Shopping Malls: Just Another Shopping Place? The Case of Physical Environment Quality

A shopping mall is a complex of stores located in a building and it is managed as a single property. This retail format has shown the maximum growth because there, people can find a variety of shopping choices in a friendly and appealing environment, spending their time pleasantly. This issue inspired the implementation of a research paper, whose main objectives are to identify how the physical environment quality affects visitors’ attitude, and whether these feelings influence the visitors’ satisfaction and loyalty. The research frameworks of Ruiz et al. (2004) and Michon et al. (2007) have been applied in order to accomplish the main objectives. Research took place in the city of Larisa, where 229 shopping mall visitors answered a structured questionnaire, forming a representative sample with a response rate of 40%. The findings confirm the hypotheses that visitors’ satisfaction and their emotions are affected by the ambience and design of a shopping mall’s physical environment. Hence, visitors’ loyalty is affected positively by the same reasons. Finally, the managerial implications are discussed, along with the interesting research opportunities arising from this pathfinder work.