Wu Yan
Department of Food and Beverage Management Far East University, Taiwan R.O.C
Abstract
From the perspective of leisure education, leisure is the process of human resource develop-ment in which individual creativity, thinking, and interpersonal relationship could be pro-moted through leisure activities and social interaction. Technology in Taiwan is progressing, knowledge is emerging, and the society is approaching soundness that the public acquire more free time after the promotion of labor acts and the implementation of two-day weekend.
With the increasing leisure time, participating in leisure activities has become one of the im-portant activities in living. Aiming at the relations among Participation Intention, Consumer Participation Motivation, and Experiential Satisfaction, this study concludes the following findings. 1. Participation Intention shows significantly positive effects on Experiential Satis-faction. 2. Consumer Participation Motivation appears partially positive effects on Participa-tion IntenParticipa-tion. 3. Consumer ParticipaParticipa-tion MotivaParticipa-tion reveals partially positive effects on Ex-periential Satisfaction. 4. Consumer Participation Motivation presents notable moderating effects on the relations between Participation Intention and Experiential Satisfaction. At the end, this study expects to provide suggests for comprehensively improving and promoting the quality of leisure activities.
Key words: Participation Intention, Consumer Participation Motivation, Experiential Satis-faction
Introduction
With globally economic development and the enhancement of living quality, the increase of national income, the imple-mentation of two-day weekend, and the decrease of basic working hours, the con-cept of leisure activities has become popu-lar for the public, the population for out-door leisure activities is increasing, and modern people pursue high-quality leisure life, particularly in daily leisure activities, for better health. Leisure activities there-fore have become the major participation of the public; occasional leisure behaviors have turned to routine behaviors; and, the demands for leisure space have been in-creased. With stable job, sufficient income, more time, or settled family, people are likely to look for leisure activities to have the living be more meaningful and the mental perception more valuable. Espe-cially, they would be more energetic and active at work, after returning to the work, and contribute more to the nation.
For this reason, the government has largely invested in the promotion of cul-ture, the practice of contents in cultural organizations, and the maintenance of cul-tural assets so as to enhance the standard of art appreciation and creation, such as Wei Wu Ying Center for the Arts, New Cinema of Great Taipei, Pop Music Cen-ter, Southern Branch of National Palace Museum, Taichung Metropolitan Opera house, and Development of Southern Art Performance. In comparison with Taipei
and Tainan, Kaohsiung City, with less his-torical relics, appears less cultural space and cultural art activities. To get rid of such a name of culture desert, Kaohsiung City Government has actively held “inter-national” art activities, inviting artists from various countries to join in, such as Kaoh-siung International Container Arts Festival, Kaohsiung International Steel & Iron Sculpture Festival, and Kaohsiung Interna-tional Beer Festival. Moreover, Bureau of Cultural Affairs Kaohsiung City Govern-ment has positively promoted art activities, expanding indoor art performance out-doors, including A Cappella on Grass Mu-sic Concert and Rainbow Bay Festival.
Accordingly, this study tends to discuss the Participation Motivation, Experiential Sat-isfaction, and Participation Intention of visitors towards Rainbow Bay Festival when participating in art leisure activities.
Literature Review
Consumer Participation Motivation
The Leisure Participation Motivation Scale, developed by Beard and Ragheb in 1983, has been the reference for a lot of research on sports or leisure, covering the dimensions of 1.Intellectual Need, 2.Social Need, 3.Competence-Mastery, and 4.
Stimulus Avoidance. 1. Intellectual Need in leisure motivation aims to evaluate in-dividual motivation for leisure activities, including mental activities of learning, exploration, discovery, crating, or imagi-nation. 2. Competence-Mastery refers to
individual need for achievement, mastery, challenge, and competition that such ac-tivities are instinctive. 3. Social Need re-lates to individual social need of friendship and interpersonal relationship and respect from others. 4. Stimulus Avoidance con-siders an individual avoiding pressure, as people tend to escape and get away from abundant stimuli in the environment, keep away from social contact, and pursue be-ing alone and quiet for rest and relax. Aim-ing at the members of health & fitness clubs, Chen (2009) divided Participation Motivation into 1.Intellectual Pursuit, 2.Health and Fitness, 3.Social Need, 4.Achievement Need, and 5.Stimulus Avoidance. Fan (2010) classified Partici-pation Motivation into 1.Intellectual Pur-suit, 2.Social Need, 3.Achievement Need, and 4.Health Need. According to the im-portance, Huang (2010) divided Participa-tion MotivaParticipa-tion into 1.Health Need, 2.Achievement Need, 3.Social Need, and 4.Intellectual Pursuit.
Participation Intention
Huang (2011) regarded Participation Intention as the possibility and the inten-tion of individual participating in leisure activities. Liao (2008) measured the inten-tion of leisure farm long-stay with the di-mensions of considering leisure farm long-stay, intending to long-stay in leisure farms, and intention of recommending friends and relates. Cheng (2010) meas-ured tourists’ revisit intention with the dimensions of intending to revisit and the
intention of recommending others. Hsu (2009) studied the willingness to revisit of the Shin-Shen area with the dimensions of intending to revisit, intending to recom-mend friends and relatives, and the spot being the prior consideration. Lee (2011) measured tourists’ revisit intention of high mountain recreational areas with the di-mensions of Revisit Intention and Rec-ommendation Intention. The former re-ferred to the intention of revisiting the recreational area or visiting other areas;
and, the latter considered the intention of recommending friends for the place. In conclusion, recommendation, intention of visit, and preference for visit are the com-monness for measuring Participation In-tention. Word-of-Mouth Recommendation, Follow-up Participation, and Preference therefore are regarded as the research di-mensions in this study.
Experiential Satisfaction
Pine & Gilmore (2003) regarded ex-periences as the favorable feeling when a person achieving a standard emotionally, physically, intellectually, and even spiritu-ally; different people could not receive identical experiences as they were the in-teractive results between a person’s mind and the event. Lin (2009) pointed out an experience as physiological and psycho-logical reactions in emotional and per-ceived processes after an individual being stimulated externally; it could be divided into internal and external. Experiences are not simply the rational or perceptual
ap-peal, but an overall perception, with which consumers could accurately receive the message delivered from the products, even if they have not contacted with such a product. Schmitt (1999) defined experi-ences as individual reaction to certain stimuli. Holbrook (2000) classified con-sumer experiences into fantasies, feeling, and fun, being the sources of consumer experiences. Abbott (1995) considered products as the service performance in consuming experiences that people did not actually desire the product, but a satisfac-tory experience. During festivals, festival experiences were regarded as individual psychological experiences when the per-ceived natural and humanistic environ-ments being interpreted through perception transform and recombination; i.e., having tourists be satisfied to some extent (Lin, 2011). Besides, individual perception, sen-sation, mind, and behaviors would con-tinuously interact with the environments for various perception and experiences (Kao, 2010).
Research on Participation Motivation, Satisfaction and Participation Intention
Chen (2009) studied the learners’ par-ents in swimming training classes and found significantly positive effects of Par-ticipation Motivation on Experiential Sat-isfaction and Continuing Willingness. Lu (2009) discovered the remarkably positive correlations among Participation Motiva-tion, Experiential SatisfacMotiva-tion, and Partici-pation Intention among tourists in Jiji
ar-eas. Chen (2010) mentioned the positive correlations between Participation Motiva-tion and SatisfacMotiva-tion, ParticipaMotiva-tion Inten-tion among the members in a health and fitness club. Lu (2007) also discovered the positive effects of Participation Motivation and Revisit Intention on Experiential Satis-faction among Taiwanese tourists in a Swiss package tour.
Accordingly, the following hypotheses are proposed in this study.
H1: Participation Intention pre-sents notably positive effects on Experiential Satisfaction.
H2: Participation Intention shows significantly positive effects on Consumer Participation Moti-vation
H3: Consumer Participation Moti-vation reveals remarkably positive effects on Experiential Satisfaction.
H4: Consumer Participation Moti-vation appears moderation ef-fects on Participation Intention and Experiential Satisfaction.
Research Method Research Framework
With literature review, Consumer Par-ticipation Motivation, Experiential Satis-faction, and Participation Intention are considered correlated, as shown in the research framework.
Sampling and Sample Analyses
H2
H1
H3 H4
Consumer Participation Motiva-tion
1.Intellectual Need 2.Competence-Mastery 3.Social Need
4.Stimulus Avoidance Participation Intention
1.Word-of-Mouth Recom-mendation
2.Follow-up Participation 3.Preference
Experiential Satisfaction Questionnaires were distributed and
collected with random sampling. For the first time, Bureau of Cultural Affairs Kaohsiung City Government held Rain-bow Bay Festival in 2011, attracting more than 37 thousand people and successfully receiving good word-of -mouth, that it has become one of the representative music festivals in Asia. Based on the seven col-ors of a rainbow, Rainbow Bay Festival was held simultaneously in seven areas, containing rock singers and bands, creative arts, lectures of music industry, and so forth. A participant could visit any one of
the areas with one ticket. The areas cov-ered about three Taipei Arenas for all ac-tivities that it became the first international festival combining with pop music, local specialties, and new fashion culture in Taiwan. Kaohsiung City Rainbow Bay Festival therefore was selected as the re-search subject, and 500 visitors were dis-tributed questionnaires. Having deducted invalid or incomplete copies, 372 valid copies were retrieved, with the retrieval rate 74%. Each valid copy was considered as a valid sample.
Research Outcomes and Analyses Reliability and Validity Analysis Consumer Participation Motivation Scale
The questions for Consumer Participation Motivation were based on Beard and
Ragheb’s (1983) definition and dimensions.
With Factor Analysis, four factors, namely Intellectual Need (eigenvalue=2.799,
α=0.80), Competence-Mastery value=2.162, α=0.83), Social Need (eigen-value=1.433, α=0.86), and Stimulus Avoid-ance (eigenvalue=1.127, α=0.90), were tracted; and, the cumulative variance ex-plained reached 81.572%.
1. Experiential Satisfaction Scale The design of Experiential Satisfaction was referred to Pine & Gilmore’s (2003) single dimension.
2. Participation Intention Scale
The questionnaire for Participation Intention was revised from different research. With Factor Analysis, three factors, including Word-of-Mouth Recommendation (eigen-value=2.736, α=0.84), Follow-up Participa-tion (eigenvalue=2.138, α=0.81), and Prefer-ence (eigenvalue=1.922, α=0.82), were ex-tracted; and, the cumulative variance achieved 82.053%.
Regression Relations Among Variables
1. Multiple Regression Analysis of Participa-tion IntenParticipa-tion and Experiential SatisfacParticipa-tion In regard to Multiple Regression Analysis of Participation Intention and Experiential Satis-faction, Word-of-Mouth Recommendation, Follow-up Participation, and Preference in Participation Intention were regarded as inde-pendent variables, while Experiential Satis-faction was the dependent variable, Table 3.
Table 3: Multiple Regression Analysis of Participation Intention and Experiential Satisfaction
Independent variable Experiential Satisfaction (Dependent variable) Participation Intention
Word-of-Mouth Recommendation 0.223**
Follow-up Participation 0.167*
Preference 0.174*
F 16.284
Significance 0.000***
R2 0.266
Adjusted R2 0.242
*p＜0.05 **p＜0.01 ***p＜0.001
Data source: Self-sorted in this study
The regression equation achieved the signifi-cance (F=16.284, p＜0.001), presenting the significantly positive effects of Participation Intention on Experiential Satisfaction, where Word-of-Mouth Recommendation, Follow-up Participation, and Preference showed notably positive effects on Experiential Satisfaction (β＝0.223, p＜0.01; β＝0.167, p＜0.05;
β＝0.174, p＜0.05).
H1 therefore was agreed.
3. Multiple Regression Analysis of Con-sumer Participation Motivation and Par-ticipation Intention
Regarding Multiple Regression Analysis of Participation Intention and Consumer Par-ticipation Motivation, Intellectual Need, Competence-Mastery, Social Need, and Stimulus Avoidance in Consumer Participa-tion MotivaParticipa-tion were regarded as independent variables, while Word-of-Mouth
Recommen-dation, Follow-up Participation, and Prefer-ence in Participation Intention were the de-pendent variables, Table 2.
The regression equation reached the signifi-cance (F=7.512, p＜0.001), showing the re-markably positive effects of Consumer Par-ticipation Motivation on Word-of-Mouth Recommendation and of Intellectual Need, Competence-Mastery, Social Need, and Stimulus Avoidance on Word-of-Mouth Rec-ommendation (β＝0.188, p＜0.05; β＝0.173,
p＜0.05; β＝0.165, p＜0.05; β＝0.197, p＜0.05).
The regression equation achieved the sig-nificance (F=13.466, p＜0.001), revealing the significantly positive effects of Consumer Participation Motivation on Follow-up Par-ticipation Follow-up ParPar-ticipation and of In-tellectual Need and Stimulus Avoidance on Follow-up Participation (β＝0.159, p＜0.05;
β＝0.169, p＜0.05).
Table 2: Multiple Regression Analysis of Consumer Participation Motivation and Participation Intention
Participation Intention (Dependent variable) Independent variable
Word-of-Mouth Recom-mendation
Follow-up
Partici-pation Preference Consumer Participation
Moti-vation
Intellectual Need 0.188* 0.159* 0.177*
Competence-Mastery 0.173* 0.137 0.192*
Social Need 0.165* 0.141 0.182*
Stimulus Avoidance 0.197* 0.169* 0.122
F 7.512 13.466 22.347
Significance 0.000*** 0.000*** 0.001***
R2 0.205 0.238 0.317
Adjusted R2 0.184 0.215 0.292
*p＜0.05 **p＜0.01 ***p＜0.001 Data source: Self-sorted in this study
The regression equation reached the sig-nificance (F=22.347, p＜0.001), presenting the notably positive effects of Consumer Par-ticipation Motivation on Preference and of Intellectual Need, Competence-Mastery, and Social Need on Preference (β＝0.177, p＜0.05; β＝0.192, p＜0.05; β＝0.182, p＜0.05).
H2 therefore was partially agreed.
4. Multiple Regression Analysis of Con-sumer Participation Motivation and Expe-riential Satisfaction
In regard to Multiple Regression Analysis of Consumer Participation Motivation and Experiential Satisfaction, Intellectual Need, Competence-Mastery, Social Need, and Stimulus Avoidance in Consumer
Participation Motivation were considered as independent variables, while Experiential Satisfaction was the dependent variable, Ta-ble 1.
The regression equation achieved the sig-nificance (F=12.036, p＜0.001), showing the remarkable correlations between Consumer Participation Motivation and Experiential
Satisfaction, where Intellectual Need, Social Need, and Stimulus Avoidance appeared sig-nificantly positive effects on Experiential Satisfaction, reaching the significance (β＝0.213, p＜0.01; β＝0.164, p＜0.05;
β＝0.207, p＜0.01).
H3 therefore was partially agreed.
Table 1: Multiple Regression Analysis of Consumer Participation Motivation and Experiential Satisfaction
Independent variable Experiential Satisfaction (Dependent variable) Consumer Participation Motivation
Intellectual Need 0.213**
Competence-Mastery 0.106
Social Need 0.164*
Stimulus Avoidance 0.207**
F 12.036
Significance 0.000***
R2 0.176
Adjusted R2 0.151
*p＜0.05 **p＜0.01 ***p＜0.001
Data source: Self-sorted in this study
Effects of the interactions between Participa-tion IntenParticipa-tion and Consumer
Participation Motivation on
Experiential Satisfaction Moderating effects of Consumer Participation Motivation and Participation Intention on Experiential Satis-faction.
With the interaction between Intellectual Need, Competence-Mastery, Social Need, Stimulus Avoidance in Consumer Participa-tion MotivaParticipa-tion and Word-of-Mouth Recom-mendation, Follow-up Participation, Prefer-ence in Participation Intention, the effects on
Experiential Satisfaction are shown in Table 4.
According to the above Regression Analysis of interaction, the dimensions in Participation Intention could explain 26.6%
Table 4: Hierarchical Regression Analysis of Consumer Participation Motivation and Participation Intention towards Experiential Satisfaction
Experiential Satisfaction (Dependent variable)
Hierarchical variable Hierarchy I Hierarchy II Hierarchy III Participation Intention
Word-of-Mouth Recommendation 0.223** 0.202** 0.231**
Follow-up Participation
0.167* 0.184* 0.192*
Preference 0.174* 0.196* 0.213**
Consumer Participation Motivation
Intellectual Need 0.124 0.155*
Competence-Mastery 0.157* 0.178*
Social Need 0.162* 0.181*
Stimulus Avoidance Interaction
Intellectual Need×Word-of-Mouth Recommendation 0.073
Competence-Mastery×Word-of-Mouth Recommendation 0.094
Social Need×Word-of-Mouth Recommendation
0.088
Stimulus Avoidance×Word-of-Mouth Recommendation 0.181*
Intellectual Need×Follow-up Participation 0.066
Competence-Mastery×Follow-up Participation -0.075
Social Need×Follow-up Participation 0.043
Stimulus Avoidance×Follow-up Participation 0.048
Intellectual Need×Preference 0.169*
Competence-Mastery×Preference 0.050
Social Need×Preference 0.170*
Stimulus Avoidance×Preference -0.042
F 16.284 22.618 28.442
Significance 0.000*** 0.000*** 0.000***
R2 0.266 0.303 0.332
△R2 0.266 0.037 0.029
of the variance of Experiential Satisfac-tion, before inputting the independent variables of Consumer Participation Moti-vation. The overall test of Multiple Linear Regression F appeared 16.284 (p＜0.001), achieving the significance, that Participa-tion IntenParticipa-tion showed remarkably positive effects on Experiential Satisfaction. The standardized regression coefficient β of Word-of-Mouth Recommendation, Fol-low-up Participation, and Preference pre-sented 0.223 (p＜0.01), 0.167 (p＜0.05), and 0.174 (p＜0.05), reaching the signifi-cance and being positive, that the inde-pendent variables revealed notably posi-tive effects on Experiential Satisfaction.
After inputting the independent variables of Consumer Participation Motivation to the regression model, the overall variance explained increased 3.7%, F=22.618 (p＜0.001), achieving the significance.
Overall speaking, both Participation Inten-tion and Consumer ParticipaInten-tion Motiva-tion presented remarkably positive effects on Experiential Satisfaction, with the in-creasing variance explained 30.3%. It was worth noting that Word-of-Mouth Rec-ommendation, Follow-up Participation, and Preference revealed significantly posi-tive effects on Experiential Satisfaction before inputting Consumer Participation Motivation, but the significance increased after the input. In this case, the effects of Participation Intention on Experiential Satisfaction would increase with the mod-erating effects of Consumer Participation Motivation. After inputting the interaction between Participation Intention and Con-sumer Participation Motivation, the overall variance explained was enhanced, and F=28.442 (p＜0.001) reached the signifi-cance, presenting the remarkably positive effects on Experiential Satisfaction. The interaction between Stimulus Avoidance and Word-of-Mouth Recommendation, between Intellectual Need and Preference, and between Social Need and Preference appeared notably positive effects on
＝ Experiential Satisfaction (β 0.181, p＜0.05; β＝0.169, p 0.05; β 0.170, ＜ ＝ p＜0.05).
H4 was agreed.
Conclusion
The research findings show the remarkably positive effects of Participa-tion IntenParticipa-tion on Experiential SatisfacParticipa-tion that the following practical suggestions are proposed.
1. Improve the environment for enhancing the identity of visitors. The research out-comes present the significant effects of Participation Intention on Experiential Satisfaction that garbage cans are sug-gested to place around the areas of Kaoh-siung City Rainbow Bay Festival, as they are convenient for visitors and could main-tain the clean environment, reducing gar-bage on the ground to promote the identity towards Rainbow Bay Festival. Further-more, mobile toilets could be offered for Rainbow Bay Festival, as visitors would stay in musical festivals for a period of time. The establishment of toilets would provide visitors with physiological need and prolong the stay in the musical festi-val. As a result, Experiential Satisfaction with the musical festival is promoted and Word-of-Mouth Recommendation is en-hanced.
2. Improve the attitude of the service per-sonnel in the musical festival. People are likely to appear bad attitude because of the crowd and time. Visitors generally attend such musical festivals with relaxing atti-tude and request for good service quality.
In this case, the attitude of service person-nel would affect the mood of visitors, the evaluation of the musical festival, and even the intention of Follow-up Participa-tion. Consequently, it is suggested that service personnel should always remain friendly and pleasant attitude towards each visitor, even when they are busy, to
pre-vent visitors from being unpleasant and reducing the revisit intention.
3. Promote new products. Although a lot of visitors intend to kill time in musical festivals, they would not be attracted with unchanged musical festivals. It is therefore suggested to change the performance with special or interesting programs, or to pro-vide music performance different from the past styles so that visitors could experience exotic music. Having musical festivals to expand the leisure activities in daily life and enhance the knowledge, visitors would consider Kaohsiung City Rainbow Bay Festival as the preference for daily leisure activities.
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