a b s t r a c t Zajonc's (1980) theory of emotions and Mehrabian and Russell's (1974) stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework inform the development of a model of online customer behavior. The model examines the impacts of the three types of emotions (pleasure, arousal, and dominance) on perceptions of site atmospherics (informativeness, effectiveness, and entertainment). In turn, the associations of site atmospherics on site attitudes, site involvement, service attitudes, and purchase intentions are investigated. The model is compared between Canadian and Chinese customers based on Hofstede's (1991) cultural value dimensions.The findings supported the model and revealed several non-invariant paths between the groups. Particularly, the impact of pleasure (dominance) on the other behavioral variables was higher for Canadian (Chinese) compared to Chinese (Canadian) customers. Moreover, the impacts of low (high) task relevant cues were stronger for Chinese (Canadian) customers compared to their Canadian (Chinese) counterparts. Discussion centers on the theoretical and practical implications of the findings.

PurposeThe main objective of this paper is to compare consumers' online shopping behavior across three types of services (i.e. search, experience, and credence). Reviewing the marketing and psychology literatures, this study aims to propose that consumers' emotions (pleasure, arousal, and dominance) influence their perception of site atmospheric cues (site informativeness, effectiveness, and entertainment), which, in turn, impact consumers' site attitudes, site involvement, and purchase intention. It also aims to test the proposed model for three major types of services (i.e. search, experience, and credence) and to compare the path coefficients of all the relationships in the model across the three groups.Design/methodology/approachLab experiments were conducted for data collection and structural equation modeling was utilized for multi‐group analysis.FindingsThe results supported the proposed model and revealed several non‐invariant structural paths across the three groups.Research limitations/implicationsThe student sample may not represent the general population.Practical implicationsSearch‐, experience‐, and credence‐based services should attempt to evoke the most desired consumer emotional types (pleasure, arousal, and dominance).Originality/valueUnlike many other studies in services marketing, this paper tests the proposed model across different service types to increase the generalizability of the results.

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