Design factors-customer behaviour relationship: The mediating role of emotions and cognition

Although the role of retail environment in general in affecting customer behaviour is highly acknowledged by marketing scholars, the mechanism of the effect is still a promising area of research. This working paper presents a conceptual framework to investigate the effect of the design factors of a mall’s shopping environment on customers’ behaviour in the context of Jordan. With the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) as a backbone, two competing mediation scenarios for emotion and cognition in this effect are posited. According to the first scenario, customers’ emotions and cognition are depicted to work independently in channelling the effect of design factors on customer behaviour, suggesting a one-step parallel mediation. In contrast, in accordance with the cognitive theory of emotions, this effect is posited to flow through a cognitive-emotional order of mediation, suggesting two-step sequential mediation. Accordingly and supported by the relevant literature, a conceptual model comprising nine research hypotheses is developed to be empirically tested in a further work