IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v90y2018icp141-150.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can social support alleviate stress while shopping in crowded retail environments?

Author

Listed:
  • Lucia-Palacios, Laura
  • Pérez-López, Raúl
  • Polo-Redondo, Yolanda

Abstract

This paper aims to find out whether sales associates and shopping companions, as two factors of the social servicescape, can help customers alleviate their levels of stress while shopping in crowded retail scenarios. Social Impact Theory is used to build a theoretical framework that is tested on a sample of mall shoppers. The findings demonstrate that sales associates can reduce customers' level of stress in crowded situations by employing their task and interaction competences. Customers with shopping companions feel less stress while shopping. When the companions are similar to the customer in shopping preferences, they can create boundaries to stress created by crowding. Finally, this research offers important implications for store managers as well as for sales associates.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucia-Palacios, Laura & Pérez-López, Raúl & Polo-Redondo, Yolanda, 2018. "Can social support alleviate stress while shopping in crowded retail environments?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 141-150.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:90:y:2018:i:c:p:141-150
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.05.018
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296318302534
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.05.018?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brocato, E. Deanne & Voorhees, Clay M. & Baker, Julie, 2012. "Understanding the Influence of Cues from Other Customers in the Service Experience: A Scale Development and Validation," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 384-398.
    2. Rosenbaum, Mark S. & Kelleher, Carol & Friman, Margareta & Kristensson, Per & Scherer, Anne, 2017. "Re-placing place in marketing: A resource-exchange place perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 281-289.
    3. Adelman, Mara B. & Ahuvia, Aaron C., 1995. "Social support in the service sector : The antecedents, processes, and outcomes of social support in an introductory service," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 273-282, March.
    4. Aude Rychalski & Sarah Hudson, 2017. "Asymmetric effects of customer emotions on satisfaction and loyalty in a utilitarian service context," Post-Print hal-02006451, HAL.
    5. Sharma, Arun & Stafford, Thomas F., 2000. "The Effect of Retail Atmospherics on Customers' Perceptions of Salespeople and Customer Persuasion:: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 183-191, August.
    6. Chebat, Jean-Charles & Haj-Salem, Narjes & Oliveira, Sandra, 2014. "Why shopping pals make malls different?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 77-85.
    7. Borges, Adilson & Chebat, Jean-Charles & Babin, Barry J., 2010. "Does a companion always enhance the shopping experience?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 294-299.
    8. Pan, Yue & Siemens, Jennifer Christie, 2011. "The differential effects of retail density: An investigation of goods versus service settings," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 105-112, February.
    9. Mehta, Ritu, 2013. "Understanding perceived retail crowding: A critical review and research agenda," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 642-649.
    10. Rychalski, Aude & Hudson, Sarah, 2017. "Asymmetric effects of customer emotions on satisfaction and loyalty in a utilitarian service context," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 84-91.
    11. Sarkar Sengupta, Aditi & Balaji, M.S. & Krishnan, Balaji C., 2015. "How customers cope with service failure? A study of brand reputation and customer satisfaction," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 665-674.
    12. Carmen-Maria Albrecht & Stefan Hattula & Donald R. Lehmann, 2017. "The relationship between consumer shopping stress and purchase abandonment in task-oriented and recreation-oriented consumers," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 45(5), pages 720-740, September.
    13. Rosenbaum, Mark S. & Montoya, Detra Y., 2007. "Am I welcome here? Exploring how ethnic consumers assess their place identity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 206-214, March.
    14. Eroglu, Sevgin A. & Machleit, Karen & Barr, Terri Feldman, 2005. "Perceived retail crowding and shopping satisfaction: the role of shopping values," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(8), pages 1146-1153, August.
    15. Hart, Phillip M. & Dale, Rick, 2014. "With or without you: The positive and negative influence of retail companions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 780-787.
    16. Chebat, Jean-Charles & Gelinas-Chebat, Claire & Therrien, Karina, 2005. "Lost in a mall, the effects of gender, familiarity with the shopping mall and the shopping values on shoppers' wayfinding processes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(11), pages 1590-1598, November.
    17. Brexendorf, Tim Oliver & Mühlmeier, Silke & Tomczak, Torsten & Eisend, Martin, 2010. "The impact of sales encounters on brand loyalty," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(11), pages 1148-1155, November.
    18. Sujan, M. & Sujan, H. & Bettman, J. & Verhallen, T.M.M., 1999. "Sources of consumers stress and their coping strategies," Other publications TiSEM c9a16fdd-5d47-453d-b281-6, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Herring Shava, 2024. "Unlocking Customer Happiness and Enhancing Quality of Life: The Potential of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise ICT Initiatives in Stress-Inducing Environments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-23, October.
    2. Stefan Hoffmann & Tom Joerß & Robert Mai & Payam Akbar, 2022. "Augmented reality-delivered product information at the point of sale: when information controllability backfires," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 743-776, July.
    3. Rosenbaum, Mark S. & Edwards, Karen L. & Malla, Binayak & Adhikary, Jyoti Regmi & Ramírez, Germán Contreras, 2020. "Street harassment is marketplace discrimination: The impact of street harassment on young female consumers’ marketplace experiences," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    4. Gong, Siyu & Suo, Danni & Peverelli, Peter, 2023. "Maintaining the order: How social crowding promotes minimalistic consumption practice," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    5. Park, Soobeen & Zhang, Shaoqing, 2019. "A pilot study of circulation layout based on perceived retail crowding," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 305-315.
    6. Eroglu, Sevgin A. & Machleit, Karen A. & Neybert, Emma G., 2022. "Crowding in the time of COVID: Effects on rapport and shopping satisfaction," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    7. Rosenbaum, Mark S. & Friman, Margareta & Ramirez, Germán Contreras & Otterbring, Tobias, 2020. "Therapeutic servicescapes: Restorative and relational resources in service settings," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    8. Lucia-Palacios, Laura & Pérez-López, Raúl & Polo-Redondo, Yolanda, 2020. "How situational circumstances modify the effects of frontline employees’ competences on customer satisfaction with the store," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    9. Tobias Benjamin Scholz & Sven Pagel & Jörg Henseler, 2023. "Shopping Companions and Their Diverse Impacts: A Systematic Annotated Bibliography," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    10. Waites, Stacie F. & Stevens, Jennifer L. & Hancock, Tyler, 2023. "Trauma's effects on shopper choice confusion: The role of psychological hardiness and retailer strategies as mitigating factors," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    11. Gui, Dan-Yang & Liu, Shixiong & Dai, Yu & Liu, Ying & Wang, Xiaoli & Huang, Huiying, 2021. "Greater patience and monetary expenditure: How shopping with companions influences purchase decisions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    12. Shamim, Amjad & Abid, Muhammad Farrukh & Ahmad, Farooq, 2024. "S–O–R based experiential framework for measuring in-store customer satisfaction in non-fuel retailing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Errajaa, Karim & Hombourger-Barès, Sabrina & Audrain-Pontevia, Anne-Françoise, 2022. "Effects of the in-store crowd and employee perceptions on intentions to revisit and word-of-mouth via transactional satisfaction: A SOR approach," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    2. Eroglu, Sevgin A. & Machleit, Karen A. & Neybert, Emma G., 2022. "Crowding in the time of COVID: Effects on rapport and shopping satisfaction," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    3. Lucia-Palacios, Laura & Pérez-López, Raúl & Polo-Redondo, Yolanda, 2020. "How situational circumstances modify the effects of frontline employees’ competences on customer satisfaction with the store," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    4. Das, Gopal & Varshneya, Geetika, 2017. "Consumer emotions: Determinants and outcomes in a shopping mall," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 177-185.
    5. Park, Soobeen & Zhang, Shaoqing, 2019. "A pilot study of circulation layout based on perceived retail crowding," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 305-315.
    6. Gupta, Shipra & Coskun, Merve, 2021. "The influence of human crowding and store messiness on consumer purchase intention– the role of contamination and scarcity perceptions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    7. Vilnai-Yavetz, Iris & Gilboa, Shaked & Mitchell, Vince, 2021. "Experiencing atmospherics: The moderating effect of mall experiences on the impact of individual store atmospherics on spending behavior and mall loyalty," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    8. Wilken, Robert & Stimmer, Elena & Bürgin, David, 2022. "Should retailers encourage couples to shop together?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    9. Kwon, Hyorkjin & Ha, Sejin & Im, Hyunjoo, 2016. "The impact of perceived similarity to other customers on shopping mall satisfaction," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 304-309.
    10. Wenzel, Stefanie & Benkenstein, Martin, 2018. "Together always better? The impact of shopping companions and shopping motivation on adolescents' shopping experience," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 118-126.
    11. Gui, Dan-Yang & Liu, Shixiong & Dai, Yu & Liu, Ying & Wang, Xiaoli & Huang, Huiying, 2021. "Greater patience and monetary expenditure: How shopping with companions influences purchase decisions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    12. Lubart, Allan & Capelli, Sonia, 2024. "Gamification of the point of sale using hybrid-reality games: Non-players' negative influence on players' service experience," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    13. Tobias Benjamin Scholz & Sven Pagel & Jörg Henseler, 2023. "Shopping Companions and Their Diverse Impacts: A Systematic Annotated Bibliography," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    14. Aydinli, Aylin & Lamey, Lien & Millet, Kobe & ter Braak, Anne & Vuegen, Maya, 2021. "How Do Customers Alter Their Basket Composition When They Perceive the Retail Store to Be Crowded? An Empirical Study," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 207-216.
    15. Ahrholdt, Dennis C. & Gudergan, Siegfried P. & Ringle, Christian M., 2019. "Enhancing loyalty: When improving consumer satisfaction and delight matters," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 18-27.
    16. Jacobsen, Jens Kr. Steen & Iversen, Nina M. & Hem, Leif E., 2019. "Hotspot crowding and over-tourism: Antecedents of destination attractiveness," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 53-66.
    17. Uhrich, Sebastian, 2011. "Explaining non-linear customer density effects on shoppers’ emotions and behavioral intentions in a retail context: The mediating role of perceived control," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 405-413.
    18. Ladeira, Wagner Junior & Dalmoro, Marlon & de Oliveira Santini, Fernando & Ruffatto, Juliane & Zanoni, Roberto, 2021. "More bodily motor action, less visual attention: How supermarket stimuli and consumer-related factors influence gaze behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    19. Kim, Minseong, 2021. "Does playing a video game really result in improvements in psychological well-being in the era of COVID-19?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    20. Clauzel, Amélie & Guichard, Nathalie & Riché, Caroline, 2019. "Dining alone or together? The effect of group size on the service customer experience," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 222-228.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:90:y:2018:i:c:p:141-150. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.