentions of customers before entering a store. However, the in-store environmental stimuli influence the pleasure and arousal experienced after entering the store, which, in turn, affects customer’s store choice decisions. Aziz et al., Cogent Business & Management (2018), 5: 1536305 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2018.1536305 © 2018 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license. Received: 31 January 2018 Accepted: 02 October 2018 First Published: 19 October 2018 *Corresponding author: Saira Aziz, University of Science and Technology of China, China; Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad-Sahiwal Campus, Sahiwal, Pakistan. E-mail: saira.aziz@mail.ustc.edu.cn Reviewing editor: Qing Shan Ding, University of Huddersfield, UK Additional information is available at the end of the article


PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
This study investigates the impact of emotions on shopper's store choice intentions before and after entering the store. It is well documented in the previous literature that emotions are induced in response to certain environmental stimuli present at the retail stores. This study's findings suggest that emotions are not always induced by the environmental factors; however, shoppers may have certain emotions before entering the particular store for shopping, consuming, and experiencing. Similarly, shopping value (hedonic and utilitarian), which shoppers seek from their shopping trips, may drive shoppers to visit a particular store. The utilitarian and hedonic shopping values positively influence the store choice intentions of customers before entering a store. However, the in-store environmental stimuli influence the pleasure and arousal experienced after entering the store, which, in turn, affects customer's store choice decisions.

Introduction
Retailing research, considering the active role of emotional states on consumer decision making and consumer behavior, has deep roots in environmental psychology literature, owing much to the work of Kotler (1973) and Mehrabian and Russell (1974). Marketing literature has recognized the vital role of emotional states in consumer decision making (Bagozzi, Gopinath, & Nyer, 1999;Gaur, Herjanto, & Makkar, 2014;Sherman, Mathur, & Smith, 1997). Research in this area became popular with the work of Donovan and Rossiter (1982), in which they introduced Mehrabian and Russell's (1974) stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework describing the relationship between environment, mediating variables, and behavioral responses, specifically in the retail context. Several authors have applied the S-O-R framework to explore the effects of retail environmental cues on (1) emotional states and response outcomes of consumers (Baker, Levy, & Grewal, 1992;Donovan, Rossiter, Marcoolyn, & Nesdale, 1994;Kaltcheva & Weitz, 2006;Sherman et al., 1997), (2) store patronage intention (Baker, Grewal, Voss, & Parasuraman, 2002), and (3) spending more time and money (Chebat & Michon, 2003;Morin, Dube, & Chebat, 2007). With the evolution in this literature stream, marketing researchers firmly believe that if atmospheric stimuli influence the shopping experiences by provoking specific emotions in shoppers, then marketers should create attractive and purposeful store environments (Kotler, 1974;Turley & Milliman, 2000). Only a few studies entirely incorporate the integrated impact of store atmospheric elements on emotional states, shopping value, and customers' store choice decisions.
The emotions felt during shopping trips are considered as an essential element in customers' evaluation of a shopping experience, as shopping experiences involving emotions tend to be more memorable (Dasu & Chase, 2010). The literature has widely accepted that emotions influence consumers' purchase and consumption decisions, that means customers' feelings about a product and service affect what they will buy or will not buy (Barsky & Nash, 2002). Moreover, consumer behavior literature reveals that shopping environments can provoke emotional responses in the customers and that such emotions, in response, influence shopping behaviors (Machleit, Eroglu, & Mantel, 2000), satisfaction (Oliver, 1993), and repeat patronage (Allen, Machleit, & Kleine, 1992).
This study mainly aims to examine whether the customer emotions prior entering any shopping environment influence their decision of store choice for shopping experiencing or not? Donovan and Rossiter studied that pleasure and arousal are induced inside the store (1982,1994), while leaving emotions prior entering a store under-researched (Dawson, Bloch, & Ridgway, 1990;Kim, Park, Lee, & Choi, 2016). Second, the effect of in-store cues and emotions on customers' shopping behavior, satisfaction, and loyalty has got sufficient attention by different researchers (Andreu, Bigne, Chumpitaz, & Swaen, 2006;Baker, 1992;Ballantine, Jack, & Parsons, 2010;Donovan et al., 1994;Kaltcheva & Weitz, 2006), while the literature on customers' store choice decisions is very limited. Third, this article also tends to examine the association between shopping value and emotional states, which have not been studied previously. Finally, mediation role of affective states has also been tested between environment and store choice and shopping value and store choice. Therefore, this study incorporates customer emotional states before entering a shopping environment, shopping value expectations, emotions felt on entering a store, and store environmental cues to holistically examine whether emotions play any role in bringing customers to a particular environment or not. Furthermore, this article also examines the impact of environmental cues on consumer emotions which, in turn, influences customer store choice decisions after entering the store.
The rest of this article unfolds as follows: First, following the introduction section, section 2 of this article presents a review of existing literature on the emotional states, shopping value, atmospheric factors, and store choice; next, it discusses the theoretical framework and hypothesis development based on the prior literature; section 3 describes the research methodology comprising sampling and data collection, measures, measurement model, and assessment bias; section 4 presents the data analysis and results; section 5 presents the discussion of the results and practical contribution; and finally, section 6 presents the limitations to the study and future research directions.

S-O-R paradigm
In the field of environmental psychology, Mehrabian and Russell (1974) proposed S-O-R framework, suggesting that environmental stimuli (S) provoke certain emotions (O), which, in response, produce behavioral responses (R) in customers. Primarily, the framework suggested that individual would desire to spend more time and money in a setting, where atmospherics evokes high valence pleasures and medium to high valence arousal. According to this framework, consumers show three emotional states in response to the environmental stimuli: pleasure, arousal, and dominance (PAD). Moreover, these emotional reactions result in two consumer behaviors: approach and avoidance (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974). Later, Donovan and Rossiter (1982) applied this model in a real-life retail context to examine the impact of atmospheric cues on consumer's shopping behavior. They also emphasized that Mehrabian-Russell (M-R) model has an advantage over the other approaches, which measure emotional responses by providing a holistic structure to examine the consumer's emotional reactions with respect to the several atmospheric stimuli. Havlena and Holbrook (1986) also compared the Plutchik and Mehrabian and Russell framework of emotions with respect to consumption experiences. Their finding results showed that the three PAD dimensions captured more information about the role emotion play in consumption experiences than did Plutchik's eight categories of emotions. Researchers, who have applied the S-O-R frameworks, believe that pleasure is more related to the in-store shopping experiences, while the arousal is a powerful predictor of approach and avoidance behaviors in retail settings (Babin, Griffin, Borges, & Boles, 2013;Chebat & Michon, 2003;Donovan & Rossiter, 1982;Donovan et al., 1994). Furthermore, S-O-R paradigm explains the role arousal plays in the retail settings. According to it, environmental stimulus result is positive valence arousal and negative valence arousal. For example, positive valence arousal will result in the approach behavior, whereas negative arousal will result in avoidance behavior. They further elaborate that approach behavior involves customer to stay longer in the store, explore the store further, and interact with the other customers or employees (Morrin & Ratneshwar, 2000). Several other researchers, who have also applied S-O-R framework, believe that pleasure is a powerful predictor of approach and avoidance behaviors in retail settings (Babin et al., 2013;Chebat & Michon, 2003;Donovan & Rossiter, 1982;Donovan et al., 1994). However, they state arousal as a significant driver for experiential consumers (Hirschman & Holbrook, 1982). While dominance is also positively related to approach, but in later studies, dominance was eliminated from the M-R model by Russell and Pratt (1980) for showing insignificant results as a predictor of human behavior (Donovan & Rossiter, 1982). In the same vein of studies, some other authors (Garaus & Wanger, 2016;Kim et al., 2016;Loureiro & Roschk, 2014) also applied the PAD paradigm to understand the in-store consumer behavior. Hence, it suggests that M-R framework provides basic foundations to understand the consumer's decision to stay or leave the particular retail settings. The above-mentioned discussion provides enough supports for application of M-R framework in retail store settings with respect to environmental stimuli and shopping value motivation. This study aims to extend M-R framework by investigating the impact of customer's emotional states on store choice intentions before entering a store and consumer's emotional response in the presence of atmospheric cues and shopping value evaluations on/after entering the store. For the reason considering the relevance, this article is based on the theoretical framework of this prevalent environmental psychological theory developed by Mehrabian and Russell (1974); they also proposed PAD typology, which is considered as a famous model to study emotional responses generally knows as PAD. Several scholars examined that pleasure and arousal adequately captures the range of emotions induced in response to certain atmospheric cues (Eroglu, Machleit, & Davis, 2001;Russell, 1979).

Consumption emotions and atmospheric cues
The term "emotion" can be defined as the cognitive state of readiness, which arises from the mental appraisals of some events and thoughts. Emotions may also possess a phenomenological expression accompanied by psychological processes, which may also result in some physical action (e.g. facial expressions, gestures, and postures), depending on the nature and meaning for the individuals (Bagozzi et al., 1999;Lazarus, 1991;Oatley, 1992).
Therefore, consummation-related emotions are those which are felt directly as a result of consuming any product, availing services, and as a result of some other shopping experiences. The literature on consumptions and emotions shows that emotional experiences related to different consumption and experience situation vary. According to another study "pride" was the most intensively experience emotion related to sentimental objects and "joy" was concerned to recreational experiences and consumptions (Richins, 1997). The authors also found that different consumption and experiences induce unlike emotional reactions because of differences in the consumption and experiential activities involving these situations (Richins, 1997). Besides, these differences exist because the emotional experience depends on the personal congruence of the situation to the consumer (Huang, 2001). That is why, emotions are considered vital, when the consumptions and experience situation are congruent with the consumer (Richins, 1997). Moreover, emotions are found to affect shoppers' decision in various shopping-related situations.
There are several influential and significant studies in the measurement of emotional responses in marketing, consumer behavior, and environmental psychology literature. Edell and Bruke (1987) and Holbrook and Batra (1987) developed a measurement scale for emotions toward advertising; Mehrabian and Russell (1974) postulated three-dimensional emotions in environmental psychology, which are similar to Holbrook and Batra (1987), which were used by Donovan and Rossiter (1982) in the consumption settings to check the impact of emotions on customers behaviors.
According to different studies, the environmental stimuli, including color (Babin, Hardesty, & Suter, 2003), design , aroma (Ellen & Bone, 1998), lighting (Lewison, 1997), and music (Beverland, Lim, Morrison, & Terziovski, 2006), provoke certain emotions, which in response influence the consumer's approach and avoidance behavior. Furthermore, some other studies have also shown the impact of retail atmospherics on the customers' behavior in different ways, such as music, in particular, has a positive effect on the retail patronage (Garlin & Owen, 2006), different music styles and tempos influence the sales in supermarkets (Morin et al., 2007), lighting effects on the merchandise displayed by retailers, increased sales due to attractive store window displays and exteriors (Summer & Hebert, 2001), and spending more time in the store (Spangenberg, Sprott, Grohmann, & Tracy, 2006). Researchers also believe that store atmosphere can have positive and negative effects on customers, which help retailers to develop long-lasting relationships with customers and to get more customer share. Moreover, studies also found if the environments of the retail outlet evoke positive effect, customers will perceive greater value and they may like to stay longer in the store and spend more money (Babin & Attaway, 2000). Babin and Attaway further stated in their study that if the physical environment of the store evokes emotions in customers, it helps them create value; this value will drive the behavioral intentions and determine the repeated behavior. To empirically investigate the vital role of numerous atmospheric factors, which exist in a retail setting, this particular study uses the three-component taxonomy of environmental factors presented by Baker & Cameron (1996).

Emotional states (before entering)
Choosing a store for shopping has been recognized as a cognitive process; it involves an information processing behavior as any other purchase decision involves (Sinah & Banerjee, 2004). In retailing literature, one of the most significant features is a place where customers purchase, consume, and experience products and services. According to Kotler (1973), consumers like to choose store first before selecting a product; in such a case, in the place where they buy, merchandise and service become more influential than the product and service itself.
According to S-O-R model by Mehrabian and Russell (1974), an environmental stimulus evokes the internal feeling states in individuals, which influence their behavioral intentions. Behavioral intentions are specific actions, which an individual may tend to perform in the future toward a product or service (Engel, Blackwell, & Miniard, 1995). Prior marketing literature indicates that emotions significantly influence customers' behavioral intentions (Donovan & Rossiter, 1982;Tsaur, Luoh, & Syue, 2015), consumer decision making (Bagozzi et al., 1999;Gaur et al., 2014) within the retail environment, while the impact of emotional states on store choice intentions prior to entering the store has remained untouched. Similarly, Gaur et al. (2014) suggest that emotions also play an important role in predicting consumer behavior. In the same stream of studies, Tsaur et al. (2015) stated that customers develop positive behavioral intentions, when they experience positive emotions. In other words, authors suggest that the customers' preexisting emotional states before entering the store may influence their intentions to approach or avoid a particular store.
From the above discussion, the following hypothesis has been proposed: H1a: Pleasure experience before entering a store is positively related to customers' store choice intentions.
H1b: Arousal experience before entering a store is positively related to customers' store choice intentions.

Shopping value (before entering)
Shopping value is something that shoppers seek and expect from their shopping trips other than an acquisition of tangible products and services. Today's dynamic market trends have given rise to the value-conscious consumers (Naumann, 1995), coercing retail managers to realize the importance of overall shopping experience by emphasizing that product and service quality is not enough to maintain and sustain a competitive advantage in everyday changing market environment (Hightower, Brady, & Baker, 2002;Woodruff, 1997). Researchers categorize the term "shopping value" into two dimensions: hedonic shopping value and utilitarian shopping value (Babin & Darden, 1995;Babin, Darden, & Griffin, 1994). According to Babin et al. (1994), the hedonic value is the value customers get from the enjoyment and emotional part of the shopping experience, whereas the customers with utilitarian shopping value motivation are more interested in seeking product-related information and are more concerned about the task completion. Further studies in consumer behavior and retailing literature found that customers with motivational or hedonic shopping characteristics were more likely to be affected by the atmospheric cues as compared to the utilitarian customers, who showed more interest in product features (Ballantine et al., 2010).
Although, a vast body of researchers had studied shopping value in consumer behavior and retailing literature, interestingly the interrelationship between shopping value and retail outcomes have not taken much attention of the researchers. Jones, Reynolds, and Arnold (2006) in their study suggested that customer satisfaction, store choice anticipation, and word of mouth are more influenced by nonproduct-related hedonic aspects of the shopping in a retail context, whereas utilitarian shopping value is more intensely related to the re-patronage intentions of the shoppers. However, hedonic shopping value also represents the emotional aspect of the shopping experience and has been actively related to consumer decision intentions (Jones et al., 2006). These findings show that both hedonic and utilitarian shopping values may influence the store choice decision of the patron.
However, hedonic and utilitarian shopping values are different from each other, both do exist in the retail environment regardless of what value customers seek from the shopping experience, and both are equally important to the customers (Bradley & LaFleur, 2016).
The following hypothesis has been proposed from the above discussion: H2a: Hedonic shopping value is positively associated with customers' store choice intentions.
H2b: Utilitarian shopping value is positively associated with customers' store choice intentions.

Atmospheric cues (after entering)
Although Kotler was first to introduce the term "atmospherics," which describes the totality of the surroundings (Turley & Milliman, 2000). Later on, several other authors also studied the atmospheric elements before Kotler's work (Frank & Massey, 1970;Kotzan & Evanson, 1969;Smith & Curnow, 1966). The atmosphere refers to the efforts retailers put in creating such a shopping environment that produces some specific emotional states in shoppers, which increase their purchase probability (Areni & Kim, 1994).
Similarly, the perceived service-scape may evoke certain emotions, which in the reaction can affect the customers' behaviors (Bitner, 1992). In a long vein of study, Mehrabian, Russell, and their colleagues have plausibly studied the emotional responses to the environments (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974;Russell & Lanius, 1984;Russell and Pratt 1980;Russell & Snodgrass, 1987). According to the researchers, the physical elements of the environment induce feelings and emotions in individuals, which in response influence their approach and avoidance behavior in a particular environment (Mehrabian & Russell, 1974). Baker and Cameron (1996) describe three dimensions of a retail environment: (1) ambient factors, (2) design factors, and (3) social factors. Therefore, the findings from the previous literature in this field support the significant relationship between environmental stimuli and emotional states fostering positive and negative emotional responses in service (Heung & Gu, 2012;Jani & Han, 2015;Kim & Moon, 2009) and retail settings (Andreu et al., 2006;Leenders, Smidts, & El Haji, 2016). This study employs Baker's three environmental factors to examine their impact on customers' internal evaluations: ambient factors, design factors, and social factors. The ambient factors include the effects of lighting, music, and temperature (Baker & Cameron, 1996;Bitner, 1992).
The focal purpose of design factors is to provide convenience and facilitation to the customers in the retail setting which aids searching product and browsing behavior in the store . Customers do not go shopping in isolation, they are exposed to plenty of internal and external factors, and social interaction with other individuals is one of these elements. Some stores provide high social interaction environments; these stores have more friendly and empathic employees, which tend to induce high feelings of positive arousal than do the environments with low social interaction, where there are few employees who are unfriendly, less knowledgeable, and unsupportive to the customers . The authors propose the following hypothesis from the above discussion: H3a: Ambient factors are positively associated with the pleasure experience after entering the store.
H3b: Ambient factors are positively associated with the arousal experience after entering the store.
H4a: Design factors are positively associated with the pleasure experience after entering the store.
H4b: Design factors are positively associated with the arousal experience after entering the store.
H5a: Social factors are positively related to the pleasure experience after entering the store.
H5b: Social factors are positively related to the arousal experience after entering the store.

Shopping value (after entering)
A vast body of researchers had studied shopping value in consumer behavior and retailing literature, but interestingly, the interrelationship between shopping value and retail outcomes has not taken much attention of the researchers. Jones et al. (2006) in their study suggested that customer satisfaction, store choice anticipation, and word of mouth are more influenced by nonproduct-related hedonic aspects of the shopping in a retail context, whereas utilitarian shopping value is more intensely related to the re-patronage intentions of the shoppers. However, hedonic shopping value also represents the emotional aspect of the shopping experience and has been actively related to patronage intentions (Jones et al., 2006). These findings show that shopping value both hedonic and utilitarian may influence the patronage and re-patronage behavior of customers.
Similarly, utilitarian shopping value is more related to the task fulfillment and customers' intentions to revisit the store in future. While the research on hedonic shopping value argues that hedonic shopping value not only provides customers with pleasurable experiences but also leave emotional traces in their memory, which consumers may recall when planning or anticipate some future shopping events (Loewenstein, 1987;Shiv & Huber, 2002). Therefore, we propose the following hypothesis to test: H6a: Hedonic shopping value is positively associated with pleasure experience after entering the store.
H6b: Utilitarian shopping value is positively associated with pleasure experience after entering the store.
H7a: Hedonic shopping value is positively associated with arousal experience after entering the store.
H7b: Utilitarian shopping value is positively associated with arousal experience after entering the store.

Store choice decisions (after entering)
The literature has recognized store choice decision as a problem-solving situation that involves emotions, cognition, and shopping trip incidence (Leszczyc & Sinha, 2000). Customers' decision to choose and visit a particular store for shopping is influenced by the store's atmosphere, where the pleasant atmosphere of the store makes customers stay longer in the store (Donovan et al., 1994;Kotler, 1973). Some other researchers have empirically tested and supported these findings by stating that emotions do influence customers' store choice decision (Kaltcheva & Weitz, 2006;Koelemeijer & Oppewal, 1999;Mattila & Wirtz, 2001).
An essential aspect of customers' evaluation of shopping experience is the emotions customer feel during shopping. Similarly, emotionally charged experiences tend to be more memorable (Dasu & Chase, 2010). Prior research in retail settings suggests that emotions experienced in a retail environment affect approach-avoidance behavior and behavioral intentions of the customers, such as shopping value, store choice, time spent, and money spent in the store (Andreu et al., 2006;Babin et al., 2013;Baker et al., 2002;Dawson et al., 1990;Donovan & Rossiter, 1982;Donovan et al., 1994;Lin & Liang, 2011;Morin & Chebat, 2005;Morinson, Gan, Dubelaar, & Oppewal, 2015). Similarly, Andreu et al. (2006) state that emotions evoked by the retail environment influence patronage and re-patronage intentions, customers' desire to stay longer in the store.
Thus, the hypotheses to be tested are as follows: H8: Pleasure experience after entering store is positively associated with customers store choice decisions.
H9: Arousal experience after entering store is positively associated with customers store choice decisions.

Conceptual model
The authors proposed above-mentioned hypotheses based on the empirical and theoretical backgrounds of the study. This study contains two structural models based on the existing literature as shown in Figures 1 and 2. The proposed theoretical models of this study hypothesized that the respondents' emotional states and shopping value expectations influence their store choice intentions before being exposed to the particular store environment, and on entering a store, store atmospheric elements and shopping value bring a change in customers' existing emotional states, which, in turn, influences store choice decisions.

Sample and data collection
This study applies structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to develop and assess the conceptual framework. The survey questionnaire has been divided into two portions: before entering the store and after entering the store. Respondents were asked to recall, if they were feeling any emotions before entering the store to answer the first portion of the survey questionnaire. The data for this study were collected in Lahore, Pakistan. Lahore is the second largest metropolitan city of Pakistan ranked 122 among the wealthiest cities in the world. A total of 980 real-life shoppers were randomly approached at fashion apparel store. Self-administered close-ended questionnaires were distributed to get the responses. Overall 394 respondents agreed to participate in the study. Due to incomplete data, the authors discarded 34 questionnaires and used a total of 360 useful questionnaires for further analysis with a response rate of 37%. The sociodemographic profile of respondents showed that 37.2% of the respondents in the sample were male (n = 134), and 62.8% respondents in the sample were females (n = 226). The respondents between 20 and 40 years were approached to respond the survey questionnaires. Table 1 shows the demographic characteristics of the respondents.

Measures
In this study, an initial listing of measurement items was adapted from existing literature. Items for store ambiance/atmosphere were adapted from Kumar and Kim (2014), who adapted these measures from Baker, Grewal, and Parasuraman (1994) three atmospheric components, comprised of ambient factors, design factors, and social factors. Ambient, design and social elements consist of five, four, and four items, respectively. Items for emotional states were adapted from Donovan and Rossiter (1982), who adapted the scale from Mehrabian and Russell (1974). Store choice intentions and store choice decisions were adapted from Donovan and Rossiter (1982), who adapted the scale from Mehrabian and Russell (1974). Items for hedonic shopping value were measured using three items adapted from Haas and Kenning (2014), while three-item scale for utilitarian shopping value was adapted from Jones et al. (2006), who adapted these items from Griffin, Babin, and Modianos (2000), and one item for utilitarian shopping value was adapted from Kang and Park-Poaps (2010).
This study also captures the socioeconomic status of the respondents through multiple socioeconomic measures of gender, age, education level, and family income. Gender and family income were used as the control variable to test their effects on the consumer behavior and decision making. Prior literature on consumer behavior and retailing confirms the significant differences between the male and female shopper behaviors during shopping trip (Jackson, et al., 2011;Lim et al., 2007;Michon et al., 2007;Raajpoot et al., 2008). For shopping value, atmospheric factors, and store choice, respondents were asked to rate their responses on 5-point Likert scales ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree" where "strongly disagree" had been valued at 1 and "strongly agree" had been valued at 5. All the scales, that is, semantic differential scale and Likert scales used in this study to measure the constructs have shown high aptitude traits in existing consumer behavior and retailing literature (El Hedhli, Zourrig, & Chebat, 2016).

Measurement model
Primarily, the authors assessed the measurement model by testing the content, convergent, and discriminant validities by employing exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and SEM. The CFA results revealed that only item loadings, which were above 0.6, were included. The derived dimensions excluded the items with loading less than 0.6. The threshold values for Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability, and average variance extracted (AVE) were 0.7, 0.7, and 0.5, respectively (Flynn et al., 1990;Hair, Anderson, Tatham, & Black, 1998;Nunally & Bernstein, 1978). To test that common method bias is not an issue for this study Harman's one-factor test (Podsakoff, Mackenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003) was conducted, which showed that after categorizing all items into five dimensions, the most massive factor explained only 20.31% variance, which means common method bias was not a concern for this study.

Reliability and validity analysis for model 1
The authors applied Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett's test of sphericity to test the validity of the scale using SPSS. The value of KMO was 7.14, which was higher than the threshold value 0.7. The p-value of Bartlett's test of sphericity was zero, which meant that it is also significant. The convergent validity of the model was tested by employing Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability, and AVE; the values of these tests are shown in Table 2.
The discriminant validity of the measurement model 1 was assessed by comparing the relationship between the correlation among constructs and the square root of the AVE of all the constructs. Table 3 shows that the square roots of the AVE are higher than the correlation among the constructs.

Fitting indices for measurement and structural model 1
Analysis of moment structure (AMOS) version 24 was applied to evaluate the goodness of the fit of the structural model 1. The resulting values for the model fit were within the accepted range. Table 4 shows the obtained values and the criterion values for each indicator.

Results of hypothesis testing model 1
After demonstrating the validity of measurement model 1, researchers tested the hypothesized relationship using SEM. The results indicate that the pleasure experienced before entering a store (H1a: β = 0.35, p < 0.001) has a significant positive impact on customer's store choice intentions. The degree of arousal experienced before entering the store (H1b: β = −0.116, p < 0.05) has a negative impact on customers' store choice intentions. Thus, H1a is supported, but H1b is not supported. Customers' store choice intentions were also positively predicted by hedonic shopping value (H2a: β = 0.136, p < 0.01) and utilitarian shopping value (H2b: β = 0.116, p < 0.01). The results show that both hedonic and utilitarian shopping values are positively related to customers' store choice intentions. As a result, both H2a and H2b are accepted. Thus, the model illustrates that the  Figure 3. Hypothesis testing for model 1 (before entering the store).
store choice intentions were predicted by pleasure, hedonic value, and utilitarian shopping value. Those variables together explained 0.334% of the store choice intentions (R 2 = 0.334). None of the control variables have a significant impact on the store choice intentions. Hence, it was concluded that the hypothesized model is acceptable. Results of hypothesis testing for model 1 are shown in Figure 3 and Table 5.

Reliability and validity analysis for model 2
The study employed EFA to test the reliability of the model. The KMO value of model 2 was 7.94, which was higher than the threshold value 0.7. The results of EFA showed that the all item loadings were between 0.843 and 0.998, which is higher than the desired cutoff 0.6. Additionally, it was also noted that after categorizing all items into eight factors, the most substantial factor explained only 13.445% variance, which means common method bias was not a concern for model 2. Also, the p-value of Bartlett's test of sphericity was zero, which is also significant. Next, the convergent validity of model 2 was tested by employing Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability and, AVE; Table 6 shows the resulted values of these tests.
The discriminant validity of the measurement model 2 was measured by comparing the relationship between the correlation among constructs and the square root of the AVE of all the constructs. Table 7 shows that the square roots of the AVE are higher than the correlation among the constructs.

Fitting indices for measurement and structural model 2
The goodness of fit of the structural model 2 was also tested by AMOS version 24. The values for the model fit were even within the accepted range. Table 8 describes the resulting measures and the criterion values for each indicator of model 2.

Results of hypothesis testing model 2
The hypothesis testing for model 2 showed both significant and insignificant coefficient paths. The results indicate that ambient factors have a positive association with pleasure experienced by the customer after entering the store (H3a: β = 0.182, p < 0.01) and also a positive impact on arousal (H3b: β = 0.174, p < 0.001). Therefore, H3a and H3b are accepted. Also, a positive association was found between design factors and arousal (H4b: β = 0.278, p < 0.001), and design factors also show a significant relationship with pleasure (H4a: β = 0.113, p < 0.05). So, both H4a and H4b were supported. The relationship between social factors and pleasure was found significant (H5a: β = 0.129, p < 0.05); similarly, the association between social factors and arousal was also found significant (H5b: β = 0.180, p < 0.001). Hence, H5a and H5b were also supported. It was found that there is a significant negative relationship between hedonic shopping value and pleasure (H6a: β = −0.270, p < 0.01), but an association was found between hedonic shopping value and arousal (H6b: β = 0.094 p < 0.05). Hence, H6a was not accepted, while H6b was accepted. Researchers also Notes: * P ≤ 0.05, **P ≤ 0.01,***p < 0.001 are significants.
Finally, store choice decision was predicted by both pleasure (H8: β = 0.236, p < 0.001) and arousal (H9: β = 1.241, p < 0.001). Therefore, H8 and H9 were accepted. It was also noted that none of the control variables have shown a significant impact on the store choice decisions. It was concluded that the structural model 2 supported all proposed hypotheses except H6a, H7a, and H7b. Figure 4 and Table 9 show the results of hypothesis testing for model 2.

Mediation analysis
H8 and H9 suggest that the emotional states (i.e. pleasure and arousal) mediate the effect of environmental factors and shopping value on customer's store choice decisions. Researchers applied bootstrapping to test the mediating effect in this regard. Table 10 shows that the indirect impact of pleasure on the relationship between ambient factors and store choice decision (confidence interval (CI) 0.95 = 0.077, 0.325), social factors and store choice decision (CI 0.95 = 0.015,  Results also indicate that pleasure does not mediate any relationship between design factors, utilitarian shopping value, and store choice decisions. The indirect effect of arousal on the relationship between utilitarian shopping value, hedonic shopping value, and store choice decision was also found insignificant.

Discussions
The primary theme of this investigation is to gain a good understanding of the effects of emotional states on consumers' store choice intention and final choice decisions before and after entering a store, respectively. The study also provides some important contributions to the literature on emotional states, retail environment, and most importantly customers' store choice evaluation.
The results from emotional states before entering a store suggest that pleasure influences store choice intentions positively. In other words, we can say that emotions can bring customers to an environment, instead feelings are induced within the atmosphere. These study findings are consistent with the arguments of Dawson et al. (1990); according to them, customers' evaluations of the emotional states within the environment may show the feelings that brought them to the environment, instead evoked by the environment. Similarly, a customer may choose a particular store for shopping just because she/he has a definite feeling; the pleasant store environment can uplift these positive feelings and change negative feelings to positive feelings. Moreover, this study also explored that hedonic value and utilitarian value before entering a store evaluations have a significant positive association with the store choice intentions. According to previous studies, shopping value drives the behavior that takes customers to particular stores, whereas the emotional states that customers experience in a store environment may influence their choice preferences (Dawson et al., 1990).
The three environmental factors, ambient, design, and social factors, have shown a positive significant association with the arousal customers felt after entering the store. This means the environmental cues positively aroused customer after entering the store, who was feeling sleepy, lazy, calm, and dull before entering the store. Therefore, pleasure has also shown a positive relationship with ambient, design, and social factors after entering the store. These findings show that the presence of environmental cues inside the retail store can make customers feel happy, excited, satisfied, and pleased. Surprisingly, hedonic shopping value showed a significant negative association with the pleasure after entering the store, while a significant positive relationship has been found between hedonic shopping value and arousal. As both hedonic shopping value and arousal are related to the experiential and affective aspects of the shopping, our study findings are consistent with the results of Hirschman and Holbrook (1982), which state that arousal derives the experiential shopping behaviors in customers. Next, interestingly, utilitarian shopping value showed no association with both pleasure and arousal. This means customers with fictional orientation only focus on the accomplishment of their task, that is, buying a product or service. Finally, the mediation analysis also provides some exciting findings: (1) Pleasure strengthens the relationship between ambient factors, social factors, and store choice decisions, (2) while arousal showed an indirect significant impact on all environmental factors including ambient, design, and social factors and, in turn, influenced final store choice decision; (3) pleasure also mediated a relationship between hedonic shopping value and store choice decision but no mediation took place between pleasure and utilitarian shopping value. Soesman (2005) assumed that on one hand, less amount of pleasantness could cause the feelings of disharmony; on the other hand, too much pleasantness can also cause the feelings of disharmony that may make individuals dull and lazy. Another psychological phenomenon that may influence the pleasure is consumers' expectations from an environment (Vonk, 2003;Wilson, Lisle, Kraft, & Wetzel, 1989).
Although the consumer behavior literature endorses the significant effects of gender and family income on consumer behavior and decision making, none of the control variables (i.e. gender and family income) of this study have shown the significant impact on the proposed relationships. This study's findings are consistent with the findings of Baltas et al. (2010).

Conclusion
Overall, the findings of this research article revealed that emotional states are not only evoked by the environmental factors but also customers may go to an environment just because of their feeling states. These feeling states could be positive or negative. Already aroused and pleased customers before entering a store may choose a store with a pleasant environment to elevate their feelings of pleasure and arousal, while less excited customers with utilitarian shopping value may avoid the store with the pleasant environment, as they may feel highly aroused environments a hurdle in their task fulfillment. However, the unpleasant atmosphere can ruin the highly excited and happy feeling states of the customers after entering the store. The results from emotional states before entering a store suggested that pleasure influenced store choice intentions positively. In other words, we can say that emotions can bring customers to an environment, instead feelings are induced by the atmosphere. This means the environmental cues have made customers positively aroused after entering the store, who may be feeling sleepy, lazy, calm, and dull before entering the store. Interestingly, hedonic shopping value showed a significant negative association with the pleasure after entering the store, while a significant positive relationship has been found between hedonic shopping value and arousal. As both hedonic shopping value and arousal are related to the experiential and affective aspects of the shopping, our study finding are consistent with the results of Hirschman and Holbrook (1982), which state that arousal derives the experiential shopping behaviors in customers.

Practical implications
The study findings suggest numerous implications for the prestige store managers. First, considering customers' emotional states before entering the stores are of great importance. Our study results revealed that customers' emotional states influence customers' store choice intention before entering an environment. Therefore, retail managers should consider managing customers' feeling states by providing favorable in-store environments, because negative store experience can even ruin the positive feelings customer have before entering the store. Retailers should not only guarantee that customers positive feeling states remain positive or yet become stronger but must also provide some value that changes their negative emotions to positive emotions (Sherman et al., 1997).
Second, as the study also confirms that both pleasure and arousal influence the store choice decisions on entering a store. Store managers can take many steps to provide customers with positive store experience: beautiful lighting, appealing color scheme, in-store themes, cleanliness, appropriate temperature, and employee empathy, because the attractive and appealing store environments create positive reactions from customers (Newman & Patel, 2007). Third, managers must carefully design the store environments, because utilitarian shoppers may enjoy the hedonic surroundings, but the task-oriented environment will tend to influence hedonic shoppers in the real utilitarian setting negatively. Moreover, functional shoppers may also find too much aroused environment an obstacle in fulfilling the task (i.e. just buying the desired product).

Limitations and future research
Like many research studies, this study also has few limit restrictions. First, this study is purely quantitative as the data for this study were collected through survey questionnaires. Future studies should also consider conducting field experiments in real store settings to validate the study results. Second, only one type of store was chosen to collect data; potential researchers should consider some other retail environments such as coffee shops, cinemas, recreational parks, ice-cream parlors, and restaurants. Third, research on emotional states prior entering to store is scant; this area needs attention to investigate this phenomenon holistically. Fourth, previous studies have explored the relationship among shopping value, emotional states, and shopping behaviors (Arnold & Reynolds, 2003); future studies should focus on the relationship between psychological countries and choice intentions with the moderating effect of shopping motivation prior entering the store and after entering the store. Moreover, the association between selfcongruence, emotions, and store choice criteria can be a potential topic of interest for the future investigations in this field. Finally, store choice behaviors have been given much attention in the consumer behavior literature, but store choice, specifically, has not been investigated enough. Some store choice-related issues need to be addressed in detail. For example, why customers choose a particular store for shopping/experience? Do they pick any environment due to their internal feeling states? Does selecting a specific environment help changing their existing state of emotions?

Funding
The authors received no direct funding for this research.