Evaluating Public Service Experience in Ecological Institutions: A Structural Pathway Approach to Visitor Satisfaction at the Sejong National Arboretum

Background and objective: The green space services provided by public institutions serve not only as a means of providing space, but also as a medium of meeting public expectations and delivering social value. However, many existing public service evaluation frameworks focus solely on service quality, overlooking the cognitive structures and process-related factors that influence the formation of actual satisfaction. Against the backdrop, this study aimed to empirically analyze how the public service system of the Sejong National Arboretum, used as a case study, influences visitor satisfaction, with expectation-disconfirmation serving as a mediating factor.Methods: An online survey was conducted among general visitors to the Sejong National Arboretum between June and October 2024, yielding a valid sample of 1,060 responses. The reliability and validity of the measurement model were assessed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Discriminant validity was evaluated based on Fornell and Larcker’s (1981) criteria and by analyzing 95% confidence intervals of the correlation coefficients. Structural relationships among the variables were estimated using structural equation modeling (SEM), and the mediating effect of expectation-disconfirmation was tested through 5,000 bootstrap iterations.Results: The structural equation model demonstrated a good overall fit, with goodness-of-fit indices of CFI = .967, TLI = .958, and RMSEA = .045. Visitors’ perception of social responsibility had a significant positive (+) effect on both expectation-disconfirmation (B = .920, p < .001) and satisfaction (B = .245, p < .001). The total effect, including both direct and indirect effects, was β = .890, indicating the strongest explanatory power among the variables. In contrast, employee service showed no significant effect on either expectation-disconfirmation (B = .010, p = .762) or satisfaction (B = -.004, p = .823), suggesting that it is not a key explanatory factor in the process of expectation formation and fulfillment. Expectation-disconfirmation functioned as a significant mediating variable in the relationship between social responsibility and satisfaction (B = .644, 95% CI = [.495, .793]), with approximately 72.4% of the total effect explained through the indirect path.Conclusion: This study moved beyond traditional service quality-based evaluations to empirically investigate how the social value delivered by public institutions influences the formation of user expectations and overall satisfaction. In particular, through an analysis grounded in expectation-disconfirmation theory, the study found that cognitive alignment between the formation and fulfillment of expectations plays a more critical role in determining satisfaction than service quality alone. These findings underscore the need for future public service design to move beyond physical quality improvements and adopt strategies focused on policy value alignment, expectation management, and perceived quality.