The Roles of The Physical Environment, Social Servicescape, Co-Created Value, and Customer Satisfaction in Determining Tourists’ Citizenship Behavior: Malaysian Cultural and Creative Industries

Abstract

Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) research has been extended in the literature to the customer domain by examining the role of customer behavior in the service sectors. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the effect of the physical environment and social servicescape on the co-creation value, and the impact of the co-creation value on customer satisfaction, which, in turn, influences the customer’s citizenship behavior. A field study was conducted in Malaysian cultural and creative industries settings and a total of 254 participants were approached. Structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was used to test the hypothesized relationships among variables. The proposed research model was largely focused on the four perceived values (i.e., physical servicescape, social servicescape, co-creation value, and customer satisfaction) that significantly influence tourists’ citizenship behavior. This study sheds new light on the notable roles of physical servicescape, social servicescape, co-creation value, and customer satisfaction on enhancing tourists’ citizenship behavior. The theoretical implications and practical implications are discussed.

1. Introduction

Service management scholars are conceding the importance of customers to contribute to a firm’s performance, effectiveness, and service quality by assuming active roles in service delivery [1,2,3,4]. Increasingly, customers are conceptualized as “partial employees” and scholars suggest that their participative roles can be carefully planned and managed [5,6,7]. At present, customers are assuming co-production roles (customer participation behavior), which require them to perform the task that conventionally was conducted by employees in order to complete the service delivery [6,8]. This can be illustrated by examples given in [8] study, for instance, money withdrawal through ATMs, placing reservations for tickets electronically, or self-service in restaurants. Therefore, conceptualizing organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in a service context has gained much attention in recent decades [8]. In exclusively employee-focused OCB studies, there is a gap in the missing link of customers. Recently, some studies extended the OCB framework to the customer domain, known as customer citizenship behavior (CCB) or customer voluntary performance or extra-role behaviors [1,8,9,10]. In this study, the term tourist citizenship behavior (TCB) will be applied and is defined as “helpful constructive gestures exhibited by customers that are valued or appreciated by the firm, but not related directly to enforceable or explicit requirements of the individual’s role” [11] (p. 461). In fact, [12] has conceptualized this customer participation behavior and customer citizenship behavior as customer value co-creation behaviors. Nevertheless, their study has pointed out that both behaviors are influenced by different antecedents and devoted to distinctive consequences that contribute to overall firm performance independently [13,14].

A recent area of research has focused on customer coproduction behaviors and the customer’s role in co-creating value [15,16,17]. Recent empirical findings show that participating customers co-create value with employees of the firms or service providers [18,19,20]. Servicescape is described as orchestrated physical surroundings opposing natural social environments [21]. The strategic use of environmental cues, such as ambiance, color, lighting, layout design, and scents, are able to influence the customers’ perceptions and spatial experience, as well as to shape their emotional and psychological responses to facilitate social interaction and service consumption rate [22,23]. Tourism services are experiential discourses where tourists are likely to take the tangible appearance to make not only the immediate perceptual image but also an evaluation of the service rendered by the providers [22,23]. Especially in tourism services, tourists interact with their physical surroundings prior to experiencing services with their service providers [23]. Much servicescape research reveals that physical servicescape components exert facilitative effects on experience evaluation, for instance, auditory cues [24], olfactory components [25], visual cues [26], and visual cultural metaphors [27] influence customer satisfaction and, subsequently, customers’ behavioral intentions (i.e., approach-avoidance behaviors) [28,29,30].

Tam [31] proposes a new conceptual model to include customers’ and employees’ behavior, as well as other social aspects of the customer environments that are part of the overall servicescape. These elements act as environmental stimuli, collectively known as social servicescape [31]. However, both functional cues, or the substantive staging of servicescape, and the human cues, or communicative staging of servicescape suggested by [32], are capable of eliciting emotional and psychological responses to the service experience [32,33,34,35]. Therefore, Jepson and Sharpley [36] suggest that linking focal customers with social cues of service environments can facilitate a sense of attachment to the place as well as nurture social connections with others. Additionally, the co-existence of other customers at times plays a role in shaping focal customers’ consumption experience, for instance, academic conferences [37]. In addition, the study of [38] shows that the behaviors of service providers, as well as other customers, whether directed toward the customer or not, can influence focal customers’ emotions, satisfaction, as well as future behaviors [39,40]. Examples of influences include social crowding [41,42,43], other customers’ public behaviors [44,45], and customers’ homogeneity, such as sought benefits, physical characteristics, age, and compatible behaviors [39,44,45,46]. Although social servicescape studies were broadly covered by scholars in recent decades, there were minimal conceptual advances and comprehensive scales to address the social cues in service environments [47]. However, Brocato et al. [46] conceptualize the obvious attributes of other employees and customers that influence focal customers’ evaluations and behavioral intentions. They have examined the social servicescape through three dimensions, namely perceived similarity (denotes the feeling of similar attributes to others or shared identifiable attributes with others), physical appearance (denotes the physical characteristics or attributes of people), and suitable behaviors (denotes the display of appropriate behaviors in a given context).

A significant number of scholars regard customer value as a key metric in marketing by firms [48]. Recently, value in the tourism context has been wildly discussed. Customer value is emphasized and widely discussed in various branches of marketing research, particularly, value is a vital differentiating tool used to maintain a competitive advantage [48,49]. Value is referred to as “the consumer’s overall assessment of a utility of a product based on the perceptions of what is received and what is given” [50] (p. 14). This has taken a more utilitarian aspect and a one-dimensional approach in evaluating value. Contrarily, some researchers have taken the view of customer value in multiple-dimensional perspectives [48,49,51]. Thus, Ryu and Jang [51] define customer value, including social, economic, altruistic, and hedonic dimensions, in their conceptual framework to formulate the various aspects of customer value in the context of service such as extrinsic, intrinsic, cognitive, and affective aspects. Helkkula and Kelleher [52] have taken the perspective where value is experienced by individual service customers through the consumption of products or services. Apart from that, Juvan and Dolnicar [53] have suggested the growing need to understand value as an evaluation of collaborative creation between the customers and service providers. Grounded on service-dominant logic, value co-creation is viewed as a process of collaboration in producing new values materially and symbolically through stakeholders’ (actors’) contributions for reciprocal benefits [54,55]. These authors regard value as experiential, contextual, idiosyncratic, and meaning-laden [56,57]. Hence, taking the perspective of Busser and Shulga [58], co-created value is positioned as a personal evaluation of the meaningfulness of a service based on contributions made by the customers and the benefits generated through the process of co-creation.

Understanding tourist satisfaction is vital for service providers in tourism settings and a strong foothold to stay competitive as it impacts the level of consumption rates, customer retention, and positive recommendations [11,59]. According to the expectancy-disconfirmation model, customer satisfaction is described as the result of judgment when the consumer is comparing the actual performance or experience with the expectation [60]. Oliver’s model has been one of the most frequently applied in the tourism and hospitality sectors [59,61]. Nevertheless, satisfaction is commonly labeled as a predictor of post-purchase behavioral intentions, customer loyalty, and recommendation [1,50,62,63]. Conversely, Auh and Johnson [64] suggest that customer satisfaction does not necessarily strengthen customer loyalty. Meanwhile, other studies have shown that satisfaction is used as an assessment of service quality and perceived value [61,65].

Despite the above-mentioned relationship, the prior studies have overlooked the most important aspects: The attention on dyadic interaction between the firms and customers [16,66,67]. The influence of the other tourists’ presence and their interactions on co-creation experience and how these experiences are influencing tourist citizenship behavior are less frequently researched [68]. Moreover, tourism service is an experiential discourse where tourists are taking tangible appearance to make immediate perceptual image and also evaluation of service [22,23]. Therefore, little is known about how the atmospheric cues are impacting the customer value evaluation and investigated as antecedents of citizenship behaviors in a systemic exploration of the overall relationships [69,70,71]. In addition, value co-creation and servicescape models have drawn much attention mainly to retail stores, restaurants, theme parks, and hotels, but not cultural arts and creative activities [71]. Hence, they are receiving scant attention, especially in Malaysia.

2. Theoretical Background and Hypothesis Development

2.1. Social Exchange Theory

Social exchange theory is one of the most important and used theories in social behavior. Homans defines the concept of social exchange by indicating that social behavior is an exchange of tangible or intangible goods between the individual behavior of actors in the interactions and revolving around cost and benefits in a reciprocal reinforcement manner [72]. Meanwhile, Blau refers to social exchange as a relational exchange that generates an expectation of a future return by an actor from another party [73]. Apart from that, Blau, and Emerson [73,74] opine that social exchange involves sequential transactions among interacting parties where resources are exchanged reciprocally but are influenced by the power and dependency of relationships, as well as the social norms in the noneconomic social contexts [75]. However, building on the reciprocity process of social exchange, an actor feels obliged to repay good deeds to whom they have received from [18]. It has been one of the most influential concepts in understanding workplace behavior, for instance, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) [75,76]. Extending this view on the service encounter domain, interactions between service workers and tourists, as well as among tourists, will tend to influence the tourists’ exchange behaviors in a service consumption (i.e., customer citizenship behaviors) [1,44,77,78,79] (i.e., service loyalty). In fact, satisfied employees reciprocate by showing citizenship behavior in organization settings [80], whilst satisfied customers are more inclined to exhibit citizenship behavior in service provisions [44,81].

2.2. Service-Dominant Logic (S-D Logic) Theory

Service-dominant logic (S-D Logic) theory is the dominant theory in the service sectors. Service dominant logic is viewed as a paradigm shift in marketing management institution, which illuminates this evolution from good-cantered view which is deliberately more transactional in nature to a central service view that is assertively relational in the economic exchanges [57]. S-D logic regards customers, suppliers, firms, and other stakeholders as operant resources and this ropes the idea of active roles played by customers as collaborative partners (co-creator) to create values with the organizations [55,57]. Besides, the logic points that operant resources (i.e., knowledge and skills) which are employed to act on operand resources (i.e., physical resources on which an operation or act is performed to produce an effect) to create values for mutual benefits of the actors [57,82,83]. In line with the concept, the integration of physical environments and social elements in the service experiences by the interacting actors to co-create value and generates strategic benefits. The recent development of S-D logic scrutinizes the underlying social context of service-for-service exchange within the networks of stakeholders (actors) to redirect the value as “value-in-context” [56] and “value-in-social-context” [33]. Similarly, Akaka and Vargo [82] address the importance of social institutions in the service context and depicting the value co-creation in a broader and dynamic service ecosystem approach. Authors regard that interaction of the actors is influenced by social norms, social structures, symbols, meanings, and socio-historical aspects that will influence experience, which makes the value creation phenomenological determined [55,82]. Thus, the current study intends to apply the social exchange theory and service-dominant logic (S-D Logic) in order to underpin and explain the research model in a better way.

2.3. Hypothesis Development

2.3.1. Physical Servicescape and Co-Created Value:

As suggested by Nguyen and LeBlanc [84], servicescape is understood as an operant resource in the interactive service setting and can be viewed as a variable to appraising value co-creation naturally. Han and Ryu found that customers who are environmentally aware are more prone to maintain pro-environmental conducts than other users exposed to green-friendly practices by businesses at the destination [41]. However, Johnstone [85] explained that a positive mentality does not always work for sustainable benefits. Tripadvisor [86] points out that customers view services and servicescape collectively as a whole and value can be realized in the collaborative efforts between customers and providers. In addition, the findings of [41,87,88] suggest that servicescape influences customer perceived value when creating service experience. Thus, we propose the hypothesis below.

H-1: 

Physical servicescape has a positive effect on the co-creation value.

2.3.2. Social Servicescape and Co-Created Value

Service providers and tourists are integrating resources in service encounters. Nevertheless, these interactions are not restricted to dyadic relationships but also in the presence of other tourists. The service experience takes place within a social framework where the value co-creation process potentially intertwines with the value creation process of other tourists [52]. The employee and other tourists’ factors, such as their observed behaviors and physical image, can affect focal tourists’ value perceptions [10,33,34,40,43,89]. Particularly, servicescape relates to the service encounters that occur in a physical and social environment. The extant literature concludes that ambient conditions, spatial layout and signs, symbols, and artifacts are three core elements of the physical environment. The social environment incorporates social relationships, including direct and indirect interactions [11,34]. Therefore, with the above discussions, the following hypothesis is suggested.

H-2: 

Social servicescape has a positive effect on the co-creation value.

2.3.3. Co-Creation Value and Satisfaction

Tourists contribute their resources to an experience co-creation process with various stakeholders for mutual benefits in terms of hedonic, altruistic, or social benefits [89,90]. Moreover, studies by Gallarza and Saura, and Woodruff [91,92] suggest that value is a more complete variable to satisfaction than service quality. Similarly, Bojanic [93] study concludes that there is a strong positive correlation between perceived value and satisfaction. Similarly, value perceptions have a determinative effect on satisfaction and behavioral intentions [49,58,66,91,92]. However, positive consumption emotions, such as delight and happiness, have a positive impact on evaluations of satisfaction. A friendly and enjoyable relationship adds value for the customer, and thus enhances satisfaction. Enjoyment value, such as a desire for fun, can also affect customer satisfaction, as it is a motivational force to encourage consumers to participate in co-production [14,20]. Hence, based on the above argument, the hypothesis has been formatted as followed.

H-3: 

Co-creation value has a positive effect on satisfaction.

2.3.4. Satisfaction and Tourists’ Citizenship Behaviour

Often, satisfaction has been linked to citizenship behavior [8,69,94,95]. Grounding on the social exchange theory, tourists who receive benefits or satisfying service from a relational exchange will likely return the favor to the service providers by engaging in voluntary behaviors, such as recommendations or other supportive actions [8]. These voluntary behaviors have been displayed by tourists in several studies as an outcome of tourists’ satisfaction [64,95,96,97]. Thus, the research hypothesis was developed below. Therefore, Figure 1 shows the research model.

H-4: 

Satisfaction has a positive effect on tourists’ citizenship behavior.

3. Method

3.1. Sampling and Procedures

The sample of the study included domestic tourists who participate in the cultural arts and creative workshops. According to Zuraidy [98], domestic tourists are defined as “residents or those who have been living in Malaysia for at least a year, including expatriates and non-citizens who are making a non-routine trip to a main destination outside of their usual environment, for less than a year for the purpose of business, leisure, or personal other than to be employed by a resident entity in the place visited” (p. 2). In addition, it encompasses criteria, such as the duration of a four-hour trip or longer with the traveling distance to and from at least 50 km. Whilst, the main destination is referred to as “the place visited that is central to the decision to take the trip where they spent most of their time during the trip” [98] (p. 2). Purposive sampling technique was a suitable option for the researchers which meet the criteria of being domestic tourists [99,100]. Thus, to identify the service providers, cultural arts and creative operators who have a presence in social network sites, such as individual websites, Facebook sites, Instagram network sites, leisure, and travel sites (i.e., TripAdvisor, LokaLocal, AirBnB, etc.), arts and design platforms (i.e., CENDANA, Pusaka, Khazanah Ilham Gallery, etc.), blogs, and some online leisure and lifestyle magazines are selected and proposed. As of May 2019, 40 cultural arts and creative service providers have been identified, which cover areas, such as crafts, culinary arts, pewter making, textile printing, pottery, dances, jewelry making, batik painting, and calligraphy. Therefore, the data were collected via a self-administering approach, using a non-probability purposive sampling technique.

The data collection process took place from May to September 2019. To reduce the potential common method variance (CMV), some remedies suggested [101,102] were employed. For example, most exogenous were measured using five-point Likert scaling. The endogenous construct (tourists’ citizenship behavior) was measured using seven-point likelihood scaling. Additionally, the respondents were also provided with descriptions for every construct, with precise directions on completing the assessment of the items in order to prevent any confusion. The respondents were given assurance of the study’s academic nature, as well as of the confidentiality of their identities. They were also reminded that there were no incorrect or correct answers in order to reduce evaluation apprehension. Total sets of 300 questionnaires were distributed. Out of these 300 surveys, a total of 254 were valid as a final set with a 84% response rate. Concerning the profile of the respondents, as shown in

Table 1. Respondent profiles.

Demographic Item	Categories	Frequency	Percentage
Gender	Male	135	65.4
	Female	119	51.6
	Less than 25 Years	16	7.8
	25–30 Years	53	24.4
Age	31–40 Years	113	48.6
	41–50 Years	48	21.8
	More than 51 Years	24	11.6
	High School	41	19.2
	Diploma	44	20.3
Education Background	Bachelor’s Degree	141	67.8
	Master’s Degree	16	7.8
	Doctorate Degree	12	5.8

, we collected participants’ gender, age, and education. Regarding gender, 65.4% of the respondents were male (51.6% female). Concerning age, 7.8% were under 25 years old, 24.4% were between ages 25 and 30, 48.6% were between ages 31 and 40, 21.8% were between ages 41 and 50, and 11.6% were above the age 51. For educational background, 19.2% had completed high school, 20.3% had a diploma, 67.8% had a bachelor’s degree, and 7.8% and 5.8% had a postgraduate degree masters and doctorate degree, respectively.

3.2. Measurement

All the instruments were adapted from the previous studies (see Appendix A). All the exogenous constructs were measured using a five-point Likert-type scale (1 = “Strongly Disagree” and 5 = “Strongly Agree”). The endogenous construct was measured using seven-point (1 = “Strongly Disagree” and 7 = “Strongly Agree”).

Physical Servicescape: To measure physical servicescape twelve items were selected and adapted from [33], which encompasses various dimensions, namely ambient condition (AMC) (nine items), space/ function/ layout (SFL) (nine items), and sign/ symbol/ artefacts (SSA) (six items). In total, 24 items were included to measure the extent to which customers shared perceptions about how the environment informed. Therefore, all of these three dimensions helped conform to our second-order construct of physical servicescape such that higher scores on this scale indicated a stronger physical servicescape.

Social Servicescape: We measured social servicescape using a 30-item scale slightly adapted from the previous studies [33,48]. It includes six dimensions: (1) Perceived similarity–employee (EPS) five items, (2) physical appearance–employee (EPA) five items, (3) suitable behavior–employee (ESB) five items, (4) perceived similarity–tourist (TPS) five items, (5) physical appearance–tourist (TPA) five items, (6) suitable behavior–tourist (TSB) five items. Thus, all these six dimensions helped conform to our second-order construct of social servicescape such that higher scores on this scale indicated a stronger social servicescape.

Co-created Value: We measured co-created value with five dimensions, namely meaningfulness (MF), collaboration (CL), contribution (CN), recognition (RC) affective responses (AR) twenty-five-item scale five items for each. Thus, these five dimensions helped to conform to the second-order construct of co-created value such that higher scores on this scale indicated a stronger social servicescape. Hence, these items’ scale was taken from [58].

Tourism Satisfaction: To assess this first-order variable, we slightly adapted a five-item scale used in previous studies [61,96]. In particular, we asked customers to assess their level of agreement usding a five-item scale regarding their experience during their visit. Sample items were “I was happy with the experience” and “I was contented with the experience”. We combined the responses to each of the five items for each participant linearly to form a Mode A first-order composite variable, such that higher scores indicated a stronger satisfaction.

Tourists’ Citizenship Behaviour: We measured tourists’ citizenship behavior using a 29-item scale taken from the previous studies [44,77]. It includes eight dimensions: (1) Positive word-of-mouth (WOM) five items, (2) suggestions for service improvement (SSI) five items, (3) policing with others (PWO) three items, (4) voice (VOC) four items, (5) benevolent act of service facilitation (BSF) three items, (6) display of relationship affiliation (DRA) three items, (7) flexibility (FLX) three items, (8) participation in a firm’s activities (PFA) three items. Hence, all these eight dimensions aided conforming to our second-order construct of tourists’ citizenship behavior such that higher scores on this scale indicated a stronger tourists’ citizenship behavior.

4. Data Analysis and Results

This current research utilized structural equation modeling via the approach of partial least squares (PLS). The conceptual model was then analyzed with the Smart-PLS 3.2.8 software [103]. PLS-SEM data analysis was done through the two-stage technique and this present research utilized this technique recommended by [104,105]. Firstly, the measurement model was assessed to check the construct reliability and validity for indicator reliability and internal consistency. Secondly, after confirming reliability and validity, hypotheses are tested through a structural model assessment where the relationship and effects are observed.

4.1. Measurement Model Assessment

The measurement model (also known as outer model) was assessed through construct validity (convergent and discriminant) and construct reliability. In terms of the construct reliability, the composite reliability (CR) was used by this study to test the construct reliability, which gave the recommended value. Therefore, the values obtained, which ranged from 0.705 to 0.947, were more than 0.70 [104,105]. This is an adequate signifier that constructs reliability was achieved, as shown in Appendix A. Therefore, the CR obtained for all the constructs can be classified as sufficiently error-free. To test the reliability indicator, factor loading was checked. High loadings on a construct are indicators that the associated indicators appear to have a lot in common, in that the construct was able to capture them [104,105]. For factor loadings, values higher than 0.50 were classified as very significant [104,105]. As seen in Appendix A, the loadings for all the items were more than the suggested value of 0.5, except for some items like (SFL7 = 0.325, SSA6 = 0.241, PAT5 = 0.231, MF3 = 0.221), which were lower than 0.50, and were therefore dropped due to the low loading (see Appendix A). The loading of the rest of indicators in the model obtained the threshold value as recommended. To test the convergent validity (defined as “the degree to which a measure is positively correlated to alternative measures of the same construct”), the average variance extracted (AVE) was used in this study. This is an indication that all the values of the AVE, ranging from 0.556 to 0.934, were higher, compared to the recommended value of 0.50 [104,105]. For all the constructs, convergent validity was met successfully, and an adequate convergent validity was achieved, as presented in Appendix A.

In terms of discriminant validity, two approaches were used: Fornell–Larcker and Heterotrait–Monotrait Ratio (HTMT). Fornell–Larcker’s method revealed no problems. The AVE for each construct was greater than the variance that each construct shared with the other latent variables [106] (see

Table 2. Discriminant validity via Fornell and Larcker.

Variables	1	2	3	4	5
1. Physical Servicescape	0.781
2. Social Servicescape	0.649	0.864
3. Co-created Value	0.543	0.601	0.695
4. Tourist Satisfaction	0.242	0.244	0.500	0.635
5. Tourists’ citizenship behavior	0.310	0.422	0.646	0.472	0.789

Notes: Bold values on the diagonal are the square roots of the average variance extracted, shared between the constructs and their respective measures.

). Henseler et al. [107] proposed a more reliable method, the Heterotrait–Monotrait Ratio (HTMT) of correlations based on the Multitrait-Multimethod Matrix. There is a problem with the discriminant validity when the HTMT value is greater than the HTMT 0.85 value, the value of 0.85 [108]. Therefore,

Table 3. Discriminant validity via HTMT.

Variables	1	2	3	4	5
1. Physical Servicescape
2. Social Servicescape	0.711
3. Co-created Value	0.609	0.632
4. Tourist Satisfaction	0.289	0.283	0.559
5. Tourists’ Citizenship Behavior	0.340	0.440	0.716	0.532

Notes: HTMT should be lower than 0.85.

depicts that the values of HTMT are all less than the threshold of 0.85, thus it is confirmed that discriminant validity existed in each pair of constructs [106,107].

4.2. Structural Model Assessment

Hair et al. [104,105] recommended a particular criterion while evaluating the structural model. This criterion involves examining the collinearity issue, and the respective t-values then follow through a bootstrapping procedure, including a re-sample of 5000. It was also recommended to report the effect sizes (f²) and predictive relevance (Q²). [109] posited that while the p-value determines the existence of the effect, it does not reveal how big the effect is.

Hypothesis Testing

This section has discussed the analysis of the hypothesis testing, thus, the presentations of the four hypotheses are described below, respectively. The first relationship between physical servicescape and co-created value (H1) was accepted with values of (β = 0.066, t-value = 1.705, p-value = 0.004). For the second hypothesis (H2), which presents the relationship between social servicescape and the co-created value was also supported with (β = 0.242, t-value = 4.455, p-value = 0.000). The third hypothesis (H3) that showed the relationship between co-created value and tourist satisfaction was statistically significant (β = 0.280, t-value = 3.990, p-value = 0.000). Finally, the relationship between tourist satisfaction and tourists’ citizenship behaviour hypothesis (H4) was supported with values (β = 0.500, t-value = 9.619, p-value = 0.000). Hence, the mentioned results are shown in

Table 4. Structural path analysis.

						Bias and Corrected Bootstrap 95% CI
Hypothesis	Relationship	SB	SE	t-value	p-value	BCI 95% LL	BCI 95% UL	Decision
H-1	Physical Servicescape -> Co-created Value	0.066	0.039	1.705	0.004	0.128	0.002	Supported
H-2	Social Servicescape -> Co-created Value	0.242	0.054	4.455	0.000	0.151	0.322	Supported
H-3	Co-created Value -> Tourist Satisfaction	0.280	0.070	3.990	0.000	0.393	0.551	Supported
H-4	Tourist Satisfaction -> Tourists’ Citizenship Behavior	0.500	0.052	9.619	0.000	0.411	0.579	Supported

Notes: N = 254. Bootstrap sample size = 5,000. SE = standard error; LL = lower limit; CI = confidence interval; UL = upper limit 95% bias-correlated CI.

.

Regarding the explanatory power of the model, the main concern is the assessment of coefficient on the determination (R² value). The coefficient on the determination (R² value) is a measure of the predictive accuracy of the model that is calculated as the squared correlation between the actual and predictive values of a specific endogenous construct. Moreover, this coefficient indicates the combined effects of the exogenous constructs on the specific endogenous construct. The value of this coefficient ranges from 0 to 1, and the higher the level shows the higher the levels of predictive accuracy. The overall effect of the model is determined by R². In other words, R² is used as an indicator of the overall predictive strength of the model and the rule of thumb, according to [104], is to cut off R² as follows: (R² 0.75 → Substantial, R² 0.50 → Moderate, R² 0.25 → Weak). However, this proposed model explains R² values of (0.517) for tourists’ citizenship behavior, which can be classified as a moderate to substantial effect based on the above cut off values [104]. Moreover, the Stone–Geisser blindfolding sample reuse technique reveals Q² values larger than zero, thus, it indicated that this research model is good in predicting co-created value (Q² = 0.119), tourist satisfaction (Q² = 0.171), and tourists’ citizenship behavior (Q² = 0.281) [70].

5. Discussion and Conclusion

This study reveals the importance of physical servicescape, social servicescape, and co-creation value, and guest satisfaction. The prescribed four hypotheses were significantly accepted. The findings showed that physical servicescape and social servicescape have a significant relationship with co-created value (H1). Similarly, social servicescape also has an effect on co-created value (H2). This finding strongly reveals that servicescape (both physical and social) is significant in the tourism industry. Co-created value is significantly related to tourist satisfaction, which supports the third hypothesis. Afterwards, tourist satisfaction is positively significant with tourists’ citizenship behaviour (H4).

Furthermore, as recently, scholars are motivated to work on value co-creation in tourism, still, there is a gap of knowledge about the value and its co-creation [68]. Moreover, it has been mentioned that in tour and travel people stay away from home (away from their own environment and settings) and mix with other people, people interact with unknown people and unknown places [110]. Therefore, as stated by Woosnam et al. and Mathis et al. [111,112], in tourism, two parties work together: Tourists and residents. Their interaction is very important. The findings show that servicescape from two points of view: Physical and social, are significant predictors on co-created value [113]. Thus, the findings of this research imply that the assumption of value co-creation concept is that customers will play an active role in collaborating with the firms for the creation of value together through the various stages of the value chain from service production to consumption [114]. Therefore, if the physical environment is supportive for tourists to take part in value creation and interact with employees and other tourists, created value is obvious to be developed. Similarly, social servicescape has a positive and significant relationship with co-created value. Tourists expect to be benevolent and cordial with the employees and other tourists. If this type of environment exists and employees and tourists become friendly with each other, co-created value is to be expected. Rihova et al. [115] categorize value co-creation practices as physical, mental, and emotional involvement. These categories conform to social servicescape that ensures co-created value and involves both parties in service delivery. An effective and efficient co-created value confirms guest satisfaction. Satisfaction in life is a sense of being well in life [116]. According to Lin et al. [117], the tourist perception of tourism services influences their satisfaction by being happy and well in recreation time. With matching the tone [118] guest satisfaction has an effect on the development of the tourism industry. Guest (tourist) satisfaction is essential for the success of tourism firms [119]. Thus, tourists can play an active participating role in the value co-creation process [120] and interact with the firms in order to attain higher satisfaction [116]. Thus, investigating the impact of the physical environment, social servicescape, co-created value, and customer satisfaction on the tourists’ citizenship behavior in a single study provides insights and a body of knowledge [81,121].

6. Limitations and Future Directions

This study mainly contributes a body knowledge in the tourism industry of Malaysia. This study shows the direct effect on value co-creation, satisfaction, and citizen behavior in the Malaysian tourism industry. The relationship between servicescape (both physical and social) with the co-creation value of both guests (tourists and employees). Value co-creation is shown as a predictor of guest satisfaction, and finally, guest satisfaction influences citizenship. Moreover, this study retested the assumptions of two theories: Social Exchange Theory and Service-Dominant Logic (S-D Logic) Theory. The present study adds empirical value to the tourism literature in the Malaysian context. Therefore, in spite of having some contributions, this current study is confined to some limitations. Firstly, the researcher targeted adventure tourists in a specific geographical area and collected data for this study. Therefore, the generalizability of the study is a limitation. Future research in other industries and contexts is recommended for future work. Secondly, physical and psychological servicescape and co-creation value are measured through a single dimension. To augment the validity and reliability of the servicescape and co-creation constructs, multi-dimensions can be used in various settings for adoption and adjustment of the existing scales e.g., [14].

Another limitation is that we did not address other, potentially influential external factors. Citizenship behavior is a quite complex phenomenon affected by individual-, organizational-, and environmental-level variables. We, thus, call for cautious inferences from the results of this study, which includes variables at the individual and other levels but ignores those at the external environment level. For example, the cultural features of Malaysia (high uncertainty avoidance, high power distance, high collectivism) may influence the study variables (individuals). Thus, further work may consider these as an essential factor. Finally, the current study did not test any mediating and moderation assessment for accurate effect. Hence, there are several potential variables, such as emotional values and past experience. Therefore, we see the need for such potential variables that may alter the effect.

7. Conclusions

On the basis of the findings of this current study, tourism firms should focus on and facilitate tourist and employee involvement by encouraging them to mix and interact with each other. The tourist guests need such an environment so that they can communicate novelty, emotional, and social value. The firms can conduct various educational programs for customers. Therefore, this research suggests that perceptions of the servicescape (e.g., music, odor, color, equipment, and architecture) help guests distinguish and categorize service organizations in terms of their expected quality. Many businesses recognize that the physical environment has an effect on guest experiences, and, therefore, attention should be given to the physical and social servicescape design [122,123]. Moreover, results suggest that emotional value is a significant factor for retaining customers. For this reason, cultural and creative industries should pay more attention to the elements that will positively influence the perceptions and emotional values of repeating visitors [124]. Thus, fashion affects concepts such as music, architecture, furniture, travel, and refreshment. Fashion is in continuous development and change may influence the desires and tastes of individuals. Therefore, such places should focus on this element in order to catch the visitor’s attention [32]. Moreover, through this paper, we argue that value co-creation is being recognized as a "collective achievement". Similarly, we have tried to demonstrate that we do need to think of the learning organization as a collective accomplishment, one through which the forces of power manifest in the human activity, from the intrapersonal, through the interpersonal (social) to the institutional, are constructively controlled [125]. In this sense, we have identified activities at all three levels, that produce intangible capital resources that are essential to the collective effort and suggest that these are a significant aspect of the learning enterprise as a framework for co-creating value. Moreover, this research shows that such aspects of collective endeavor are required on these practices, as organizations face increasingly challenging circumstances, the overcoming of which will require collaborative action from multiple and disparate interest groups [126,127].