Stimuli–organism-response framework: A meta-analytic review in the store environment

The authors conduct a meta-analysis that aggregates empirical findings from the stimuli–organism–response (S–O–R) framework. In the retail field, research relies on the S–O–R paradigm to explain and present evidence pertaining to numerous environmental cues and their related effects on consumers' responses. However, the literature review provides positive, negative, and even null results in the S–O–R model, producing doubts about its generalization capacity in the retail field. The study provides a quantitative summary of the bivariate findings regarding the antecedents and the consequences of organism trait (i.e., emotions). The study here corroborates the generalizability of the results into S–O and O–R stages. The authors also confirm the emotions' dependency in the organism factor. The results show that the relationship between arousal and pleasure was significant and positive. Both emotions are responsible for much variation on hedonic and utilitarian motivation for shopping. Arousal-hedonic and pleasure-hedonic relationships have stronger effects from the 28 relationships, indicating that consumer emotions and recreational motivation for shopping are strongly associated. In addition, the study examines all identified studies in terms of the following relevant moderator-variables. Some of them were significant. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for practice and further research.