Service environments have an important influence on the purchase behavior of customers. A major role of service environments is to provide informational cues for customers about the quality perception and assortment of products. Occasionally, in purch...
Service environments have an important influence on the purchase behavior of customers. A major role of service environments is to provide informational cues for customers about the quality perception and assortment of products. Occasionally, in purchasing situations, the service atmosphere has greater effect on the purchase than the product itself. Customers in service environments are exposed to a number of stimuli which govern their behavior. Therefore, customer interests and the significance of servic environments have been gradually gaining emphasis from marketers.
According to the increasing influence of customer interests, study on the effective management of store environments is important. Hence, the influence of service environments on consumer behavior were suggested in this study and the causal relationships between the factors were investigated. Through the theoretical literature, a research model was established for this purpose. and eight given hypothesis from the model were formulated. An intercept survey was carried out at department stores by trained college students. SPSS 10.0 and LISREL 8.0 programs were used for the data analysis.
The results of the empirical study on the research model and the established hypotheses were obtained as follows:
1) In hypothesis 1, the perceived ambient condition had a positive and significant influence on the perceived service quality.
2) In hypothesis 2, perceived facilities/layout of the store had no significant influence on the perceived service quality.
3) In hypothesis 3, perceived artifacts, such as symbols, had no significant influence on the perceived service quality.
According to the above results, only hypothesis 1 was accepted and the rest of hypotheses were rejected. The results can be taken into consideration by looking at the following aspects. The layout, display, symbols/signs, and artifacts of these stores did not differ greatly from those in other department stores. As a result, it can be concluded that the facilities/arrangement and, artifacts had no influence on the perceived service quality. This study measured perceived facilities and layout conditions and perceived artifacts. 4) In hypothesis 4, the service quality of store employees was proven to be a significant factor with a positive effect on the perceived service quality. It was found that personal intimacy between customers and sales personnel, and the assistance given in the customers' apparel selection were particularly important.
5) In hypothesis 5, crowding of a store showed insignificant effects on the perceived service quality. This result depicted a big difference between apparel stores and other service stores. On the contrary, since the existence of other customers in apparel stores lightened the burden of customers, crowding is likely to be associated with customer satisfaction. Accordingly, crowding was not associated with the perceived service quality.
6) In hypothesis 6, the perceived service quality of service environments had a significant influence on the internal responses of customers. Thus, the physical and social environments of apparel stores in department stores were factors significantly affecting the internal responses of customers.
7) In hypothesis 7, the internal responses had a significant positive effect on the customers' intention to revisit the store.
8) In hypothesis 8, the internal response had a significant positive effect on the customers' stay in the store. Hence, it can be verified that the internal responses, such as customer satisfaction and positive attitude towards the store, have a strong influence on the customers' intention to revisit the store and stay longer in a particular service environment.
From the overall results of this study, the necessities and importance of an extended service scape model which includes the physical and social environment simultaneously were highlighted. By using this model, it is verified that overall perceived service quality of service environments promotes customers' internal responses and thus, affects the external behaviors of customers. Intrinsically, the results of this study imply that the influence of service environments of apparel shops in department stores and giving deep concern to the software of the shop would lead to greater competitiveness for retailing institutions. Therefore, the strategy of apparel stores should be focused on providing high quality service environments as well as product quality and promoting a positive experience with hospitality supplied by service environments. Another critical significance of this study is to provoke department stores to establish the service environments based on friendly relationships between the market and the consumer.