Romancing the past: Heritage visiting and the nostalgic consumer

Over the past decade, there has been growing interest in nostalgia and consumption experiences on the part of a small group of consumer researchers. This article offers an insight into the nostalgic experiences gained through consuming history at a contemporary British “living” museum. The findings of the research focus on two types of nostalgic behavior, which are identified as existential and aesthetic. Differences in the nostalgic reaction are conceptualized in relation to such factors as the quantity and quality of the individual's role repertoire, the experience of alienation in the present, and the extent and quality of social contact. The article aims to offer a perspective that draws upon both existing work in related fields and the findings of the research in order to contextualize nostalgia as an experiential factor behind the consumption of recreated history in the living interactive museum. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

浅谈免费开放形势下博物馆展厅的再建设

博物馆作为实施精神文明建设的丰厚栽体,其内部机构的有效整合与合理利用是博物馆开展社会教育、发挥各项职能的先决条件.在"免费开放"的大好形势下,博物馆"大发展、大繁荣"的时代已然来临,博物馆展厅建设应从硬件建设和软件建设两方面入手,硬件建设方面应加快展厅外楼梯的修缮以及展厅内环境的维护;软件方面应抓紧展览的建设以及展厅人员的队伍建设,从而顺应潮流地拓展博物馆事业.     

Consumer Shows in the Promotion Mix

Abstract

Consumer shows present a unique promotional opportunity by presenting a forum for attracting consumers with a specific interest in the products featured at the show. In this study we examine auto show attendees' perceived differences and similarities between attendance at an automobile consumer show and the traditional showroom visits made by automobile shoppers. Results of the study indicate that the promotional value of the show had a modest but positive impact on vehicle buying and leasing, a considerable positive influence on brand and model selection, but little influence on choice of dealer. We discovered that attendees perceive sales personnel they met at the show to be more knowledgeable, trustworthy and friendly than those they met at a dealership (even though the sales personnel at the show work at dealerships). Finally, we found that among the group from which most incremental purchases would be expected-those who came to the show with negative intentions but who then purchased a vehicle-the show is viewed more as a substitute for entertainment than for other shopping activities. The promotional implications of these results are then explored.     

Cultural consumption,interactive sociality,and the museum

Abstract

Within marketing and consumer behaviour research, museums have been generally conceptualised as public consumption spaces where visitors benefit from a variety of affective, recreational, and cognitive experiences. As such, the social context has been largely subordinated to enhancing visitors’ cultural consumption experience in the physical environment of the museum. Our study takes a reverse path by highlighting how the cultural consumption experience in the museum nourishes ‘interactive sociality’ both inside and outside the museum. The analysis of our qualitative data (interpretive individual and group interviews and non-participatory observations) on Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow, UK, imply that by leveraging interactive sociality, managers can enhance the museum’s value proposition and societal worth in contemporary society.

The paper critiques museum studies’ over-reliance on (social) psychology theories and demonstrates the value of adopting alternative (sociocultural) approaches to the advancement of theory in the field. It provides evidence for the fact that cultural consumers’ interaction with(in) the organisation is not confined to the physical boundaries of a given context. People extend their varying experiences and sensibilities to other domains beyond the museum walls.     

Effects of art in retail environments

Artworks have been introduced to retail environments outside of the art gallery and museum setting, with the assumption that art can transfer everyday consumption experiences into special and memorable ones. However, the question on the effectiveness of the placement of artwork in retail environments in influencing consumers’ behaviors and experiences has not been addressed. Using the Sacred Heart sculpture by Jeff Koons, we conduct two studies to test the influence of art on an individual’s behavioral intention to visit a restaurant and expected experience of food consumption. Study 1 corroborates that the effect of attitudes toward an artwork on behavioral intentions is amplified when consumers’ art knowledge and levels of openness to experience are low, indicating that consumers who lack art appraisal skills are likely to be dependent on their attitude toward art. Study 2 examines the mediating roles of attitudes toward an artwork and an artist by manipulating art attractiveness and artist information as the sources of esthetic perceptions. The artist information serves as the factor boosting the effect of art attractiveness on the behavioral intention through the mediation of attitudes toward the artwork and the artist. Results show that how consumers perceive an artwork, namely artistic processing in a retail environment, is powerful in leading them to enter a store and have desirable consumption experiences. Retailers can also enhance consumer experience by selecting artworks based on target consumers’ level of art knowledge and openness to experience.     

高职院校校史馆育人功能的发挥障碍及其解决

高职院校校史馆担负传承优良传统、宣讲校情校史、表彰优秀教师、记录优秀校友、呈现职教魅力的基本职能,发挥承载集体记忆、弘扬学校精神、倡导端正教风、宣扬奋斗品格、熔铸职业精神的育人功能。然而,这些功能受制于版面、板块,场地、时段,途径、方法等因素,面对育人内容少、育人频次低、育人层面窄三重障碍。有鉴于此,应通过明确办馆目的,凸显职教宗旨、创新办馆思路,强化育人主题、优化管理方式,提升育人效能来清除障碍。     

高校博物馆义务讲解员的培养与发展——以成都理工大学博物馆为例

高校义务讲解员是由志愿者组成的一支服务于高校博物馆参观、讲解的团队。义务讲解员不仅增强了高校博物馆的科普教育力量,而且大力宣传了高校博物馆的文化,起到了博物馆沟通社会的纽带和桥梁作用。成都理工大学博物馆,在培养和发展高校义务讲解员团队方面,积累了较为丰富的工作经验。可使之更好地为高校博物馆的科普教育服务。     

高校博物馆藏品管理系统在教学实践中的作用——以成都理工大学博物馆为例

高校博物馆是博物馆体系中的重要组成部分,具有教学科研的职能,它既要面向专业化教师、科研、学生队伍,提供开放式研究场所和专业化教学科研实践内容;又要面向社会开展科普宣传与文化教育。文章以成都理工大学博物馆为例。指出当前高校博物馆存在教学实践与社会科普工作之间存在矛盾,网络信息化滞后,具有难以适应网络信息化教学的问题。提出在高校博物馆的日常管理中,有必要应用既适合内部管理又可满足教学科研工作藏品管理软件,以提高教学质量,强化高校博物馆的社会科普教育职能。     

Aesthetic Consumption Differences in Asian-American and Anglo Subcultures:

The criteria by which three Asian subcultures within the U.S.-Chinese, Japanese, and Korean-and the Anglo subculture engage in aesthetic consumption are empirically examined. The findings indicate that there are differences in the preferences related to the various attributes of art-specifically eroticism, symmetry, and emotion-and the "packaging" of such artistic consumption, that is, the museum. These results have important segmentation and positioning implications for non-profit markets as well as the "aesthetic" elements of consumer goods packaging design for different ethnic groups.     

Public Policy for Efficient Education

We study the role of public policy in promoting efficiency in human capital accumulation. Agents accumulate human capital by allocating time to home study and school attendance. The return to time spent in school is subject to congestion. The individual also faces an aggregate externality in skill accumulation. We find that a tuition fee combined with personal stipends can correct the resulting distortions by partly shifting educational effort from schools and universities to noninstitutional forms of learning, such as home study. The dynamic effects of education policy as well as their welfare implications are also calculated in the paper.     

四川省科博场馆资源共享平台建设的路径研究

整合社会分散的科博场馆科普资源,推进科普载体建设,不仅是科教兴川战略的基础工程,也是提高全民科学素养的有效途径。目前,我省的大部分科博场所面积较小,属于中小规模场所,且在管理和陈展方面与国内外大中城市存在一定的差距：一是展教理念缺乏创新;二是投入不足、展教条件、设备差;三是营销工作不到位等。文章提出解决这一现状的途径有：开展联票活动;进行展品交流;联合举办各种科普活动;整合人才资源,实现专家走出校园、研究所,服务社会大众。实现了资源共享,避免财力、人力和物力方面的浪费。     

Information diffusion and new product consumption: A bass model application to tourism facility management

This article applies models to measure and to understand how information diffusion influences tourists' consumption patterns. The study uses administrative data on a new festival's attendance and advertising. Bass's [Bass FM. A new product growth for model consumer durables. Manage Sci 1969;15(5):215-227] model and a modified version [Horsky D, Simon LS. Advertising and the diffusion of new products. Mark Sci 1983;2(1):1-18] to allow for advertising's effect. Results imply effectiveness of front loaded advertising. This result is due to increasing purchases that result from word-of-mouth information diffusion. However, a model with an effect of advertising is accepted as well as a model with no consideration of advertising budget. Examination of consistency and conceptual issues with models raises the need for models that are more realistic for the tourism product. A specific concern is developing models appropriate to analysis of attendance at a limited-duration innovative event (e.g., new product) held at a host to impact longer-term attendance of the host.     

An Indirect Test of Children's Influence on Efficiencies in Parental Consumer Behavior

A statistical test is applied to explore the possibility that children can affect the efficiency with which parents consume. Parents may receive some economic benefits from children in the form of reverse integenerational transfers that occur because of a positive influence children have on family behavior. Results show that not only do children have an influence on parental consumption, but also that the influence is beneficial. In fact, not accounting for such a benefit could cause an underestimate in such measures as the rate of return to education or the benefits from such governmental programs as Head Start.     

An Analysis of Factors Influencing Membership Retention at a Children’s Museum

Membership fees are an important source of sustained revenue for not-for-profit organizations. Moreover, these membership programs facilitate loyalty to the organization and provide certainty to a percentage of revenue intake. In this study, we examine how frequency of visits, satisfaction with membership programs, length of membership, age, average household income, and driving time affect membership retention in a children’s museum. Findings indicate that all of the factors above influence membership renewal intention. We summarize this study with recommendations for both member recruitment and retention for not-for-profit organizations that utilize membership programs.     

Who buys newspapers in Spain? An analysis of the determinants of the probability to buy newspapers and of the amount spent

In this paper, we examine the determinants of household consumption of newspapers and the amount spent on their purchase by considering several explanatory variables related to household characteristics and the main household wage earner. Results show that the variables have quite similar effects on both the relative probability of buying newspapers and the amount spent. The key variables are the age and occupational status of the main wage earner, the number of household members, income and having to pay for the house, as well as a number of geographical variables. However, certain differences are also observed. The most important is the education of the main wage earner: while its effect on buying newspapers is very small (only those who did not complete primary education are less likely to buy), its effect on the amount spent increases with the level of education. As other studies of cultural goods and services consumption have suggested, education and occupational status are more relevant determinants than income.     

Intentions of formally qualified and unqualified teachers to transfer norms and values in home economics teaching

Historically, home economics (HE) in general, and the consumer education sections in particular, have been criticized for transferring norms and values of conservative elites to the masses. This is in stark contrast to contemporary theoretical views of a modern HE aimed at educating emancipated and critical citizens, and also to modern curricula that emphasize the consequences of consumption rather than dogma. A previous study has indicated that formally unqualified teachers see the transfer of consumption norms and values without support in the curriculum as an important objective of HE teaching, a practice that is questionable from a democratic perspective. This follow‐up study investigates to what extent formally qualified HE teachers show intentions to transfer consumption norms and values without support in the curriculum to students, using content analysis of 201 survey responses from Swedish qualified HE teachers and comparing to data from a previously published study on formally unqualified teachers. It is concluded that the qualified teachers demonstrate intentions to transfer unsupported norms and values, though, to a lower degree than unqualified teachers. The results are interpreted by adopting a values education perspective on HE. This indicates that the observed emphasis on norms and values could be seen partly as a lack of a proficient professional metalanguage among the teachers, and partly as a consequence of the focus on developing a pre‐defined moral of consumption in HE literature. The implications on how to develop HE teacher education to reduce norm and value transfer intentions are discussed based on the empirical findings and the theoretical framework.     

Determinants of Food-Away-From-Home (FAFH) Visit Frequency

Abstract

Considerable attention has been paid to the expenditure level for food-away-from-home (FAFH); however, little attention has been paid to consumption frequency. The purpose of this study is to determine the socio-demographic effects of FAFH frequency. The data used in this study comes from the National Panel Diary. The data was analyzed using five econometric models. The results show that hours worked per week and hours worked per week by the household manager were positively related to the number of FAFH visits by a household. Other determinants of FAFH were race, education, gender, region, age, seasonality and weekend dining.     

Consumer education: educational considerations and perspectives

This paper examines questions concerning consumer education in relation to consumption and household management. It is based partly on literature studies and partly on a current pilot study, also on studies carried out in the classroom and developmental work in schools and on teacher training courses. The pilot study on consumer education is being carried out in Denmark and is funded by the Danish Ministry of Business Affairs. Another part of the study concerns a qualitative investigation of pupils’ understandings of consumption and its meaning in their lives, but this is not reported here. The key research questions relate to the way in which the young consumer is educated, both formally and informally, and what the possibilities and perspectives are for consumer education. Introductory research is discussed, followed by a presentation and discussion of key issues for consumer education, such as household management, consumption, home economics and education. Finally, three examples are described and discussed which demonstrate how the advocated principles of consumer education and empowerment can be put into practice. These examples are based on developmental work carried out in lower secondary schools and teacher training courses.     

Board Meeting Attendance by Outside Directors

Outside directors’ regular board meeting attendance is important in improving the effectiveness of a governance system. Such attendance is evidence of their commitment to the firm as key other players in monitoring and decision making. Using a unique dataset for Korean firms, and three-level random coefficients models, we find that, foreign outside directors, an independent appointment process, professional knowledge of business operations and accumulated firm-specific knowledge are important factors that affect outside directors’ attendance of board meetings. The results also confirm that both outside directors’ personal characteristics and the social context are crucial in understanding their board meeting attendance. Further analysis shows that a positive corporate environment that supports the outside director system encourages outside directors’ attendance at board meetings.