The role of arousal congruency in influencing consumers' satisfaction evaluations and in‐store behaviors

Purpose – It is widely accepted that consumers enter into a service consumption experience with a set of expectations, including affective expectations. This research aims to investigate the matching effects between arousal‐level expectations and perceived stimulation (i.e. arousal congruency) on satisfaction and in‐store behaviors.Design/methodology/approach – A 3 (under‐stimulation, arousal congruency and under‐stimulation) perceived arousal congruency)×2 valence (pleasant or unpleasant environment) factorial design was employed and tested across two service settings, a music store and a book store. A short narrative was used to induce arousal level expectations (high and low). Subjects were then exposed to a video clip in which the actual arousal of the store environment was manipulated at three levels (high, moderate, low). Consequently, subjects could perceive the store environment to match their expectations (arousal congruency), exceed their expectations (over‐stimulation) or to fall short of their...