Escapist environments, restorative experiences, and consumer self-regulation

The study of atmospherics recognizes shoppers engage in consumption for more than its utilitarian function. The concept of the recreational shopper recognizes the value-producing process of the consumption experience. This research furthers the understanding of consumption by delving into the value-enhancing process of escaping during the experience, as well as measuring the mediating effects of fascination and authenticity. In this study, a test of an individual\u27s self-regulating behavior and the moderating effects on the consumption experience help determine if predetermination affects an escape experience. Pictured scenes of restaurants were pretested for their ability to produce fascination and represent and authentic experience. Selecting two scenes rated on the high and low end of the scale of authenticity and fascination, Photoshop is used to change the atmospherics that signal a high and low fascinating experience. From these two pictures, four pictures are created representing the four possible manipulations of authenticity and fascination. The final analysis indicated that the level of escape in a built environment is positively related to positive affect. When consumers are able to engage in a dining experience that takes them away from their normal lives, they exhibit excitement, happiness, and relaxation. Escape also is a partial mediating factor in fascination, defined as involuntary attention that is effortless. Research in fascination is in natural settings; however, this study confirms its relationship in a built environment. Fascination reduces fatigue and leads to a restoration of cognitive effectiveness. This study finds that escape partially explains the fascination experience. When provided an escape setting, the consumer is more likely to relax and more open to enjoy the restorative qualities of a fascinating experience. Interestingly, in this study authenticity is not found to have a significant effect in the escape experience. Indexicality is an important quality in authentic experiences, and once the consumer accepts items and places as authentic, they will become more personally involved with items and places. This research, however, found indexicality is not necessarily required, and is not important in an escape experience. This means escape can be found in environments that are truly unique and untied to the indexicality of the authentic. Self-regulating behavior is found not be a significant contributor the escape experience. Action-oriented individuals are rated high in the active disposition of their actions and avoid difficulties in the completion of a task. This research finds that action-oriented individuals are no differently affected in the escape experience than are state-oriented individuals, who are more willing to go with the flow, have difficulty in completing tasks, and are generally more likely to fail due to an inability to filter out obstructions. This supports the supposition that the escape from the mundane is a sought after quality desired by both action-oriented and state-oriented individuals. This study supports the desirable characteristics of an escape experience and its relationship to fascination. Escape is related to positive feelings, which lead to the desire to stay, engage in social behavior, and ultimately add to the value of the consumption experience

Greening an Integrated Marketing Communication\u27s Course: An Assessment of Sustainability Literacy

This article showcases efforts of incorporating Sustainability Issues in an Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) class during three semesters during the academic years of 2013/2014 and 2014/2015. The course was re-designed using Fink’s (2013) course recommendations of designing significant learning goals. In addition to the way the course was delivered (both face-to-face and online), the instructor worked with a Higher Ed publisher to customize a textbook to include sustainability issues related to the course content (i.e., reflecting IMC topics). The course re-design included sustainability assignments such as Virtual Field Trips (visiting corporate websites and other organizations to study their CSR statements and sustainability efforts). Sustainability related articles were pre-requisites for all assignments. In addition, the students had to watch several movies, including “So Right So Smart,” “Story of Stuff,” and other voluntary (not controlled for) movies dealing with social justice, natural capital or the dark side of “business as usual” provided through the university’s sustainability film series

Entrepreneurship Marketing in North Carolina’s Wine Industry

Entrepreneurial marketing seeks to create, communicate and deliver value to customers and manage customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization. This paper explores whether increased entrepreneurial marketing practices at North Carolina wineries can lead to enhanced winery performance. A web survey was delivered to N.C. wineries by email. The results suggest that winery customer intensity and innovation was positively related to winery satisfaction of winery performance. Also, innovation and value creation were found to be positively related to percentage sales change at wineries

INTEGRATING AND ASSESSING STUDENT PERCEIVED SUSTAINABILITY LITERACY IN AN INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS COURSE

This paper examines whether marketing educators’ efforts in integrating sustainability-related issues in an undergraduate Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) course affect students’ perceived sustainability literacy. Using the Taxonomy of Significant Learning, a traditional IMC course was redesigned to include sustainability-focused concepts and assignments related to and integrated with the traditional course concepts. Analyzing student pre- and posttests of self-reported data from two questionnaires, one at the beginning of the semester and one at the end of the semester, impact on students’ perceived awareness and knowledge of sustainability issues was demonstrated

Health-related factors associated with participation in creative hobbies by Australian women aged in their eighties

Background: Population-based epidemiological studies can contribute to the spectrum of research evidence regarding the potential role of the arts in improving health and well-being among older people. To date, these studies are uncommon. The aim of the current study was to investigate health-related factors associated with participation in creative hobbies in women aged in their eighties living in Australia. Methods: Descriptive and regression analyses were performed on data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health 2008 postal survey of women born 1921-1926 (n=5470). Results: Creative hobbies were undertaken by 52.7% of the sample and positively associated with physical health (IADL), health-related quality of life (general health, social functioning) and other social and demographic indicators. Conclusion: The relationship between participation in creative hobbies and health in older women is likely to be complex and influenced by many factors including individual physical capacity and independence as well as access to art-making activities