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

• 발행기관: 인간식물환경학회
• 저자명: HeeWon Kwon HeeJI Kang HyungJin Cho Sangyoel Han
• 간행물 정보: 『인간식물환경학회지(JPPE)』제28권 제5호, 669~683쪽, 전체 15쪽
• 주제분류: 자연과학 > 자연과학일반
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2025.10.30

국문 초록

Background and objective: The green space services provided by public institutions serve not only as a means of providingspace, but also as a medium of meeting public expectations and delivering social value. However, many existing publicservice evaluation frameworks focus solely on service quality, overlooking the cognitive structures and process-relatedfactors that influence the formation of actual satisfaction. Against the backdrop, this study aimed to empirically analyze howthe public service system of the Sejong National Arboretum, used as a case study, influences visitor satisfaction, withexpectation-disconfirmation serving as a mediating factor. Methods: An online survey was conducted among general visitors to the Sejong National Arboretum between June andOctober 2024, yielding a valid sample of 1,060 responses. The reliability and validity of the measurement model wereassessed 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 thevariables were estimated using structural equation modeling (SEM), and the mediating effect of expectation-disconfirmationwas 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 expectationdisconfirmation(B = .920, p < .001) and satisfaction (B = .245, p < .001). The total effect, including both direct and indirecteffects, was β = .890, indicating the strongest explanatory power among the variables. In contrast, employee serviceshowed 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. Expectationdisconfirmationfunctioned as a significant mediating variable in the relationship between social responsibility andsatisfaction (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 socialvalue 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 theformation 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 andadopt strategies focused on policy value alignment, expectation management, and perceived quality.

목차

Introduction

Research Methods

Results

Discussion

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References

키워드

botanic garden expectation-disconfirmation policy trust social responsibility structural equation modeling