1. Theme restaurants have lost market share and managers need to investigate customer behaviors with theme restaurant attributes to recognize necessary improvements.
2. The physical environment of a theme restaurant, or servicescape, plays a significant role in improving customers' perceptions and behaviors.
3. The strength and direction of the relationship between customers' cognitive/emotional perceptions and subsequent behaviors is moderated by situational factors such as the type of theme restaurant.
The article titled "Customers’ cognitive, emotional, and actionable response to the servicescape: A test of the moderating effect of the restaurant type" aims to investigate the impact of physical environment attributes (servicescape) on customers' perceptions and behaviors in theme restaurants. The study proposes a conceptual model that examines the effects of perceived service quality and emotion on subsequent customer behavior, namely revisit intention. The authors also investigate the moderating effect of theme restaurant type on customers' reactions to their physical surroundings.
The article provides a comprehensive review of literature related to servicescape research in various fields such as architecture, environmental psychology, retailing, and marketing. However, it is important to note that most of the studies cited are from Western countries, which may limit the generalizability of their findings to other cultural contexts.
The authors propose a conceptual model that includes three main constructs: servicescape, perceived service quality/emotion, and subsequent customer behavior. While this model seems reasonable, it is not clear how these constructs are operationalized in practice. For example, how do customers' emotions towards a theme restaurant manifest themselves? Are there specific emotions that are more relevant than others? How is perceived service quality measured?
Furthermore, while the authors acknowledge Bitner's (1992) framework for understanding perceived service quality as an overall judgment based on quality attributes, they do not provide a clear definition or operationalization of this construct in their study. This lack of clarity makes it difficult to assess whether their findings support or contradict previous research on perceived service quality.
Another potential limitation of this study is its focus on only two types of theme restaurants: strong-entertainment (e.g., Planet Hollywood) and weak-entertainment (e.g., Monsoon Café). While these two types may represent different levels of entertainment value for customers, they may not capture all possible variations in theme restaurant types. Therefore, it is unclear whether the findings can be generalized to other types of theme restaurants.
The authors also suggest that the relationship between servicescape and perceived service quality/emotion towards revisit intention is moderated by a theme restaurant type. However, they do not provide a clear rationale for this hypothesis or explain how it was tested in their study. This lack of transparency makes it difficult to assess the validity of their findings.
Overall, while the article provides a comprehensive review of literature related to servicescape research and proposes a reasonable conceptual model, there are several limitations that need to be addressed. These include the lack of clarity in operationalizing key constructs, the limited focus on only two types of theme restaurants, and the lack of transparency in testing their hypotheses.