Dear Colleagues,

Retail atmospherics (Kotler, 1973) are environmental cues that influence consumers (Spence et al., 2014) and make the difference between business success and failure (Turley and Chebat, 2002). However, atmospherics are rarely studied from the perspective of sustainability, a major consideration in business strategy today. Consequently, in this Special Issue, we invite submissions that specifically explore links between atmospherics and sustainability.

The definition of atmospherics has broadened beyond traditional design and ambient elements (Turley and Milliman, 2000) such as shelves, signage, music, and colours to include virtual and digital (Ballantyne and Nilsson, 2017), natural and biophilic (Tifferet and Vilnai-Yavetz, 2017) and even social (e.g., the presence of employees and customers; Roggeveen et al., 2020) atmospherics. Atmospherics can impact responses at the individual (e.g., emotion) and organizational (e.g., sales) levels (Vilnai-Yavetz et al., 2021) and create customer and employee experiences in various physical and virtual retail venues and servicescapes. 

Retailers are increasingly using atmospherics as part of their sustainability policies and to convey those policies to the public. Examples include preserving and restoring old buildings with unique architectural features and designing fences that incorporate recycled materials. In addition to such environmental and economic types of sustainable atmospherics, atmospherics can be used to advance social sustainability, e.g., enhance consumer wellbeing (Rosenbaum et al., 2017) or reduce employee inequality (Vilnai-Yavetz and Rafaeli, 2021). Relevant questions are: What kinds of atmospherics help customers with sensory disabilities navigate and walk around a mall? Does designing atmospherics from recycled materials increase buying intentions in a store? Which store design elements significantly impact the overall wellbeing of customers and employees? Does investing in restoring old buildings to house stores or restaurants pay off? Can second-hand stores be designed to encourage both donations and purchases?

The goals of this Special Issue are to gather new theoretical insights into the role of atmospherics (natural, artificial, social, digital) in advancing environmental, economic and social sustainability and to provide retailers tools for enhancing their businesses’ sustainability. We invite theoretical, empirical and review papers and encourage authors to use a diversity of methodological approaches (e.g., qualitative, experiments, surveys).

Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Atmospherics and the circular economy (e.g., recycling, second-hand stores);
• Sustainable atmospherics in retailing (e.g., stores, malls, restaurants, and coffee shops);
• Green atmospherics (e.g., daylight, insulation, “green” design);
• Retail atmospherics and climate change;
• Atmospherics and sustainable luxury goods;
• Biophilic atmospherics (e.g., greenery in stores, pets in retail spaces);
• Virtual and digital atmospherics and sustainability;
• Atmospherics and COVID-19 pandemic (social distancing, sanitation, open-air spaces);
• Atmospherics and customers/employees with sensory disabilities;
• Atmospherics that support vulnerable/stigmatized (based on age, race, gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, ethnicity, etc.) employees and/or customers;
• Retail atmospherics and children (moral and functional considerations, e.g., tempting children to purchase);
• Atmospherics, restoration, and wellbeing;
• Potential conflicts between uses of atmospherics and economic, social and environmental types of sustainability;
• Ethical issues in using atmospherics (e.g., designing tempting stores to attract consumers to spend more).

References

Ballantyne, D.; Nilsson, E. All that is solid melts into air: The servicescape in digital service space. Journal of Services Marketing 2017, 31, 226–235.

Kotler, P. Atmospherics as a marketing tool. Journal of Retailing 1973, 49, 48–65.

Roggeveen, A.L.; Grewal, D.; Schweiger, E.B. The DAST framework for retail atmospherics: The impact of in-and out-of-store retail journey touchpoints on the customer experience. Journal of Retailing 2020, 96, 128–137.

Rosenbaum, M.S.; Kelleher, C.; Friman, M.; Kristensson, K.; Scherer, A. Re-placing place in marketing: A resource-exchange place perspective. Journal of Business Research 2017, 79, 281–289.

Spence, C.; Puccinelli, N.M.; Grewal, D.; Roggeveen, A.L. Store atmospherics: A multisensory perspective. Psychology & Marketing 2014, 31, 472–488.

Tifferet, S.; Vilnai-Yavetz, I. Phytophilia and service atmospherics: The effect of indoor plants on consumers. Environment and Behavior 2017, 49, 814–844.

Turley, L.W; Chebat, J.C. Linking retail strategy, atmospheric design and shopping behaviour. Journal of Marketing Management 2002, 18, 125–144.

Turley, L.W.; Milliman, R.E. Atmospheric effects on shopping behavior: A review of the experimental evidence. Journal of Business Research 2000, 49, 193–211.

Vilnai-Yavetz, I.; Gilboa, S.;  Mitchell, V. Experiencing atmospherics: The moderating effect of mall experiences on the impact of individual store atmospherics on spending behavior and mall loyalty. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 2021, 63, 102704.

Vilnai-Yavetz, I.; Rafaeli, A. Workspace integration and sustainability: Linking symbolic and social affordances of the workspace to employee well-being. Sustainability 2021, 13, 11985.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Iris Vilnai-Yavetz
Prof. Dr. Shaked Gilboa
Guest Editors

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• retail atmospherics
• sustainable atmospherics
• green atmospherics
• virtual atmospherics
• retail design
• sustainability
• environmental sustainability
• economic sustainability
• social sustainability
• wellbeing