International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET)
Volume 10, Issue 04, April 2019, pp. 31-38. Article ID: IJMET_10_04_005
Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/ijmet/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=10&IType=4
ISSN Print: 0976-6340 and ISSN Online: 0976-6359
© IAEME Publication
Scopus Indexed
UNDERSTANDING THE PHYSICAL
ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ON THE
PROSPECTIVE CUSTOMERS
Siti Aisyah Muhammad
Faculty of Architecture and Ekistics, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, 16300 Bachok, Kelantan,
Malaysia,
Sung Pil Lee
School of Design, DongSeo University,
47 Jurye-ro, Jurye 2(i)-dong, Sasang-gu, Busan, South Korea,
ABSTRACT
Physical environment related to the industrial technology and architecture. The
physical environment is a visible and tangible aspect compliment the innovative
technology, design and service innovation design. This research aimed to study the
views of prospective customers to two coffee shops in Seomyeon, Busan, South Korea,
in relation to their expectation according to the physical environment. The methodology
used included interviews, surveys and analysis through Semantic Differences and
AMOS 22. The components of the physical environment comprised the facility aesthetic,
lighting, ambience, layout, service product and social factors. The findings showed the
influence of cultural context on the preferences to select and revisit the coffee shops.
The components of the physical environment influenced the decision making of the
prospective customers in selecting the preferred coffee shops according to the
experience and expectation about the potential good tangible and intangible services.
This study contributes to understand about the marketing strategy applied the
emphasizing of the physical environment of the service business respected to the
potential technology.
Key words: service technology, architecture, physical environment
Cite this Article Siti Aisyah Muhammad and Sung Pil Lee, Understanding the Physical
Environment Impact on the Prospective Customers, International Journal of Mechanical
Engineering and Technology, 10(4), 2019, pp. 31-38.
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Understanding the Physical Environment Impact on the Prospective Customers
1. INTRODUCTION
Design field produces architects, designers, consultants and so on to provide a professional
person to produce what people want and need, but the crucial thing is what people most satisfied
and preferred. Environmental psychologists suggest that the feelings or emotions of people
determine what they do and how they do it (Donovan & Rossiter, 1982; Mehrabian & Russel,
1974). Additionally, perception is described as an instant response to the immediate
environment, whereas cognition involves the process of semantic and verbal classification of
perception (Bro, 2000). Impression and customer’s behavioural intention are related to
customers’ satisfaction, and physical environment and cognitive emotion assist with their
retention and decision to revisit the place (Han et al., 2009; Hyun et al., 2011; Ha & Jang, 2013).
Coffee shops, presently, are not only a food and beverage business, but they also provide
services to customers such as meeting areas, Wi-Fi and event halls. A study argued that the
physical environment is closely related to customers’ preferences for selecting coffee shops
(Muhammad & Lee, 2016). This study aims to determine the components of the physical
environment that influenced the prospective customers in selecting the coffee shop as a service
business. The physical environment as a tangible aspects in architecture and industrial
technology is an important topic to understand relates to the users and potential future services.
2. PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
Findings show that innovation occurs in five distinct design areas including the physical
environment, service employees, the service delivery process, fellow customers and back office
support which, directly or indirectly, influence customer experience (Voss & Zomerdijk,
2007). Landscape architects, architects, interior designers, retailers, and environmental
psychologists acknowledge the influence of physical environment on behaviour (Donovan &
Rossiter, 1982; Turley & Milliman, 2000). It is argued that human behaviour is strongly
associated with physical environment (Mehrabian & Russel, 1974; Russel & Pratt, 1980).
Environmental psychologists, Mehrabian and Russel (1974) theorised that individuals generally
react to the environment in two contrasting ways: approach and avoidance. According to several
investigations, convincing physical surroundings stimulate emotional/physical responses as
well as cognitive responses such as customer beliefs/perceptions (Bitner, 1992; Golledge,
1987). Moreover, Rapoport (1982) agreed that from a cognitive viewpoint, the physical
environment is described as a form of nonverbal communication which is also denoted as the
object language. Mehrabian and Russell (1974) maintain that the physical environment is
considered a key variable influencing customer perception and behaviour from the perspective
of environmental psychology. It is also agreed that the physical environment plays a
fundamental role in retail atmospherics (Kotler, 1973; Turley & Milliman, 2000) and
‘servicescapes’ (Bitner, 1992). ‘Servicescape’ is described as “the man-made, physical
surroundings as opposed to the natural or social environment” (Bitner, 1992, p. 58). Wakefield
and Blodgett studied the effects of layout accessibility, facility aesthetics, electronic equipment,
seating comfort, and cleanliness on servicescape and found that physical environment
significantly affected customer satisfaction (1999). Mattila and Wirtz indicated that the three
major reasons that customers patronise their target restaurants in the casual dining sector were
food quality, service, and atmosphere (2001). Furthermore, in the context of retailing,
atmospherics was a sentient design of a physical environment that had an impact on consumers
prone to purchase probability (1973). Kotler (1973) suggested four environmental dimensions:
visual, aural, olfactory, and tactile. Then, Berman and Evans (1995) proposed atmospheric
stimuli or elements in four categories: the store exterior, the general interior, the layout and
design variables, and the point-of-purchase and decoration variables.
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Earlier, Hall (1966) introduced three types of environmental cues: fixed feature elements
(such as walls and floors), semi-fixed feature elements (such as furniture type and arrangement,
window displays), and non-fixed feature elements (such as ambience and people in the
environment). Subsequently, Baker (1986) provided a taxonomy of environmental cues such as
design factors, social factors, and ambient factors. Later, researchers in the field of
environmental psychology and service innovation proposed extended essential factors of the
physical environment, such as décor and artefacts, spatial layout, and ambient conditions that
are particularly pertinent to the service industry (e.g., Nguyen & Leblanc, 2002; Raajpoot, 2002;
Wakefield & Blodgett, 1999).
3. THEORETICAL ANALYSIS
In the world of service marketing, the design quality is one of the main attributes related with
environmental psychology that resulted on customers’ behaviour upon selecting the product.
Rust and Oliver (1994) argued that the perception of service quality such as reliability is based
on the customer’s evaluation of the physical service factors such as design. Previous researches
have concluded that people rely on the environment to value of their world and for behavioral
guidance (Genereaux, Ward, & Russell 1983; Ittelson et al. 1974; Kaplan 1987; Rapoport 1982;
Russell, Ward, & Pratt1981; Russell and Pratt 1980; Russell & Ward 1982). Also, empirical
studies suggested in the ways physical environment influences customer satisfaction and
expect post-purchase behavior (Hui, Dude & Chebat, 1997; Grove, Fisk &Bitner, 1992,
Knutson & Patton, 1995;
Mattila &Wirtz, 2001; Voss & Zomerdijk, 2007, Wakefield &
Blodgett, 1994). Louviere stated that preference antecedents namely utility as “judgments,
impressions, or evaluations that decision makers form of products or services, taking all the
determinant attribute information into account” (1988, p. 12).
Figure 1. Model of the Choice Process (Louviere, 1988)
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
This study selected two locations in a city in Busan, South Korea, as the case study for a
comparative analysis of customer preferences in selecting a coffee shop and their decision to
revisit. A pre-test survey of 20 samples was conducted to determine the most visited and most
likely to be visited coffee shop, according to expectations of the taste and physical environment
of the coffee shop in both locations. The two coffee shops in Busan were selected using the
same criteria, namely that they are both local Korean franchise coffee shops located within a
100m area (Fig. 2). Based on the result, two distinct coffee shops were selected: OK Dabang
and KAVAN Espresso. Semantic Differential Method (SDM) uses semantic attributes of the
product for investigation and analysis, where the sample must assess the products according to
their value. The attributes were determined at the pre-test stage using the KJ method
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Understanding the Physical Environment Impact on the Prospective Customers
(Muhammad & Lee, 2016). The proposed hypothesis by Ryu (2012) on attributes of the
physical environment, including facility aesthetic, lighting, ambience, layout, service product
and social factors, was adapted in this study. Subsequently, 100 participants (male: 49, female:
51) were asked to complete the questionnaires without visiting the coffee shops, where 61% are
Design Students and 39% belong to other categories (4% are unemployed; 9% in the arts or
entertainment field; 16% in the education domain; 4% in the financial industry; 3% are public
servants; 2% in the health care specialty; and 1% in the real estate field). A video and a
photographic image of OK Dabang and KAVAN Espresso were displayed to the participants
prior to completing the questionnaire.
Figure. 2 Location of OK Dabang and KAVAN Espresso
The impression is often influenced by the senses, reviews, social media, and personal
experiences that have become part of the marketing concept. OK Dabang commenced
operations in 2005 and had seven franchises by 2014. It has maintained the tradition of the
dabang atmosphere with the DJ and music request. OK Dabang in Seomyeon, Busan, opened
in 2011 at the corner of a two-storey building. Located at the same junction with OK Dabang,
KAVAN Espresso commenced operations in 2012 with a different atmosphere from OK
Dabang. KAVAN Espresso has a contemporary industrial interior design with the look of a
modern gallery. The attributes obtained at the pre-test stage using the KJ method generated 101
keywords (Fig. 3), where A represents KAVAN Espresso and B represents OK Dabang. The
keywords were clustered according to the proposed attributes of physical environment by a
previous researcher (Ryu, 2012).
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Siti Aisyah Muhammad and Sung Pil Lee
Figure. 3 101 keywords from KJ Method
Table. 1 The 5-bipolar scale of pairwise matrix for both coffee shops
Examples of the physical environment of both coffee shops presented to the participants as
shown in Table 2 and Table 3. The attributes were defined in pairs of antonymous adjectives,
which lie at either end of a qualitative scale. Derived from the adjectives provided by the
samples, 15 adjective pairs were clustered according to highest and similar repetition of
meanings in Table 1. It was proven that the proposed classification by Ryu (2012) represents
the expectations and impressions of future customers with respect to the physical environment
of the specific coffee shops.
Table 2. The photographic images of OK Dabang
Table 3. The photographic images of KAVAN Espresso
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Understanding the Physical Environment Impact on the Prospective Customers
The results of a 5-bipolar (Fig. 4 and Fig. 5) show significant comparative impression
between both coffee shops.
Figure. 4 Scattered chart for OK Dabang
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Siti Aisyah Muhammad and Sung Pil Lee
Figure. 5 Scattered chart for KAVAN Espresso
The scattered charts above explained that the prospective customers have different
preferable views upon both coffee shops. The OK Dabang has selected as Quiet (item 11) place
by looking at the ambience o the physical surrounding at 58%. The KAVAN Espresso was
selected as Rigid (item 6) with 58% with the industrial interior layout provided. The
participants’ expectation and impression of both coffee shops were summarised below:
1. The participants selected the environment that is most consistent with their emotions
and behaviours (Bitner, 1992; Golledge, 1987).
2. The participants observe the layout and interior of the coffee shop before making a
decision to stay (Kotler, 1973; Matilda & Witz, 2001).
3. The participants stated that exclusivity is important as it represents the service
quality of the coffee shop (Bitner, 1992)
5. CONCLUSION
The results show significant preference for both coffee shops. Participants preferred OK
Dabang for enjoyment and leisure, whereas KAVAN Espresso was favored as the legit and
serious place. Hence, as posited by Kotler, the physical environment has an emotional effect on
buyers that could enhance their purchase probability and could be described in sensory terms.
The components of physical environment as a tangible aspect is understood as one of the factors
that influencing marketing. The industrial technology related to the service business will also
potentially develop by understanding the physical environmental factors.
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