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Providing positive and memorable shopping experiences has become essential for retailers. As the retail industry strives to create multisensory experiences for consumers, it is equally important to understand the emotions and pleasure such experiences evoke. The current study aims to investigate how multisensory experiences induce hedonic emotions in retail shoppers. It explores the mediating role of hedonic emotions in between multisensory experiences and shopping mall patronage intention.

The study is descriptive; the data was collected using the mall intercept survey method. A total of 380 shoppers participated in and responded to the survey administered at the mall. The collected responses are analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

Our findings support the idea that hedonic emotions play a significant role in the retail environment by influencing retail patronage intentions. Also, the multisensory experiences have a positive effect on patronage intention as well as the hedonic emotions of shoppers.

The present study provides theoretical and managerial implications for academicians and retail marketing.

The present research contributes to the existing literature by introducing the concept of multisensory experiences in the retail context and its impact on hedonic emotions and adding to the concept of inference theory.

Understanding tourist experiences with virtual reality (VR) products is essential for firms using VR for tourism marketing, particularly in developing countries where customers do not have access to personal VR devices or gadgets. This study aims to provide insights into technology usage for tourism marketing India, which is a developing country. It explores 360° virtual tours as an upcoming strategy for tourism promotion by analysing tourists’ perspectives through a qualitative approach.

360° YouTube video launched by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, was shown to the participants as a marketing stimulus, followed by questions to understand tourists’ experiences and intentions. Responses were collected from 45 tourists who visited popular tourist destinations such as Shimla, Manali and Dharamshala districts of Himachal Pradesh, India.

The findings of the study indicate that several crucial elements play a pivotal role in creating the 360° VR experience. Based on interviews, it was found that 360° video experiences assist in visualising a destination through imaginative exploration, generating curiosity about the destination, forming a favourable image of the destination and facilitates ease of experience. A few participants mentioned experiencing discomforts, such as motion sickness and eye strain, while viewing 360° videos. Moreover, tourists provided valuable insights into various factors, including how 360° videos elicit arousal through entertainment and excitement, develop immersion and engagement in the virtual environment (VE), aid in assessing destination suitability, offers advantage over other media, serves as a substitutes for travel during constraints, generates assurance and influences intentions. These factors have emerged as significant considerations influencing their willingness to adopt such technology in the future.

In the contemporary market landscape, 360° VR technology is anticipated to enhance the experiential elements within VEs. While existing research has focused on the technical attributes of VR, there remains a crucial gap pertaining to the experiential and destination-related elements and their influence on usage, travel planning and intentions. Therefore, this study provides deeper insights into the unexplored concepts and dimensions of the virtual tourism experience, particularly concerning interaction with 360° videos. The study contributes novel insights to the existing body of tourism literature and provides practical implications for enhancing 360° virtual tour experiences.

The importance and value of the leisure phenomenon are becoming more prominent daily as it becomes a determining indicator of both qualities of life and social welfare. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused severe disruptions in the lifestyles of individuals, has also made it inevitable to face the emergence of sociocultural conditions in which traditional daily life routines have disappeared and the reorganisation of the leisure space. In line with the conditions mentioned earlier, the characteristics of the ‘new’ and the ‘old’ have started to come together in the daily lives and leisure spaces of individuals in constant conflict. Under these conditions, individuals who spent their leisure time travelling from one place to another before the pandemic had to choose different leisure options. Therefore, the leisure space, which is an integral part of the social life of today's individual, has evolved into an unthinkable position independently of the COVID-19 pandemic effects. From this point of view, this study aims to examine the transformation of the leisure space due to the COVID-19 pandemic within the framework of previous studies on this subject and to discuss it in the context of sustainability. For this purpose, firstly, a general framework is drawn on the historical development of the leisure concept, and then its relationship with the COVID-19 pandemic is evaluated. In the last part of the study, the new forms of leisure that have emerged due to the process, as mentioned earlier, are discussed over the critical issues in ensuring the sustainability of leisure practices.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of Andalusia’s tourism promotion budgets and the efficiency of its campaigns from 2010 to 2022.

A mixed-methods approach is used. Tourism promotion budgets from 2010 to 2022 were measured as a supply indicator. Demand indicators (e.g. airport’s passenger arrivals, number of tourists and hotel occupancy rate) are analysed to measure tourism promotion budget impacts on them.

Tourism promotion budgets are a priority to stimulate tourism demand for Andalusia in times of uncertainly, and promotion campaigns are pivotal to attract and convert potential customers into actual tourists. Moreover, findings reveal that tourism promotion budgets had positive impacts on tourism demand. Whereas tourism promotion campaigns such as “Andalucía wants you back”, “Intensely”, Fitur, World Travel Market, ITB Berlin events and tourism advertising through digital channels have helped to improve tourism demand in Andalusia, ignoring the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the year 2020.

This study emphasizes how tourism promotion budgets and promotion campaigns must be constantly monitored by destination marketing organizations to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of assigned economic budgets and its return on investment.

This study aims to explore the conversion of metaverse marketing (MVM) into strategic agility among SMEs based on dynamic capabilities (DC) and dynamic management capabilities (DMC) theories. This paper discusses how constructs such as immersive marketing technologies (IMT), customer immersion (CI) and managerial capabilities (MC) play critical role in the transformation of MVM into strategic agility (SA).

A theoretical framework based on DC and DMC theories, and a comprehensive review of the literature on MVM, IMT, CI, MC and SA, was developed in order to theoretically investigate the relationships between MVM and SA. In this theoretical framework, MVM is the independent variable, while the dependent variable is SA. Also, IMT and CI both mediate the association between MVM and SA, while MC moderate the association between MVM and SA in one stream; and CI and SA in another stream.

This research study develops a theoretical framework that recommends nine set of important research propositions in MVM. An extensive literature review was conducted to examine the theoretical framework on the effect of MVM on SA. The proposed theoretical framework suggests that brand community development and communication, experiential marketing and personalisation in MVM, once accessed through IMT (i.e. VR, AR, MR) and CI (i.e. customer engagement, customer absorption-customer acquisition and assimilation of knowledge, presence) can produce significant SA through customer experience management, value co-creation and process innovation.

This current study develops a theoretical framework that theorise the relationship between MVM and SA rooted in literature on MVM and SA, and also based on DC and DMC perspective. The moderating effect of MC on the relationship between IMT and SA on one hand, and CI and SA on the other, provides support to IMT and CI as mediators in the transformation of MVM into SA. This study also provides insight into SME adoption of MVM and how it generates SA. Lastly, the current study contributes to the body of knowledge on MVM, IMT, CI, MC and SA.

After the identification of a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) at Wuhan, China, a pandemic was widely spread worldwide. In Italy, about 240,000 people were infected because of this virus including 34,721 deaths until the end of June 2020. To control this new pandemic, epidemiologists recommend the enforcement of serious mitigation measures like country lockdown, contact tracing or testing, social distancing and self-isolation.

This paper presents the most popular epidemic model of susceptible (S), exposed (E), infected (I) and recovered (R) collectively called SEIR to understand the virus spreading among the Italian population.

Developed SEIR model explains the infection growth across Italy and presents epidemic rates after and before country lockdown. The results demonstrated that follow-up of strict measures such that country lockdown along with high testing is making Italy practically a pandemic-free country.

These models largely help to estimate and understand how an infectious agent spreads in a particular country and how individual factors can affect the dynamics. Further studies like classical SEIR modeling can improve the quality of data and implementation of this modeling could represent a novelty of epidemic models.

In a consumer-driven world, captivating experiences are increasingly vital and retailers prioritise them for consumers. This study aims to develop a comprehensive theoretical framework that explores the impact of a consumer's multi-sensory and atmospheric experiences on their intention and commitment to a mall, with perceived value acting as a mediating factor.

The study employed a descriptive quantitative research approach and utilised a self-administered mall-intercept survey. A total of 380 shoppers participated in and responded to the survey administered at the mall. The collected responses are analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

Study findings show that experiences significantly influence consumers' intentions to patronise shopping malls, leading to their commitment. The study reveals a strong impact of atmospheric experience on multi-sensory experiences. Furthermore, perceived value mediates the relationship between consumers' experiences and their mall patronage intention.

The research sheds light on the significance of atmospheric elements in creating sensory experiences for consumers. Additionally, the study introduces the concept of “props” as essential components of the atmospheric experiences in retail stores and malls. Furthermore, the study advances inference theory by exploring the effects of these sensory and atmospheric experiences within the shopping mall environment.

The purpose of this study is to test the relationship between mall relevance dimensions [(functional relevance (FNR), symbolic relevance (SYR), social relevance (SOR) and environmental relevance (ENR)] and shoppers' well-being (SWB), which in turn influences mall loyalty (ML). In addition, this study aims to investigate the moderating effect of social media celebrities (SMCs) on the association between SWB and ML.

A mall intercept survey was used to collect responses from mall shoppers. The authors received 426 valid responses from mall shoppers in Pakistan's three metropolitan cities (i.e. Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad). To test the hypotheses, partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used.

Findings reveal that FNR, SYR, ENR and SOR significantly and positively influence SWB. Similarly, SWB significantly affects ML. Moreover, SMCs moderate the positive relationship between SWB and ML.

This study is one of the pioneer studies examining mall relevance dimensions on SWB. In addition, this study contributes to the retailing literature by testing the moderation effect of SMCs on the relationship between SWB and ML. Likewise, this study provides insights for mall administration to focus on mall relevance in terms of FNR, SYR, ENR and SOR to enhance the current and prospects' SWB. Next, SMCs play a key role in enhancing SWB and ML.

This study aims to investigate a unique approach to learning languages through self-directed online learning. Specifically, it explores the self-management abilities and skills learners need while learning a language outside traditional classroom settings when using mobile-assisted learning technology.

A mixed-methods approach was used in this study, including an online survey of 84 people and 10 semi-structured interviews.

Findings reveal the significant role of specific and well-defined learning goals in enhancing learners’ performance. These goals can be either self-initiated by the learners themselves or defined by the technological features of the learning platform. However, the presence of distractions in learners’ daily lives presents challenges to effective time management, affecting learners both physically and psychologically. A key aspect of self-directed language learning lies in the learners’ ability to seek out relevant human and material resources beyond the confines of a single mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) tool. The authenticity of these resources is crucial in ensuring meaningful and effective learning experiences.

Understanding how learners navigate and discover valuable resources is a central focus of this study. This research offers valuable insights into the field of self-directed language learning, revealing the pivotal role of self-management skills with mobile-assisted learning technology. The findings contribute to the broader field of language education and offer practical implications for educators and developers seeking to optimize self-directed language learning experiences through innovative and technologically driven approaches.

MALL is often ideal for individualized informal learning, but the existing literature focuses heavily on formal learning situations, underestimating the importance of MALL practices in various informal settings. Most research reports on MALL-based self-directed learning primarily sample traditional English-learning university students. Therefore, there is a need for research on how nontraditional older adult learners self-direct their language learning with mobile technology outside the classroom.

This study aims to examine the symbolic meanings of the local shopping malls inscribed by the shoppers from the sociocultural lens other than merely departing from the economic dimensions.

In this research, Kwai Chung Plaza was adopted as the case study. The author interviewed 12 local shoppers through an in-depth individual interview. All interviewees were selected through convenience and snowball sampling. All names of the participants in this paper are kept pseudonymous to protect their privacy.

An integrated model, which consists of three major levels, namely, the spatial, individual and community levels, has been formed to show that the shopping mall was not merely a place for buy-and-sell transactions but rather a place that could be understood as an extension of the street, a body of collective memories and a place for Hongkongers.

The most significant limitation of this study was the lack of a diversified demographic profile adding that the sample was restricted to the young generation. It is recommended that future research should consider including interviews with middle-aged and old-aged shoppers to ensure the generalizability of results. Future research may also consider examining other small/medium-sized shopping malls for comparison.

The findings demonstrated the diversified social roles and functions of the local shopping malls in a community. In addition, the present study, to the author’s knowledge, is one of the few scholarly discussions on small/medium-sized shopping malls from a sociocultural perspective.