The perception of e-servicescape and its influence on perceived e-shopping value and customer loyalty
| Date | 12 November 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-12-2016-0354 |
| Published date | 12 November 2018 |
| Pages | 1124-1145 |
| Author | Ana Cuic Tankovic,Dragan Benazic |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Bibliometrics,Databases,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet,Records management & preservation,Document management |
The perception of e-servicescape
and its influence on perceived
e-shopping value and
customer loyalty
Ana Cuic Tankovic
Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management,
University of Rijeka, Opatija, Croatia, and
Dragan Benazic
Faculty of Economics and Tourism “Dr Mijo Mirkovic”,
Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Pula, Croatia
Abstract
Purpose –The popularity of online shopping has grown in the recent years, enhancing the interest in identifying
the factors that influence shoppers’loyalty. The purpose of this paper is to investigate, through aesthetic appeal,
layout and functionality, and financial security, the impact of cust omers’perceptions of the e-servicescape in
online shopping on perceived e-shopping value and customer loyalty defined as a two-component construct
(attitudinal loyalty and behavioural loyalty), following the sequence of the S–O–Rframework.
Design/methodology/approach –Data were gathered using an Internet survey in which 221 active online
shoppers participated who had at least one online purchase in the past six months. The research model was
analysed using the partial least squares approach to analyse structural equations (SEM).
Findings –Based upon empirical evidence of a web-based survey of online shoppers, this study shows that
consumers’interpretation of e-servicescape exerts a positive influence over perceived e-shopping value and
loyalty. Specifically, the study finds that layout and functionality and financial security, as the salient
attributes of the e-servicescape dimension, set the point of perceived e-shopping value which affects
attitudinal loyalty.
Practical implications –The authors expose several practical implications how marketing management
could use the dimensions of e-servicescape perceived e-shopping value. Managers are advised to incorporate
the dimensions of the e-servicescape to build perceived e-shopping value and loyalty. Online shops need to
invest in particular in layout and functionality and financial security, dimensions that had a stronger effecton
perceived e-shopping value in order to achieve costumers’loyalty in a fashion product context.
Originality/value –The transition from physical service locations to virtual service processes has increased
the research interest of e-servicescape. This study analyses it through its aesthetic appeal, layout and
functionality, and financial security connecting them with the constructs of perceived e-shopping value and
customer loyalty in the application for fashion products. This work emphasises the connection between
servicescape attributes in creating perceived value which affects attitudinal and behavioural loyalty. In this
way, the e-servicescape is seen as stimuli, the perceived e-shopping value represents the organism and the
loyalty the response of the sequence of the S–O–R framework. This research provides insight into the new
effects of each dimension of e-servicescape on perceived e-shopping value and the two dimensions of loyalty,
thus improving the existing knowledge in the field of servicescape and online shopping customer behaviour.
Keywords Customer loyalty, Internet shopping, S–O–R, E-servicescape, Perceived e-shopping value
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Technological developments have created new channels for services and products,
where the internet offers many advantages for organisations interested in promoting and
selling their services. The internet is a powerful merchandising tool; services offered by
websites are constantly growing, and online media marketing communication is becoming
the most important and fastest-growing promotion strategy in this century (Dong et al.,
2017). The network serves as a channel both to disseminate information and to cover the
Online Information Review
Vol. 42 No. 7, 2018
pp. 1124-1145
© Emerald PublishingLimited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-12-2016-0354
Received 19 December 2016
Revised 14 January 2017
5 October 2017
25 June 2018
Accepted 15 July 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
1124
OIR
42,7
market which remains uncovered. For these reasons, hundreds of millions of dollars have
been invested by the business sector in efforts to establish an electronic presence on the
internet (Vilnai-Yavetz and Tifferet, 2009). In general terms, online shopping is a process
which involves a user accessing the internet in order to search, select, buy and review goods
and services to satisfy his or her needs. In Europe, e-commerce has rapidly increased
reaching “an average annual growth rate of 22%, surpassing €200 billion in 2014 and
reaching a share of 7% of total retail sales”(Marcus and Petropoulos, 2016). The fact that
many business activities are carried out using computers and the internet reveals the core
issue of how internet businesses can make themselves the most trusted and shopped
websites of internet customers (Lin and Sun, 2009). The development of online shopping has
enabled people to buy anything at any time, opening up new opportunities for customers,
who can easily compare product characteristics and prices, thus making it the most flexible
way of purchasing. According to Soto-Acosta et al. (2014), customer purchase intention can
be affected by information overload during online shopping. Therefore, the importance of
investing every aspect of web identity and web services in online shopping has been
recognised, because clients’perceptions of a company and its character are likely to be
derived from their perceptions of its website. Thus, it is important to understand how the
design of e-commerce and e-service systems affects customer reactions and customer
loyalty (Gao, 2005; Mummalaneni, 2005). This paper seeks to explore the transition from
physical service locations to e-service processes in the nature of the “servicescape”
(Bitner, 1992) that customers encounter, and to understand perceived e-shopping value and
customer loyalty. The servicescape is one of the leading factors in customers’perception of
value in physical settings, so the relationship between physical servicescapes and perceived
e-shopping value and customer loyalty has been documented in the literature (Babin et al.,
2004; Hightower et al., 2002; Harris and Ezeh, 2008). On the other hand, the transition of
physical servicescape to e-servicescape is worthy of further investigation. Even if a
consistent number of studies have been conducted in the field of e-servicescape, the
connections between e-servicescape with the perceived e-shopping value and loyalty have
been underexposed. This study examines the effect of e-servicescapes on perceived
e-shopping value and customer loyalty, and may shed new light on the transition of the
buying process from physical shop to online shop. Prior studies have demonstrated the
relationship between e-servicescapes and e-satisfaction (Szymanski and Hise, 2000;
Ballantine, 2005), later shopping behaviour (Menon and Kahn, 2002), pleasure (Eroglu et al.,
2003), trust (Papadopoulou et al., 2001), trust and purchase intentions (Harris and Goode,
2010), and trust and word-of-mouth (WOM) (Tran and Strutton, 2016). This paper’s
contribution is in the analysis of all three dimensions of servicescape on the perceived value
and, consequently, on the multidimensional construct of loyalty. Despite the agreement that
a more comprehensive explanation is needed in order to better understand costumers’
perceived e-shopping value and loyalty, no study so far have examined this concept with the
complete dimensions of the e-servicescape suggested by Harris and Goode (2010).
Therefore,in order to overcomethis gap, thispaper aims to improvethe existing knowledge
to enhance the understanding of e-servicescape, following the stimulus–organism–response
(S–O–R) framework: environmental stimuli, consumer’s inner organism and behaviour
responses. In this research, the e-servicescape manipulation represents the “stimuli”and is
examined in each of its dimensions, the “organism”part is represented by the perceived
e-shopping value,and the “response”part is customer loyalty. This ap proach contributes to the
marketing service sphere, analysing customer loyalty as a response and a multidimensional
construct advancing the understanding of customers perceived e-shopping value and loyalty
starting from e-servicescape. Filling this gap The moder ating variables between e-servicescape
and other constructs are tested not only for gender, age and income, but also for the educational
background. Nowadays,the digital technologyallows new interactions between customers an d
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