ePortfolio Hammertinger Lisa

It is all about the emotional state: Managing tourists experiences

Paper written by Lisa Hammertinger, based on the following article:
Brunner-Sperdin, A., Peters, M., Strobl, A. (2012): It is all about the emotional state: Managing
tourists experiences. International Journal of Hospitality Management 31(1), 23-30


To understand the emotional experience of a customer during the consumption of a
service is highly important for the providing company, as it is an important determinant
for the consumers satisfaction with the service. A lot of research already exists about
measuring customer satisfaction, many of them comparing consumers prior expectations
and subjective perceptions of the service. Also well-known are theories about consumer
behavior, like the S-O-R Model developed by Mehrabian and Russel in 1972, which
shows how to measure emotions and reactions of customers in a holistic context. The
model illustrates that certain environmental Stimuli have an effect on the Organism of
people, which finally leads to a certain Response. Simply spoken, the setting of a
service influences consumers emotions and because of that, their behavioral response.
Although there is a lot of existing research on customer satisfaction and consumer
behavior, there is still a lack of empirical research concerning the question of how the
environment of a service influences the customers emotions. Furthermore, as existing
research already suggests that emotion is one of the most important components of
customer satisfaction, the question of the time emotions should be measured at the
retrospective level or during the consumption represents another research gap and is
also addressed in this study.

The first research question this study aims to answer is which factors concerning the
service setting influence customers emotions, satisfaction and behavior. Furthermore, the
question of at what time consumers emotions should be measured is included in this
study. To answer these questions properly a theoretical framework is provided.
Reviewed in the study is literature about the influence of physical environments on
customers reactions like the already mentioned S-O-R Model and other prominent
research about what effects emotions and consumer behavior. The empirical research of
this study was based a conceptualization of the S-O-R Model adapted to hotel services
and activities. This model is based on different dimensions concerning the service setting
that is creating stimuli: the service environment, social surroundings, the leisure
experience and situational variables. Concerning the service environment the study
ePortfolio Hammertinger Lisa
integrates software and hardware variables more precisely design, lightning, color,
scent and sound, the behavior of the service customers and the perception of the hotels
image. To assess the social surrounding of a service, empathy, expertise and
responsiveness of employees are factors integrated in the study. The dimension of
leisure experience includes different flow items, such as feel to be in good hands,
forget everything around, do not realize how time is passing, enjoy the activity,
being lost in what I am doing, sense of potential control and being happy.
Furthermore, there are situational variables included in the study like age, duration of
stay, gender or how many times the customer has visited the hotel before. Between the
service stimuli and the response consumers show lays a persons organism; his or her
emotional state. Finally, concerning the response guests show towards the service setting
of a hotel, this study uses satisfaction as a variable that directly affects approach-
avoidance behavior.

The research method used for the study is a questionnaire. Included in the survey are
eight 4 and 5 star hotels in Austria, Southern Germany and Italy that all provide a
typical alpine and/or spa oriented service. In total there were 720 questionnaires
distributed and the response rate was 33.2% - consequently 239 filled out
questionnaires are used for the statistical analysis. All the questions included used a
five-point Likert-scale. The hotels that participated asked guests to fill out the
questionnaire during their stay, handling it like a well-feeling diary. In this manner hotel
guests assessed different activities including the variables mentioned above and finally
the effect the different situations had on their emotional state.

The questionnaire includes a large number of variables and for that reason, a factors
analysis was conducted before the testing of the hypotheses stated. The three factors
hardware, human-ware and leisure experience were identified by the analysis
factors that are almost identical to the ones mentioned by the literature that is
presented in the paper. The statistical analysis furthermore included linear regressions
to investigate the hypothesis, the enter method and the stepwise method all of them
strengthen the prior results. The factors with the strongest influence on the emotional
state of the consumers are the leisure experience, the human ware and the hard ware.
Furthermore, a Spearmans Rho test showed a strong significance between the customer
ePortfolio Hammertinger Lisa
satisfaction and the emotional state. These results implicate on the one hand an
optimization of the service encounter for hotel managers. Besides creating a desirable
atmosphere within the tangible service encounter like the reception, it is also highly
important that managers are aware of the high influence employees have on the
customers emotional states. Furthermore, a focus should lie on the so-called moment of
truth, which describes the intangible interpersonal interaction that consumers seek to
enjoy. Hotel managers should also recognize that traditional quality measurement often
isnt enough to really explain customer satisfaction or loyalty and that emotional
aspects should be included in the analysis to get more profound results. For the creation
of the right mood in a hotel a focus on customers emotional dimensions might be of high
relevance.



Brunner-Sperdin, A./Peters, M./Strobl, A. (2012): It is all about the emotional state: Managing
tourists experiences. International Journal of Hospitality Management 31(1), pp. 23-30