Crafting experiences or critiques? the role of social servicescape in driving negative e-WOM and continuous purchase intentions through perceived value

Understanding how social characteristics shape service experiences in a globalized marketplace is essential for improving customer experience and value perceptions. Therefore, this study examines how key social servicescape facets operate under a service failure attribute (language barriers) to influence customers’ perceived value (utilitarian and hedonic), expectation disconfirmation, and dissatisfaction, and how these evaluations translate into post-consumption outcomes. An explanatory study was conducted in the Kuala Terengganu restaurant context using convenience sampling. Data was collected from 299 customers via a self-administered questionnaire, and the proposed model was tested using structural equation modeling in SmartPLS 4.0. The findings indicate that social servicescape significantly shapes customers’ evaluations and expectation disconfirmation, which in turn increases dissatisfaction and weakens continuous purchase intention. Given the prominence of language barriers in Restaurants in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia, the results suggest that managers should minimize communication-related service failures and manage customers’ interpretations when failures occur to protect perceived value and encourage repeat patronage. Overall, this study supports the relevance of social servicescape in hospitality research while offering practical implications and directions for future studies.