Demystifying the Entertainment Value of Shopping Centre Entertainment Events: Insights from the Value Facilitator and the Value Creator

When?

Wednesday 13 June 2012, 15:30 to 16:15

Where?

14MS01

Open to:

Public, Staff, Students

Speaker:

Dr Jason Sit

Abstract

Shopping centre owners or managers commonly employ entertainment events to add ‘entertainment value’ to the shopping experiences of their patrons. Popular examples of shopping centre entertainment events, just to name a few, include school holiday events, fashion events, celebrity appearances, musical events, and market days. Representing a ubiquitous experiential marketing strategy of shopping centres, many studies have devoted attention to the effectiveness of entertainment events in driving retail traffic and sales. Yet, very few studies have attempted to explicate the significance of entertainment events in delivering experiential value such as entertainment value. If an entertainment event is staged to supposedly create ‘entertainment value’, what does it signify? Is entertainment value a uni- or multi-dimensional construct? How does the shopping centre manager define it? How does the shopper define it? Do the definitions from the shopping centre manager and the shopper converge? Drawing on service-dominant logic, both the shopping centre manager and the shopper are instrumental in the value co-creation process, and are known as the value facilitator and the value creator respectively. As a preliminary effort to address some of these vital and yet neglected questions, this study employed a qualitative methodology to specify the meanings or dimensions of entertainment value vis-à-vis shopping centre entertainment events. A qualitative methodology was chosen because it enabled this study to garner rich, in-depth insights from the shopping centre marketing manager and the shopper. The implications of the findings are discussed in relation to retail marketing theory and practice. Limitations of this study are also addressed, followed by future research directions.

Biography

Born and bred in Malaysia, shopping is almost a national culture and sport of my country. Until now I still vividly remember my shopping trips with my grandmother and parents; I remember how excited I was when my grandmother or parents told me that ‘we’re going to the shopping centre’, regardless the nature of the shopping trip. With my unweaning passion in shopping, I have predictably chosen a shopping-related topic for my PhD research. It is about the experiential consumption of entertainment events at shopping centres. My PhD seeks to integrate the disciplines of customer experience, event marketing, and shopping centre loyalty. I attained my PhD in 2011 from the University of Southern Queensland (Toowoomba, Australia); I’m now striving to ‘milk some papers’ from my PhD. Besides shopping, my research interests also include self-concept, fashion branding, and altruistic consumption.