Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to undertake theory development and testing particular to re-purchase intention in an experiential service context, specifically the cultural performing arts. Services researchers suggest implementing a multi-disciplinary approach to research that uses theories and methods from several of the management fields will advance the domain of services research. This thesis aims to contribute to the field of service research by drawing from methods and theories offered in both service operations and services marketing fields. To date, service research has been preoccupied primarily with consumer behaviour aspects of services marketing such as satisfaction but underestimates the importance of constructs such as re-purchase intention and the subsequent implications for strategy formulation and implementation. Further to this, the current approach to services research has overlooked the nexus between marketing and operations and the importance of the implementation of strategy to achieve objectives. It is argued that failing to integrate service operations both practically and theoretically into the re-purchase intentions research framework confines its potential effectiveness. In addition, the lack of specific service context application has been identified as a significant oversight in previous services research. Construct measurements and findings have been difficult to replicate across contexts and contextual examination of constructs and relationships has been suggested as a solution. One such context deserving of attention is that of the experiential services, specifically the performing arts. Therefore, using measures and theories developed specifically for this context, this thesis will offer a more comprehensive approach to re-purchase intention research in a performing arts setting. This thesis adopts a mixed method approach by implementing a series of three integrated studies, which amalgamates both operations and marketing fields. This thesis aims to identify the aspects of a performing arts encounter that are relevant to the customer by conducting a two-staged set of qualitative interviews. This process is based on the operations technique Service Transaction Analysis (STA). First, consultant consumers and organisational personnel were used to formulate a consensus definition of a typical performing arts experience and, second, 26 in-depth interviews were conducted with potential future consumers of the performing arts based on this description of the offering. These two studies, coupled with extant literature, informed the research instrument designed for the main survey. This instrument was conducted on 273 potential future consumers of the performing arts. Qualitative work undertaken in Study 1 identifies the service experience description. Study 2 highlights the service management and marketing issues relating to re-purchase intention especially focusing on value, customer satisfaction, show experience and service quality and discloses a set of specific issues incorporated into the wording of the survey instrument. Study 3 measures and tests the key constructs of service quality, show experience, value, satisfaction and the significance of the hypothesised pathways to re-purchase intention. The proposed model is then analysed using the AMOS 5.0 Structural Equation Modelling package. This thesis is structured in the journal paper format with each of the chapters representing each of the five journal papers. In addition, an introductory and concluding chapter are appended with the concluding chapter providing an in-depth discussion of the contributions of this thesis. The papers are based on the progressive results of the research program and offer an integrated set of findings and discussions. The papers are not mutually exclusive but interrelated to comprehensively illuminate the central research theme of the thesis and discuss many aspects of marketing and operations significant to re-purchase intention. The entire thesis is drawn from the data set generated from the three integrated studies developed to address the overall research theme. The central research theme is to investigate the nature of re-purchase intention in an experiential setting using marketing and operations theories as platforms of analysis. Interestingly, the tested model of this thesis found empirically that the subjective and experiential aspects of the service, such as the emotional and artistic quality of the show, did not have a significant and direct relationship with re-purchase intention. This finding is of interest, in particular, to scholars of experiential consumption and marketing practitioners offering these types of services. Previous research has supported the desire to fulfil experiential needs as driving the initial purchase. Conversely, this finding suggests that the desire to visit again is driven by utility and value. As customer maintenance and repeat patronage are of utmost importance to practice, this is an exciting development. Offering further support, the tested model found service quality and show experience were mediated by value to satisfaction, with satisfaction inturn mediating the relationship between value and re-purchase intention. Collectively, these findings have lead to several developments and contributions for both scholarship and practice. The contributions to knowledge of this thesis highlight five main theoretical contributions and four main managerial implications. These encompass: · Advancing the service management trinity, specifically strengthening the importance of the relationship between service marketing and service operations. · Advancing service management theory by understanding the service offering more intricately and the importance of service description. · Clarifying the roles of experiential and utilitarian attributes of the service experience in an experiential setting extending knowledge related to re-purchase intention. · Particularizing and measuring the construct of re-purchase intention to the performing arts and clarifying the predictors of this construct in the context of experiential performing arts. . · Testing and clarifying the relationships of value and satisfaction to re-purchase intention extending the understanding of re-purchase intention in this field and elaborating the approach and understanding of this construct for future research. This thesis further contributes to knowledge by offering several managerial contributions. These incorporate: · Market segmentation and targeting strategies as critical for performing arts management. · Operations service design and creation strategies in the performing arts by including important aspects of the service experience as highlighted by customer driven research. · Specific recommendation for streamlining delivery through standardised mass customisation. · Offering value frameworks for creating value in service delivery and targeting customer perceptions of superior value. This extending the understanding of the customer perceived value equation. By contributing to the field of service management and advancing enquiry in the field of services marketing and service operations, this thesis offers a new perspective and practical approach to service marketing context analysis making a valuable contribution to scholarship. This approach is based on improving organisational performance in experiential services specifically by applying operations and marketing theory from a customer-perspective. By doing this, findings inform organisations of ways to better meet the needs and wants of consumers through design, delivery and marketing. Moreover, the findings assist researchers in further advancing the field of services research. This research positions the future research program to focus on continuing the advancement of service management by examining the higher order constructs of service quality and show experience and examining the impact of additional customer motivations such as emotional goal attainment and involvement in experiential settings.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/291205 |
| Creators | Hume, Margee |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Detected Language | English |
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