Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the number of activities within a multi-activity experience influences consumer preferences before and after consumption.

Design/methodology/approach

The hypotheses are tested using four experiments and a secondary data set from a river cruise firm that includes first-time river cruise purchases by consumers from this firm between January 2011 and December 2015 (n = 337,457).

Findings

Consumers prefer experiences with fewer (vs more) activities before consumption – a phenomenon, this paper calls “activity apprehension” – but prefer experiences with more (vs fewer) activities after consumption. A mediation analysis indicates that this phenomenon occurs because the highly perishable nature of activities makes consumers uncertain about their ability to use all the activities within the experience (usage uncertainty).

Practical implications

Evaluations of a multi-activity experience depend on both the number of activities and on whether the consumer is at the pre- or post-consumption stage of the customer journey. As such, firms looking to sell multi-activity experiences should design and promote these experiences in a way that minimizes activity apprehension.

Originality/value

This study is the first to demonstrate that consumer perceptions of an optimal experience depend on both the number of included activities and on the stage of the customer journey (i.e. pre- or post-purchase). It further contributes to the consumer experience literature by examining an unexplored activity characteristic, perishability, in shaping experiential purchase decisions. Finally, it demonstrates a new way in which experiential purchases differ from tangible product purchases.

中文翻译：

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体验式购买中的活动恐惧

目的

本文的目的是研究多活动体验中的活动数量如何影响消费前后的消费者偏好。

设计/方法/方法

假设使用四个实验和来自一家游轮公司的二级数据集进行测试，其中包括消费者在 2011 年 1 月至 2015 年 12 月期间首次从该公司购买游轮的数据（n = 337,457）。

发现

消费者更喜欢在消费前进行较少（vs 更多）活动的体验——本文将这种现象称为“活动恐惧”——但更喜欢消费后进行更多（vs 较少）活动的体验。中介分析表明，发生这种现象是因为活动的高度易腐性使消费者不确定他们在体验中使用所有活动的能力（使用不确定性）。

实际影响

对多活动体验的评估取决于活动的数量以及消费者是处于客户旅程的消费前还是消费后阶段。因此，希望销售多活动体验的公司应该以尽量减少对活动的担忧的方式设计和推广这些体验。

原创性/价值

这项研究首次证明了消费者对最佳体验的看法取决于所包含活动的数量和客户旅程的阶段（即购买前或购买后）。它通过在塑造体验式购买决策时检查未开发的活动特征、易腐性，进一步为消费者体验文献做出贡献。最后，它展示了体验式购买与有形产品购买不同的新方式。