How Does Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, and Exhibitions Industry Attract Exhibitors?

Abstract

This study aims to investigate how conventions and exhibitions attract exhibitors and the effects of exhibition attendance on business performance. For this purpose, this study constructed a theoretical model to discuss the relationships of the latent variables. According to the conceptual framework of this study, exhibition marketing included five facets: selling activity, information gathering, relationship building, exhibition image, and extension service. This study then conducted confirmatory factor analysis to test the inner quality of the measuring model, and applied structural equation modeling to test the research hypotheses. The subjects were 350 Taiwanese companies that had previously attended exhibitions. The empirical results showed that selling activity, information gathering, exhibition image, and extension service have positive significant effects on exhibition attendance, while the exhibition attendance also positively influences the business performance. Moreover, exhibition attendance has a partially moderating effect on exhibition marketing and business performance.