Retailscape: An exploration of the relevant dimensions and their impact on consumers’ behavioral intentions

Intangibility is a defining characteristic of services. The customer of a service offering is involved in an inexorable search for pre-purchase cues that can reduce his degree of perceived risk for the service that he or she intends to purchase. Servicescape, the environment in which a service process takes place, has a paramount influence in re-assuring the customer and eventually enabling him or her in comprehending the experiential outcomes of purchase and consumption. The paper investigates the impact of retailscape (retail servicescape) on behavioral intentions of customers in the retail industry. The servicescape framework in this paper is based on selected aspects of Bitner’s (1992) servicescape framework and Wakefield and Blodgett’s (1994) model. Five servicescape dimensions have been identified, viz. ambient conditions, spatial layout, functionality, spatial signs, symbols and artifacts and cleanliness. The paper studies the impact of these dimensions on the perceived quality of the servicescape and on the shoppers’ desire to stay in the retail store. The research methodology comprises three stages: • a literature review; • a qualitative exploration consisting of in-depth interviews and focus groups; and • A quantitative descriptive survey of consumers. Factor Analysis is performed using SPSS 16. Multiple regression is employed to study the relationship between service dimensions and perceived service quality and perceived service quality and satisfaction and satisfaction and desire to stay. The study strongly supports that spatial layout and ambient conditions bear the strongest relationship with the perceived quality of the servicescape. These two dimensions make statistically unique contribution to the prediction of perceived servicescape quality. Results of regression reveal that satisfaction with the servicescape is positively influenced by perceived quality of the servicescape. Satisfaction and shoppers’ desire to stay are positively related and the relationship is strong. Corresponding author: Makarand Upadhyaya Email addresses for corresponding author: makarandjaipur@gmail.com First submission received: 18th September 2017 Revised submission received: 9th November 2017 Accepted: 9th January 2018 Introduction The effect of atmospherics, or physical design and decor elements, on consumers and workers is well recognized in the service industry, which is characterized by a dearth of tangibles. Service organizations cannot create a superior service experience without creating a superior physical surrounding, in which service is created and delivered. A well designed servicescape has a positive impact on buying behavior. Ambience and surroundings have a paramount influence on customers’ evaluation of a service experience (Levitt, 1981). Journal of Business and Retail Management Research (JBRMR), Vol. 12 Issue 4 July 2018 www.jbrmr. com A Journal of the Academy of Business and Retail Management (ABRM) 209 Review of Literature Physical environment is inevitably a means of influencing behaviors and creating an image, especially for service businesses such as hotels, restaurants, professional offices, banks, retail stores, and hospitals (Baker 1987; Bitner 1986; Kotler 1973; Shostack 1977; Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry 1985). Bitner and Bernard (1981) defined servicescape as “the environment in which the service is assembled and in which the seller and customer interact, combined with tangible commodities that facilitate performance or communication of the service”. McComish and Quester et al. (2007), consider servicescape to be a group of physical environments of service setting which has an influential role on the consumer’s buying experience. Services are characterized by simultaneity, that is, simultaneous production and consumption, and hence more often than not a consumer is in the service factory where ambience adds to or detracts from his total experience of the received service. Physical surroundings are, in general, more important inservice settings because customers as well as employees often experience the firm's facility. The lack of intangibility puts an absolute dependence on physical environment for gathering pre-purchase cues on the quality and credibility of the firm’s offerings (Berry and Clark 1986; Shostack 1977). The physical environment especially abounds in such cues (Rapoport 1982) and exerts a profound influence in communicating the firm's image and purpose to its customers and prospects. Michaelle (1996) considered the service environment or servicescape as a composition of aesthetic design, functional design, and social elements. Ambient or aesthetic design elements are “intangible background conditions that tend to affect the senses and, in some cases, may have a relatively subconscious effect” on the customer. Bitner (1990) proposed that physical setting also influences customer’s ultimate satisfaction with the service experience. Services typically require a direct interaction between customers and employees and hence the organization's environment should support the needs and preferences of both service employees and customers simultaneously. Employees too are influenced by a conducive physical setting and demonstrate higher productivity, morale, motivation and work place satisfaction (Becker 1981; Davis 1984; Wineman 1986). Servicescapes, though an important ingredient of the service offering, differ in its management and planning depending on the level of interaction that customers have with the facility. Bitner Servicescape is a model developed by Booms and Bitner to emphasize the impact of the physical environment in which a service process takes place. The aim of the servicescapes model is to explain behavior of people within the service environment with a view to designing environments that accomplish organisational goals in terms of achieving desired behavioural responses. For consumers visiting a service or retail store, the service environment is the first aspect of the service that is perceived by the customer and it is at this stage that consumers are likely to form impressions of the level of service they will receive. Proposed a continuum where the left extreme represents a state of high customer involvement and the right extreme represents negligible customer involvement. For instance, in "self-service" organizations very few employees are present, and the customer activity is very high, to the extent that he is practically a co-producer. At the other extreme lie the fully automated services, that is, the "remote service" where there is little or no customer involvement in the servicescape and sometimes even little employee involvement too. Between the two extremes are positioned the "interpersonal services". In these organizations, both customers and employees are present and performing actions within the servicescape. The relative level of involvement of customers and employees determines whose needs should be consulted in the design of the environment. In interpersonal servicescapes, special consideration must be given to the effects of the physical environment on the nature and quality of the social interaction between and among customers and employees (Bitner, 1992). Whether customers, employees, or both are present within the servicescape also determines the types of objectives a firm might expect to accomplish through use of its physical environment. In self-service settings, the creative use of physical design could support particular positioning and segmentation strategies and enhance specific marketing objectives, such as customer satisfaction and attraction. At the other extreme, for remote services, organizational objectives such as employee satisfaction, motivation, and operational efficiency could be the primary goals in physical setting design, because few customers would ever see or experience the firm's physical setting. For interpersonal services, both organizational and marketing objectives could potentially be targeted Journal of Business and Retail Management Research (JBRMR), Vol. 12 Issue 4 July 2018 www.jbrmr. com A Journal of the Academy of Business and Retail Management (ABRM) 210 through careful design of the servicescape. Even marketing goals such as relationship building (Crosby, Evans, and Cowles 1990) could be influenced by the design of the physical setting. Servicescape Models Bitner’s Model (1992) Bitner (1992) proposed a framework for explaining what behaviors servicescape can influence and how and why the service environment should be planned to achieve the pertinent objectives that the organization has assumed for itself. Bitner’s framework suggests that both employees and customers are impacted congnitively, emotionally and behaviorally by the servicescapes in which they deliver and receive services respectively. These internal responses to the environment influence the behavior of customers and employees and these behaviors in turn affect social interactions between and among customers and employees. The model shares striking similarities with other models (e.g., Mehrabian and Russell 1974), but it is unique because the Mehrabian and Russell model focuses on emotional responses only whereas Bitner’s model encompasses cognitive and behavioral dimensions too. Wakefield and Blodgett (1994) Wakefield and Blodgett (1994) proposed a servicescape framework that has five environmental dimensions viz. layout accessibility, facility aesthetics, seating comfort, electronic equipment displays and facility cleanliness. These five dimensions impact on the perceived quality of the servicescape and consequently the satisfaction with servicescape. This in turn has a bearing on the patronage intentions and the desire to stay at the facility. Hence, the longer one spends in a facility, the greater the likelihood that the perceived quality of the servicescape will play an important role in determining satisfaction with the service. Physi