The Effect of Environmental Perceptions on Behavioral Intentions Through Emotions: The Case of Upscale Restaurants

Abstract

This research built a conceptual model to show how customers’ perceptions of dining environments influence behavioral intentions through emotions in the upscale restaurant setting. An environmental psychology model was proposed to explore the linkages between customers’ perceptions and emotions (pleasure and arousal) and between customers’ emotional states and behavioral intentions. A structural equation modeling analysis revealed that facility aesthetics, ambience, and employees had significant effects on the level of customer pleasure while ambience and employees significantly influenced the level of arousal. In addition, pleasure and arousal had significant impacts on behavioral intentions, and pleasure appeared to be the more influential emotion of the two. Implications for restaurateurs and academic researchers are also discussed.

Pleasure, Arousal, Dominance: Mehrabian and Russell revisited

“…Affect and cognition Russell, Ward, Pratt and Lanius (1980, 1981, 1984, 1999 and Zajonc (1984) conceived pleasure and arousal as indicators of affect, and considered dominance to be a more cognitive indicator (Russell, Pratt, 1980;Russell, Ward, Pratt, 1981). In environmental psychology research affect is a central theme (Russell and Pratt, 1980;Baker, 1992;Ang, 1997;Chebat, 2003;Ryu, 2007). According to Ulrich (1983), "Affect is central to conscious experience and behaviour in any environment, whether natural or built, crowded or unpopulated.…”

“…They use three emotional dimensionspleasure, arousal and dominance -to describe human perceptions of physical environments. In the last four decades, pleasure, arousal and to a lesser extent dominance have been used and are still used by numerous researchers in the field of environmental psychology (Bellizi, 1983;Bradley, 1992;Baker, 1992;Donovan, 1994;Dubé, 1995;Berleant, 1997;Floyd, 1997;Eastman, 1997;Kaplan et al, 1998;Wirtz, 2000;Mattila, 2001;Chebat, 2003;Stamps, 2003;Bigné, 2005;Laroche, 2005;Ryu, 2007;Arifin, 2007;Kuppens, 2008;van Hagen, 2009;Morisson, 2011;Hyun, 2011). Pleasure and arousal are also applied in other disciplines such as the neurological and neuropsychological sciences (Bradley, 1992;Bonnet, 1995;Costa, 2010;Walter, 2011), marketing research (Menon, 2002;Laroche, 2005;Wu, 2008;Lin,2010;Ha, 2010;Penz, 2011), computer systems (Palacios, 2011 and psychological research (Reisenzein, 1994;Bradley, 2008).…”

“…Other authors used the activity factor in their research as well, with different interpretations (e.g. Lindsley, 1951;Duffy, 1957;Berlyne, 1966Berlyne, , 1970Thayer, 1967;Bellizi, 1983;Mano, 1992;Bigné, 2005;Ryu, 2007). Lindsley (1951) and Duffy (1957) conceived activity as a physiological activity.…”

Managing visitors’ dining and retail experiences in South African national parks

“…The introduction of franchised restaurants and shops as suggested by Gäl et al (2007) may also be a way to ensure consistent quality of services and goods. Interestingly, Nature ambience was regarded as a less important factor for a memorable dining experience at national parks, which contradicts the findings by most researchers as discussed in the literature review (Correia et al, 2008;Gül et al, 2007;Ryu & Jang, 2007;Sparks et al, 2008) who found that atmosphere greatly influences dining experiences. This is an intriguing result in the case of a national park, where the dining facilities are regarded as secondary to the wildlife and nature experience.…”

“…In more recent studies, Ryu and Jang (2007) identified five factors contributing to the dining experience in a restaurant context, namely aesthetics, lighting, atmosphere, layout and table accessories. According to Gül et al (2007:38) factors such as restaurant type, food type, atmosphere, and other restaurant facilities were significant.…”