The role of customer familiarity in evaluating green servicescape: an investigation in the coffee shop context

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to examine the impact of green atmospheric and communicative servicescape dimensions on customers’ emotional and behavioral outcomes and explores the moderating effect of customer familiarity. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from coffee shop customers in the USA. Structural equation modeling and a multigroup analysis were used for analysis. Findings The findings indicated that the atmospheric dimensions of green coffee shops have a greater impact than communicative dimensions on customers’ green place attachment and loyalty. However, the effects of green servicescape depend on customer familiarity. The impact of the communicative servicescape on customers’ attachment and loyalty is significantly greater in a high-familiarity group than in a low-familiarity group. Practical implications The findings provide coffee shop managers with insights into effective design of a green service environment. Although managers focus on both dimensions, they may use customer familiarity as a segmenting or targeting tool in designing the green service environment and developing a sustained relationship with customers with different levels of familiarity. Originality/value This study extends the existing servicescape models by incorporating green place attachment as a construct to comprehend customers’ inner evaluations. It also contributes to the literature on attachment by demonstrating the clear linkage between both green servicescape dimensions and place attachment. This study highlights customer familiarity construct that should be a critical issue in advancing the understanding of customer behavior in the green servicescape context.