유아용품 전시박람회의 서비스스케이프가 구매행동에 미치는 영향

The Impact of Servicescape on Purchasing Behavior : A Case of Baby Goods Exhibition

Purpose – The exhibition is one of the critical distribution channels that leads to mass sales of products. Servicescape is considered as an effective means facilitating consumers’ purchasing behavior. The objective of this research is to examine the effects of servicescape of the exhibition on consumer’s purchasing behavior measured by time spent, the number of consultations, the number of items purchased, and amount of money spent. Research design, data, and methodology – Servicescape was divided into four main components: ‘spatial layout/functionality’, ‘ambient condition’, ‘design/artifacts’, and ‘human factor’. Based on previous studies, this study hypothesized that servicescape dimensions first influence consumer’s shopping duration and the number of consultations which in turn, affects consumer’s actual purchase. A total of 407 samples were collected from attendees in Baby Expo taken place in Kyunggido, South Korea. The data were used to assess overall fit of the proposed model and test hypotheses using structural equation modeling. All the constructs had acceptable levels of composite reliability and convergent and discriminant validity. Results – The results showed that except for ‘spatial layout/functionality’, all components of servicescape had a significant influence on consumer’s shopping duration in the exhibition. Except for ‘design/artifacts’, other factors of servicescape did not show a significant effect on ‘the number of consultations’. Interestingly, ‘design/artifacts’ exerted a significant negative effect on ‘the number of consultations’. As expected, ‘time spent’ and ‘number of consultations’ showed significant effects on both ‘the number of items purchased’ and ‘amount of money spent’. Conclusions - The results offer some insights into the effect of servicescape on facilitating consumers’ purchasing behavior in the context of the exhibition. Theoretically, this study provides a new type of conceptual framework that verifies the relationships between not only servicescape and purchasing behavior, but also purchasing behavior-related variables. In addition, this study supports the concept of a dark side of servicescape. With regards to practical implications, this study suggests that exhibition organizers should put more efforts in facilitating consumer’s desire to stay. More importantly, organizers need to keep in mind that excessive emphasis on ‘design/artifacts’ to increase consumers’ shopping duration can cause a side effect that reduces opportunities for interactions with customers.