Scheduled for Research Consortium Leisure & Recreation and Sport Management & Administration Poster Session, Thursday, April 14, 2005, 3:45 PM - 5:15 PM, Convention Center: Exhibit Hall Poster Area I


The Servicescape in Golf Courses: The Effects of Physical Environment on the Consumers' Internal Response and Behavioral Outcome (Sport Management)

Kyoungtae Kim, Sungwon Bae and Don Stringfellow, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL

Physical environment has emerged as an important concept for understanding customers' behavior in service industry (Bitner, 1992). Servicescape refers to the environments in which services are delivered and where the firm and customer interact (Bitner, 1992; Zeithaml & Bitner, 2003). Service providers should build environments that achieve a balance between two primary objectives: (1) develop environments that appeal to consumer pleasure and arousal states while avoiding atmospheres that create submissiveness; and (2) construct environments that facilitate the operational ease and efficiency of the firm (Hoffman, Kelly, & Chun, 2003). Though several studies in the marketing and environmental psychology literature have examined physical environment, little work has been done within sport and recreation context (e.g., Wakefield and Blodgett, 1994; Wakefield & Blodgett, 1996; Wakefield, Blodgett, & Sloan, 1996). The constructs of servicescape have attracted little attention despite its accepted importance in sport and recreation service. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the factors, which determine consumer's perceptions of servicescape within golf course, and the causal relationship between servicescape and consumer's internal response and consumer's behavioral outcome. Customers of golf courses (N=235) in the State of Florida, were surveyed on their opinions of physical environment and satisfaction using convenient sampling method. The proposed research model was tested with structural equation modeling technique. The results of structural equation analysis indicated that the fit of the hypothetical model was found to be "good" (c2/df Ratio = 2.63, GFI= .98, CFI= .93, NF1= .96, and RMSEA = .05). The results also showed that physical environment has a positive effect on consumer's internal response and behavioral outcome respectively. Also consumers' internal response has a positive effect on behavioral outcome. In concluding, the results of the study are discussed and implications for practitioners and researcher will be presented.
Keyword(s): sport management

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