Leisure-service quality and hedonic experiences: Singing at a Karaoke House as a Form of Theatre

Abstract

Drawing on theories of dramaturgy and environmental psychology, this research intends to (1) develop a more comprehensive framework exploring the links of the marketing drivers and the consequences of hedonic experiences in the context of the leisure services, i.e. Karaoke Houses, (2) examine the effects of three experiential marketing elements (physical environment, employee service, and core service) on hedonic experience outcomes (emotions and word of mouth (WOM) intentions), and (3) test the mediating role of hedonic values (HVs) between the link of emotions and WOM intentions. With 441 valid questionnaires and using structural equation modelling analysis to test the hypotheses, this research found that (1) WOM referral intentions mainly result from both perceived service quality (SQ) and HV, with the former being more important than the latter. (2) While physical environment, employee service and core service simultaneously influence SQ, core service is the most influential determinant. (3) Experiential emotions are evoked by both physical (ambience and facilities) and social servicescapes (interactions with employees), while SQ mediates the relationship between core service and emotions. (4) Perceived HV fully mediates the effect of emotions on WOM.

Keywords:

• word of mouth
• hedonic value
• emotions
• dramaturgy
• environmental psychology
• leisure-services quality