The Roar of the Crowd: How Interaction Ritual Chains Create Social Atmospheres

Atmospheres are experiences of place involving transformations consumers’ behaviors and emotions. Existing marketing research reveals how atmospheric stimuli, service performances, ritual place-making enhance create value for firms. Yet it remains unclear shared atmosphere emerge intensify among groups people during collective live events. Accordingly, this article uses sociological interaction theory to conceptualize “social atmospheres”: rapidly changing qualities created when a focus aligns emotions behavior, resulting in lively expressions effervescence. With data from an ethnography English Premier League football stadium, the authors identify four-stage process creating atmospheres chains. This framework goes beyond conventional retail servicescape design by demonstrating that social mobile cocreated between firms consumers before, during, after main event. The study also rituals can be disrupted offers insight as balance key tensions means customer experiences, loyalty, communal attachments.