Confusion in retailing has attracted increasing attention in the literature. Most of the extant studies concentrate on product-related confusion or the mental state retail shopper confusion. Nevertheless, several recent studies have emphasized the relevance of exploring confusion as an objective property of the store environment. Drawing on this literature stream, the present research conceptualizes the construct store environmental confusion and its six formative dimensions, of which each can be measured through two environmental properties: complexity and conflict. This research seeks to develop, validate, and test a parsimonious index for store environmental confusion. The predictive and nomological validity of the store environmental confusion index is assessed by structural equation modelling and results confirm the hypothesis that store environmental confusion produces undesirable consumer intentions. This research is the first to quantitatively assess the confusion potential of different design factors. The resulting store environmental confusion index can be used to evaluate the confusion potential of various store environments, thereby helping retailers provide customers with a clear and non-confusing store design.

中文翻译：

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在商店中迷失：评估商店环境的混乱潜力

零售中的混乱在文献中引起了越来越多的关注。现有的大多数研究都集中在产品相关的困惑或精神状态的购物者困惑上。然而，最近的一些研究强调了探索混淆作为商店环境的客观属性的相关性。借助这些文献流，本研究将构建存储环境混乱及其六个形成维度概念化，可以通过两个环境属性（复杂性和冲突）来度量每个维度。这项研究旨在开发，验证和测试用于商店环境混乱的简化指标。通过结构方程模型评估了商店环境混乱指数的预测和法理有效性，结果证实了假设，即商店环境混乱会产生不良的消费者意图。这项研究是第一个定量评估不同设计因素潜在混淆的方法。所产生的商店环境混乱指数可用于评估各种商店环境的混乱可能性，从而帮助零售商为客户提供清晰且不混乱的商店设计。