Conclusions
Designing and planning physical environments has been a significant topic in the
services marketing literature. Encounters between organisations and individuals on
the Internet, largely via web pages, share many of the features of service encounters,
namely intangibility and perishability, inseparability of production and consumption,
and heterogeneity in delivery quality. Designing and planning the virtual environment
so as to “control”, show empathy and create optimal experiences for browsers is
therefore as important in cyberspace as in real space. “Flow” is used by individuals to
describe their mental state when performing activities at the best of times. On the
Internet, moreover, flow from a site has been found to correlate with both that site’s
evaluation and an intention to return to it. Taking flow as a related concept to approach
behaviour, this paper has attempted to translate recent research on flow and the
Internet into the S-O-R model, with the aim of enabling organisations to understand
user response better and to plan for optimal user responses.
A number of key findings are vital to the planning and designing of sites to achieve
this goal. First, there is a need to focus and target site content at particular user groups.
Designers and publishers cannot expect to satisfy a wide and diverse audience with
single sites. Second, there is a need to offer vividness, providing most notably a depth
of sensory information. This provides “presence”, a factor also enhanced by
interactivity. Interactivity should also allow the browser a sense of control. This may
come from both allowing the browser to match skills with challenges and also to
structure the flow of information. Another important point here (one that also features
in the services marketing literature) is the need to understand well the target audience’s
expectation so as to avoid negative disconfirmation and frustration.
The implications of this paper for marketing planning are clear. Whilst the Internet
and in particular the web undoubtedly offer strategic opportunities, these can only be
fully achieved if organisations plan carefully for the service encounter in its new
environment – cyberspace. Indeed, given the sheer number of alternative websites
available with little or no effort, the need to plan encounters that facilitate
organisational as well as marketing goals takes on a greater significance. As this paper
has demonstrated, a critical point in this planning has to be an understanding of
human motivation, in this case the flow experience.