Content area
Full Text
Keywords Internet, Electronic commerce, Worldwide web
Abstract Following Bitner's well-known "servicescape" model, the propensity of physical surroundings to facilitate organisational as well as marketing goals is now well researched. Their importance is, in general, more important in service settings because of the unique characteristics of services, particularly their intangibility and perishability, the inseparability of production and consumption, and heterogeneity in delivery quality. E-businesses, whether offering products or services, ultimately share many service characteristics. For example, the benefits consumed are often not solely in the products purchased, which could have been purchased elsewhere, but rather in the intangible benefits of interaction with the website, i.e. saved time, convenience, and a reduced risk of dissatisfaction with an enhanced availability of information. This paper adapts Bitner's model to encounters in "Cyberspace", where the key characteristics of the service "product" are still present, with the result that, just as in the physical setting, stimuli may be planned and designed to engender approach behaviour. In so doing, it borrows from the motivational psychology construct of "flow", a metaphor for optimal experiences.
Introduction
For over a decade now, following the work of Bitner (1992), the impact on customer and employee behaviour of a service firm's physical surroundings (the "servicescape") has been a familiar research topic in marketing. His model recognises that the unique characteristics of services mean that organisational environments are likely to affect customers and employees alike. Both respond cognitively, emotionally and physiologically to the perceived environment, and these responses together ultimately impact upon behaviour. Ideally, the result is approach rather than avoidance.
A good example of servicescape research is a recent survey by Sweeney and Wyber (2002), who tested the effect of music (tempo and type) on customer perceptions and behavioural outcomes in women's fashion retailing. The results revealed that customers who liked the music being played were more likely to feel aroused and to rate highly the quality of service and merchandise on offer. Familiarity with the music did not, however, influence these factors. On music type, when classical music was played, shoppers had a higher perception of service quality and pleasure if the music was of fast tempo. In something of a contrast, if Top 40 music was played, a slower tempo also induced these perceptions....