Effects of Consumption Values on Customer Satisfaction in Movie Theaters: A Focus on College Students

영화관의 소비가치가 고객만족에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구: 대학생을 중심으로

Purpose - This study aims to classify and extend the consumer value of movie theaters into various values such as functional value, emotional value, social value, epistemic value, and conditional value based on the theory of consumption value by Sheth, Newman and Gross (1991). It also aims to verify the path structure of consumption value→customer satisfaction→behavior intention of movie theaters to confirm its generalization. Research design, data, and methodology - This study was conducted by collecting data on Kimpo university students from various areas in Incheon, Northern Seoul, Ilsan, Kyonggi Province, and Kimpo City. The survey was conducted by distributing 280 survey papers from Oct. 5 to 15, 2013 and collecting 238 of them. The final analysis used 208 questionnaires, after excluding 30 invalid responses. The statistical analysis of this study used the SPSS 19.0 statistics package. Results - The results of the survey are as follows: First, consumption values of movie theaters are classified into the following five groups: functional value, emotional value, social value, epistemic value, and conditional value. This study verified that consumption values play a role as a previous variable of customer satisfaction. Second, functional value, emotional value, and epistemic value have positive effects on customer satisfaction. On the other hand, social value and conditional value do not affect customer satisfaction. Finally, customer satisfaction has a positive impact on behavior intention. Theater users have an intention to re-use or recommend the movie theater they used when they are satisfied with a movie theater's physical environment and services. Conclusions - This study can provide academic and practical implications as follows based on the results mentioned above. First, academic implications can be found in that consumption values of movie theater users are classified into five values based on the theory of consumption value by Sheth et al. (1991). In the previous study, the service quality of a movie theater was studied based on the service quality of service encounters and a physical environment→customer satisfaction→behavior intention path structure. However, this study was verified by a consumption value→customer satisfaction→behavior intention path structure to classify consumption value, but not service quality or perceived value of quality, to confirm this generalization. Second, practical implications can be found in that the relative impact of consumption value of movie theaters on consumer satisfaction showed that functional value was followed by epistemic value and emotional value. In the previous study on movie theaters, previous variables of customer satisfaction were separated only by functional service quality including service encounters and physical environment; in some other studies, quality of service encounter had a direct effect on customer satisfaction. Accordingly, a marketing manager of a movie theater should develop various differentiated services by reflecting not only functional value such as service encounters and physical environment but also epistemic value and emotional value.