The effects of festival impacts on support intentions based on residents’ ratings of festival performance and satisfaction: a new integrative approach

Abstract

Festivals can provide an effective vehicle for sustainable tourism. It is therefore necessary to examine the impacts of festival tourism as well as their consequences in order to manage their relevance to the local community. The lack of a multiple mediation approach, however, has hampered research on the psycho-social process through which festival impacts (perceived benefits, costs, and affective impact) influence resident support. We propose a new integrative approach in which resident-rated festival performance and satisfaction are putative mediators that transmit the effects of the three festival impacts to support for future festivals. The theoretical foundations of this integrative approach or model are jointly built on social exchange theory, the affective theory of social exchange, and the theory of reasoned action. The integrative model was successfully validated using eight sample festivals within China, which included 353 observations with 10,000 bootstraps. The empirical findings reveal that 14 out of the 17 hypotheses received empirical support in this study, and it thereby contributes significantly to new understanding in the literature.

基于居民对节庆旅游的绩效和满意感评价视角探究节庆旅游影响感知与居民支持行为意向的关系：一个新整合模型

发展节庆旅游是实现可持续旅游的有效措施之一。因此非常有必要研究节庆旅游影响感知本身及其产生的结果之间的关系，以及这类研究发现对社区旅游管理的启示。然而，多元中介效应研究成果的缺失，阻碍了人们对节庆旅游现象及其复杂心理与社会发展过程的认识。该过程涉及社区居民对节庆旅游影响（含收益和成本在内的认知影响、以及情感影响）感知通过多元中介变量对其支持节庆旅游行为意向产生影响。鉴于此，本研究提出一个新的多元中介模型，即假定居民对节庆旅游的影响感知对其支持发展节庆旅游行为意向产生显著性影响，并且该影响是通过居民对节庆旅游绩效评价和满意感这两个相互关联的中介变量去传递的。该研究模型的理论基石是构筑在社会交换理论（SET）、社会交换情感理论（ATSE） 和行为合理化理论（TRA）基础之上的。成功验证该理论模型的研究样本来源于中国大陆的八个不同节庆地的353位居民。数据分析是基于这353个母样本随机产生的10,000个靴值样本。结果显示本研究提出的17个研究假设中有14个都得到了实证数据的成功支持，因而本研究对文献做出了实质性的新贡献。

Keywords:

• festival support
• festival impacts
• affective theory
• festival satisfaction
• sustainable tourism

• 节庆支持
• 节庆影响
• 情感理论
• 节庆满意度
• 可持续旅游

Additional information

Funding

This work was jointly supported by The National Natural Science Fund of PR China [grant number 71262032] and Hainan University, PR China [grant number kyqd:1230].

Notes on contributors

Zibin Song

Dr Zibin Song is an associate professor at the Tourism School of Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan, PR China. His research interests include the behavior of tourists, community residents, and organizational employees. Thus far, he has published research papers in Annals of Tourism Research, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, among others.

Lijuan Xing

Lijuan Xing is a master's degree candidate at Tourism Management Department, School of Economics and Commerce, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, PR China.

Prakash K. Chathoth

Dr Prakash K. Chathoth is an associate professor in the Department of Marketing and Information Systems, School of Business Administration, American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. He has research interests in strategic and service management in the context of the hospitality and tourism industry. His research papers have appeared in Annals of Tourism Research, Tourism Management, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, among others.