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entailed assessing directions in subject matter content and the types of research strategy employed. In research using human participants, the purposes were to assess: sampling strategy, statements limiting generalizability, incentive use, and the use of undergraduates (UGs) as participants. Finally, with studies utilizing UG participants, the purpose of this paper was to assess: directions in subject matter content, research strategy, sampling strategy, justification of participants, statements limiting generalizability, and incentive use.

A content analysis of fashion/clothing research articles (n=963) appearing in three scholarly journals between 1996 and 2013.

Consumer behavior was the most frequent research topic and survey methodology dominated the research strategy employed. Majority of samples were nonprobability, slightly over half of the authors provided statements limiting generalizability of their findings, use of incentives was routinely not reported, and a little over a third used UGs as participants. Of researchers using UGs, consumer behavior was the most frequent topic, UGs were justified as participants, and when both UGs and nonstudents were included as participants, comparisons in responses were typically not made.

Articles included were limited to those published in three journals.

Author/reviewer guidelines should suggest providing: an appropriate rationale for UG use; descriptive population statistics; statements limiting generalization; information describing the sampling technique; and information on the use of incentives. Also when authors have UGs and nonstudent adults as participants it would be useful to analyze for significant differences between the two groups.

First investigation of use of UGs as participants in clothing/fashion research.

This research aims to examine how the amount of information provided on a web site affects consumers' perceived risk, satisfaction, intention to revisit, and purchase intent.

A convenience sample of 220 female college students participated in an online experiment. Confirmatory factor analysis, multivariate analysis of variance, and structural equation modeling were conducted.

Significant main effects were found for amount of information on consumers' perceived risk and satisfaction; significant causal relationships were found among perceived risk, satisfaction, intention to revisit, and purchase intent.

Generalizing the findings of the study is limited by the use of only female college student participants and the use of a single type of online retailing. Therefore, future research should consider varied samples and a variety of types of online retail settings to generalize the findings.

The study demonstrates the effect of amount of information on consumers' online shopping behaviors. To reduce risk perception and impact positive consumer shopping behaviors, online retailers should pay attention to the amount of information available on their web sites.

The study provides valuable practical insights to online retailers and academic researchers by suggesting the importance of providing sufficient amounts of information on a web site.

This research is designed to investigate the effects of the apparel online shopping environment on emotions and cognitive and behavioral responses based on Mehrabian and Russell's model, which utilizes the stimulus‐organism‐response (S‐O‐R) paradigm.

A total of 230 female undergraduate students participated in an experiment after browsing a stimulus website. The effects of the use of a model, color swapping on clothing, and enlargement (2 × 2 × 2 between‐subjects factorial design) on emotions and the relationships among pleasure, arousal, perceived amount of information, perceived risk, and purchase intention were tested using SEM.

The results showed an effect of enlargement on pleasure (H1c), a positive relationship between pleasure and perceived amount of information (H2a), and negative relationships between perceived amount of information and product quality and online transaction risk (H3a) and consequential risk (H3b), and between product quality and online transaction risk and purchase intention (H4a). The post hoc test revealed the negative relationships between pleasure/arousal and product quality and online transaction risk, positive relationships between pleasure/arousal and purchase intention, and positive relationship between perceived amount of information and purchase intention.

The study used a sample of female undergraduate students at a Midwest university, which limits generalizability to other consumer groups. The experiment was conducted online and the different computer conditions might have influenced respondents' online shopping experiences.

The study enhances understanding of online shopping environment and relationships among the emotional (pleasure and arousal), cognitive, and behavioral response mechanisms.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of web site atmospherics such as music and product presentation on consumers' emotional, cognitive, and conative responses in online shopping.

A convenience sample of 272 female college students participated in a web experiment employing a 2 (Product presentation: flat vs model)×2 (Music: present vs absent) between‐subjects factorial design.

The findings of this study showed that: product presentation (model vs flat) had a significant effect on consumers' emotional responses; and there were positive relationships among consumers' emotional, cognitive, and conative responses. Unexpectedly, music had no effect on consumers' emotional responses.

Generalizing the results of this study is limited by the use of a convenience sample of college women.

Online retailers need to pay more attention on developing effective online atmospherics that evoke positive shopping outcomes. Based on the findings, product presentation using a model as compared to flat is recommended for online apparel retailers.

The current study confirmed the stimulus‐organism‐response relationship by showing that product presentation (online stimuli) affected emotion and attitude towards the site (emotional/cognitive states) and consequently influences purchase intent (response). Thus, this study provides practical, useful information to web site designers and online retailers by indicating that how web site atmospherics lead to positive consumer shopping outcomes.

The purpose of this study was to examine visual merchandising (VMD) elements of apparel retail web sites, to describe the state of apparel online VMD and to develop a taxonomy of online VMD cues whose effects can be studied empirically.

A total of 50 US and 50 Korean web sites were content analyzed in terms of environment, manner of presentation, and path finding.

Results of the study revealed that many VMD features of offline stores have been implemented online. In addition, some VMD features of online apparel stores do not have a direct offline parallel. The taxonomy of VMD cues can be used by researchers to systematically study the effects of the cues following the SOR Model.

Because of the descriptive nature of the study important discussions about possible effects of various VMD elements on consumer behaviors cannot be addressed. Future research needs to investigate the effects of different VMD features introduced in the study on diverse consumer behaviors.

Using the VMD categories developed and coded in the study, online apparel retailers may be able to gain knowledge about online VMD features they can use to create desirable effects simulating those of in‐store VMD.

In spite of the strategic importance of VMD in online apparel stores, specific online VMD features that may influence consumer attitudes and behaviors have not been identified. Findings provide a comprehensive list of online VMD elements available from apparel web sites that are comparable to traditional offline VMD.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether service attributes available on women's apparel web sites differ from those available on men's apparel web sites in relation to the nine dimensions of E‐A‐S‐QUAL (E‐S‐QUAL for apparel).

Using three separate sources, 97 women's and 97 men's apparel web sites were selected, which constituted a variety of apparel retail web sites that are a fair representation of available US retail apparel web sites. ANOVAs and chi‐square analysis were performed.

The results of content analysis suggest that differences exist between women's and men's apparel web sites in providing online services that improve e‐service quality in such a way that women's web sites provided more service attributes that improve e‐service quality than men's web sites.

The results of content analysis suggest that the distribution or availability of almost half the e‐service attributes analyzed significantly differed between women's and men's apparel web sites. For the further growth of men's apparel shopping via the internet, e‐retailers of men's apparel need to provide e‐services at a more sophisticated level.

This study provides valuable information to both men's and women's apparel e‐retailers to understand their current performance in delivering e‐service and areas for improvement.

Purpose – This paper aims first, to identify online service attributes that facilitate efficient and effective shopping, purchasing, and delivery based on the modified E‐S‐QUAL scale and, second, to evaluate the extent to which current online retailers provide such service attributes as an objective measure of service performance. Design/methodology/approach – A content analysis of 111 women's apparel retail web sites was conducted to assess online retailers' performance in providing online service attributes. Findings – The overall extent to which current online retailers provide online service attributes appears to be low. Managerial implications are provided to help online retailers improve their service performance. Originality/value – This study provides an objective way to evaluate online retailers' service performance and thus complement existing online service quality research based on consumer perceptions and evaluation of online service quality. In addition, the coding guide developed in this study provides an easy and practical tool that can be used by online retailers for the self‐assessment of online service performance.

This research extends Mehrabian and Russell's Stimulus‐Organism‐Response model to include both external (i.e. reputation) and internal source of information (i.e. website quality) as stimuli which affect consumers' response systems. The purpose of this paper is to test a more comprehensive model consisting of reputation and website quality (stimuli), cognition and emotion (organism) and purchase intention (response).

In total, 219 usable questionnaires were obtained at a large Midwestern university through online survey. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed for data analyses.

Reputation had a significant positive effect on consumers' emotion and significant negative effect on perceived risk. All four website quality dimensions had significant negative effects on perceived risk and significant positive effects on emotion, except for customer service. Perceived risk had a significant negative effect on consumers' emotion, and both perceived risk and emotion had a significant impact on purchase intention.

This research employed convenience sampling, which resulted in a majority of female respondents. The results may be generalized to a limited extent.

This study allows for empirical examination of the different effects of various components of retail websites on emotion, perceived risk and behavioral intentions. This research will add value to the related literature by filling the void of previous research and also will provide practical implications for online retailers on designing and maintaining positive consumer response. Strength of the research lies in its ecological validity, since respondents were not simply all reacting to the same single stimulus.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of low task relevant cues presented on apparel web sites on consumer emotions (pleasure and arousal) that in turn influence consumer response behaviors (purchase intention and approach behavior) and examine the influence of product involvement as a moderator of the relationship between such cues and emotions.

A total of 157 female students participated in an online experiment using mock web sites. The paper employed a 2×2 between‐subjects factorial design: low task relevant web cues (presence vs absence) and product involvement (low vs high).

The results revealed that low task relevant web cues induce more pleasure and arousal for online browsers with low levels of clothing product involvement than for those with high levels of clothing product involvement. The results also showed that emotions mediated the relationship between low task relevant web cues and various consumer response behaviors.

The sample of the study was female college students. The relatively homogeneous sample may limit the generalizability of the results.

The paper provides an important implication for online apparel retailers developing web sites that may increase consumer pleasure and arousal and attract consumers with different levels of product involvement.

No study has examined a moderating effect of product involvement, an enduring involvement, between low task relevant web cues and consumer pleasure and arousal. The paper provides understanding of how low task relevant web cues influence consumers with different levels of product involvement.

Visual information quality is one of the most important elements that determines online shoppers' experience on a web site. Yet, currently many e‐tailers use poor quality visual information such as small and blurry images. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of visual information quality on online shoppers' affective responses and behavioral intent toward the web site. The theoretical framework of perceptual fluency, the ease with which perceptual forms (i.e. objects) are processed, guided the research.

A theoretical model was developed based on the literature and tested using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). The model proposed a mediating effect of pleasure in creating positive aesthetic evaluations and behavioral outcomes of the perceptual fluency effect. An online experiment (n=1,999) was employed with two levels of perceptual fluency.

MANOVA results confirmed the perceptual fluency effect on aesthetic evaluation and pleasure. SEM analysis supported the proposed model. Pleasure had a stronger impact on behavioral intent than aesthetic evaluation. Theoretical and managerial implications of the perceptual fluency effect on online consumer behavior are discussed.

Previous research has not addressed perceptual fluency from a strong theoretical framework. The paper empirically tested and extended the perceptual fluency hypothesis. Although previous researchers observed the fluency effect on preference choices without testing the mediating effect of affect, this paper examined the mediating role of affect and confirmed the importance of pleasure in aesthetic evaluation. Also, this paper extends the scope of the perceptual fluency effect beyond aesthetic preference/evaluations to behavioral intent.