Consumer Perceptions on SST in Retail Atmosphere: An application of S-O-R framework

Purpose: The aim of this study is to understand the internal and external responses that consumers experience when they are exposed to an innovative system in retail stores. This study considered the SST(Self-Service Technology) system in a retail setting as a type of functional environmental stimuli and selected a smart shopping cart as an example of SST system. The influences of functional environmental stimuli on consumers' emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses were examined by applying S-O-R model. In addition, this study attempted to extend the traditional S-O-R model by (a) incorporating personal characteristics variables such as time pressure and perceived crowding and (b) considering not only emotional but also cognitive aspects of consumers' internal responses. Research Design, Data, and Methodology: This study used a video-scenario technique. Participants watched a video about grocery shopping situations using a smart shopping cart and responded to their emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses. An online survey was conducted using Amazon's Mechanical Turk (N = 185). All participants were US consumers over 20 years old and had been shopping at the grocery store in the last month. Data were analyzed through structural equations modeling with AMOS 20. Results: Test results showed that consumers who perceived higher levels of time pressure and perceived crowding in usual shopping situations were more likely to evaluate the SST system favorably. The results showed that personal characteristics have a significant impact on consumers' evaluation of functional environmental stimuli in retail setting. As consumers evaluated the SST system favorably, they experienced more positive affect and less negative affect during their shopping behaviors. Positive affect led to good service quality inference, which further increased patronize intention. However, negative affect did not show a significant impact on service quality inference, but only on patronize intention. Conclusions: This study attempted to investigate the influence of SST system by extending the traditional S-O-R model. This study classified the SST system as functional environmental stimulus of retail stores and analyzed the effect of stimulus on consumers' internal and external responses. The results of this study showed that the introduction of innovative SST can serve as an effective store differentiation strategy in an increasingly competitive retail environment.