Deriving Value from Customer Based Meal Experiences—Introducing a Postmodern Perspective on the Value Emergence from the Experience of the Commercial Meal

ABSTRACT

This exploratory article examines the role of the meal experience in the context of the postmodern conditions of marketing as well as customer value emergence and suggests a novel perspective on the commercial meal experience as being customer based. It focuses on how value is idiosyncratically formed, for the customer, based on what the customer experiences. The article draws attention to the need of changing perspectives from the producer to the customer to gain understanding on how value emerges for the customer within the commercial meal experience. It also presents the need for a dynamic understanding of the meal experience and argues that the current paradigm of understanding the meal is lacking due to it being an a priori construct.

KEYWORDS:

• Culinary education
• food and culture
• meal experience
• value

Funding

The authors thank Besöksnäringens Forsknings och Utvecklingsfond (BFUF)/ The R&D Fund of the Swedish Tourism & Hospitality Industry for funding.

Additional information

Funding

The authors thank Besöksnäringens Forsknings och Utvecklingsfond (BFUF)/ The R&D Fund of the Swedish Tourism & Hospitality Industry for funding.