مقایسه SEM و روش SEM بیزی رفتاری در فروشگاه A comparison between structural equation modelling (SEM) and Bayesian SEM approaches on in-store behaviour

1 Introduction Kotler (1974, p. 50) first defined atmospherics as “the conscious designing of space to create certain effects in buyers”. Since the 1970s, both retailers and marketers across the globe have attempted to manipulate various aspects of store atmospherics that appeal to the human senses (e.g. climate, music, scent, in-store display, etc.) to stimulate positive consumer reactions. In fact, this long-standing preoccupation with atmospherics is intensifying especially in the highly competitive retail sector worldwide (Kumar and Kim, 2014). This is because both retailers and marketers regard store atmospherics as a highly effective aspect of marketing that they could fully manipulate (Heung and Gu, 2012; Turley and Chebat, 2002). Most importantly, there is a wealth of evidence that most consumers consider store atmospherics as an important criterion when deciding where to shop (see, for instance, Nicholls, Li, Mandokovic, Roslow and Kranendonk, 2000; Kusumowidagdo, Sachari and Widodo, 2012). This justifies retailers’ emphasis on creating an appealing environment to evoke shoppers’ emotions that, in turn, trigger ‘desirable’ behaviours such as increasing time and money spent, positive word-of-mouth communication, and higher re-purchase intentions. The widespread interest in atmospherics has also triggered a wealth of related academic research (e.g. Mohan, Sivakumaran and Sharma, 2012; Turley and Milliman, 2000; Heung and Gu, 2012; Ballantine, Jack, and Parsons, 2010; Cai and Shannon, 2012, Haque and Rahman, 2009, Kumar, Garg, and Rahman 2010; Ong, Khong, Faziharudean and Xin, 2012). Despite the significant amount of empirical work on atmospherics, existing evidence is largely mixed and inconclusive. For instance, Hussain and Ali (2015) found that the use of music and colour by retailers have insignificant impact on consumers’ purchase intention. Therefore, even though it may be intuitively appealing to presume that many ‘typically researched’ aspects of atmospherics do significantly influence consumer behaviour, this may not necessarily be the case.