• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.793-806
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• 2015

This study is to explore the effect of music characteristics (i.e., likeliness and familiarity of music) on the relationship between mood and attitude toward the product in the online shopping mall selling hand-made shoes. A total of 319 consumers participated in experiments with online shopping mall stimuli with a variety of background music. In results, consumer mood positively affected attitude toward the hand-made shoe products in the online shopping mall under background music. A moderating effect of music likeliness was found in the relationship between mood and product attitude, indicating that mood more strongly affected product attitude under more liked music than under less liked music. When consumers are listening to more liked music and are in good mood, they may build their attitudes toward products independently from their mood, whereas they may build positive attitude under good mood versus negative attitudes under bad mood if they are listening to less liked music. A moderating effect of music familiarity was not found in the relationship between mood and product attitude. Based on results, it was confirmed that the S-O-R model could be applied to explain the effect of background music on consumer responses in online shopping malls. Marketers may be able to select and adjust the likeliness and familiarity of background music to better serve consumers in diverse shopping conditions, referring to the study findings.