Quo Vadis servicescapes research? A critical review and empirical investigation of an integrative conceptualisation

Through a critical literature review, the current study uncovers important contradictions in the theoretical conceptualizations that have been proposed and tested within the servicescapes literature. Drawing from the appraisal of emotion theory and the affect infusion model, we develop and empirically test an integrative conceptualization on the effects of servicescapes on customer behavior across both utilitarian and hedonic service contexts. Results support the suggested conceptualization while also uncovering customers’ familiarity with the servicescape as a critical but neglected moderator that can account for much of the conceptual contradictions in the extant servicescapes literatur

The Relationship between Service Experience Equity and Guests’ Behavioral Intention at Eco-Resorts: A study using PLS-SEM

Guest experience studies and the consequences towards behavioral intention play a significant role in the success of resort industry. Hence, this study attempts to investigate the relationship between service experience equity and behavioral intention at eco-resorts. This study also aims to discover the new experience and phenomenon of ecotourism particularly in eco-resort setting in Malaysia. The result of the hypotheses is tested using partial least square of structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and several conclusions were achieved. Noticeably, the service experience equity perceived by eco-resorts’ guests showed significant influence their behavioral intention in staying at eco-resorts

Head over Feels? Differences in Online Rating Behavior for Utilitarian and Hedonic Service Aspects

Online reviews play a considerable role in reducing the information asymmetry between sellers and potential consumers. Despite the rich body of literature on online reviews, little is known about how the chosen content of reviews influences the rating behavior. As products or services offer more than one possible evaluation characteristic, different reviews on a product or service refer to different characteristics. In our research-in-progress we investigate to what extent the valence of online ratings differs depending on whether the rating refers to utilitarian characteristic or hedonic characteristics. To answer this question, we crawled 55,601 customer reviews on Google Maps of visits to 149 German theaters and classified each review as being primarily utilitarian, hedonic, or ambiguous. For our dataset we can determine that reviews with hedonic content are on average 0.48 stars higher rated than utilitarian reviews. Our results carry substantial managerial implications for designers of review platforms and customers

Effects of the type of CSR discourse for utilitarian and hedonic services

ABSTRACT: In a context of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication, we explore whether the use of expositive versus narrative discourses interacts with the type of service commercialized by the company (utilitarian vs. hedonic) to determine consumer perceptions and responses to corporate communication. Our main proposal is that, as representative examples of utilitarian services, banking companies would benefit significantly from communicating their CSR efforts with expositive discourses, whereas narrative discourses would be more adequate for hedonic services (e.g., catering). To test the research hypotheses, we use a 2 expositive/narrative discourse) x 2 (utilitarian/hedonic service) between-subjects experimental design where we expose 302 consumers to different combinations of CSR messages and we evaluate changes in their message attributions and internal and external responses to them. The findings show that the interaction effect is significant and it works in the expected direction for issue importance, CSR fit, and CSR attributions. However, for CSR impact, attitude, trust, purchase, and advocacy intentions, the findings suggest that narrative discourses work better than expositive discourses both for utilitarian and hedonic services. No significant differences between types of discourses are observed for CSR motives, CSR commitment, and C-C identification and the interaction effect is also not significant for these variables

Visual service scape aesthetics and consumer response:a holistic model

The paper looks at the impact of visual servicescapes at consumer preferences. Using an experimental methodology, we try to understand the imapct of different servicescape aesthetic dimensions on emotional and congnitive responses of customers

Marketing strategy for unusual brand differentiation: Trivial attribute effect

This research investigates that brand differentiation creating superior values can be achieved not only by adding meaningful attributes but also meaningless attributes, which is called “trivial attribute effect.” Two studies provided empirical evidences as following; first, trivial attribute effect creates a strong brand differentiation even after subjects realize that trivial attribute has no value. Second, trivial attribute effect is more pronounced in hedonic service category compared to the utilitarian category. Last, the amount of willingness to pay is higher when trivial attribute is presented and evaluated in joint evaluation mode than separate evaluation mode. Finally, we conclude with discussion and provide suggestions for further research

The Role of Kansei Engineering in Influencing Overall Satisfaction and Behavioral Intention in Service Encounters

Customers today concern themselves more on fulfilling their emotional needs rather than rationales and functionalities. In dealing with customer emotions in products/services, Kansei Engineering (KE) is applied. A comprehensive case study in luxury hotels was conducted. Eighty one Indonesian, 75 Singaporean, and 74 Japanese tourists participated in this survey. It aims to investigate the relationships among constructs during service encounter process. The finding shows that emotions (affective process) play a significant role as a complement to cognitive process in influencing customer satisfaction. Among 3 populations, Japanese was found to be more Kansei-oriented customer. Keywords: Kansei Engineering, emotional needs, customer satisfactio

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N/ACustomer experience is one strategic option for organisations wishing to differentiate their service offering. Little research however has been conducted to explain how service design and management practices influence customer experience in non-hedonic contexts, settings in which the objectives for the design of the delivery system are not experiential. The objective of this research is to address this gap in academic knowledge. The conceptual framework used as the basis of the empirical research demonstrates how four experience mechanism constructs, incorporated into the design of the delivery system, facilitate the customer’s involvement in the delivery of the service and influence how they perceive the experience that emerges as a result. To explore the relevance of the framework two case studies were conducted. Data was collected principally through interviews with employees working at various levels throughout the organisations hierarchy and with customers. Observations and secondary source material also provided additional evidence. The thesis provides an original and distinct contribution to knowledge, through three main findings: Firstly, the research found evidence that the conceptual framework was relevant to the design of the delivery system and in customers’ perception of their experience. This challenges assumptions in existing literature that experience might not be a relevant design consideration in non-hedonic service contexts. Secondly, the findings provide a point of distinction between experiences in hedonic and non-hedonic contexts. Finally the study extends experience design theory demonstrating how in the contexts studied, the experience mechanisms act as antecedents for the experience a customer perceives. Whilst conducting only two case studies limits the impact of the findings, the propositions formulated to explain the key themes identified, can be used as a vehicle through which future quantitative research can be carried out, therefore extending the generalisability of the study beyond the contexts studied.N/

Revisiting Service Quality through the Lens of Experience-Centric Services

The purpose of this research is to revisit prevailing notions of service quality by developing and testing a model of service quality for experience-centric services. By problematizing the service quality literature, a model is developed to capture impacts of outcome-achievement, instrumental performance and expressive performance on customer loyalty. A multi-group structural equation model is tested to establish the moderating effect of perceived service character—utilitarian or hedonic. Outcome-achievement mediates the direct relationships between instrumental and expressive performance, respectively, and loyalty; the strength of these relationships is moderated by perceived service character. Emotional design to improve the experience is effective provided the expected outcome is achieved. However, for services that customers perceive as experience-centric, the outcome may be somewhat ambiguously defined and expressive performance is valued more highly than instrumental performance. Understanding customers’ perception of a service—whether customers seek value related to outcomes or emotions—is crucial when selecting appropriate measures of service quality and performance. Creating a good experience is generally beneficial, but it must be designed according to the character of the service in question. The research presents empirical evidence on how service experience contributes to customer loyalty by testing a model of service quality that is suited to experience-centric services. Furthermore, it identifies the importance of understanding service character when designing and managing services