Places as authentic consumption contexts |
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Authors: | Nathalie Spielmann Barry J Babin Aikaterini Manthiou |
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Institution: | 1. NEOMA Business School, Reims, France;2. Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, USA;3. NEOMA Business School, Rouen, France |
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Abstract: | Consumers build social capital through purposeful consumer–place interactions. Airbnb claims that consumers want to “experience a place like they] live there.” Previous research concentrates primarily on authenticity of objects, brands, and people, with limited development of place authenticity as a concept. But place authenticity represents an increasingly important marketing concept as consumers today, particularly millennials (Schulz, P. (2015, August 8). Not just millennials: Consumers want experiences, not things. Adage. Retrieved from https://adage.com/article/digitalnext/consumers-experiences-things/299994/ ), value experience over “stuff.” Authenticity provides an important place characteristic that if perceived, potentially unlocks a truly valuable consumer experience. Consequently, the research presented here develops an auxiliary theory of place authenticity (PA). The theory proposes a second‐order factor indicated by three coordinate subdimensions. Phase I of the research consists of five studies that develop PA, explore its dimensionality, and confirm the PA scale's construct validity. Phase II of the research involves a sixth study, which examines a set of hypotheses that begin to establish PA's nomological net. The results shed light on the psychology by which consumers extract value from experience and into ways marketing efforts can build effective place–value propositions. |
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Keywords: | authenticity consumer behavior experiential consumption psychometrics tourism |
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