The evoking power of servicescapes: Consumers' inferences of manipulative intent following service environment-driven evocations

Interactions between consumers and the servicescape favor value creation. To this regard, the potential influence of the servicescape on consumer service experience is of most importance. While consumers have been perceived as active and willing to co-create value, this research shows that this is not the case when the servicescape triggers inferences of manipulative intent (IMI) and consumers consequently exhibit lower shopping intentions. In particular, in a context where the literature has overlooked how incongruency may affect IMI, this research focuses on how consumers react when the evocations driven from the servicescape contradict product properties. More specifically, this research investigates how discrepancies between (1) the actual properties of the merchandise and (2) those that are driven by the servicescape lead to IMI and subsequent shopping intentions. Results from an experiment demonstrate that when the evoked and actual properties of the merchandise are incongruent, consumers tend to infer that the servicescape is manipulative, resulting in a decrease in shopping intentions.