Measuring the dramaturgical quality of the entertainment event experience in shopping centres

The purpose of this study is threefold: i) identify the dramaturgical quality elements relevant for measuring the shopping centre entertainment event experience; ii) examine the interrelationships amongst those dramaturgical quality elements; and iii) determine the effect of those dramaturgical quality elements on shoppers' behaviours. Four dramaturgical quality elements are identified to constitute the entertainment event experience in a shopping centre and are labelled as "setting", "performer", "crowd", and "behavioural response". These four dramaturgical quality elements, albeit distinctive, are positively related. In particular, the "behavioural response" is a function of the "setting", "performer", and "crowd" and each with varied degree of relationship strength. These findings were based on a self-completion survey administered to 280 participants at two varied family-oriented entertainment events. Implications and limitations of this study are also discussed

Redefining ‘entertainment value’: A qualitative inquiry of shopping centre managers’ perspectives

Shopping centres stage entertainment events (e.g. children workshops, mini concerts, and mini festivals) to add ‘entertainment value’ to the retail experience and in turn build customers’ loyalty and approach behaviours (e.g. extended stay and increased spending). Despite the relationship between delivery of entertainment value and retail entertainment events, there are gaps in the extant literature, including: i) existing definitions of entertainment value have been mostly examined in retail contexts outside of entertainment events; ii) prior studies have primarily utilised a unidimensional approach to measuring customer value. Customer value is complex in nature and the extent to which a multidimensional approach would be more relevant for understanding entertainment value within the retail entertainment event context remains unknown; and iii) shoppers have been the primary unit of analysis with other stakeholders’ perspectives (e.g. managers) about entertainment value and its dimensionality rarely being considered. To address these gaps in the extant literature, this study involved in-depth interviews with eight shopping centre marketing managers who were highly experienced with staging entertainment events. The qualitative results contribute to the extant literature in three ways: i) a multidimensional definition is proposed as more insightful and practical for examining the entertainment value within the context of shopping centre entertainment events; ii) the multidimensional definition potentially comprises affective, activity, and aesthetic dimensions (evident in extant literature), as well as, functional, social, and altruistic dimensions (emerging from this research) and iii) altruistic value identified in this study highlights the increasing use of entertainment events for cause-related purposes by retailers, reflecting the ‘selfish altruism’ phenomenon (Fairnington, 2010). Theoretical and managerial implications arising from the qualitative findings are discussed together with opportunities for future research

The Yoga of the Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati: Haṭhayoga on the Cusp of Modernity

The Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati is a Sanskrit text on the practice of Haṭhayoga, probably composed in the eighteenth century in Maharashtra. This article discusses, among other things, the dating, authorship, sectarian affiliation, and unique features of the text, its relationship to other yoga texts, and its significance for the history of modern yoga. The most remarkable feature of this text is its section on āsana (yogic posture), which contains six groups of postures, many of which are unusual or unique among yoga texts. Another unique feature of this section is that the postures appear to be arranged into sequences intended to be practised in order. A manuscript of the text exists in the Mysore Palace; this (possibly along with other texts) was the basis for the illustrated āsana descriptions in Mysore’s famous book, the Śrītattvanidhi. As we discuss, it is highly likely that the Haṭhābhyāsapaddhati was known to the most influential teacher of ‘modern postural yoga,’ T. Krishnamacharya, and therefore has a special significance for certain schools of transnational yoga

Āsanas of the Yogacintāmaṇi: The Largest Premodern Compilation on Postural Practice

Writing in Varanasi in the sixteenth century, when the Mughal empire was at the height of its power, the monk Śivānandasarasvatī composed an extensive Sanskrit compendium on yoga entitled “The Wish-fulfilling Gem of Yoga” (Yogacintāmaṇi). Śivānanda was an initiate of a sannyāsin lineage descending from the great philosopher Śaṅkarācārya (fl. ca. 800). Śivānanda was among the first to combine Pātañjalayoga with Haṭha and Rājayoga. In the seventeenth century, an anonymous redactor used Śivānanda’s work to create a unique compilation of yoga postures (āsana), many of which are not found in other yoga texts. Arguably the largest surviving pre-modern compilation of its kind, it includes six postures that the redactor attributed to Mohan of Mewar, who was a disciple of Dādū and a practitioner of Haṭhayoga and breath prognostication (svarodaya). These postures were part of a collection that was appropriated and repurposed by Sufis, translated into Persian and illustrated for a royal treatise commissioned by Prince Salīm, the future Mughal emperor Jahāngīr (r. 1605–1627 ce). This book presents this unique compilation,transmitted to us in a manuscript written in the redactor’s own handwriting

Premodern Yoga Traditions and Ayurveda

The research for this article was prompted by the question: were Yoga and Āyurveda as intimately connected in premodern times as they to seem today? It attempts to give a preliminary answer by assessing the influence of Āyurveda on a corpus of mediaeval Yoga texts, in terms of shared terminology, theory and praxis. The date of this corpus ranges from the eleventh to the nineteenth century CE, and all of its texts teach physical techniques and an ascetic state of dormant meditative absorption (samādhi), either as auxiliaries within a system of Yoga or as autonomous systems in themselves. The physical techniques became known as Haṭhayoga and the ascetic state of samādhi as Rājayoga, and the texts in which they appear posit the practice (abhyāsa) of Yoga as the chief means to liberation (mokṣa). The article begins with a discussion of the terminology in these texts that is also found in the Bṛhattrayī, that is, the Carakasaṃhitā, the Suśrutasaṃhitā and Vāgbhaṭa’s Aṣṭāṅgahṛdayasaṃhitā. It proceeds to discuss the relevant theory (digestive fire, humoral theory, vital points, herbs) and praxis (āsana, ṣaṭkarma and therapy or cikitsā) of the yoga texts in question in order to assess the possible influence of Āyurveda

The Quest for Liberation-in-Life: A Survey of Early Works on Haṭha- and Rājayoga

The Haṭha- and Rājayoga texts which were composed before the Haṭhapradīpikā (mid-fifteenth century CE) provide a window onto what might be considered the formative phase of these types of yoga. This chapter will present the first survey of this corpus’ content on liberation (moḳsa) and meditative absorption (generally known as samādhi). Although each text contains distinctive features and teachings, this survey reveals the principal meaning of the term rājayoga and several pervasive themes, such as the transformational role of the practice of samādhi and the general acceptance of liberation-in-life (jīvanmukti) as the goal of yoga. After discussing the relationship between Rājayoga and liberation-in-life, an essential conception of which can be traced back to earlier Kaula traditions, the chapter concludes by examining how the author of the Haṭhapradīpikā interpreted this relationship and resolved tension between transcendence and power, which is apparent in many of the earlier works