Can Hedonic Store Environments Help Retailers Overcome Low Store Accessibility?

This paper presents an empirical investigation of the relationship between store accessibility, store type, and commitment. Based on commodity theory, we predict and test whether the hedonic level of a store interacts with store accessibility to change the relationship between store accessibility and store commitment. Results of a field study indicate that the negative effect of low store accessibility on store commitment is dampened in stores that have higher hedonic attributes. The results are replicated in a laboratory experiment, which rules out an alternative hypothesis for the effect. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.