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Architectural design and consumer experience: an investigation of shopping malls throughout the design process

Ye Yuan (School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China) (Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore)
Gang Liu (School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China)
Rui Dang (School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China)
Stephen Siu Yu Lau (Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore)
Guanhua Qu (School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China)

Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics

ISSN: 1355-5855

Article publication date: 8 February 2021

Issue publication date: 18 October 2021

1073

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the design elements of environmental features that affect consumer experience in shopping malls and develop a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between architectural design and consumer experience.

Design/methodology/approach

Through the systematic literature review, 13 design elements were obtained and then verified through interviews of 30 professional designers. The obtained elements were made into a questionnaire to collect data across China from 1,016 consumers of different groups. Data were analyzed using cluster analysis, principal component analysis and difference analysis.

Findings

The results show that design elements that influence consumer experience in shopping malls are a four-dimensional construct: visual atmosphere, physical environment comfort, space structure and business planning, among which space structure and business planning play a larger role in the consumer experience. In addition, the perception differences of consumers for those elements are significant due to the individual differences.

Originality/value

This paper comprehensively investigates the architectural design elements affecting consumer experience in the Chinese mall context. Moreover, it provides unique insights about the relationship between architectural design and consumer experience by exploring the categories, weights and perception differences of those elements.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Funding: This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFC0700200); and the Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (Grant No. B13011).

Citation

Yuan, Y., Liu, G., Dang, R., Lau, S.S.Y. and Qu, G. (2021), "Architectural design and consumer experience: an investigation of shopping malls throughout the design process", Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 33 No. 9, pp. 1934-1951. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJML-06-2020-0408

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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