Familiarity, involvement, satisfaction and behavioral intentions: the case of an African-American cultural festival
International Journal of Event and Festival Management
ISSN: 1758-2954
Article publication date: 14 March 2022
Issue publication date: 7 June 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The study investigates how cultural festival attendees’ familiarity and involvement may influence their overall satisfaction and future behavioral intentions towards the festival.
Design/methodology/approach
A path analysis is used to test the proposed model. The Sobel test is performed to determine the mediating role of attendee satisfaction on future behavioral intentions.
Findings
Attendee familiarity positively and directly impacts attendee involvement. Attendee satisfaction mediates the relationship between involvement and intention to return to the festival. The findings did not demonstrate a relationship between attendee involvement and intention to recommend the cultural festival. Attendees’ intention to return to the festival positively and directly impacts intention to recommend the festival.
Practical implications
For repeat cultural festival attendees, satisfaction is influenced by festival familiarity and involvement. As attendees become more satisfied with their festival involvement, their decision to return to the festival increases. The mediation effect of satisfaction indicates that this should be a priority, as it fully mediates the relationships. However, this is not the case as it relates to the intentions to recommend the festival.
Originality/value
The study contributes to literature on the impact of familiarity and involvement on repeat attendee satisfaction levels and how these relationships influence attendees’ decisions to return or recommend the festival. It is one of the first studies that investigates actual behavior of festival attendees, specifically in the context of an African-American cultural festival.
Keywords
Citation
Rivera, M.A., Shapoval, V., Semrad, K. and Medeiros, M. (2022), "Familiarity, involvement, satisfaction and behavioral intentions: the case of an African-American cultural festival", International Journal of Event and Festival Management, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 267-286. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEFM-07-2021-0062
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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