TY - JOUR
T1 - The Cosmopolitan Servicescape
AU - Figueiredo, Bernardo
AU - Larsen, Hanne Pico
AU - Bean, Jonathan
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by Bucknell University, Copenhagen Business School, and RMIT University.
Funding Information:
We would like to thank Mark Buschgens, Christina Moon, Ahir Gopaldas, Richard Kedzior, Melanie Wallendorf, Allen Tranfor and participants at several conferences for their insights, friendly review and help with methods. We also wanted to thank Chef Marcus Samuelson for participating in an interview and creating such a fantastic servicescape. We are thankful to the AE and reviewer team for the encouraging feedback, and the many participants of this research for their time and insights.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 New York University
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - Marketing scholars have developed a solid literature on servicescapes, the physical environments where services are performed, delivered and consumed, with a particular interest in themed retail environments. Themed servicescapes rely heavily on signs and symbols and emplaced ideologies to build brands, attract consumers, and increase sales. We extend this literature by introducing, defining and theorizing the cosmopolitan servicescape, one that emplaces the cosmopolitan ideology by supporting performances of consumer cosmopolitanism. By drawing on an ethnographic examination of a quintessential cosmopolitan servicescape, Red Rooster Harlem, and applying an analytical lens grounded in the cultural understanding of retail spaces, we conceptualize the cosmopolitan servicescape in relation to other themed environments. Cosmopolitan servicescapes provide consumers a playground for encounters with cultural difference through enlisting cultural resources that shift out in time, place, and identity, thus enabling the performance of cosmopolitan competence. In addition, cosmopolitan servicescapes juxtapose cultural resources to create incongruent meanings, promote heteroglossia, and appeal to different levels of cosmopolitan competence. Finally, cosmopolitan servicescapes use decoding cues to facilitate cosmopolitan engagement and recognition cues to frame the environment as cosmopolitan. These findings contribute to the themed retailing literature and provide guidelines for managers and servicescape designers interested in creating an emplaced strategy for attracting cosmopolitan consumers.
AB - Marketing scholars have developed a solid literature on servicescapes, the physical environments where services are performed, delivered and consumed, with a particular interest in themed retail environments. Themed servicescapes rely heavily on signs and symbols and emplaced ideologies to build brands, attract consumers, and increase sales. We extend this literature by introducing, defining and theorizing the cosmopolitan servicescape, one that emplaces the cosmopolitan ideology by supporting performances of consumer cosmopolitanism. By drawing on an ethnographic examination of a quintessential cosmopolitan servicescape, Red Rooster Harlem, and applying an analytical lens grounded in the cultural understanding of retail spaces, we conceptualize the cosmopolitan servicescape in relation to other themed environments. Cosmopolitan servicescapes provide consumers a playground for encounters with cultural difference through enlisting cultural resources that shift out in time, place, and identity, thus enabling the performance of cosmopolitan competence. In addition, cosmopolitan servicescapes juxtapose cultural resources to create incongruent meanings, promote heteroglossia, and appeal to different levels of cosmopolitan competence. Finally, cosmopolitan servicescapes use decoding cues to facilitate cosmopolitan engagement and recognition cues to frame the environment as cosmopolitan. These findings contribute to the themed retailing literature and provide guidelines for managers and servicescape designers interested in creating an emplaced strategy for attracting cosmopolitan consumers.
KW - Cosmopolitan servicescapes
KW - Cosmopolitanism
KW - Ethnography
KW - Retail ideology
KW - Themed retailing
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jretai.2020.09.001
DO - 10.1016/j.jretai.2020.09.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85092523511
SN - 0022-4359
VL - 97
SP - 267
EP - 287
JO - Journal of Retailing
JF - Journal of Retailing
IS - 2
ER -