I och med den ökade oron för miljön och människors allt mer frekventa resande harbegreppet Ekoturism växt fram. Begreppet syftar i stort sett till en "grönare" turism som isin tur gynnar lokala ekonomier och kulturer. En stor del av världens ekoturism återfinnsidag i utvecklingsländer och ett sådant land är Ghana i västra Afrika, där denna studiegenomfördes. Det finns en hel del forskning kring ekoturism ur en antropologisksynvinkel, men inte lika många ur ett företagsekonomiskt perspektiv. Det finns även enmängd studier kring tjänster och värdeskapande men de är oftast av teoretisk grund.Denna studie syftar därför till att empiriskt undersöka hur värde skapas i småskaligaekoturismföretag samt vilka faktorer som är betydelsefulla för värdeskapande. Efter enforskningsgenomgång utvecklades en analysmodell för värdeskapande, där faktorernaservicemötet, upplevelsefälten, upplevelsefälten samt tema lyfts fram. Studiengenomfördes i Ghana genom fallstudie av tre lodger som drivs på ekologisk grund. Detempiriska materialet utgjordes främst av 13 semi-strukturerade intervjuer samt stationäraobservationer. Studiens resultat visade att diskussionen kring ekoturism, somvärdeskapande, inte var något stort fokus hos varken gäster eller företag. Det var iställeten välkomnande och avslappnad atmosfär, i kombination med en trygg miljö som tillstörsta del visade sig generera värde. Resultatet av undersökningen visade även attinteraktionen mellan gäster och personal var betydelsefull i processen för värdeskapande.Det empiriska resultatet stärkte därmed till viss del vår modell och visade att tre av defyra faktorerna var av betydelse för värdeskapande i de studerade verksamheterna.Slutligen ges förslag till implikationer som företagen i studien kan vidta. Dessa ärexempelvis att öka informationen om ekoturism på lodgen och väva in detta mer iverksamheten. Studien visar trots allt att kunder tycker att omtanke om miljö och detlokala samhället är positivt. Företagen kan därför troligtvis öka sitt värdeskapande genomett sådant agerande. / Program: Civilekonomprogrammet

The concept of experiences may not be all that revolutionary or new, however, the notion of an economy where experiences make up the core of all businesses is. This suggestion was made by Pine and Gilmore in 1999 in their bestseller “The Experience Economy”, and since then, the concept has received a lot of positive attention. Critics of the authors’ proposal still remain few in number, and there is a lack of research re-garding experiences and consumers. As the authors of this thesis we posed ourselves positive to the Experience Economy in general, but also a bit hesitant to the idea of companies offering experiences in all consumer contexts. Due to the lack of research regarding the demand side, we set out to explore the phenomenon of the Experience Economy from the perception of consumers. By doing so we hoped to find whether or not a foundation for Pine and Gilmore’s (1999) idea exists. In order to explore consumers’ perceptions of the Experience Economy, we focused on what is at the core of the concept – experiences. A qualitative research approach was decided upon, and three focus group interviews were conducted. The focus groups were made up of young consumers, parents of small children, and middle aged consumers. The empirical findings indicate that a foundation for the claim that the Experience Economy is emerging does exist, at least to the extent that no substantial barriers have been identified. However, we believe that the notion of an experience-based economy is only to be discussed if the concept is somewhat widened in its claims. That is, our summation of the consumers’ perceptions of the Experience Economy suggests that experiences need to be viewed as existing along a spectrum, ranging from a negative to a positive extreme. Rather than just being at the positive extreme, as indicated by scholars, we believe that staged experiences in the Experience Econ-omy will range from the spectrum’s neutral centre to only on rare occasions touch upon the extraordinaire.

<p>The concept of experiences may not be all that revolutionary or new, however, the notion of an economy where experiences make up the core of all businesses is. This suggestion was made by Pine and Gilmore in 1999 in their bestseller “The Experience Economy”, and since then, the concept has received a lot of positive attention. Critics of the authors’ proposal still remain few in number, and there is a lack of research re-garding experiences and consumers.</p><p>As the authors of this thesis we posed ourselves positive to the Experience Economy in general, but also a bit hesitant to the idea of companies offering experiences in all consumer contexts. Due to the lack of research regarding the demand side, we set out to explore the phenomenon of the Experience Economy from the perception of consumers. By doing so we hoped to find whether or not a foundation for Pine and Gilmore’s (1999) idea exists.</p><p>In order to explore consumers’ perceptions of the Experience Economy, we focused on what is at the core of the concept – experiences. A qualitative research approach was decided upon, and three focus group interviews were conducted. The focus groups were made up of young consumers, parents of small children, and middle aged consumers.</p><p>The empirical findings indicate that a foundation for the claim that the Experience Economy is emerging does exist, at least to the extent that no substantial barriers have been identified. However, we believe that the notion of an experience-based economy is only to be discussed if the concept is somewhat widened in its claims. That is, our summation of the consumers’ perceptions of the Experience Economy suggests that experiences need to be viewed as existing along a spectrum, ranging from a negative to a positive extreme. Rather than just being at the positive extreme, as indicated by scholars, we believe that staged experiences in the Experience Econ-omy will range from the spectrum’s neutral centre to only on rare occasions touch upon the extraordinaire.</p>

Syfte: Studiens syfte är att skapa större förståelse för hur olika ledarskapsbeteenden kan bidra till motivationsskapande hos medarbetare inom upplevelseekonomin, med fokus på målvägsteorin.  Metod: I studien har en kvalitativ metod använts, där åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer och åtta enkätundersökningar har genomförts. Undersökningen valde vi att genomföra inom upplevelseekonomin, där vi specifikt valde att intervjua ledare från Escape Room företag. Escape Room är en verksamhet som säljer upplevelser i form av att deltagarna blir inlåsta i ett rum och tillsammans ska ta sig ut genom att lösa olika problem, gåtor, pussel osv.   Resultat och slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att ledare inom upplevelseekonomin skiftar mellan olika ledarbeteenden, där respondenterna i studien främst uppvisar en kombination av vägledande och prestationsinriktade ledarbeteenden. Genom en analys av respondenternas svar och den insamlade empirin, finner vi dock att en kombination av ett stödjande och ett vägledande ledarbeteende kan uppfattas mer motiverande för medarbetare inom upplevelseekonomin.  Examensarbetets bidrag: Med studien hoppas vi kunna bidra till ledarnas arbete för att skapa motivation hos medarbetarna, framförallt inom upplevelseekonomin. Vi hoppas att studiens olika delar kan ge ledare tips på hur de kan skapa motivation inom den egna verksamheten. Givet målvägsteorin, fann vi inget underlag för att visst ledarbeteende ska motivera medarbetare med vissa egenskaper, däremot fann vi att situationens egenskaper har större betydelse.  Förslag till vidare forskning: Beträffande målvägsteorin, har vi i vårt arbete valt att fokusera på den tidigare framtagna versionen av House (1971, 1996) som innefattar fyra ledarskapsbeteenden för att öka individens motivation. Vid senare versioner som släppts av målvägsteorin finns fler ledarskapsbeteenden inräknade. Intressant i en framtida forskningsstudie vore därför att inkludera resterande ledarskapsbeteenden likväl. / Aim: The purpose of the study is to create a greater understanding of how different leadership behaviors can contribute to motivation creation among employees in the experience economy, with a focus on path-goal theory.  Method: In the study, a qualitative method was used, where eight semi-structured interviews and eight questionnaires were conducted. We chose to conduct the survey in the experience economy, where we specifically chose to interview leaders from Escape Rooms. Escape Room is a business that sells experiences that involve the participants being locked in a room where they have to get out together by solving various problems, riddles, puzzles, etc.  Conclusion: The results of the study show that leaders in the experience economy switch between different leadership behaviors, where the respondents in the study mainly show a combination of directive and achievement-oriented leadership behaviors. Through an analysis of the respondents' answers and the empirical data collected, we find, however, that a combination of supportive and directive leadership behavior can be perceived as more motivating for employees in the experience economy. Contribution of the thesis: With the study, we hope to be able to contribute to the leaders' work to create motivation among employees, especially in the experience economy. We hope that the different parts of the study can give leaders tips on how they can create motivation within their own organisation. Given the path-goal theory, no basis for certain leadership behavior to motivate employees with certain characteristics was found, however, we found that the characteristics of the situation are more important. Suggestions for future research: Regarding the goal-path theory, we have in our work chosen to focus on the previously developed version of House (1971, 1996) which includes four leadership behaviors to increase the individual's motivation. In later versions released by the goal-path theory, more leadership behaviors are included. It would therefore be interesting in a future research study to include the remaining leadership behaviors as well.