Co-creation of background music: A key to innovating coffee shop management

•We investigate the application of background music (BGM) to coffee shop management.•We examine the mechanism underlying congruity effect: perceived mood.•We explore the effect of BGM co-creation in boosting patrons’ approach behavior.

Music is known to affect patrons in a service environment, and its types and applications have been widely studied. However, little research has yet addressed the possibility for patrons to create their background music (BGM) in collaboration with service providers. Also, the coffee shop has often been neglected as a research area for BGM application. We, thus, explore the potential for co-creation of background music (BGM) in coffee shop management. Based on the notion of congruity effect, which holds that congruent BGM leads to approach behavior, our research unveils that patrons experience a positive mood from BGM in harmony with a coffee shop environment and in turn show approach behavior represented by spending more money and time. More importantly, our research further explores the effect of BGM co-creation in boosting approach behavior (via enhanced perceived mood). The findings of this research suggest that coffee shop owners would benefit from adopting this co-creation strategy in managing their coffee shops.