Effects of motivation and emotion on experiential value and festival brand equity: The moderating effect of self-congruity

Abstract

The experiential value is critical for creating a win-win situation for consumers and service providers. Previous studies have concentrated on factors other than visitors that influence the value of an experience, while ignoring the effect of tourists' internal factors. According to the person-environment fit theory, human behavior is determined by an individual's interaction with their environment. Thus, when examining the effect of festival attendees' personal characteristics on experiential value, it may be beneficial to take the festival attendees' self-congruity into account. The purpose of this study is to develop a model for examining the effect of the attendees' internal factors on their experiential value, as well as the relationship between experiential value and the festival's brand equity. Additionally, the current study examines the moderating effect of self-congruity and the mediating role of experiential value. This study used the 2019 Macau Light Festival as a research scenario, surveying 430 festival attendees. The SEM method is used to analyze the data. The findings demonstrated that internal personal factors, such as motivation and emotion, do play a significant role in the development of experiential value. However, the hypothesis regarding the effect of motivation on brand equity and the hypothesis regarding the effect of emotion on brand equity are rejected. The implications for the theory and management have been discussed.