Based on the physical environment, the service industry creates, shapes, and positions its service products in the mind of its target customers, all of which have been valued and applied since the 1970s. Proposed the term "atmospherics" to explain how the characteristics, color, scale, brightness, and shape of stimuli in a physical environment affect consumer behavior [1]. However, many scholars believe that Kotler's theory only focuses on one concept to explain consumer behavior, meaning it is not comprehensive. Therefore, in the 1990s, adopted the stimulus-organic-response (S-O-R) theory to propose the concept of "servicescape", and argued that a servicescape is an environment of customers and employees containing natural and social entity characteristics, such as atmosphere and design, which affect the internal cognition and emotional state of employees and customers, and then affect their behavior and relationships [2,3]. Since then, the concept of servicescape has been discussed by many scholars.

More and more hotel operators and scholars have recognized the importance of innovation for the survival and growth of hotels [4]. Many studies have confirmed that innovation and employees' innovative behavior have a significant impact on a company's financial performance, image, and reputation. Innovation can greatly promote corporate performance in areas of customer preference, service quality, employee productivity, market share, and customer retention rate, and these areas involve important elements at the level of customers, employees, and the company [5]. However, he found there is a relative lack of discussion on innovation in the hotel industry. Mentioned the importance of innovation to service performance [6]. He believed that the interaction between employees and customers will affect customers' consumption and revisit intentions. Therefore, he took the Swedish hotel industry as the research subject and explored the relationship between innovation and customer satisfaction from the perspective of human resource management. The results not only showed that innovation will affect customer satisfaction but also proved that good human resource management policies will strengthen a hotel's innovation ability and enhance customer satisfaction. Therefore, innovation plays an important role in the hotel service industry. Innovation involves quite a number of factors, such as products, organizations, processes, and services. Employees are an important element in providing good service and creating good customer relationships.

However, research on how the innovative behavior of employees affects the performance of the hotel industry and how to stimulate the innovative behavior of employees is rare, especially in the luxury hotel industry. Initiating new products and services can be a change that causes uncertainty for hospitality service providers and their customers. Examined consumers’ intentions to dine at luxury restaurants when new environmentally friendly practices are implemented and pointed out that consumers’ perceptions of the risk of luxury products are sometimes overlooked [7]. Therefore, innovation service behavior may cause consumers’ risk and uncertainty, and may further affect consumers’ feelings and evaluations. The purpose of this study was to investigate consumers’ attitudes and satisfaction when employees perform innovation service behaviors. The hospitality industry generally accepts the hotel star ratings designed by the Forbes (formerly, Mobil) Travel Guide, the American Automobile Association (AAA), and other organizations [8,9]. The perception exists that hotels awarded five stars by Forbes or five diamonds by the AAA are luxury hotels [10]. Therefore, the study used five-star hotels as a representative of luxury hotels. In addition, most research on servicescape, organizational climate, and satisfaction is discussed and measured from the perspective of customers, such as the studies [11,12]. The hotel industry, which focuses on the interaction between employees and customers, needs to explore the multilevel architecture in order to understand how organizational-level attributes may influence employees and customers. Therefore, different from other studies, this study proposed the construction of customer-level and service provider/hotel-level factors, and used the S-O-R theory to explore the relationship between servicescape, innovation service behavior, customer satisfaction, and the influence of hotel service climate.

Customer Satisfaction

Satisfaction can be defined as a kind of customer response that is based on an individual's evaluation of the consumption experience [13]. The most widely-accepted definition of customer satisfaction is the emotional response generated by the cognitive judgment process between the customer's cognitive performance after the use of a product or service and the prior expectations [14]. Customer satisfaction is defined as a customer’s post-consumption evaluation of a product or service that occurs if the perceived performance of the service meets or exceeds the customer’s prior expectations [13]. When customers' evaluation of the use of a product or service is different from their expectations, they may be dissatisfied, and such customer dissatisfaction can significantly affect their subsequent decision-making and purchasing behavior. Regarding the hotel industry, found that satisfied consumers become repeat purchasers of products or services and provide family or friends with positive feedback regarding their experiences [15]. Therefore, it is an important marketing and management issue for hoteliers to understand what influences their customers’ satisfaction.

Servicescape

The term "servicescape" was proposed who stated that a servicescape is the entity condition of the field where the exchanges of transmission and consumption are conducted in the service industry [2]. He proposed that a servicescape includes objective, physical, and measurable stimuli that can strengthen the closeness or avoidance between employees and customers, thus contributing to or hindering the narrowing of social distance [16]. Most of the relevant studies on servicescape focus on the physical environment; however, some scholars proposed that a servicescape should include the physical and social environment, the latter of which refers to the culture and interaction between employees and customers [17]. Recognized the importance of the concept of servicescape [18]. They used the theory discuss the relevant literature and proposed that a servicescape contains the four dimensions of entity, society, social symbols, and nature [19]. Entity refers to the overall environmental conditions, space, signs, and symbols in the service field, which can be created and controlled. It is the place where stimulants and consumption occur, and it can directly or indirectly affect customer satisfaction and the cognition of service quality. Therefore, it is the most-studied dimension. Society refers to the staff, customers, social distance, and other people's mood performance in the service field. Social symbols refer to the moral symbols and moral relics in the service field. Nature refers to the rejection, charm, and compatibility of the service field. These dimensions extend the theory include objectively measurable and subjectively uncontrollable factors, taking the characteristics of marketing, environment, humanity, and society into account, and showing that a servicescape affects the behavior of customers and employees as well as their emotional response to the service organization, which has important practical implications [2]. Argued that positive (negative) internal responses to a servicescape can strengthen (or damage) the interaction between customers and employees [2].

Many scholars have studied issues related to servicescapes. Indicated that the servicescapes of the modern hospitality industry, such as those in hotels, restaurants, and airlines, not only include the physical environment but also the social interaction between service providers and customers [19]. For example, customers' evaluation of a restaurant involves not only the food and the environment but also the words and deeds of the service staff. Therefore, based on the theory developed a multi-facet hotel and restaurant servicescape scale by integrating brand, service, and environmental cognition [2]. Taking restaurants as the research subject, it was found that social interaction has the greatest influence on consumer perception and that consumer perception can further affect customers’ behaviors. Showed that international airport servicescapes influence customers’ emotions and affect their behavioral intention [20]. Found there is a lack of research on the servicescapes of the hotel industry, so they took the customers of five high-end hotels in London as the research subjects for their investigation [21]. Based on the stimulus-organic-response (S-O-R) theory explored the influence of the environment on consumer behavior and developed a servicescape scale suitable for the hotel industry that involves five aspects: aesthetic quality, functionality, atmosphere, spaciousness, and physiological conditions, with a total of 18 items [3]. They found that the servicescapes in the hotel industry significantly affect the emotional and behavioral responses of customers.

Since proposed the servicescape theory, many scholars have argued that consumers' emotions and behaviors are affected by the physical environment [2][22]. Examined the relationships between the social servicescape and positive emotions in the post-use in terms of response satisfaction, perceived value, and customer loyalty. They found that the servicescape can improve the provider’s and customers’ positive emotions, causing customers to be more satisfied and loyal [26]. In view of the lack of research on servicescapes in the hotel industry, put forward the importance of research on the influence of different servicescape elements in the hotel industry on the customer response [24]. Argued that service providers should stimulate customer cooperation to create unique and personalized memorable experiences [25]. They studied restaurant customers in the U.S. and explored how to motivate customers to participate in creating unique and personalized memorable experiments. The results showed that the perceived physical environment and the openness of customers affect their positive emotions toward the restaurant service, thus stimulating their willingness to participate in creating a unique service experience. Investigated restaurants in luxury hotels and proposed that positive cognition regarding service encounter elements, including physical environmental factors, interaction with service employees and other consumers, and customer satisfaction are positively related, and found that luxury-hotel restaurant environmental factors positively influence consumer satisfaction [11]. Also found that the atmosphere, service quality, and food quality of a restaurant have a significant impact on customer satisfaction and the perception of quality [26]. Took the hotel industry as the research subject and found that the overall images of hotels are affected by the physical environment, service quality, and food quality, thus affecting customer satisfaction [27]. Found that the servicescape can stimulate customers’ positive emotions and evaluations, which are favorable to the hotel [28]. Therefore, the study proposed that the servicescape can affect customers' satisfaction.

H1: Servicescape has a positive effect on customer satisfaction toward luxury hotels.

Perception of Innovation Service Behavior

The servicescape also affects employee performance as the physical environment can induce positive or negative reactions from employees [2]. When the environment makes employees feel friendly or favorable, they will work harder and be willing to stay in the workplace for longer, thus forming a sense of identity with the company. Employees who are satisfied with the working environment are more likely to have open, altruistic, and positive service behaviors when interacting with customers and will present innovative service behaviors that make customers feel novel and beneficial [21]. A Good and innovative service can bring pleasure to customers whom will give positive comments.

Innovation behavior refers to an individual's behavior of presenting novel and useful ideas, problem-solving processes, or procedures for a workplace, task, or organization [29]. From the learning orientation perspective, employees' innovation behaviors are helpful for an organization to achieve better economic benefits. However, the generation and application of new ideas require employees to learn from one another in internal and external environments, so that they can understand the changes and improve their knowledge, thus coming up with novel ideas to meet customers' needs and create customer satisfaction [30]. The importance of employee innovation behavior to the performance and sustainable survival of the hotel industry has been widely recognized by scholars and operators [31]. Argued that although the importance of the physical environment has been highlighted in the research on creativity, it remains unclear how environmental elements influence employees’ creativity and innovation behavior [32]. They used 70 creative workers as research objects in their study and found that the physical environment facilitates employee creativity and innovation behavior. Few studies have attempted to clarify the relationship between the physical environment and employee innovation behavior. Based on the theory the study argued that servicescape affects the behavior of customers and employees, as well as their emotional response to the service organization [2]. Employees in a friendly and pleasant servicescape will activity show more extra-role behaviors that are beneficial to the organization, based on the spirit of giving back. In view of the importance of employees' innovation service behavior to be measured from the perspective of customers, the concept of customers' perception of innovation service behavior is proposed in this study to measure employees' innovation service behavior from the perspective of customers. Took the hotel customers as the research subject and found that servicescape could stimulate customers’ positive emotions and evaluations that are favorable to the hotel [28]. Therefore, the following hypotheses were developed:

H2: Servicescape has a positive effect on the perception of innovation service behavior toward luxury hotels.

The prior literature has alluded to the intangible nature of services (e.g., politeness, friendliness, sensitivity, and empathy) and the relational interaction between front-line employees and customers as critical determinants of customer satisfaction [33]. Investigated the main and interactive effects of three employee attributes on customer satisfaction in China and found that the effect of respectfulness has the strongest impact on customer satisfaction [34]. Therefore, the study alluded to how human elements, such as displayed positive emotions and behaviors, positively affect customer satisfaction.

Conducted a study on the service industry and found that cognitive innovation has a positive impact on customer attitude [18]. Took the Korean catering industry as the research subject and found that cognitive innovation has a positive impact on customer attitudes and behavioral intention [36]. Found that innovation benefits customers but they did not directly discuss customer satisfaction [37]. Took the hotel industry in Sweden as the research subject to explore the relationship among human resource management, innovation, and customer satisfaction and found that hotel service innovation has a significant impact on customer satisfaction [4]. Some scholars believe that in some industries, innovation is an extra-role behavior that is not formally required by the company. They found that the more employees perceive their supervisors as warm, competent, and moral, the more they will be willing to engage in extra-role customer service behavior, which is conducive to customer satisfaction [38].

Although these studies do not directly explore innovation service behavior, based on the characteristics of the interaction between hotel employees and customers, this study believed that customers' satisfaction will be improved when they are aware of the innovation service behavior of employees. Therefore, this study proposed the following hypothesis:

H3: The perception of innovation service behavior has a positive effect on customers’ satisfaction toward luxury hotels.

From the perspectives of tourism and hospitality management, service personnel and servicescapes are important factors that determine the success of the service delivery process [39][2]. Took the hospitality and tourism industries as the research subjects and discussed the relationship among service personnel, servicescape, and corporate image [40]. It was found that for the hospitality industry, the performance of service personnel and the servicescape can both affect customers' cognition of corporate image, and the two have interactive effects. In his opinion, service personnel, because of their direct contact with customers, can collect opinions or information from different customers, which can affect the process of providing and delivering services and even allow managers to improve the quality of the services provided. What is mentioned above is a two-way relationship; when customers feel their opinions are valued, they will have a positive cognition and attitude toward the company, thus establishing a good customer relationship. Suggested that customer experience and employee behavior affect the success of a company's operation and that the two influence each other [41]. Based on the S-O-R model, he proposed the interaction of servicescape (personal level stimulus), customer emotion (organism), and behavior intention (response), and believed that service climate and employee recognition could affect their relationship. The results showed that the employees’ service delivery behavior and the customers’ perceived servicescape could affect the customers’ consumption mood and experience. Agreed on the importance of the servicescape to customers' mood, satisfaction, and behavioral intention [28]. Taking hotel customers as the research subjects, through an online questionnaire survey, they found that the servicescape positively influences the mood of hotel customers, affects their satisfaction with the hotel, and significantly stimulates their behavioral intention to favor the hotel. They also found that brand familiarity interferes with the relationship between servicescape and customer mood. In other words, the less familiar the customer is with a hotel brand, the greater the influence of servicescape on customer mood will be. Therefore, servicescape and employees' service behaviors can affect customers' emotions and attitudes. Based on the above, this study proposed the following hypothesis:

H4: The servicescape has a positive effect on customer satisfaction through the perception of innovation service behavior toward luxury hotels.

Service Climate

First proposed the concept of service climate, which was based on the concept of organizational climate [42]. In 1998, they further defined service climate as a company's recognition of the rewards, support, and expectations for employees' work, processes, and behavior related to customer service and customer service quality [43]. Argued that service climate is an organizational policy and practice that supports the delivery of excellent service [44]. More and more scholars have studied service climate and found that it can affect the attitude and behavior of employees, create favorable organizational performance, increase customer satisfaction and customer retention rates, and improve profits. However, there is a lack of research on the service climate of the hospitality industry. Found that many studies confirm that organizations with a positive service climate show a high level of service quality, and that service quality significantly affects customers' evaluation of the company's service (satisfaction) [45]. They took the Australian casino hotel industry as the research subject and found that the service climate significantly affects customer satisfaction. Indicated that employee behavior and customer experience have an impact on company operation [41]. Research in the hospitality field rarely discusses the impact of service climate on the relationship among employee behavior and customer emotion and attitude from the perspective of service marketing; therefore, he took resort customers as the research subjects and found that employee behavior affects the customers’ consumption experience and that the service climate interferes with the relationship between the two. Pointed out that because front-line hotel employees face an extremely stressful catering and tourism environment, they need to organize a supportive atmosphere and resources to provide superior services [46]. Therefore, they explored the relationship between service climate and employee service performance and found that when employees feel a positive service climate, they will be prompted to show innovative and high-quality service behaviors, thereby creating customer satisfaction. Proposed that enterprises have a good climate, which will affect employees' work attitudes and behaviors, and discovering hotels with innovative climates will inspire employees to show innovative service behaviors that are beneficial to the organization [47].

The study proposed that when employees experience good organizational policy and a positive service climate, they will be encouraged to show organizationally-beneficial service behaviors, such as creative and enthusiastic service, which in turn improves customer satisfaction. Therefore, the study argued that the more employees perceive the intense service climate of a hotel, the more their exhibited innovation service behavior will affect customer satisfaction. Based on the above inferences, this study proposed the following hypothesis:

H5: Service climate has an impact on the relationship between the perception of innovation service behavior and customer satisfaction. The structure of this study is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Conceptual framework.

Operational Definition of Variables

All instruments for measuring the underlying constructs of this study were adopted from previous studies and were designed in English, and all were multi-item measures (see Appendix). The term “servicescape” in this study referred to the physical condition and social interaction of the field where the exchanges of transmission and consumption are conducted in the hotel industry. The servicescape scale proposed was used to measure the five dimensions of aesthetic quality, functionality, atmosphere, spaciousness, and physiological conditions [21]. There were a total of 18 items. Perception of innovation service behavior in this study refers to customers' perception of hotel staff's creative behaviors of communicating and sharing new ideas. The perception of innovation behavior scale proposed is adopted and modified. There are a total of 6 items [48]. Innovation service behavior in this study referred to hotel staff's creative thinking and behaviors of communicating and sharing new ideas. The innovation behavior scale proposed was adopted in this study [48]. There were a total of six items. The term “service climate” referred to the degree of internal service perception in the hotel industry through the support of the service delivery system, managers, and colleagues. The service climate scale proposed was composed of four items [49]. Customer satisfaction is an emotional processing process and a result of customers' evaluation of their consumption experience. The customer satisfaction scale proposed was composed of five items [50]. All questions are listed in the appendix.

Data Collection

In this study, a questionnaire survey was conducted to explore the influence patterns of servicescape, perception of innovation service behavior, service climate, and customer satisfaction on customers who had stayed in luxury hotels in Taiwan during the past two years. This timespan was intentionally selected, as the ability to recall the previous hotel stay experiences and familiarity with the COVID-19 pandemic would be high [51].

As the target respondents were Chinese-speaking individuals, the questionnaire was translated into Chinese using back-translation to ensure the Chinese version of the questionnaire would be comparable to the English version. The initial questionnaire was reviewed by five scholars and practitioners. Unsuitable items were deleted, and the wordings and descriptions of the questions were revised to serve as a scale for measuring the research variables. The formal customer questionnaire of this study was divided into two parts. The first part was about the satisfaction of the interviewed customers with the hotel service and included five items scored using Likert's five-point scale to measure the degree of customers' agreement with the description of each item. The second part was the basic personal information of the participants and included demographic variables such as gender and age.

There are 42 luxury hotels in Taiwan. This research first explained the purpose of this survey to the hotels’ human resource managers by telephone and then asked them about their willingness to participate in the research. Fifteen hotels expressed their willingness to participate in the study. They promised that they would first call the customers to inquire about their wiliness in participating in this survey and then mail the questionnaire to those who were willing to participate. The survey was conducted June 2022. A total of 560 customer questionnaires were distributed to individuals who had stayed in luxury hotels in Taiwan during the past two years, and 486 questionnaires were collected. Twelve customer questionnaires with more than five items missing were removed and a total of 474 questionnaires were effectively recovered (an effective recovery rate of 84.6%), with an average of 32 customers surveyed from each of the 15 hotels. This study integrated customer-level and service provider/hotel-level factors, and used Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for data analysis. Through confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, ANOVA, and hierarchical linear modeling, we attempted to understand the relationship among servicescape, innovation service behavior, service climate, and customer satisfaction, as well as verify the applicability of the framework and hypothesis of this study.

Sample Profile

Among the participants in the recovered customer samples, males and females accounted for 41.1% and 58.9%, respectively, and they were mainly over 40 years of age (52.3%). Most of them had received a college education (54.2%), and most of them were married (52.5%). Students accounted for the largest number of occupations (25.7%), followed by the military, public servants and teachers (20.0%), and service workers (18.1%). Most had a monthly income of NT$40,000 to NT$60,000 (24.1%), followed by NT$20,000 to 40,000 (23.4%). Most of them lived in the north (50.6%), followed by the south (23.6%). In the last two years, most participants had stayed in a hotel in the northern region (55.3%), followed by hotels in the central region (34.8%). Most people had stayed in a hotel only once (45.1%), followed by two to three times (38.6%). The main purpose of staying at the hotel was sightseeing (58.2%), followed by business (29.3%), and the subjects had mainly booked rooms via the Internet (74.5%).

Factor and Measurement Model Analysis

In this study, the reliability and validity of the measurement questions for each research variable were tested by reliability analysis and confirmatory factor analysis after the questionnaire was collected, as suggested [52,53]. The results are shown in Table 1. In terms of the reliability analysis, this study found that the SMCs of all questions for each research variable were greater than 0.63 (between 0.63 and 0.90), and the CRs were greater than 0.80 (between 0.80 and 0.90), indicating the internal consistency of all questions was good. In terms of the validity analysis, confirmatory factor analysis was used to set each dimension as a potential variable and its question as an observation variable. The results showed that in terms of the overall evaluation of the measurement model, by referring to the suggestions of the scholars, the matching degree of the model would be good when χ2/d.f. <5, RMSEA <0.08, SRMR <0.1, GFI >0.9, AGFI >0.8, and CFI >0.9 [54]. The results showed that the dimensions of all research variables were at the evaluation level, and the factor loadings of all questions were significant, indicating that the overall model was well adapted. Furthermore, this study referred to argue that a factor loading >0.5, a CR >0.7 and an AVE >0.5 would indicate that the research dimension had convergent validity [55]. If the square root value of the average variance extracted of the potential variables was greater than the correlation coefficient of different dimensions, it would mean that the degree of relationship between the potential dimensions was less than the degree of relationship within the potential dimensions. Therefore, it has the discriminant validity, to test the convergent validity and discriminant validity of each research variable dimension. The results showed that the factor loadings of all questions for each research variable were greater than 0.83 (between 0.83 and 0.93), the CRs were greater than 0.80 (between 0.80 and 0.90), and the AVEs were greater than 0.57 (between 0.57 and 0.79), indicating that it had good convergent validity. In addition, this study also found that the AVE square root value of each research variable was greater than the correlation coefficient between different dimensions, therefore it had good discriminant validity.

Table 1: Measurement Model Analysis.

Note: (  ) means squared root of AVE.

In terms of the descriptive statistics, as seen in Table 1, the mean of the variables was between 3.36 and 3.88, and the standard deviation was between .68 and .90. The skewness coefficient and kurtosis coefficient of each item were not significant, indicating the normal distribution of data. Among the variables in this study, the perception of innovation service behavior had the lowest score, while customer satisfaction had the highest score. The means of the five dimensions for servicescape were between 3.74 and 3.84. Atmosphere had the lowest score, while aesthetic quality had the highest score (as shown in Table 1). Suggested that Cronbach's α coefficient should be used to test the consistency of a scale [52]. The higher the coefficient value, the higher the degree of internal consistency of the scale. As shown in Table 2, the reliability of all variables and their dimensions in this study was between .84 and .96, showing a high degree of internal consistency.

Correlation Analysis

Table 2: Reliability and Correlation Matrix.

Note: Values presented at the diagonal are Cronbach’s alphas.

As shown in Table 2, all variables in this study showed a significant positive correlation (r between .62 and .81, p <.01). The relation degree between servicescape and service climate was the lowest, while the relation degree between servicescape and customer satisfaction was the highest. The relation degree between the perception of innovation service behavior and servicescape was the lowest, while the relation degree between the perception of innovation service behavior and service climate was the highest. The relation degree between service climate and servicescape was the lowest, while the relation degree between service climate and the perception of innovation service behavior was the highest. The results showed that the participants' perception of the hotel servicescape affected their perception of the innovation service behavior of hotel staff and customer satisfaction, and the most important factor affecting customer satisfaction was the servicescape perception.

The servicescape concept included five dimensions: aesthetic quality, functionality, atmosphere, spaciousness, and physiological conditions, all of which had a significant positive relationship. Among them, the correlation between functionality and spaciousness was the lowest (r = .64, p <.01), while the correlation between aesthetic quality and functionality was the highest (r = .83, p <.01).

Testing the Hypothesized Model

The purpose of this study was to find out whether the basic personal data of the sample would have an impact on the perception of customer satisfaction, which was used as the control variable in the regression analysis. Therefore, One-Way ANOVA was used to explore whether the basic personal data of the sample had an impact on the perception of brand loyalty. Since the F-test in ANOVA is a global test, it does not reflect the strength of the independent variables. The Eta-squared (η2) measure can be used as an indicator of the explanatory strength of the independent variables to the dependent variables, so the Eta-squared (η2) measure was also calculated in this study. Moreover, in the process of ANOVA, Levene's test of homogeneity was carried out to avoid the influence of different ANOVA values on the F-test. Finally, when the F-test of ANOVA reached a significant level, the Scheffe method was used to carry out post-mortem multiple comparative analyses on the basic data of individual samples whose F-test reached a significant level.

The overall test results showed that the basic personal data influencing the score of innovation service behavior perception were gender (F = 3.08, p = 0.07), educational level (F = 4.01, p = 0.00), and hotel location (F = 2.79, p = 0.03). The results of Scheffe method revealed that the average score of innovation service behaviors in college (4.15) was significantly higher than that in high school (3.65), and the score for the northern hotel area (3.88) was significantly higher than that in the middle area (2.96). Through ANOVA, it was found that gender, education level, and hotel location significantly affected the participants' perception of innovation service behavior.

The overall test results showed that the basic personal data influencing the score of customer satisfaction perception were gender (F = 12.14, p = .00), age (F = 4.78, p = .00), education (F = 3.36, p = .02), monthly income (F = 7.38, p = .00), and hotel location (F = 3.41, p = .02). Through the post-mortem multiple comparative analysis of the Scheffe method, it was found that the average score for customer satisfaction perception of the participants under 20 years old (4.17) was significantly higher than that of the participants over 50 years old (3.74). The score for the participants with a monthly income below NT$20,000 (4.20) was significantly higher than that for the participants with a monthly income between NT$20,000 and NT$40,000 (3.81), NT$40,000, and NT$60,000 (3.66), and more than NT$100,000 (3.84). As only two genders were investigated, it was impossible to carry out the Tukey test. However, the narrative statistics revealed that the average score for the female subjects (3.97) was significantly higher than that for the males (3.75). Through ANOVA, it was found that gender, age, education level, monthly income, and hotel location significantly affected the participants' perception of customer satisfaction.

Table 3: Results of Hierarchical Linear Modeling Estimates Analysis.

*p<.05, **<.01, **<.001.

Table 4: The overall test results showed that the basic personal data influencing the score of innovation service behavior.

Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the hypotheses. As shown in Table 3, it was found that in addition to physiological conditions, other dimensions of the servicescape significantly affected customer satisfaction; thus, H1a–H1d were supported. In addition to the aesthetic quality and physiological conditions, other dimensions of the servicescape significantly affected employees’ innovation service behavior; thus, H2b–H2d were supported. Moreover, it was found that innovation service behavior had a significant influence on customer satisfaction (b = 0.69, p <.001); thus, H3 was supported. In this study, it was found that servicescape (b = 0.58, p <.001) and innovation service behavior (b = 0.31, p <.001) also had significant influences on customer satisfaction; thus, H4 was supported. In this study, it was found that innovation service behavior (b = 0.32, p <.005) and innovation service behavior*service climate (b = 1.04, p <.001) also had significant influences on customer satisfaction; thus, H5 was supported.

There is a lack of exploration on the integration of servicescape and innovative service theories in hospitality studies. Therefore, the three main contributions of this study were the integration of the theory of service innovation and service servicescape, the construction of customer-level and service provider/hotel level factors, and the exploration of the relationship among the perception of the hotel servicescape, the service climate, service innovation behavior, and customer satisfaction.

Theoretical Contribution

This study investigated the effects of servicescapes, innovation service behavior, the service climate, and customer satisfaction on employees and customers who had stayed in tourist hotels in Taiwan during the past two years. This study found that servicescape and innovation service behavior significantly affected customer satisfaction. In addition to physiological conditions, most of the servicescape’s dimensions had a significant effect on customer satisfaction and innovation service behavior, indicating that when hotels offer complete functionality, ample space, and a pleasant and comfortable atmosphere, innovation service and satisfaction will be produced for their employees and customers. Moreover, this study found that aesthetically designs had no significant impact on employees’ innovation service behaviors. While this result was inconsistent with Bitner’s theory, this study deduced that employee innovation is an extra-role behavior that requires more organizational support, especially for the hotel industry. Therefore, external factors such as the aesthetic of the space design are not a driving force for employees to display innovation service behaviors.

Moreover, innovation service behavior was found to positively affect customer satisfaction, and the service climate can strengthen the relationship between innovation service behavior and customer satisfaction. This result was consistent with finding that when employees exhibit innovation service behaviors, customers feel new and creative, which in turn creates a sense of satisfaction [38]. However, they did not find that service climate has an impact on customer satisfaction, but the service climate can moderate the relationship between innovation service behavior and customer satisfaction. They concluded that a good service atmosphere and strategy are internal factors that cannot be felt by customers, but they will lead customers to have a sense of satisfaction because they are incentives for employees to show good service behaviors.

Managerial Implications

Based on the S-O-R model proposed this study proposed the proposition of servicescape (individual-level stimulus) - employee emotion (organism) - behavioral intention (response) [2]. The subsequent findings proved that the servicescape, the innovation service behavior of employees, and the service climate affect customer satisfaction with the hotel. Taking luxury hotels as an example, this study found that the servicescape and employees’ innovation service behavior impact on customer satisfaction. Therefore, this study offered several recommendations for hoteliers. First, hoteliers should plan and provide measures to encourage employees to show innovation service behaviors, such as hiring creative employees and encouraging employees to provide creative services. They should also pay attention to the atmosphere building, and facility maintenance and updates, such as planning decoration or activities for festivals. Second, this study found that respondents who are young females, with middle-income had a higher perception of hotel satisfaction. Therefore, it is suggested that hotels plan customer management strategies for this group of consumers, such as presenting female customer consumption nights, young people's group reservation discounts, and other measures to maintain the satisfaction and loyalty of these customers to the hotel. Finally, in recent years, under the influence of COVID-19, many zero-contact economic models have emerged, particularly for food and beverage delivery, which have seriously affected the service model of face-to-face contact. This study found that the servicescape and employee behavior have a positive effect on customer attitudes, but in the post-epidemic era, it is suggested that scholars explore the corresponding service model and impact of zero-contact services on customer attitude in the hotel industry in Taiwan, as these new services will impact the current hotel management model [53-56]. Therefore, hoteliers should also consider the adjustment and re-planning of hotel management in terms of strategy, marketing, manpower, technology, and other aspects, and explore the impact on customer attitudes and behavior. These new development trends are bound to become an important direction of hotel management research.

Research Limitations

There are several limitations to this study. First, this paper was conducted in a general environment to explore the organizational, employee, and customer levels in luxury hotels, the outbreak of the COVID -19 pandemic in Taiwan in early 2021 is worth discussing its impact on the attitudes and behaviors of luxury hotels’ customers, and then planning corresponding service and customer management strategies. Second, this study took Taiwan’s luxury hotels as the research subject, and there was a lack of applicability for different rated hotels or other types of hotels. Finally, this study only asked hotels that were willing to participate in this research to answer the questionnaire in conjunction with their employees and the customers who had stayed with them during the past two years, and it asked for their consent to place the questionnaires in the lobby for customers who were checking out. Hence, it was difficult to get the cooperation of customers to participate in the research, and the survey results may have been limited by their memories and non-current service experiences. Therefore, this study plans to use information technology in combination with hotels in the future to replace face-to-face personnel to complete accommodation services and questionnaires to respond to the threat of the epidemic and the resistance of customers.

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