Perceived retail crowding and shopping satisfaction: the role of shopping values Sevgin A. Eroglu a, * , Karen Machleit b,1 , Terri Feldman Barr c,2 a Department of Marketing, Georgia State University, University Plaza, Atlanta, GA 30303-3083, USA b Department of Marketing, University of Cincinnati, P.O. Box 210145, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0145, USA c Department of Marketing, Miami University, 200 Upham Hall, Oxford, OH 45056, USA Received 1 August 2003; received in revised form 16 November 2003; accepted 26 January 2004 Abstract Two studies were conducted to examine whether shopping values are affected by perceived retail crowding, and whether shopping values mediate the relationship between perceived retail crowding and shopping satisfaction. Results of the first study show that perceived retail crowding affects shopping values, albeit not very strongly. However, the effects appear to be moderated by factors such as personal tolerance for crowding, time spent shopping, shopping intention, and whether a purchase was made. Study 2 indicates that the impact of perceived crowding on shopping value is mediated by emotions experienced by the shopper. The emotions and shopping value reactions, in turn, mediate the effect of spatial crowding on shopping satisfaction. Interestingly, the results show that when these mediating variables are accounted for, human crowding positively affects shopping satisfaction. These findings provide support for the inverted U explanation in the general crowding literature, and suggest new avenues of future research in the context of retail crowding. D 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Retail croding; Shopping satisfaction; Shopping values 1. Introduction Research on theoretical and managerial implications of retail crowding has come a long way from the introduction of the concept into the marketing literature by Harrell et al. (1980). Since then, an impressive body of theoretical (Eroglu and Harrell, 1986) and empirical studies have demonstrated the behavioral and strategic implications of this important construct. In general, two major groups of research can be identified in this stream. Studies on the antecedents of retail crowding examine factors such as perceived risk (Eroglu and Machleit, 1990), expectations (Machleit et al., 2000) and personal control (Hui and Bateson, 1991). Research on the consequences of retail crowding has mainly focused on affective responses (Hui and Bateson, 1991) and satisfaction (Eroglu and Machleit, 1990; Machleit et al., 1994; Machleit et al., 2000). In an effort to expand the existing nomological network, this study examines an additional outcome, namely, the effects of perceived retail crowding on hedonic and utilitarian shopping values (Babin et al., 1994). Two studies are conducted to understand the relationship between perceived retail crowding and customers’ shopping values. The first focuses on establishing the existence of such a relationship and the potential moderating effects of varia- bles previously shown to be important in the retail crowding literature. The second study places shopping values into a structural modeling framework to examine if and how they fit with other demonstrated effects of perceived retail crowd- ing. Specifically, the mediating effects of shopping values on the established relationship between perceived retail crowd- ing and shopping satisfaction are considered. 2. Background 2.1. What is perceived retail crowding? Perceived crowding is a psychological state that occurs when a person’s demand for space exceeds the supply 0148-2963/$ – see front matter D 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2004.01.005 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-404-651-3920; fax: +1-404-651-4198. E-mail addresses: seroglu@gsu.edu (S.A. Eroglu), karen.machleit@uc.edu (K. Machleit), barrtf@muohio.edu (T.F. Barr). 1 Tel.: +1-513-556-7102; fax: +1-513-556-4891. 2 Tel.: +1-513-529-3096; fax: +1-513-529-1290. Journal of Business Research 58 (2005) 1146– 1153