TO THE DEATH, BABY. AN EXPLORATION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DRIVERS OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN EXTREME SPORTS

The present dissertation sets within the research stream examining emerging forms of consumption, specifically those requiring an extraordinary consumer commitment, which may have deep consequences in consumers\u2019 everyday life that consumers are willing to accept anyway. Such emerging forms of consumption are sometimes triggering managerially relevant phenomena: in this sense, few businesses have witnessed an exponential growth like the one of extreme sports. Extreme sports have increasingly transformed into an industry made of huge international events, thousands of active consumers and brands worth millions. Extreme sports represent quite well an emerging kind of consumption in which an extraordinary commitment is required by active consumers-participants, spanning from physical and psychological sport training to potential consequences on everyday life (e.g., changes in dietary habits and lifestyle; risk of severe injuries). The inner characteristics of extreme sports active consumption, as well as its managerial relevance justify extreme sports as the research setting of the present dissertation, which combines insights from some psychological theories examining behavior of extreme individuals with marketing and consumer behavior literature, to provide a comprehensive framework on consumer behavior related to these extreme situations. The managerial relevance of this dissertation is supported by the scope of the managerially relevant outcomes it examines, ranging from: levers of increased consumer spending, advertising-related perceptions, and event revisit intentions.The present dissertation sets within the research stream examining emerging forms of consumption, specifically those requiring an extraordinary consumer commitment, which may have deep consequences in consumers\u2019 everyday life that consumers are willing to accept anyway. Such emerging forms of consumption are sometimes triggering managerially relevant phenomena: in this sense, few businesses have witnessed an exponential growth like the one of extreme sports. Extreme sports have increasingly transformed into an industry made of huge international events, thousands of active consumers and brands worth millions. Extreme sports represent quite well an emerging kind of consumption in which an extraordinary commitment is required by active consumers-participants, spanning from physical and psychological sport training to potential consequences on everyday life (e.g., changes in dietary habits and lifestyle; risk of severe injuries). The inner characteristics of extreme sports active consumption, as well as its managerial relevance justify extreme sports as the research setting of the present dissertation, which combines insights from some psychological theories examining behavior of extreme individuals with marketing and consumer behavior literature, to provide a comprehensive framework on consumer behavior related to these extreme situations. The managerial relevance of this dissertation is supported by the scope of the managerially relevant outcomes it examines, ranging from: levers of increased consumer spending, advertising-related perceptions, and event revisit intentions

A construal level view of contemporary heritage tourism

Psychological distance is “a subjective experience that something is close or far away from the self, here, and now” (Trope & Liberman 2010, p.440). This research investigates heritage tourism from the perspective of Construal Level theory, which postulates that individuals mentally represent objects and events by adopting either low or high construal levels. We show that heritage tourism leads tourists to adopt a higher psychological distance and therefore a higher construal level. In turn, this higher construal negatively affects destination loyalty and perceived uniqueness. However, authenticity and engagement moderate the heritage–construal relationship, counterbalancing the higher psychological distance induced by heritage. We explore these relationships in two studies: Study 1 on 300 visitors of a WWII site; Study 2 on 250 tourists of a Cold War site. By focusing on contemporary heritage sites, the studies also seek to compare visitors’ mental representations of the experience, based on their autobiographical, vicarious, and collective memories. The paper concludes by addressing implications for theory and practice

Between Sacred and Profane. A Systematic Literature Review on Religious Tourism in Marketing Research

Religious tourism appears an increasingly important phenomenon in the contemporary tourism industry, being able to move huge amounts of people. It is a particularly complex and peculiar kind of tourism, that entails different meanings and spheres of human psychology and culture. Due to the prominent role of cultural heritages and anthropological dynamics in its development, religious tourism has represented fertile ground for humanistic and anthropology-based research. However, data show that also the economic impact of this increasingly relevant phenomenon is strongly growing. Hence, tourism research has approached this phenomenon also from managerial and marketing perspectives, considering it as a particular kind of consumption phenomenon. The interest of tourism marketing and management is particularly recent, intensifying only in the last decade. The present work provides a general overview of the research knowledge that has been developed so far, regarding religious tourism in tourism research, particularly focusing on tourism marketing and management research. This objective has been carried out by applying Systematic Literature Review (SLR) in order an international literature perspective on the topic. Results are provided in order to delineate major avenues for future research

Social Network Analysis in Cultural Tourism Organizations. Methodological and Managerial issues of text analysis approach of Heritage Festivals

Objectives. This paper proposes an interpretive framework addressing social network analysis in tourism-cultural organizations, helping develop a feasible solution for Social Media (SM) analysis within cultural organizations (better fitting organizations specificities, and culturally closer to their collective mindsets, generally humanistic). Methodology. An interpretive framework has been developed. Such framework has been operationalized by performing Content Analysis using T-LAB software. Empirical analysis was divided in two steps, addressing the same research context (local heritage festival). Findings. The analysis provides schematization of contexts classification in SM data analysis, that is potentially generalizable. Basing on empirical evidence, some insights about a) the possible uses of T-LAB, and b) of the conditions within which to use the software in small cultural/tourist organizations, have been provided. Research limits. The proposed schematization is tested only on a single empirical context. Generalizability of usage processes of T-LAB, indicated in this paper on SM data analysis requires additional testing in other contexts. Practical implications. The present work identifies stages and processes that small cultural/touristic organizations can follow to enable an analytic process, with respect to SM data (i.e., texts), using tools better fitting their operational capabilities, degree of complexity and cultural background. Originality of the study. The study offers an original framework and mapping of possible analytic tools for analogic and digital data, in small cultural organizations. It also provides a representation of the usage processes of the T-LAB software, with respect to the processing of written contributions, within a consumer behavior perspective

To Rome with love: A moderated mediation model in Roman heritage consumption

This paper tests a moderated mediation model based on hypothesized relationships in heritage marketing between event involvement, place attachment, experience authenticity, and revisit intention, and finds that place attachment mediates the event involvement\u2013revisit intention relationship and that experience authenticity moderates the mediation. The relationships are explored with a sample of people attending a Roman heritage festival in Italy (n = 350). Based on suggestions from environmental psychology, the model is then split to compare neighborhood and non-neighborhood tourists, and younger and older tourists. Results show that revisit intention for closer and older tourists relies more on place attachment than on event involvement; the reverse is true for distal and younger tourists. Finally, tourists\u2019 freely elicited motivations are analyzed by computing an original place-or-event-relatedness score, continuous and centered on zero, which corroborates the findings from the moderated mediation models. Theoretical and managerial implications are addressed

Living Forever Inked? Tattoo Consumption and Materialism. Evidence from Italian Tattoo Conventions

In the last twenty years, tattooing has gained in increasing social relevance. From a socially condemned practice, signaling social marginalization, rebellion, or deviance, tattooing has gained a completely new social status, driven by factors such as the increasing interest of well-known personalities, such as celebrities (Goulding et al, 2004), and, more in general, to cultural and fashion changes. This massive change (Pentina & Spears, 2011), has made tattoos one of the most diffused forms of body modification over the world. This exponential growth has actually created a real business phenomenon, with a sector increasingly shaping itself as an industry, worth $ 722 million (IBISWorld, 2015). The increasing relevance of this phenomenon in business and consumer terms has increasingly attracted the attention of consumer and marketing research (e.g., Watson, 1998; Sierra et al, 2013). This work sheds some light on the actual impacts, on this consumption behavior, of materialistic tendencies of consumers. Materialism is in this case considered as a proxy of the consumer tendency to follow mainstream messages and tendencies, such as mass media messages or popular social models. Results provide some insights on the actual effects of such contemporary, socio-cultural ironic fad (Kosut, 2006) of tattoo consumption

A qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of satisfaction toward extreme sporting Events

We examine participant satisfaction in the context of extreme sporting events, where participants seek intense sensations but want to feel in control over the risky challenges. We combine two streams of literature scarcely related by previous studies, addressing both event-related and psychological attributes of extreme individuals. Because of the complex set of inter-relationships in which the investigated phenomena unfold, complexity theory tenets can provide a more accurate understanding of what generates extreme sport participants\u2019 satisfaction toward a sporting event. Applying this perspective, the present research determines the possible combinations that build strong participant satisfaction in the context of extreme sporting events. Through qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), we identify more possible \u201crecipes\u201d that contribute to high levels of satisfaction. Results suggest that attributes related to the event (trust, image, attitude) and attributes related to the psychology of extreme sport participants (sensation-seeking, perceived control) contribute jointly in all \u201crecipes\u201d. Furthermore, satisfaction can emerge for events despite low attitude if their image is strong and participants feel in control of the challenges

The Triathlon sport consumer. A segmentation proposal

In the last decades, triathlon has gained globally an increased popularity. This sport is now a worldwide diffused discipline: triathletes can choose between a wide number of challenges and events, taking place in different corners of the world. The exponential growth of this sport has led to an increasingly relevant weight of triathlon in economic terms: in 2014, revenues of triathlon industry were estimated in $ 2.8 billion only in the United States (Triathlon Business International, 2015). The phenomenon started being increasingly studied by marketing and management research. From a consumer behaviour point of view, triathlon is a quite underresearched topic is related to triathletes\u2019 motivational analysis. Particularly relevant, also in practical terms, appears motivation analysis aimed at identifying the characteristics of individuals performing this peculiar sport discipline. Few works have applied segmentation to the triathlon sport context, while in other sport contexts segmentation was instead applied in a wider number of contributions. The present research provides an additional point of view on triathlon athletes by providing a segmentation with respect to international triathlon events. Results provide insights both on athletes\u2019 inner characteristics, trigger some considerations about how to harness differences and peculiarities of different athletes, from the point of view of sport event managing organizations. A discussion of touristic implications of triathlon sport events is also provided