Experiential liminoid consumption: the case of nightclubbing

ABSTRACT

This study addresses a lack of holistic understanding of experiential consumption by developing and empirically testing a conceptual model that investigates the process of experiential consumption – antecedents, the experience itself, and emotional responses. We explore Victor Turner’s anthropological concept of the liminoid to create an Experiential Liminoid Consumption (ELC) model, examining the relationships between experiential marketing and consumption constructs. The study adopted a quantitative methodology using a survey method and a sample of students. The conceptual model was analysed using partial least squares (PLS). Conclusions, implications, future directions, and limitations are suggested.

KEYWORDS:

• Experiential marketing
• liminal
• liminoid
• PLS
• consumption experience

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Babak Taheri

Babak Taheri is Programme Director for the suite of MSc Marketing Management Programmes in the School of Management and Languages, Heriot-Watt University. His main research interests are in the areas of the application of multivariate methods in management, consumer behaviour, heritage marketing management, and experiential marketing. Prior to joining Heriot-Watt University, he was Lecturer in Durham University and a teaching fellow in Strathclyde Business School. His recent work has appeared in Tourism Management, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Journal of Marketing Management, Consumption, Markets & Culture, and Advances in Consumer Research. He is also Deputy Chair of heritage marketing special interest group in the Academy of Marketing, UK.

Keith Gori

Keith Gori is a PhD Student in the School of Management and Languages at Heriot-Watt University. His PhD thesis explores consumer culture during the Second World War with a particular focus on the negotiation of consumer identity on the home front. More widely he is interested in consumer culture, historical consumption, advertising, and marketing. He teaches on global management and marketing courses in the Department of Business Management.

Kevin O’Gorman

Kevin O’Gorman is Professor of Management and Business History and Head of Business Management in the School of Languages and Management in Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. He trained in Glasgow, Salamanca and Rome as a philosopher, theologian, and historian. His research interests have a dual focus: origins, history, and cultural practices of hospitality; and philosophical, ethical, and cultural underpinnings of contemporary management practices. Using a wide range of methodological approaches he has published over 80 journal articles, books, chapters, and conference papers in business and management.

Gillian Hogg

Gillian Hogg is Pro-Vice Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University. Her research interests are consumer behaviour, in particular consumers’ use of the internet as an information source and use of that information in non-internet situations. With colleagues in Loughborough and Manchester Universities, she was part of the ESRC Cultures of Consumption programme looking at professional services and the internet and her current research extends this research into the area of language.

Thomas Farrington

Thomas Farrington is a Research Associate in the School of Management and Languages at Heriot-Watt University. He gained his doctorate from the School of Literatures, Languages, and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh, where he was Co-Director of the Scottish Universities’ International Summer School. His research examines contemporary issues in business and management, with particular emphasis on marketing and cultural authenticity; management practice and business ethics; consumer identity and tourism; colonial histories and intercultural studies. He has taught at South East European University in Tetovo and at the University of Edinburgh. His work has most recently been published by Cambridge University Press.