Investigating the role of the physical environment in hedonic service consumption: an exploratory study of sporting events

As we continue to enjoy economic growth and development in the latter part of the twentieth century, there is an abundance of disposable income for consumers to spend. Americans are spending more and more of these dollars in leisure activities. However, relatively little is known about which factors influence consumers' behavioral intentions (i.e., loyalty, word of mouth, willingness to pay a price premium) in this area. It appears that in this extremely attractive and growing services segment, academics, as well as practitioners, would benefit from investigating the relationships between the physical environment (i.e., servicescape) and several other key service constructs (i.e., positive effect, enduring involvement, service quality, waiting time, and value) on consumer behavioral intentions. With a better understanding of the servicescape's role in consumers' purchase decision processes, practitioners should be able to make adjustments in their marketing plans that should help to provide them with a sustainable advantage over their competition. This paper is intended to expand our understanding of how the servicescape influences behavioral intentions. A model is developed and tested on a sample of sporting event customers. The results support the model and lead to some interesting managerial implications. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.