While human crowding has been considered a driver of negative emotions, leading to unpleasant shopping experiences, other studies have found that it does not necessarily result in negative emotions but creates excitement in certain shopping contexts. To fill the research gap, this study investigates whether perceived competition mediates the relationships among human crowding, emotions, and hedonic shopping value. The authors tested the model with actual shoppers from fast fashion retailers in the United States. Results showed that when perceived human crowding is mediated through perceived shopping competition, it creates positive emotions and induces hedonic shopping value.
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