Ronald E. Milliman’s research while affiliated with Western Kentucky University and other places

Most studies of retail atmospheric effects on consumers have examined the impact of one or two variables rather than perceptions of the retail environment as a whole. Rather than focusing on the influence of particular variables on a shopper’s behavior, this paper explores consumers’ affective perceptions of a complete or "macro" retail environment.

This paper suggests a conceptual approach which further expands and delineates the concept of a service encounter. The authors focus on those situations where the customer does not interact primarily with another human being but instead interacts with the service facility or atmosphere. These facility-driven service encounters can have differences from encounters that are primarily people-based. This paper explores the notion of a facility-driven encounter and provides examples of them. Second, the authors discuss a series of propositions about these encounters, highlighting on issues which differentiate facility-driven services from people-based services.

This is a conceptual paper which examines the progress made over the past 20 years in the exploration of the effects of environmental cues or “atmospherics” on buyer behavior. Herein the authors review the pertinent literature by constructing a comprehensive table of the em-pirical studies in this area, then, comparing and contrasting the various findings associated with these investigations. In addition to discussing current trends in research methodologies, the paper concludes by offering numerous suggestions for future atmospheric-related research.

This review focuses on the research conducted over the years on the effects of facility-based environmental cues, or “atmospherics”, on buyer behavior. We review the pertinent literature by constructing a comprehensive table of the empirical studies in this area that focuses on the various findings associated with these investigations. This summary table indicates that atmospheric variables influence a wide variety of consumer evaluations and behaviors. In addition to discussing the findings and contributions of this literature stream, the article concludes by identifying gaps in the literature and suggesting potential future topics for atmospheric related research.

This review focuses on the research conducted over the years on the effects of facility-based environmental cues, or “atmospherics”, on buyer behavior. We review the pertinent literature by constructing a comprehensive table of the empirical studies in this area that focuses on the various findings associated with these investigations. This summary table indicates that atmospheric variables influence a wide variety of consumer evaluations and behaviors. In addition to discussing the findings and contributions of this literature stream, the article concludes by identifying gaps in the literature and suggesting potential future topics for atmospheric related research.