Effect of servicescape on customer behavioral intentions: Moderating roles of service climate and employee engagement

Abstract

Although customer experience and employee behavior are essential to a company's success, few hospitality field studies have used the service marketing triangle model to empirically examine service climate and employee engagement as firm-level moderators of the individual-level stimulus (servicescape)–organism (customer emotions)–response (behavioral intentions) relationship. Data were collected from customers, managerial employees, and employees of hot spring resorts. To account for nesting effects, hierarchical linear modeling tested hypothesized relationships among variables. The results show employee behaviors contribute to service delivery and clarify why (cross-level moderation of service climate and employee engagement at the firm level) and how (perceived servicescape and customer emotions at the individual level) of their interactions crucially influence customer consumption experiences in a service firm. The study extends the S–O–R by demonstrating outcome variables are not limited to individual-level effects, as environmental characteristics (firm-level explanatory variables) are also major considerations.