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This study aims to explore the phenomenon of visceral food pleasure, described as a unitary experience that, after an initial sense of pleasure and relief generated by the satisfaction of eating impulses, is followed by negative feelings – such as guilt and worry – linked to the consumption of hedonic or unhealthy foods.

An exploratory approach has been adopted. In particular, the critical incident technique among 87 individuals has been used to extract insights about visceral food pleasure.

Contrary to previous research results, this study shows that viscearl food pleasure is not a unitary phenomenon, identifying four types of different facets, two of which have a negative valence in terms of felt emotions post-consumption and psychological well-being (i.e. the “greedy” and the “maladaptive” experiences). More importantly, the other two facets are associated with positive consequences in terms of emotions felt post-consumption and perceived psychological well-being (i.e. the “social” and the “fair sin” experiences).

Companies that provide food experiences can prime meanings that influence consumers’ perceptions of the episode to elicit positive emotions post-consumption and psychological well-being.

Promoting a more holistic view of food consumption and psychological well-being can free consumers from negative emotions during food consumption episodes. Priming a particular meaning can be a way to do that. However, as visceral experience can still lead to health issues, this must be combined with an education process that makes consumers aware of their food habits.

This research challenges the idea that visceral food experiences are always negative. Indeed, when associated with particular meanings (i.e. social and reward), they have a positive valence post-consumption.

Given the scarcity of studies regarding religious food as a destination attraction and limited research on tourist halal food experience, this study aims to explore and compare halal food experience perceived by Muslim and non-Muslim tourists in a non-Islamic destination.

This study was carried out in a halal food street in Yuanjia Village, China. It used a qualitative approach and interviewed 16 Muslim tourists and 20 non-Muslim tourists.

Six themes and 18 attributes of halal food experience were identified. The findings revealed that Muslim tourists saw the reassuring options and religious value of halal food as important experiences. By contrast, the experiences of abundant choices, value for money, sensory pleasure and unique charm were frequently mentioned by non-Muslim tourists. The nature of halal food, the context of China (i.e. Chinese halal food culture) and the feature of research site (i.e. food operation of Yuanjia Village) work together to create such experiences.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to explore and compare halal food experiences of Muslim and non-Muslim tourists in a non-Islamic country (China). This study suggests that halal food could be an appealing destination attraction, even in non-Islamic destinations. Thus, this study contributes to a better understanding of the halal food experiences and assists destination marketers in promoting halal food.

The purpose of the present research is to address the issue by conceptualizing artificial intelligence (AI) experience quality and its dimensions, and furthermore, to empirically test the relationships among AI experience quality, positive affective reactions, AI experience satisfaction and AI-seeking intention.

The data were collected from an AI community canteen in Shanghai. They were also analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA and CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM).

Four primary dimensions and 15 sub-dimensions of AI experience quality for community canteens were identified. The hypothesized paths between the higher-order constructs – AI experience quality, positive affective reactions, AI experience satisfaction and AI-seeking intention – were confirmed as well.

This is the first study to synthesize AI experience quality, positive affective reactions, AI experience satisfaction and AI-seeking intention in an AI restaurant setting.

This study aims to investigate mechanisms and boundary conditions of the impact of customer engagement strategies (CESs) on customer loyalty (CL) based on goal-framing and well-being theory.

Through a three-stage, time-lagged research design, 246 valid samples were obtained. This study tested and validated the proposed framework using hierarchical regression analysis and a moderated mediation procedure.

First, CESs have a significant positive impact on CL. Second, consumer well-being (CWB) partially mediates the CESs–CL relationship. Third, information processing style (IPS) moderates the impact of CESs on CWB, with a more pronounced effect observed under the affective processing style. Finally, IPS further moderates the indirect effect of CESs on CL, indicating that CESs enhance CL through increased CWB, particularly under the affective processing style.

Revealing the pivotal role of CESs in enhancing CL at the corporate level helps bridge the gap between companies and customers, thereby facilitating the establishment of long-term cooperative relationships. Additionally, introducing the concept of CWB into the study of CL offers a novel perspective for understanding customer behavior.

The objective of this study is to analyze the experiences in wine tourism according to narratives shared by the visitors themselves. Furthermore, this study aims to examine the levels of intensity associated with these experiences within a wine destination, considering the segmentation of visitors.

This study uses a mixed-methods approach to analyze data, incorporating a deductive process followed by content analysis. Data collection procedures include a bibliographic review and a data survey conducted through netnography research to analyze 954 visitor reviews on TripAdvisor shared by visitors to Vale dos Vinhedos. Also, statistical analysis is performed to assess whether there are any significant variations in attribute citations among different market segmentation profiles.

The study’s discoveries indicate that there are no significant differences in intensity among profile segments for the dimensions of entertainment, aesthetics, educational and interactions, unlike escapism. The findings reveal that attributes such as “winery,” “wine,” “products and services” and “landscape” are essential for all visitors. In addition, the study shows that social interactions in the wine tourism destination are not as significant as previously assumed.

This research study constitutes a methodological advancement in the field of market segmentation using electronic word-of-mouth data. It provides crucial insights into the experiential nuances of the research locus and the varying degrees of these experiences in relation to visitor segmentation. Additionally, the contributions of this study are not only of theoretical importance but also hold practical implications for market segmentation strategies.

The widespread integration of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled personalization has sparked a need for a deeper understanding of its transformative potential. To address this, this study aims to investigate the mental models held by consumers from diverse cultures regarding the impact and role of AI-enabled personalization in their lives (i.e. individual well-being) and in society (i.e. societal well-being).

This paper uses the theories-in-use approach, collecting qualitative data via the critical incident technique. This data encompasses 487 narratives from 176 consumers in two culturally distinct countries, Belgium and Pakistan. Additionally, it includes insights from a focus group of six experts in the field.

This research reveals that consumers view AI-enabled personalization as a dual-edged sword: it may both extend and restrict the self and also contribute to an affluent society as well as an ailing society. The particular aspects of the extended/restricted self and the affluent/ailing society that emerge differ across respondents from different cultural contexts.

This cross-cultural research contributes to the personalization and well-being literature by providing detailed insight into the transformative potential of AI-enabled personalization while also having important managerial and policy implications.

This paper aims to explore digital fashion products in the metaverse platform contexts and empirically examine the effect of the metaverse platform characteristics on the purchase intention of digital fashion products through users' flow experience and perceived value of the products.

A survey method was used in this study. Answers from 314 metaverse users were analyzed, and the hypotheses were tested using the structural equations modeling and bootstrapping analysis.

The analyses showed that telepresence, social interaction and economic flow had significant effects on users' flow experience among the metaverse platform characteristics, while the continuity and content creation of the metaverse platform did not have significant effects. The flow experience also appeared to have significant effects on multiple consumption values, including pleasure value, self-expression value and economic value. Last, the perceived pleasure value and economic value of digital fashion products had a positive effect on purchase intention.

The main contribution of this research is that it is one of the first empirical attempts to investigate individual consumers' perceptions and experiences of digital fashion products in the context of metaverse platforms.

This study aims to identify and describe the relationships among sensory-driven pleasure, cognition-driven pleasure, symbolic-driven pleasure and organic food purchase behavior considering the moderating effects of functionality trust and authenticity trust from the viewpoint of the theory of planned behavior (TPB).

Data were collected using a structured questionnaire survey in first-tier cities in China. A total of 352 consumers of organic foods participated in the study. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression analysis were employed for data analysis.

The results indicated the significant association of perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, attitude, sensory-driven pleasure and cognition-driven pleasure with purchase intention. Perceived behavioral control and purchase intention had significantly positive effects on purchase behavior. Moreover, functionality trust had a positive moderating effect on purchase intention and purchase behavior.

This study not only provides novel and original insights for understanding organic consumption but also provides a reference for organic producers, sellers and policymakers to develop effective strategies to guide organic consumption that are conducive to promoting sustainable consumption.

For the first time, this research introduces the construct of food pleasure into the TPB to explore the relationships between food pleasure and purchase behavior based on the TPB. It may expand the scope of the TPB and provide valuable insights regarding how to improve the existing intention–behavior gap in organic consumption.

The purpose of this study is to explore consumer anticipation processes that occur after commitment to a purchase has been made, but before consumption occurs. The authors add to the knowledge and theory building about anticipation that occurs in this liminal phase by investigating the cognitive, emotional and behavioural processes that interact to influence post-consumption evaluations.

An abductive research approach used a phase-based research design using semi-structured interviews. The authors identify interactions between cognitive, emotional and behavioural processes that occur during anticipation and associate these with post-consumption outcomes.

Anticipation of a consumption experience, enacted through thoughts, emotions and actions, and undertaken with peers, is an experience per se, independent from and interdependent with the substantive experience, and contributes to performance of the substantive experience. The authors propose a framework in which anticipation – as a performative phenomenon – influences the overall evaluations of the substantive consumption experience in contexts of delayed consumption. The theoretical grounding of performativity makes a useful contribution through its linkage of thought processes to outcomes. The authors further locate their findings within the literature on attribution theory. By engaging in anticipation, informants perceived the locus of causality to be internal, and expressed pride in having anticipated if the subsequent experience was successful. By anticipating, informants perceived an ability to exert control over future events and felt ashamed of not having adequately anticipated if an experience was subsequently unsuccessful.

The theoretical grounding of performativity makes a useful contribution through its linkage of thought processes to outcomes. The authors further locate their findings within the literature on attribution theory. By engaging in anticipation, informants perceived the locus of causality to be internal and expressed pride in having anticipated if the subsequent experience was successful. By anticipating, informants perceived an ability to exert control over future events and felt ashamed of not having adequately anticipated if an experience was subsequently unsuccessful.

The authors discuss the trade-off service providers face between encouraging anticipation, which raises expectations that might not be met, and facilitating anticipatory preparations, which may reduce the risk of service failure.

The authors provide a new lens by conceptualising anticipation as a performative process and identifying mechanisms by which anticipation is embedded in total consumption experience. This study has important generalisable implications for contexts where mechanisms of performative anticipation may be a means for ameliorating uncertainty about future consumption experiences.

Consumers can spend their disposable income on hedonic consumption or save for the future. Their preferences were altered by the prolonged life and livelihood-threatening experiences of the pandemic. This paper aims to study the spillover effect of the pandemic experience on consumer savings attitudes and hedonic purchase preferences in the new normal.

The authors conducted 35 in-depth interviews with consumers in India. The data were analysed thematically.

The results showed that when fear of life and negative emotions of the pandemic persisted, consumers became short-term focused, moved towards materialism and increased hedonic spending. Alternatively, individuals who faced substantial financial hardships resorted to an increased preference for savings. The relationship between changes in savings orientation and hedonic consumption was found to be moderated by consumer's individual differences in financial vulnerability and life history strategies.

As the trend towards increased hedonic consumption and preference for luxury products continues, the study findings can be used to devise effective marketing strategies to tap the emerging segment of mass luxury consumption.

Despite ample work being conducted in the hedonic consumption domain, it has not been studied in conjunction with savings orientation, a significant determinant. This research links personal savings orientation with hedonic spending and substantiates that purchase decisions are cognitively weighted as a choice of discretionary spending against the opportunity to save.