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The purpose of this paper is to examine how potential purchasers of a personal information, communication and entertainment device such as a smartphone, perceive the aesthetics of such a product. It then examines whether appreciation of the product’s aesthetics influences their purchase intention through different dimensions of perceived value drawn from perceptions of the product’s aesthetics, or whether there is a direct relationship from aesthetics to purchase intention.

Mixed methods consisting of two focus groups, a pilot and large online surveys were used for instrument confirmation and data collection. Data were analysed and hypotheses were tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling techniques.

Aesthetics’ primary effect on purchase intention is not direct, but rather indirect through perceived social and to a lesser extent, perceived emotional value while the importance of aesthetics on perceived functional value is far less. There was also support for a formative approach in the construction of an aesthetics scale with the identification of four different latent factors of aesthetics.

This study is product specific but should be extendable to the product category. The possibility of other variables affecting the aesthetic appreciation of a product also needs consideration.

The study provides managers with insights on how aesthetics can be used to strengthen purchase intention in terms of both product development and promotional strategies. Aesthetics’ appeal to social and emotional perceived values, rather than functional value, provides guidance on how to use aesthetics in promotional campaigns.

Despite the richness of the literature on aesthetics, only a limited number of studies have researched the factors influencing aesthetic appreciation of a product and the effect on purchase intention. This research expands knowledge in the area thereby providing new insights on the influence of aesthetics on marketing.

The subject of this paper is the phenomenon of social media aesthetics, which can be perceived as a tool for promoting and building the image of libraries, especially in terms of merchandising. The aim of this paper is to analyse the potential of the dark academia social media trend in the promotion of academic libraries.

The article is based on a review of the social networking sites YouTube and Instagram and an analysis of network resources using the Brand24 tool.

Resources that are described by Internet users as “dark academia” are popular in social media. Dark academia as an aesthetic concept creates potential for the promotion of academic libraries, especially those that are more traditional in terms of their architecture, décor or how they offer their services.

The paper concerns a phenomenon which, although popular socially, has not yet been scientifically analysed in the literature on the subject. Since the topic is new and there is no scientific literature on it, the author had to base the paper on less standard sources of information (e.g. analysis of the content of social media). The article is a review, an introduction, as well as an invitation to further discussion. The author's aim is not to comprehensively cover this topic but only to draw attention to an interesting and rarely discussed issue that has great potential for practical activities.

The topic has great potential for the practical improvement of the promotional activities of libraries, especially older, more traditional libraries, to create a strong and positive image on the basis of characteristics often perceived as weaknesses.

Social media services are powerful social impact tools. Showing the potential role of social media aesthetics for cultural institutions could serve to make the public more aware of the role of the proper use of social media for promotion and image building.

The use of social media aesthetics is very rarely discussed in the subject literature.

In the fertile line of research on consumer value from the services literature, a gap exists between theoretical and empirical knowledge, in particular regarding Holbrook’s conceptual value framework. The purpose of this paper is to find construct validity for a multidimensional value scale based on Holbrook’s proposal.

Based on a literature review, a qualitative phase, and consultation with an expert, eight value scales (efficiency, service quality, play, aesthetics, status, esteem, ethics, and escapism as an adaptation of spirituality) are tested on a sample of 585 hotel customers and are further analyzed with simple and partial correlations, multiple regressions, and structural modeling.

Following the literature on the merits of Holbrook’s value typology, results are presented in three concatenated phases: validation of Holbrook’s eight value scales corresponding to his eight value types; interrelationships between these value types showing a predominance of the extrinsic-intrinsic and self-other dimensions; and construction of six indices based on the 2×2×2 matrix (self, other, extrinsic, intrinsic, active, and reactive) and a value index as a higher-order representation. The results support Holbrook’s typology, thereby supporting construct validity for the multidimensional scales.

Implications for further conceptual research on value are presented. Meanwhile, the empirical study is context-specific, i.e. related to a hospitality experience.

Although Holbrook’s typology has gained widespread attention, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous research has tested all eight value types simultaneously in the same empirical work.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the classical topics of services literature in a tourism experience with a means‐end‐model on the quality‐value‐satisfaction‐loyalty chain. Within this wide stream of research, this work has a particular interest on value antecedents and on the sense of the link between value and satisfaction.

An overall tourism experience with positive and negative antecedents (benefits and sacrifices experienced) and classical evaluations (perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty as behavioral intention) is analyzed through two competing structural models measured with partial least squares on a sample of 274 students traveling in groups for leisure purposes.

The empirical findings show that: the chain of constructs service quality‐perceived value‐customer satisfaction‐loyalty is once again confirmed in a service setting; affective antecedents (social value, play and aesthetics) are more important determinants of perceived value and satisfaction than cognitive antecedents (efficiency, quality and effort spent); and the model performs better when value is understood as an antecedent of satisfaction than in the opposite case.

The findings illustrate how tourism settings are paradigmatically useful for researching perceived value within services because of the differences found between cognitive and affective antecedents. The target chosen (students) and the sampling method used (convenience) need further replication in order to assure the validity of the results.

Besides the use of PLS (rather than LISREL), the empirical purpose of measuring with same data a value‐satisfaction link and the reverse is interesting for services researchers in order to progress in the debate on the supremacy of one or another.

This work aims to introduce the usefulness of the concept of value for tourism research both conceptually and empirically. Destination and tourism services can be better understood if analysed through the multidimensionality of value, as the tourist can simultaneously experience several factors: affective and cognitive, social and personal, active and reactive.

From literature review, Holbrook's conceptual framework (definition and typology) is chosen to investigate the dimensionality of consumer value in a travel‐related context (students' tourism behaviour). An empirical investigation on one of his conceptual axes – the relativistic character of consumer value – is presented.

Several research questions are proposed regarding the relativity of value, using the t‐test contrast of hypothesis: dimensions of value (efficiency, quality, play, aesthetics and social value) and a measure of overall perceived value are tested as being personal (they vary across people), comparative (with differences among objects) and situational (specific to the context).

The results presented can fully confirm the relativistic character of value dimensions; hence, the value concept is useful for analysing tourism experiences. Nevertheless, the analysis is made interpersonally. Real intrapersonal measurements on these variations with longitudinal studies are recommended for further research. The scope of this work could be broadened by testing additional axes of Holbrook's typology.

Tourism managers should regard the helpfulness of perceived value as a segmentation tool. Because of its multidimensionality, different facets of services value can be enhanced for different consumers, reinforcing in this way the strategic usefulness of value.

Although Holbrook's types of value have been the subject of several conceptual debates there are very few empirical works on it. Any multidimensional approach to value shows the richness and complexity of the value concept, but Holbrook's dimensionality is particularly interesting because it encompasses and interrelates all relevant facets of the tourism experience.

This paper attempts to rebut criticisms of, and give further clarifications to, arguments about the nature of sociological explanation previously made by Martin (2011).

Here, arguments initially derived through historical reconstruction of theory are instead drawn out from our common stock of experiences. Aspects of the argument that were complex as initially presented are simplified here, and the maximum contrast between this approach and the more conventional is made.

The implications for practice are many; most important, the claim of Martin (2011) – rejected by Bradford (2013), as critiqued herein – to offer a coherent alternative to our current understanding of the task of explanation, if successfully demonstrated, suggests a reorientation of sociological research toward the production of intersubjectively valid cartographies and away from causal or pseudo-causal accounts.

Social theorists who are willing to seriously think about what lies in between our practice and knowledge as sociologists and as actors – to do the research.

The value of the paper, therefore, derives from its capacity to dispel common misunderstandings of Martin (2011), and to allow social researchers as well as social theorists, to make use of a coherent vocabulary for the development of social research, which otherwise would remain inaccessible to them.

Although the understanding of both positive and negative factors influencing sports consumption is essential, previous research has mainly focused on motivators. The purpose of this study was to examine three different models of constraints and motivators that influence attendance: a correlated model, a hierarchical model and a moderated model. Twenty factors were identified and classified into four main categories. The results indicated that 16 out of 20 motivators and constraints had a significant relationship with attendance in the theoretically expected direction.

Bitner’s (1992) concept of servicescape has received widespread academic attention, resulting in many conceptual and empirical studies. By scanning the servicescape literature and other relevant concepts, Pizam and Tasci (2019) provided experienscape, an expanded version of servicescape, to be measured from different stakeholders’ perspectives with a multidisciplinary approach. This paper aims to build on Pizam and Tasci’s conceptualization of experienscape and expand its nomological network with other pertinent concepts related to different stakeholders with an interdisciplinary approach.

This is a conceptual study analyzing diverse literature related to servicescape, experienscape and other related concepts and theories to provide an integrated and holistic picture of experienscape for more robust theory development. Several new relationships are synthesized for hypothesis development and testing in future research.

The review of past research reveals that servicescape literature has mostly focused on outcomes for the benefit of brands and firms and missed outcomes for consumers and other stakeholders. In addition, servicescape literature lacks several critical concepts in the affective, cognitive and behavioral reaction domains, as well as moderator factors. The relevance of some theories such as branding (e.g. brand identity, personality, image, perceived quality, consumer value, brand value and self-congruity), cocreation/coproduction/codestruction, transformation, subjective happiness, subjective well-being and quality of life is completely overlooked.

Experienscape is a container of complex systems where needs, wants and expectations of multiple stakeholders are entertained, often at the same time through dynamic interactions among multiple stakeholders. Thus, a holistic understanding of experienscape requires dynamic integration of theories explaining the behavior of different stakeholders by cross-fertilizing theories through interdisciplinary research rather than unidisciplinary or multidisciplinary research conducted in separate silos.

By adopting Pizam and Tasci’s (2019) experienscape concept, this study expanded the relational network of service environment components (i.e. sensory, functional, social, natural and cultural components of experienscape) by incorporating diverse theories and concepts that explain cognitive, affective and conative reactions of different stakeholders to an experience environment. Additionally, the current study recommends attention to human-centric outcomes such as transformation, subjective well-being, subjective happiness and quality of life, which were completely overlooked in previous servicescape research.