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Sixth SERVSIG International Research Conference 2010, Porto, Portugal - Special Issue
Edited by Raymond P. Fisk and Lia Patrício
Introduction
[12] Bitner (1992) coined the term "servicescape" to denote a physical setting in which a marketplace exchange is performed, delivered, and consumed within a service organization ([105] Zeithaml et al. , 2009). In addition, Bitner conceptualized the existence of three types of objective, physical, and measureable stimuli that constitute a servicescape. These stimuli are characterized as being organizationally controllable and able to enhance or constrain employee and customer approach/avoidance decisions and to facilitate or hinder employee/customer social interaction ([66] Parish et al. , 2008). Bitner consolidated these environmental stimuli into three dimensions:
ambient conditions;
spatial layout and functionality; and
signs, symbols, and artifacts ([14], [15] Brady and Cronin, 2001a, b; [41] Hightower et al. , 2002; [47] Kotler, 1973; [52] Lin, 2004).
Although [12] Bitner's (1992) servicescape framework remains invaluable to marketers, it contains a possible shortcoming. Namely, the servicescape framework originates from research conducted in environmental psychology ([8] Barker, 1968), which itself emulates from ecology and is the source of theoretical weakness. Encouraged by Darwin, biologists began developing ecological theory in the early 1900s by investigating how organisms respond in unison to objective stimuli that are present in a spatially bounded area ([87] Stokols, 1977). [8] Barker (1968) and other researchers ([32] Grayson and McNeil, 2009; [47] Kotler, 1973) later applied these perspectives to stimulus-organism-response theories by exploring how people respond to objective stimuli in spatially bounded consumption settings, primarily department stores.
Although all service settings, including physical and virtual servicescapes, cyberscapes ([103] Williams and Dargel, 2004), shipscapes ([49] Kwortnik, 2008), sportscapes ([50] Lambrecht et al. , 2009), and experience rooms ([24], [25] Edvardsson et al. , 2005, 2010), comprise objective, managerially controllable stimuli that influence consumers in a collective way, they also comprise stimuli that are subjective, difficult to measure objectively, and managerially uncontrollable and that influence consumers and employee approach and social interaction decisions in different ways ([25] Edvardsson et al. , 2010; [106] Zomerdijk and Voss, 2010).
Along these lines, [12] Bitner (1992) acknowledged that though her focus was to conceptualize the manufactured and physical stimuli that constitute servicescapes, both customers and employees are also affected by social and natural stimuli,...