Search results

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the relationship between sexual dissidence, gender transgression and commercial hospitality. The paper aims to argue that this can be used to examine how ideological assumptions about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) consumers are mobilised in the production and consumption of hospitality spaces.

The paper synthesises three theoretical strands: first, Turner's concepts of the liminoid and communitas; second, anthropological and socio‐political conceptions of myth and myth‐making and third, Lefebvre's spatial dialectic in the production of material, abstract and symbolic space. It is argued that, when considered together, these theoretical approaches help to understand the consumer experience, the ideological assumptions that underpin the experience, and the processes through which the experience is constructed.

The holistic nature of the approach helps to analyse the relationship between consumption and community ideologies at the micro level of personal interaction, the meso level of group and organisational norms and the macro level of societal structures and agencies.

The application of this framework in empirical research can enhance our understanding of the role of commercial hospitality spaces in reproducing and challenging particular ideological assumptions about LGBT consumers. It can inform the operational strategies of commercial organisations. Furthermore, it can underpin a critical perspective on management, which encourages practitioners to develop a sense of social responsibility towards the communities of consumers they target.

Applying this framework to empirical research will also help one to understand the nature of consumption and production within commercial hospitality.

The aim of the present study is twofold. First, it measures Facebook users’ experience in a holistic way by taking into account the various dimensions of Facebook experience (i.e. entertainment, flow, escapism, challenge, learning, socializing and communitas); second, it tests the effects of these dimensions in relation to consumers’ brand engagement on Facebook.

Two online surveys were conducted using self-administered questionnaires. Respondents were recruited through the snowball sampling technique.

The findings suggest that the different experiential elements of Facebook usage have varying effects on the two brand engagement factors (consuming and contributing) on Facebook. Specifically, the passive element (consuming) is positively influenced by the dimensions of flow and communitas (i.e. feelings of belongingness), while escapism is found to be a negative predictor. The active element of engagement (contributing) is positively affected by dimensions such as entertainment, flow, socializing and communitas.

Brand managers should design Facebook pages for their brands that entertain and immerse consumers, while enabling them to socialize and bond with others to increase levels of consumers’ engagement with brands on Facebook. However, brand managers should be cautious regarding the fantasy experience (escapism) offered by their Facebook pages, as this can distract consumers from the content of the brand page.

To date, most studies on Facebook usage have been conducted under the uses and gratifications framework, while the various elements that comprise Facebook users’ experience have not received sufficient attention in previous conceptualizations of Facebook experience. In addition, the present study enhances the research by examining consumers’ brand engagement on Facebook as a potential consequence of the various Facebook experience dimensions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of store characteristics (i.e. product availability, product quality, store layout, employee politeness, décor, music, lighting, and aroma) on the various dimensions of in-store leisure shopping experience (i.e. hedonic, flow, escapism, challenge, learning, socialising, and communitas).

In order to achieve the study’s objectives, a quantitative on-site survey was conducted. Respondents were interviewed upon exiting fashion retail stores.

Findings indicate that not all store characteristics impact the various dimensions of experience in the same way. Product quality and in-store music were found to be the most important in-store characteristics that affected the majority of experience dimensions. Other important store attributes that emerged were store layout and ambient scent. Conversely, product range actually had a negative impact on in-store experience.

By orchestrating the most influential in-store characteristics, fashion retailers could be delivering unique in-store experiences to their customers. This research shows that they would benefit from designing experiential strategies that focus on merchandise quality, price, and availability while simultaneously carefully managing ambient (music and scent) alongside design factors (store layout and décor). Careful consideration should be paid to merchandise variety in order to avoid potentially negative effects on customers’ shopping experience.

Until now most studies that document the relationship between store elements and shopping experiences have examined the effects of store characteristics on a limited number of experience dimensions. This study adds to the body of research into in-store leisure shopping experience in two ways: by shedding light on its multi-dimensional nature, and by analysing the effect of the different store elements on the various components of the in-store experience.

This paper presents a framework to study organizational change using the metaphor of ritual. Concepts of myth and ritual facilitate understanding of change interventions. A qualitative study of Appreciative Inquiry helped answer the question: what mechanisms or processes explain the effect of the Appreciative Inquiry Summit? Four mechanisms, based on qualitative interviews and anthropological and sociological theory, explain why the AI Summit produces organizational change: (1) internal dialogue: recognizing a positive dimension and new vocabulary at the individual, interpersonal, and organizational levels of analysis; (2) communitas: the mechanism whereby new relationships form due to relational anti-structure; (3) commitment: how organization members cognitively and cathectically commit to the organization; and (4) longitudinal repetition: how sustained and continuous change involves repetition of ritual practices and the recognition.

The chapter presents the gospel festival as a significant postmodern religious tourism phenomenon which has not thus far been recognized or critically theorized. To date, conceptualizations of religious tourism, specifically pilgrimages, have been dominated by Turnerian concepts of liminality and communitas. It is suggested that these concepts, while valuable, do not sufficiently account for the heterogeneous and contested nature of these event spaces or their potentiality for the performance of alternative modes of social ordering. The Foucauldian notion of heterotopia is adapted as a more apposite theoretical framework and an example of a gospel festival in Australia is drawn on by way of explication.

This paper and video aim to present findings of an investigation into the consumption of weeklong music camps for adults.

Video‐ethnography is an emerging research technique in marketing academe. The technique derives from the ethnographic tradition in anthropology and incorporates a blend of participant observer and thick description interview techniques. The video evidence does not replace field notes. Rather the video evidence contributes strongly to an edited deliverable that complements and in some instances substitutes for a traditional manuscript.

Participants spend hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars purchasing a week of music classes, concerts and jam sessions located in campus‐like venues, often rural and remote and without many of the comforts of home. Three strong themes emerged from the observations and interviews. Consumer immersion in a musical enclave for a week to develop their musicianship is the first theme. The second theme intertwines the third: a sense of the liminoid in which a personal transition or transformation occurs; and the emergence of communitas, in which community ties strengthen as a consequence of experiencing these transitions within a group.

The video ethnography is remarkable because music camp organizers forbid filming. Indeed, for the first time in the history of this music camp (of 16 years standing at the time of the research), filming occurred in the camp. After a while, the presence of the researcher videographer appeared to go unnoticed by participants, arguably becoming an integral part of the music camp experience.

Little research has been done about the consumption of music camps. This written and audio‐visual ethnography addresses this gap in knowledge.

The aim of the present study is to investigate the impact of the different aspects of consumption experience on various post-consumption variables (i.e. satisfaction, nostalgia intensity, word-of-mouth (WOM) communication and behavioural intentions).

A quantitative study using a self-administered questionnaire was conducted. The sample comprised of 645 respondents and the snowball sampling technique was used. Consumption experience was measured using a seven-dimensional scale (dimensions: hedonic, flow, escapism, socialisation, personal challenge, learning and communitas).

Not all experience dimensions affect consumers equally in the post-consumption stage. Hedonism was an important experiential dimension affecting positively most of the post-consumption variables. Other boosters of consumers’ nostalgia, WOM communication and behavioural intentions were the feelings of escapism, knowledge and communitas. On the contrary, flow and personal challenge were negative predictors of consumers’ evaluations.

Marketers should co-create the experience with consumers by carefully managing their experiential offering. Companies should focus on designing pleasurable, social, educational and fantasy experiences while minimizing the feelings of immersion and risk that arise from intense activities.

A holistic conceptual model on the consequences of the different consumption experience dimensions is tested. Until now, most of the relevant studies on experiences have treated experience as a higher order construct without taking into consideration the different effects of the various experience dimensions. Hence, the present study contributes to research by identifying the most pertinent experience dimensions on post-consumption evaluations, behaviour and intentions of consumers.

The paper aims to discuss liminal ethnography as a new approach for conducting research in segregated organisations.

The paper proposes liminality as a conceptual key to understanding both the condition of the organisational ethnographer and that of her interlocutors. Conversatio is the novel hermeneutical method that is discussed in conjunction with liminal ethnography.

Liminal ethnography as outlined in the paper emerged as an approach from preliminary contact with the organisational reality of the monastery as a type of total institution. Similarly, conversatio suggested itself as a method that maximises limited face to face contact with interlocutors whose access to the external world is restricted by a behavioural code enshrined in a Rule.

Paradoxically, the restrictions imposed on the researcher provided inspiration for the analytical approach proposed by the paper therefore initial limitations such as restricted access eventually spurred conceptual development.

The original approach should be of interest to organisational researchers operating in total institutions or in organisations where severely restricted access renders extant methodologies only partly applicable, if at all. The paper also discusses ethical issues arising from collaboration with rule‐governed communities.