The Consumption of Museum Service Experiences: Benefits and Value of Museum Experiences

Abstract

As museums are becoming more visitor-oriented and facilitating experiences that satisfy their visitors, a deeper understanding of visitor experiences via their personal thoughts and feelings during museum visits are vital. The article reports an exploratory qualitative study that seeks to understand the museum service experience consumption by visitors that are grounded in their own words and actions. The Profile Accumulation Technique (PAT) by John and Less Ross (1995;, as a novel research tool for service experience, was adopted to investigate museum experiences. A sample size of 53 foreign visitors formed the basis for the study, all of whom visited Sabah Museum which is located at Old Palace Hill in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah Malaysia. Findings reveal four benefits gained from visiting Sabah Museum as cognitive, affective, reflective and recreation. Visitors to Sabah Museum are found to be both mindful (education and learning) and non-mindful (recreation and social activities). It suggests that a cognitive approach can no longer be deemed wholly relevant in the museum service experience context. The article adds to the existing literature on museum service experiences. It has important implications for marketing and managing Sabah Museum as service experience consumption place; and contributes to the methodology and theoretical underpinning of service experience research.

After-hours events at the National Museum of Scotland: a product for attracting, engaging and retaining new museum audiences?

“…In total, 63 respondents indicated that socialising with friends was a motivation for attending, aligning with the view that museums play a social role (Fleming, 2005;Kim Lian Chan, 2009;Taheri et al, 2014), and 46 respondents were motivated by the events being themed, supporting the view of Bowdin et al (2011) that event theming is key to creative design.…”

Social Inclusion Through Cultural Engagement Among Ethnic Communities

“…As customers have higher expectations of their experiences, the emphasis moves from choosing an arts product that meets their requirements to hedonic experiences (J. K. L. Chan, 2009;Scott, Laws, & Boksberger, 2009). Thus, marketers need to understand peoples' behavior and motivation with the arts if offerings are to provide people with a sense of belonging and being included.…”

“…A number of factors have been suggested to motivate consumption such as involvement (Slater & Armstrong, 2010;Wohlfeil & Whelan, 2006), cost reductions (Garber, Muscarella, Bloom, & Spiker, 2000), social aspects and the quality of the performance (Garber et al, 2000;Kolb, 2002;Mencarelli, Marteaux, & Pulh, 2010;Woosnam et al, 2009), social interaction, entertainment and fun (J. K. L. Chan, 2009;Gofman, Moskowitz, & Mets, 2011;Woosnam et al, 2009), education (J. K. L. Chan, 2009;Woosnam et al, 2009), stakeholder inclusion (Capriello & Rotherham, 2011), links with other values (Barber, Kim, & Barth, 2013), and links between intercultural experiences and consumption experiences (Hartman, Meyer, & Scribner, 2009). However, social inclusion and arts attendance have not been extensively considered.…”

The Culture on the Palm of Your Hand

“…This implies that the managerial emphasis is gradually shifting towards marketing strategies focused on visitors' expectations, rather than on curators' dictation. This new managerial style becomes essential for museums to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage (Crimp, 1985;Vergo, 1989;McLean, 1994;Kawashima, 1998;Rowley, 1999;Goulding, 2000;Rentschler, 2002;Harrison & Shaw, 2004;Caldwell, 2005;Boorsma, 2006;Lehn, 2006;Dirsehan & Yalçın, 2011).…”