Inter-relationships among dominance, energetic and tense arousal, and pleasure, and differences in their impacts under online vs. offline environment

Only a few studies have investigated dominance and observed mixed results. The impact of arousal on pleasure and behavior has also produced inconsistent or no meaningful results. In addition, emotional responses such as dominance, arousal, and pleasure have been assumed to be independent, which have resulted in a void in the relationships research among these constructs. Based on this research tradition, the present study proposed an inter-relationship among dominance, energetic and tense arousal, pleasure, and their impact on intention. A two-dimensional concept of energetic arousal and tense arousal has never been adopted and studied in previous retail research. Dominance, energetic arousal, and tense arousal are introduced to explain inconsistent relationships found in previous retail consumer studies. Results from a survey of 406 consumers (217 from offline store customers and 189 online store users) using PLS demonstrated that that (1) while dominance has a significant positive and/or negative effect on both energetic and tense arousal, it has no impact on pleasure and intention under both offline and online environment; (2) the effect of dominance on tense arousal is not statistically significant in an online shopping environment; (3) both energetic and tense arousal has a positive and/or negative impact on pleasure; (4) energetic arousal affects intention directly and indirectly mediated by pleasure, whereas tense arousal has an indirect effect on intention; and (5) the results found in testing differences in path coefficients under the two different shopping environment suggested that (1) the impact of dominance on energetic arousal is stronger under offline shopping context; (2) the effect of dominance on tense arousal is stronger in online environment; (3) the effect of energetic arousal on pleasure is stronger in offline shopping context; and (4) the impact of tense arousal on pleasure is stronger under offline shopping environment. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in conclusion.

► Shoppers’ emotional responses have interrelationships among themselves.
► Energetic and tense arousal mediates effect of dominance on pleasure and intention.
► Energetic arousal affects intention directly and indirectly through pleasure.
► Tense arousal affects intention indirectly.
► Effects of emotions on intention are different under different shopping environment.