Antecedents to Consumer Perceptions of Sacredness in Extended Service Experiences

Abstract

Despite the marketing opportunities associated with consumers' perceptions of sacredness in many service consumption experiences, academic research on what drives consumers' sacredness perceptions is limited. Using the context of golf, the study investigates the antecedents to ritual experiences and perceptions of sacredness in service activities. Survey results among more than 700 male and female golfers indicate that flow and communitas impact sacredness perceptions somewhat differently between men and women. While flow impacts sacredness for both genders, the influence of communitas on sacredness is significant only among men. Desire for privileged status and its impact on sacredness, however, impacts only women. Results further indicate a strong mutually reinforcing relationship between flow and communitas. Sacredness can have powerful influences on customers in creating lasting and potentially reoccurring experiences. Managers should realize that creating welcoming environments can enable extraordinary experiences and that tactics such as increasing participation frequency are more necessary for women than men in creating sacredness.

A comparison of online and offline gender and goal directed shopping online

“…Offline a male engages in what society perceives to be typical male behaviors. These male traits diminish online: he is able to break free of (1) the gender constraints and comparisons rooted in society (Berger and Luckmann 1967;Mitchell and Walsh 2004;Thompson 1996) and (2) restraints defined by biological determinism (Dobscha 2003;Gentry et al 2003;Martin 2003). He is able to change his behaviour online because there is no physical interaction (Davis et al 2000).…”

“…The existing literature on whether gender matters in the relationship between utilitarian motivation and purchase intentions is disparate. Several studies have portrayed women online to be the principal shoppers (Dholakia and Chiang 2003;Mitchell and Walsh 2004), but others suggests that males tend to shop online more in technology-mediated channels (Wajcman 1991). Recent work has suggested there is no difference between males and females in their shopping behaviour (Kim and Forsythe 2008).…”

Social layers of customer-to-customer value co-creation

“…The goal-oriented nature of together overcoming some challenge may give rise to a sense of social flow among those participating (Arnould and Price, 1993;McGinnis et al, 2012;Walker, 2010), thereby veering into the more collective temporary community-like co-creation layer.…”

“…Participants in adventure tours and sport activities (Arnould and Price, 1993;McGinnis et al, 2012) Festival attendees (Arnould and Price, 1993;Begg, 2011;Gibson and Connell, 2012).…”

How gender affects the relationship between hedonic shopping motivation and purchase intentions?

“…For example, (1) feminist perspective (Woodruffe‐Burton et al ., ; Wilkes and Laverie, ); (2) the consumption of leisure (e.g. golf; McGinnis et al ., ); (3) the masculine theoretic approach (Gentry and Harrison, ); and (4) conspicuous consumption (O'Cass and McEwen, ). Finally, we conclude our argument by drawing from Gentry and Harrison (: 92) who call for ‘gender roles to become egalitarian’ (Wajcman, ).…”