Purpose -This empirical study aims to investigate the potential of customer experiences in the tourism industry to influence emotions and thus create positive mental imprints.Design/methodology/approach -This investigation tests a conceptual model for what leaves positive mental imprints and analyzes the results of the survey to test the hypotheses. Further, the rather uncommon setting, a winter amusement park in Norway, helps to increase the external validity.Findings -One interesting discovery with practical implications for management is that both ambience factors -light, sound, and smells -and interaction among customers have significance for customers' positive emotions.Research limitations/implications -There is a need for further research to clarify the distinction between design and ambience factors.Practical implications -Both ambience and interaction between customers are very important for successfully providing positive customer experiences.Originality/value -Responding to the need to focus on the different aspects relating to customer experiences and emotions within the framework of tourism, this study tests an original model in an uncommon setting, thus contributing to the external validity of these claims.

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Though there is a large body of literature and research on sponsorship of sports events, it seems that previous research on firm sponsorship of sports events has narrowly focused on sponsorship from a customer perspective. Consequently, research on sponsorship from a firm perspective is lacking. Specifically, it seems that no study has investigated and identified the main factors that motivate the sponsorship of sports events. This article begins with exploring firms’ motives for sponsorship found in the literature, and identifies two fundamental pairs of contrastive orientations related to sponsorship motives: internal versus external motives and opportunistic versus altruistic motives. Next, we combine the four fundamental motivational orientations into a two-way matrix that constitutes a framework for categorising firms’ motivations for sponsoring sports events. We also explore and elaborate the framework more fully in a qualitative study. On the basis of empirical findings, we identify four general or ideal types of motivational categories that reflect the combination of firms’ fundamental and contrastive orientations related to sponsorship motives. The main or ideal types of sponsorship motivational categories are labelled “market”, “society”, “bond” and “clan”. The final framework, displaying firms’ four main categories or ideal types of sponsorship motives, is referred to as the Sponsorship Motive Matrix (SMM). We conclude with suggestions for future research and a discussion of the implications that can be drawn from the SMM framework.