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1 – 10 of over 2000Lloyd C. Harris and Chris Ezeh
This paper seeks better to conceptualise, operationalise and subsequently to test a multi‐dimensional and more social view of servicescape and the direct and moderated linkages…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks better to conceptualise, operationalise and subsequently to test a multi‐dimensional and more social view of servicescape and the direct and moderated linkages with loyalty intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey research method was used to study servicescapes in the context of UK restaurants.
Findings
In furtherance of conceptualisation efforts, a model is developed to evaluate the linear influences of nine servicescape variables on customers' loyalty intentions. Additionally, the model appraises the impact of personal and environmental factors which moderate the servicescape‐loyalty intentions relationship. Analysis of survey responses finds a number of significant associations with loyalty intentions.
Practical implications
The results of the study indicate that practitioners should reflect carefully on a range of servicescape variables and judiciously manage such factors to improve the extent to which consumers are likely to foster positive intentions to be loyal.
Originality/value
The paper contributes a multi‐dimensional and more social framework of servicescape that is subsequently operationalised and tested. It also supplies a measure of servicescape that future researchers may find useful.
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Deske W. Mandagi and Dave Centeno
Anchored in the theories of brand gestalt and stakeholder perspectives, this study aims to undertake a comprehensive examination of the brand gestalt concept, emphasizing its…
Abstract
Purpose
Anchored in the theories of brand gestalt and stakeholder perspectives, this study aims to undertake a comprehensive examination of the brand gestalt concept, emphasizing its multidimensional nature and the process of co-creation.
Design/methodology/approach
Focused within the context of the Wonderful Indonesia brand, the research draws upon a rich qualitative data set derived from in-depth interviews conducted with 18 international tourists, supplemented by netnography (or internet ethnography) of websites, social media and online articles related to Wonderful Indonesia. Using grounded theory methodology, the qualitative data undergo rigorous analysis to identify emergent themes and patterns.
Findings
The research elucidates the four dimensions (4S) comprising brand gestalt: storyscapes, sensescapes, servicescapes and stakeholderscapes. Each dimension is further delineated into essential categories, providing a comprehensive understanding of brand gestalt. This study highlights the collaborative nature of brand gestalt, emphasizing the involvement of multiple stakeholders in shaping the brand's identity and perception. Consumer perceptions of co-creation are identified as significant contributors to brand gestalt, enhancing the brand's value proposition.
Practical implications
Destination management and practitioners can use the insights from the research to refine their brand management and marketing strategies by leveraging the dimensions of brand gestalt. Recognizing the collaborative construct of brand gestalt can guide businesses in fostering meaningful relationships with stakeholders and aligning branding efforts with collective visions. Understanding the role of consumer co-creation in brand development can inform strategies aimed at enhancing brand equity and fostering consumer loyalty.
Originality/value
This study extends existing literature on brand gestalt by providing a comprehensive examination of its four dimensions and essential categories. By emphasizing the collaborative nature of brand gestalt, this study contributes to advancing the understanding of brand co-creation paradigms. The identification of consumer perceptions of co-creation as a significant factor in brand gestalt adds novel insights to the literature, offering valuable implications for brand management and marketing strategies.
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Islam Elgammal, Ghada Talat Alhothali and Annarita Sorrentino
Umrah is a religious ritual that takes place inside the Holy Mosque in Makkah. Umrah can be performed any time during the year; however, performing Umrah in the month of Ramadan…
Abstract
Purpose
Umrah is a religious ritual that takes place inside the Holy Mosque in Makkah. Umrah can be performed any time during the year; however, performing Umrah in the month of Ramadan is much rewarded. Although the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is hosting this event each year, studies that focus on exploring the Holy Mosque visitor segments are scarce. This study aims to explore and describe the marketing segments of Umrah performers relative to their Umrah experience inside the Holy Mosque of Makkah. Most specifically, this study aims to explore segments of Umrah performers based on their perception of servicescape, hedonic and convenience value and the visitors’ outcome behaviors [i.e. intention to revisit and positive word of mouth (PWOM)].
Design/methodology/approach
Mixed-method techniques of data collection [i.e. self-administered questionnaires (n = 278) and short discussions (n = 10)] were used.
Findings
Cluster analysis is used for data analysis. The findings revealed four clusters of Umrah performers: real, occasional, rational and passionate performers.
Research limitations/implications
This study is a first attempt to target pilgrims based on their experience with the servicescape during the organized religious event; despite its exploratory nature, it reveals interesting insights that will be useful for managers and scholars. Although the study helps to enrich the existing knowledge on visitors’ experience and proposes some implications for practitioners, it does have some limitations. First, convenience sampling was used, and hence the findings cannot be generalized. Second, the limited period of observation did not allow the authors to provide a complete picture of the pilgrims’ behavior; for this reason, the study findings partially describe the phenomenon. Another limitation is related to the difficulty of approaching respondents from Asia or South East Asia although they constitute a significant percentage of the total Umrah performers every year; this is because of the language barrier as data was collected from only English and Arabic speakers. Hence, to overcome these limitations, it is suggested that future studies could be expanded to target Asian respondents and perhaps other nationalities; and could be undertaken in other religious contexts. Moreover, an interesting future study could be carried out to compare the same model during other religious events. Added to that, another growing area of research could be approached by researchers, such as the impact of pilgrims sharing their experiences on influencing E-PWOM.
Practical implications
The findings reveal several implications for policymakers and stakeholders. The segmentation of Umrah performers assists destination managers, policymakers and local firms involved in managing this mass event to identify effective marketing decision-makers, business strategies and policymakers to satisfy the needs of these visitors (Disegna et al., 2011). Particularly, the identification of the key characteristics of these visitors can help destination marketers to develop a marketing mix that suits the needs of each cluster (Smith et al., 2014). Despite that the performers’ main motivation is the religious purpose, marketing strategists can attract the attention of these visitors to visit other religious, cultural and heritage sites in the country.
Social implications
Encouraging the visit to other tourist spots in Saudi has several impacts on nourishing the economy and the community. Tourism in Saudi could encourage entrepreneurs to start new ventures to satisfy the need of visitors to the country. Small-medium enterprises could benefit from tourism as they could target market niches in which leader companies are not serving. For instance, hand-made souvenirs are one of these industries that could grow to satisfy the need of visitors.
Originality/value
The results contribute to the literature of event segmentation by identifying visitors’ profiles to rarely investigated destinations. The findings reveal several implications for policymakers and stakeholders.
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Niharika Gupta and Harsh V. Verma
Service failure and recovery encounters are often witnessed by other customers, but little is known about how these encounters impacts other customers. With an aim to bridge this…
Abstract
Purpose
Service failure and recovery encounters are often witnessed by other customers, but little is known about how these encounters impacts other customers. With an aim to bridge this gap, the purpose of the paper is to explore why and how service recovery directed at a focal customer impacts other customers who are present in the same service environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper follows a qualitative research methodology. Purposive sampling was used to collect data from 30 customers through semi-structured face-to-face interviews. The data was analysed using thematic analysis.
Findings
Findings of the study show that service recovery directed at a focal customer has an impact on other customers' fairness judgments, emotions, service quality perceptions and behaviour. Other customers' behavioural reactions in response to observed service recovery are driven by two different motives: self-interest and moral obligation. Observing customers' cautious behaviour and (re)purchase behaviour are found to be primarily driven by self-interest, whereas their helping behaviour, punishment behaviour and word-of-mouth behaviour are found to be driven by moral obligation.
Research limitations/implications
This study findings contribute to theory development on “other-oriented” effects of service recovery and provides valuable insights for effective management of service failures in the shared service environment.
Originality/value
This is the first study, which qualitatively explores the “other customers” perspective of service recovery in the context of shared servicescape.
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Jillian C. Sweeney, Pennie Frow, Adrian Payne and Janet R. McColl-Kennedy
The purpose of this study is to examine how servicescapes impact well-being and satisfaction of both hospital customers (patients) and health care professional service providers.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine how servicescapes impact well-being and satisfaction of both hospital customers (patients) and health care professional service providers.
Design/methodology/approach
The study investigates how a hospital servicescape impacts two critical outcomes – well-being and satisfaction – of both hospital patients (customers) and health care professionals, who are immersed in that environment.
Findings
The hospital servicescape had a greater impact on physical, psychological and existential well-being for professionals than for patients. However, the reverse was true for satisfaction. The new servicescape enhanced the satisfaction and physical and psychological well-being of professionals but only the satisfaction of customers.
Research limitations/implications
The study implications for health care policy suggest that investment in health care-built environments should balance the needs of health care professionals with those of customers to benefit their collective well-being and satisfaction.
Practical implications
Based on the findings, the authors propose that servicescape investments should focus on satisfying the physical needs of patients while also placing emphasis on the psychological needs of professionals.
Social implications
Health care spending on physical facilities should incorporate careful cost-benefit analysis, ensuring that beneficial features for both user groups are included in new hospital designs, omitting features that are less supportive of well-being.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to compare the impact of the same real-life servicescape on the satisfaction of both customers and service providers (professionals) and considers the critical health outcome of well-being.
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Doan T. Nguyen, Tom DeWitt and Rebekah Russell‐Bennett
While there have been numerous studies on the antecedents and consequences of service quality, there has been little investigation of the moderators of service quality. The…
Abstract
Purpose
While there have been numerous studies on the antecedents and consequences of service quality, there has been little investigation of the moderators of service quality. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the effects of two moderators: service convenience and the social servicescape. The moderating effects are tested in two service settings: retail and hedonic (concert).
Design/methodology/approach
A survey of 270 customers at kitchen display showrooms and 320 concert‐goers was undertaken. The results were analysed using regression analysis.
Findings
The results show support for ten of the 12 hypotheses. Service convenience moderated the relationships between perceived service quality and its three sub‐dimensions (interaction, environment, and outcome quality), differently in different settings (retail vs hedonic). This supports the authors' general argument that the outcome dimension tends to be more important to customers in a retail setting, while interaction and environment quality dimensions tend to be more important in hedonic service consumption.
Practical implications
These findings suggest that managers need to use different service management tactics in retail and hedonic service settings. Specifically managers in retail settings need to pay more attention to service convenience to achieve service quality and managers in hedonic settings should concentrate on the social servicescape.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to test the moderating factors of service convenience and social servicescape on service quality.
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Wenqi Wei, Melissa A. Baker and Irem Onder
This study aims to use mixed methods to create a new conceptual framework to understand the unique characteristics of virtual tourism experiences (VTE), which has not been…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to use mixed methods to create a new conceptual framework to understand the unique characteristics of virtual tourism experiences (VTE), which has not been systemically examined.
Design/methodology/approach
Study 1 uses topic modeling with Latent Dirichlet Allocation to analyze 91,609 online reviews from the Airbnb Experience platform. Study 2 uses content analysis of open-ended qualitative responses from VTE customers. The two studies together are used to build a new conceptual model.
Findings
Building upon the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) model and the experience economy, results present a new conceptual model and identify VTE as unique in terms of Stimulus (education, entertainment, esthetics, escapism and connection), Organism (experiencing synchronicity, telepresence, participation and customization, emotion) and Response (evaluation and behavioral responses). Given the uniqueness of VTE, the new construct of the virtual servicescape is incorporated, recognizing the host, the focal customer and other customers, and the technology as the four main components.
Practical implications
The proposed framework can be used to guide the design, development, and evaluation of VTE, including identifying the key considerations, engagement within the ecosystem and providing guidance to hosts and operators.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that systematically explores VTE and proposes the theoretical framework to comprehensively understand this new form of experience in sharing economy by combining the unique aspects of the stimulus, organism, response and virtual servicescape.
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Deepak S. Kumar, Keyoor Purani and Sunil Sahadev
This paper aims to introduce subjective dimensions of appraising visual servicescape aesthetics and to empirically test their influence on the consumer’s affective responses and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to introduce subjective dimensions of appraising visual servicescape aesthetics and to empirically test their influence on the consumer’s affective responses and preference, thus providing a holistic model to evaluate visual servicescape aesthetics from consumer’s viewpoint. It also tests the moderating role of service contexts in the modelled relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was collected from 350 respondents using a laboratory-like experimental design, with one-shot treatment using photographic surrogates of services capes in four different service contexts.
Findings
Results indicate the visual servicescape aesthetics dimensions significantly and positively influence consumers’ affective states of arousal and pleasure. Also, service context moderates the relationship between servicescape aesthetics and affective responses.
Research limitations/implications
As the subjective dimensions of visual servicescape aesthetics are borrowed from environmental psychology and introduced in marketing literature, it is likely to trigger a stream of research in service marketing domain.
Practical implications
Findings provide marketing practitioners insights into servicescape design, evaluation and selection decisions to improve return on such investments.
Originality/value
The study contributes to theory by introducing more appropriate holistic servicescape aesthetics variables borrowed from environment psychology and empirically establishing relationships between them, consumers’ affective responses and preference to the servicescape.
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Youngsun Sean Kim and Melissa A. Baker
This study aims to examine the observing customer’s reactions, namely, gratitude, loyalty to the employee and tipping intention while observing other customer incivility during…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the observing customer’s reactions, namely, gratitude, loyalty to the employee and tipping intention while observing other customer incivility during another customer service failure and the frontline employee’s emotional labor strategy.
Design/methodology/approach
A 2 (emotional labor strategy: deep acting vs surface acting) by 2 (service consumption criticality: high vs low) experiment is used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results reveal that observing an employee’s deep acting emotional labor (vs surface acting) leads to a greater level of gratitude among the affected customers and promotes their tipping and loyalty to the employee. However, there is no significant interaction effect of service consumption criticality and emotional labor strategy on customer gratitude.
Research limitations/implications
This research builds upon the social servicescape, customer misbehavior and emotional labor literature by examining previously untested relationships.
Practical implications
In cases of other customer service failure, managers should effectively communicate to their employees how their emotional labor induces positive customer feedback. Currently, emotional labor is emphasized mostly regarding its negative effects on employees, but this research suggests that serving the recovery expectation of the affected customers, especially when it is served with authentic emotional displays, can promote increased tipping and loyalty behavior.
Originality/value
No research investigates customers’ emotional and behavioral reactions to employee emotional labor in the context of other customer service failure.