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Under the growing preference for ethnic food and an increase in ethnic restaurants, it is crucial to understand the value of restaurants gaining a competitive edge for their customers. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how exposure to the servicescape affects the formation of emotion and behavior.

This study is based on online survey results pertaining to the servicescape of ethnic restaurants and diners’ evaluations of their experience. The survey items were developed from previous related literature. For accurate data collection, the survey respondents were limited to consumers who had dined in an ethnic restaurant at least once within the previous six months.

The results reveal that substantive and communicative servicescape had a positive influence on both exoticism and authenticity; moreover, exoticism positively affected authenticity. In turn, exoticism and authenticity had a positive influence on place attachment. It also appears that place attachment positively affected experience intensification and extension.

The findings of this study are expected to contribute to competitive management strategies to expand ethnic restaurants. Based on the results, managerial strategies will be set up, focusing on which aspects should receive attention to ensure the intensification and extension of diners’ experiences at ethnic restaurants.

There has been very little research on ethnic restaurants in relation to the integrated relationship between servicescape, authenticity, place attachment and postexperience behavior. This study assumes that the overall service experience of customers of ethnic restaurants can be perceived and evaluated based on substantive and communicative servicescape and that such restaurants can benefit by understanding the specific factors that will give them a competitive edge in running their business.

Through empirical research anchored in environmental psychology, the paper presents formative indicators that form an evaluation set “S.E.E.” (service environment evaluation), to simplify and systematize the measurement of visual aesthetics of servicescapes through consumers' perspective.

The authors adopted formative index development methodology, employing a one-shot experimental design using photographic surrogates of four different servicescapes (n = 1400), and testing the index with eight noted global servicescape images.

Findings reveal that visual aesthetics of servicescapes can be captured using the composite index we developed with five dimensions: complexity, coherence, legibility, mystery and novelty. Also, service type: hedonic/utilitarian, does influence how consumers evaluate servicescape visual appeal.

Formative indicators constituting S.E.E. enables assessment of subjective visual aesthetics of servicescapes holistic, objective and an effortless task for marketers, designers and decision-makers; and helps them reliably decide on and skillfully design servicescapes with the required visual appeal.

This study provides insights into the most salient elements of the Costa Rican bar servicescape/barscape (atmosphere). This is done qualitatively via six focus groups, six expert interviews, and six on-site observations. Results indicate that servicescape elements traditionally covered by the literature are of secondary importance. Participants instead emphasized social elements (other patrons, staff), supplemented by ambience elements (music, lighting, colors, noise, air, odors, scents). Moreover, the underlying socialization interest steered ambience preferences. Results support the increasingly important social servicescape notion. Generalizing traditionally studied servicescape elements across cultures and hospitality settings, as conventionally done, may result suboptimal. Commonalities might exist. However, research should be specifically contextualized to gain more nuanced servicescape understandings. Relating servicescape preferences to macro, meso, and micro considerations further enhances how servicescapes are understood. This study is the first to explore Latin-American barscapes. Notably, it expressly links servicescape preferences to patronage motives. It thereby uncovers why certain servicescape elements become important.

The purpose of this paper is to review what one knows – and does not know about servicescape and experiencescape. The paper provides a comprehensive conceptualization, discussion of the servicescape and experiencescape and calls for the need for a collective focus of servicescape and experiencescape for the service industry.

This conceptual paper analyzes multiple literature studies related to servicescape, experiencescape and other related concepts such as service quality and customer experience for building a comprehensive framework that draws knowledge from both servicescape and experiencescape in an effort to create a collective focus.

Prior research on the components of servicescape and experiencescape raises more questions than answers. The findings of this study highlight the importance of technology as one of the key components of experiencescape to motivate customers to engage in the consumption environment. Furthermore, the proposed conceptual framework provides a detailed discussion and highlights the importance of using servicescape and experiencescape concepts together as a collective framework to bring about greater benefits to the service industry. The proposed framework suggests that these concepts are not only collective but also interrelated.

Technology is not a tool but an important partner for the firm to create the experience. It can bring together marketing, management and operations within the organization to collectively focus on the customer. Collectively designed servicescape and experiencescape will create lasting memories and emotional connections with customers.

Service organizations can develop smart experiencescapes that positively influence customer value cocreation and heighten customer experience by utilizing technology. Managers are advised to understand consumers' emphasis on technological personalization, aesthetics, functionality, interactivity and social presence while participating in cocreation. Technologies may improve the experience by incorporating real-time and less-restrained interactions between consumers and the service organization.

This paper synthesizes insights from the extant literature related to servicescape, service quality, customer experience and experiencescape. Further, it helps to extend the current understanding of experiencescape and calls for the need to incorporate technology as one of the key experience components in the experiencescape concept. Furthermore, this study highlights the importance and the need to bring these two concepts together with a collective focus to enhance value for the customer. Thus, it is argued here that the collective focus of servicescape and experiencescape in the service industry will create new opportunities for further research and practical applications.

Dyadic services research has increasingly focused on helping providers facilitate transformative service conversations with consumers. Extant research has thoroughly documented the conversational skills that providers can use to facilitate consumer microtransformations (i.e. small changes in consumers’ thoughts, feelings and action plans toward their well-being goals). At the same time, extant research has largely neglected the role of servicescape design in transformative service conversations despite some evidence of its potential significance. To redress this oversight, this article aims to examine how servicescape design can be used to better facilitate consumer microtransformations in dyadic service conversations.

This article is based on an interpretive study of mental health services (i.e. counseling, psychotherapy and coaching). Both providers and consumers were interviewed about their lived experiences of service encounters. Informants frequently described the spatial and temporal dimensions of their service encounters as crucial to their experiences of service encounters. These data are interpreted through the lens of servicescape design theory, which disentangles servicescape design effects into dimensions, strategies, tactics, experiences and outcomes.

The data reveal two servicescape design strategies that help facilitate consumer microtransformations. “Service sequestration” is a suite of spatial design tactics (e.g., private offices) that creates strong consumer protections for emotional risk-taking. “Service serialization” is a suite of temporal design tactics (e.g., recurring appointments) that creates predictable rhythms for emotional risk-taking. The effects of service sequestration and service serialization on consumer microtransformations are mediated by psychological safety and psychological readiness, respectively.

The article details concrete servicescape design tactics that providers can use to improve consumer experiences and outcomes in dyadic service contexts. These tactics can help promote consumer microtransformations in the short run and consumer well-being in the long run.

This article develops a conceptual model of servicescape design strategies for transformative service conversations. This model explains how and why servicescape design can influence consumer microtransformations. The article also begins to transfer servicescape design tactics from mental health services to other dyadic services that seek to facilitate consumer microtransformations. Examples of such services include career counseling, divorce law, financial advising, geriatric social work, nutrition counseling, personal styling and professional organizing.

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the robot restaurant servicescape and robot service competence (RSC) on customers’ behavioral intentions and to analyze the mediating role of hedonic value (HV) and utilitarian value (UV) in these relationships and the moderating role of individual characteristics.

This research involves seven constructs to be measured, namely, servicescape, RSC, negative attitude toward robots (NAR), openness to change (OC), HV, UV and behavioral intention. This research selects Foodom robot restaurants, located in Shunde and Guangzhou of China, as the research site, and the research objects are customers having dinner in the restaurant. A total of 485 valid data was collected. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data, verify the proposed research model, and test the research hypotheses.

The study finds that servicescape and RSC improve customer behavioral intention. Additionally, HV and UV mediate the influence of servicescape and RSC on customer behavioral intention. Moreover, OC negatively moderates the influence of servicescape on UV and that a NAR negatively moderates the influence of RSC on HV.

Through carefully design of servicescape and the improvement in service capabilities of robots, the original service delivery dominated by frontline service personnel can be transformed into service delivery dominated by service robots, which is conductive to providing a pleasant and unforgettable experience for customers.

This study aims to examine the impact of green atmospheric and communicative servicescape dimensions on customers’ emotional and behavioral outcomes and explores the moderating effect of customer familiarity.

Data were collected from coffee shop customers in the USA. Structural equation modeling and a multigroup analysis were used for analysis.

The findings indicated that the atmospheric dimensions of green coffee shops have a greater impact than communicative dimensions on customers’ green place attachment and loyalty. However, the effects of green servicescape depend on customer familiarity. The impact of the communicative servicescape on customers’ attachment and loyalty is significantly greater in a high-familiarity group than in a low-familiarity group.

The findings provide coffee shop managers with insights into effective design of a green service environment. Although managers focus on both dimensions, they may use customer familiarity as a segmenting or targeting tool in designing the green service environment and developing a sustained relationship with customers with different levels of familiarity.

This study extends the existing servicescape models by incorporating green place attachment as a construct to comprehend customers’ inner evaluations. It also contributes to the literature on attachment by demonstrating the clear linkage between both green servicescape dimensions and place attachment. This study highlights customer familiarity construct that should be a critical issue in advancing the understanding of customer behavior in the green servicescape context.

This paper aims to introduce the concept of biomorphism (i.e. indirect experience of nature) in servicescape designs and validates its impact on consumer responses. Using the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) framework, this study explores the relationship between biomorphic servicescape designs and the servicescape preference. Further, it explains how biomorphic designs can help users to get better connected with the servicescapes by introducing the mediating role of attention restoration and place identity (emotional and cognitive), as explained by attention restoration theory.

Two empirical studies were carried out to test the hypothesised relationships: an exploratory pre-experimental design with one-shot treatment using 200 images as stimuli and 3,680 responses; and a 3 × 2 factorial design with three-dimensional images with about 654 responses for three service contexts chosen a priori: fashion retail, restaurant and hospital lobby.

This study conceptualises the role of biomorphism – elements that mimic natural forms – in servicescape designs and establishes that, akin to natural elements, the indirect experience of nature in servicescapes also has a positive influence on attention restoration, perceived place identity and servicescape preference of the consumers. This implies that the effects similar to that of a biophilic servicescape can be achieved through servicescape elements that mimic natural forms.

Extending the idea of biophilia, this research adopts the concept of biomorphism from architecture and environmental psychology domains and introduces biomorphic servicescape designs, which could be more practical at times compared to biophilic servicescapes. It establishes the influences of biomorphic servicescape designs on consumer preferences. Grounded in the S-O-R model, it further explains this relationship through mediating effects of attention restoration and place identity. Being new to marketing and management domains, this research may trigger a series of research studies on biomorphic service environment designs, with desirable implications for services marketing and services operations functions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between two dimensions of servicescape (i.e. substantive and communicative servicescape), health care travelers’ emotions, perceived value and word-of-mouth intentions. It also assesses the moderating effects of accommodation type (i.e. hotel and Airbnb) and interior design styles (i.e. traditional and modern) on the relationship between the two servicescape dimensions and travelers’ emotions.

Using a sample from a survey of 692 health care travelers who stayed at either a peer-to-peer accommodation (i.e. Airbnb) or a hotel, a multi-step structural equation model analysis tested the relationships among variables. It examined the moderating effects of accommodation type and interior design style.

The relationships between servicescape, emotions, perceived value and word-of-mouth were significant. Also, the two moderators affected how servicescape influenced the emotions of health care travelers. For Airbnb guests, communicative servicescape had a more substantial effect on enhancing their positive emotions than hotel guests. For health care travelers who stayed at an accommodation with a traditional interior design style, in addition to enhancing positive emotions of health care travelers, substantive servicescape significantly reduced their negative emotions.

The findings suggest the need for the lodging industry to examine how health care travelers perceive and experience their accommodations with unique interior design characteristics. Also, stakeholders in the lodging industry should leverage the aspects of substantive servicescape in terms of relevant interior design styles, which, in turn, influence health care travelers’ positive word-of-mouth intentions. Given the increase in medical mobility and demand for accommodations by those traveling to receive health care services, understanding the lodging environment and how it affects travelers in this segment is essential.

This research develops a comprehensive servicescape model with a focus on the communicative dimension. Moreover, this study significantly contributes to the hospitality literature regarding how the core experience and various interior design styles influence a rapidly growing segment of health care travelers. Health care travelers’ emotions are essential to consider given the propensity to experience stress related to travel situational health factors.