Evaluating the influence of music on shoppers' flow in an online fashion retail environment

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Fujiwara, A ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8093-9234, 2018. Evaluating the influence of music on shoppers' flow in an online fashion retail environment. PhD, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

Music is widely considered to be an important atmospheric which influences shoppers' emotions, cognitive evaluations and behavioural outcomes in a traditional in-store retail environment. Nonetheless, there is only limited knowledge on the role of music and its impact in an online retail context. 'Flow' as a measure of shopper enjoyment has been found to have a positive influence on online shoppers' intentional behaviour. To the author's knowledge, there is no comprehensive framework that captures music as a web atmospheric and its impact on shoppers' flow due to a lack of empirical evidence. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the relationship between music as a web atmospheric and shoppers' state of flow (a measure of enjoyment) in an online fashion retail environment. A conceptual framework was developed based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework. Following the between-subject control and intervention approach, a data collection tool that emulates a real-life online shopping experience was designed. A non-probability online questionnaire was conducted using 462 participants. After the preliminary data analysis, structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test direct, indirect and moderation effects of the hypothesised relationships. The analysis found that music has no direct effect on shoppers' state of flow or arousal. Nonetheless, the multi-group analysis evidenced that music is a moderating variable, strengthening the relationship between shoppers' arousal and flow. Furthermore, the SEM also confirmed that the pathways from shoppers' arousal to flow, arousal to pleasure, flow to pleasure remained the same whether participants were exposed to music or not. This indicates that music did not change the relationship structure of the constructs. This thesis contributes to theory by firstly offering empirical evidence investigating the relationship between music as a web atmospheric and shoppers' state of flow. Secondly, the findings offer a new understanding of the moderating effect of music as a web atmospheric. Thirdly, this study provides a theoretically grounded framework, which captures the relationship between music as a web atmospheric, shoppers' state of flow, arousal and pleasure in an online fashion retail environment. Lastly, this study contributes to the methodology in the field of music as a web atmospheric by replicating an authentic shopping environment in order to capture shoppers' real-time online shopping experience.

Item Type:	Thesis
Creators:	Fujiwara, A.
Date:	October 2018
Rights:	This work is the intellectual property of the author, Ayane Fujiwara. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed to the owner(s) of the Intellectual Property Rights.
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	13 Nov 2019 11:51
Last Modified:	13 Nov 2019 11:51
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/38246