Mediating service experiences with online photos: the role of consumers' perceptions of the mediated servicescape
ISSN: 1757-5818
Article publication date: 21 December 2022
Issue publication date: 27 June 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Photos are powerful tools to attract individuals’ attention and convey service experiences. Yet exactly how visual cues in a photo contribute to the perceptions of the staged servicescape, and how these perceptions inspire online booking/reservation behaviors, remains underexplored. Addressing the gap, this study aims to uncover (1) how perceptual information mediated by an online photo contributes to the formation of consumers' holistic perceptions of the service environment and (2) how such consumers' holistic perceptions further influence customers' online purchasing behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
This research adopts an innovative crowdsourcing approach and refers to field data on consumers' online hotel booking behaviors to examine relationships among inferred servicescape dimensions, consumers' holistic perceptions of the mediated servicescape and their actual online booking/reservation behaviors (e.g. page-view and meta-click behaviors).
Findings
Confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis indicated that five mediated servicescape dimensions (i.e. color, lighting, furnishings, layout and style) contribute significantly to consumers' perceptions of the mediated servicescape (CPMS) and exert different impacts on CPMS. Connecting the crowdsourced rating and consumer behavioral data, CPMS is found to influence consumers' aggregated page-view and meta-click behavior, especially in the US market.
Originality/value
Building upon servicescape theory, the medium theory and the online booking literature, this research proposes a novel conceptual framework of CPMS to theorize the process by which visual cues in online photos contribute to CPMS and subsequent online purchase behaviors. Findings from this research extend Bitner's servicescape framework to mediated service contexts and provide practical implications for promoting service businesses.
Keywords
Citation
He, Z., Wu, L. and Li, X.(R). (2023), "Mediating service experiences with online photos: the role of consumers' perceptions of the mediated servicescape", Journal of Service Management, Vol. 34 No. 4, pp. 657-695. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-11-2021-0429
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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