Measuring the prototypicality and meaning of retail environments

An empirical study involving fast-food restaurants is used to examine the role of external and internal environmental attributes in determining the degree to which retail services are perceived as prototypical of a category of retail services and similar to one another. The survey involved a total of 86 undergraduate students and 15 fast-food restaurants. The results indicate that both exterior and interior environmental cues are significantly related to overall resemblance among fast-food restaurants. Exterior resemblance is a particularly strong predictor of typicality, attitudes, and outlet share. The significant and positive relationships between typicality, consumer attitudes, and market share are also evident. In general, the findings suggest that, whenever a firm's product is intangible, customers are likely to rely on environmental cues to help categorize and form expectations regarding the service they will receive.