Fear of missing out (FOMO) is defined as “a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent” (Przybylski et al., 2013, p. 1841). Zhang, Jimenez, and Cicala (2020) suggest that FOMO is actually an emotional reaction to one’s perceived psychological threat to one’s self-concept. It is reported that individuals with “High FOMO” are likely to exhibit higher usage of social media (Przybylski et al., 2013). Messaging that fosters a fear of missing out is considered an important sport marketing communications tool (Larkin & Fink, 2016). This study intends to explore the effect of FOMO in promoting sports events, in relation to involvement and the use of Internet technology (e.g., social media). This research project is a result of a multi-year FOMO study on a sports marketing effort in the southeastern US to increase attendance at a local ESPN College Basketball Tournament. In Study 1, we hypothesized that all three interest measures (interest in learning about the event, in attending the event, and in inviting friends to the event) are higher among participants in the high-FOMO condition that included the “Don’t Miss Out” message. It was also hypothesized that consumer involvement is a significant moderator of this effect. Lastly, it was hypothesized that interest is positively correlated with technology use. The results showed a significant interaction between gender and involvement for the dependent variable of interest in learning more about the event and substantially lower levels of interest in attending among female, light social media users that received the “Don’t Miss Out” message compared to other females. In Study 2, we hypothesized that interest and attendance intentions will be higher among subjects in the high-FOMO condition. It was also hypothesized that individual FOMO levels will moderate the relationship between appeal type (i.e., loss-framed or not) and interest/attendance intentions. Lastly, we hypothesized that basketball involvement will moderate the relationship between appeal type and interest/attendance intentions. The preliminary results of this study have provided insights into the FOMO appeal in the age of technology (Internet and social media) for marketing managers as well as marketing researchers. The Don’t Miss Out message might not have the intended effect, as the preliminary results of this study suggest. As Filo, Lock, and Karg (2015) pointed out, there is a profound impact of social media usage on sports management due to its importance in cultivating relationships. Individual’s technology and social media usage as social behavior may be a signal of the individual’s need (or lack thereof) to be part of a group attending a sports event and thus affect FOMO’s promotional effectiveness.

This paper explores whether the psychological construct of flow plays an important role in shaping motorcycle tourism behavior and examines the relative success of methodologies previously used to model flow, in general. The systematic quantitative literature review (SQLR) method was applied. It is concluded that flow, the mental state, is likely a meaningful intrinsic motivator of motorcycle tourism. Limitations related to previous efforts to model this phenomenon are identified. Suggestions for future research on the role of flow in the motorcycle tourism context are provided with domain-specific methodological strategies outlined.

Young consumers are major targets for necessary interventions to change consumption habits to address environmental sustainability challenges. The current study provides a comparison of a Western and an Asian culture, examining several key psychological and social influences to determine which can be most closely linked to the recycling behaviors of U.S. and Chinese young consumers. The results suggest both Chinese and U.S. students may be responsive to grassroots efforts to motivate recycling behaviors through peer groups. Opportunities for consumer socialization of green behaviors through family ties may also exist. This study provides valuable insight into key drivers of young consumers' recycling behavior for two important market segments.

The current study uses structural equation modelling to examine the relationships between serious leisure, the flow state, and travel intentions among motorcycle tourists. Serious leisure contrasts with casual leisure in that its participants are more committed to their pursuit, which can result in a more sustained benefit, achievement of a flow state, and enhance intention toward future travel. The findings reveal one's serious leisure orientation predicted their durable benefits, which then produced a positive relationship with flow and travel intentions. However, flow did not mediate the relationship between durable benefits and travel intentions, as hypothesised. This research provides empirical evidence of the value of using the serious leisure construct to capture the multi-faceted and complex experience that is motorcycle tourism and can augment comprehension of other high involvement tourism markets.

This study advances a multidisciplinary marketing profile of US motorcycle tourists. The research analyses theoretical motivation measures from leisure, psychological and sociological sciences and descriptive attributes of motorcycle tourists' travel preferences. Findings suggest that motorcycle tourists are motivated by their desire for personal escape, experiencing the flow state while riding, and transit routes congruent with their noninstitutionalised explorer self-image. Tourism marketing managers are advised to promote services that fulfil motorcyclists' trip-related desires to escape their methodical routines and experience the flow state. Regional tourism organisations publicising transit routes that inspire an explorer imagery should attract more motorcycle tourists.

This study examined the relative perceived importance of the various dimensions of the restaurant experience, as captured by DinEX. Over 1,000 U.S. restaurant patrons provided perceived importance ratings of six DinEX dimensions as they related to their most recent dining experience across a variety of meal periods and restaurant categories. To make comparisons, an innovative approach to analyzing top box data was utilized. The results indicate significant differences exist across each of the DinEX dimensions, with food quality emerging as the top concern of restaurant patrons. The results of the study offer valuable guidance to the restaurateur in terms of the distinct ordering of experience dimensions that were observed, as well as the straightforward methodology demonstrated for monitoring and evaluating customers' importance perceptions.

Executive Summary: Happiness is a quality that nearly all people naturally desire. Happiness has been shown to have a host of positive features, including enhanced mental and physical health, more satisfactory relationships, increased earning potential, and even longer life. Park and recreation facilities have been normatively associated with happiness for over a century, yet research on the relationship of parks with happiness is scant—particularly from a social-psychological perspective. The literature has primarily dealt with the topic tangentially through investigations of leisure and subjective well-being. Given that park activities and happiness are aspects of leisure and subjective well-being, respectively, this study explored whether applicable relationships were also true for parks and happiness. Four hypotheses were investigated: a) park visitation will stimulate happiness; b) across park activity types, fitness activities will have the greatest impact on happiness; c) the diversity of park activities will be more positively associated with patron happiness than the quantity of time spent; and d) there will be a positive relationship between park satisfaction and happiness. Field research was conducted with the cooperation of a county park system. Park patrons in three demographically diverse municipalities in a southeast U.S. coastal region were sampled over a seven-month period. Three out of the four hypotheses were supported by the findings, which suggested that leisure’s relationship with subjective well-being largely holds for parks and happiness. This study’s findings indicate that humans’ innate desire for happiness may be fulfilled when visiting a park. Patrons indicated that they were happy during their park visit and even happier at the end of it. No particular park activity promoted more happiness than another. Study results propose that happiness is not necessarily augmented as much through additional time spent but, instead, by engaging in a greater diversity of park activities during a visit. Patrons generally reported being satisfied with the county parks. Also, patrons left the park happier when they were more pleased with its operation. This has positive implications for park management because happiness is a key component of quality of life, the improvement of which is central to the mission of many urban parks. Park management can leverage this mission success to cultivate greater public trust and support, which is instrumental to securing funding—a critical issue for park and recreation departments across the nation.

Hotels have attempted numerous approaches to encourage guests to participate in linen-reuse programs. One of the most promising methods is to use appropriate message framing. A study of 427 travelers to Charleston, South Carolina, examined the participants' opinion of how they would respond to various message frames. A comparison of the messages that are framed as gains versus those framed as losses found that the guests generally responded to a message framed as avoiding a loss, in this case, one that said don't miss out. However, the study also found that mentioning the destination city by name effectively trumped the loss framing. Particularly for first-time travelers, specifically mentioning Charleston in the message increased the respondents' opinion that they would be likely to participate in a linen-reuse program. The destination name had less effect for returning travelers, who did, however, respond to the don't miss out message.

Using a scenario-based approach, an experiment is conducted to test whether the decision a physician makes to deny a prescription request (when a patient has requested a drug he or she has seen in a direct-to-consumer [DTC] ad) significantly impacts patient outcomes such as patient satisfaction and compliance intentions. The results suggest physicians can expect patient response to the denial of such a request to vary by the patient's gender in addition to the criticality of the condition being treated. The results also suggest, when treating less critical conditions, a physician can mitigate the negative effects of a denial with relatively little additional effort.

This study examines the use of blogs as a means of tourism marketing communication. Using a scenario-based approach, an online experiment was conducted to test whether consumers perceive corporate and personal blogs to be credible sources of information and to compare the perceived credibility of blogs to that of traditional word-of-mouth. The findings suggest that while consumers do not generally equate the overall credibility of blogs with that of traditional word-of-mouth, some consumers do appear to attribute similar levels of authoritativeness, a dimension of credibility, to them.

This study introduces a new managerial tool for evaluating and managing service quality. This new approach treats service quality as an intermediate variable, not the ultimate managerial goal, and makes use of data envelopment analysis (DEA), a nonparametric technique that allows for the relative comparison of a number of comparable organizational decision-making units (Sexton 1986). Using data from 497 customer surveys collected at 13 different grocery store locations for a major supermarket chain in the southeast region of the United States, relative efficiency scores and prescriptive guidance for improvement were generated for each store. These results were then used to compare the benefits of this new approach to that of existing service quality performance evaluation techniques. The evidence suggests the DEA technique provides a unique and much needed perspective that would help a manager to obtain optimal levels of service quality dimensions that are directly linked to critical performance outcomes for the organization.

No one questions the power of the internet as a means of information dissemination. But how effective is the medium for restaurant marketing? Are tourists using the tool, and does it influence their purchase behavior? Though there is no shortage of consultants and technology companies touting the importance of the internet and their abilities to harness the medium for their restaurant clients, little empirical research has been performed to determine its effectiveness in tourism settings. This paper reflects the results of an empirical study of tourist restaurant selection in a vacation destination, and notes that while a reasonable percentage of vacationers believe the medium to be a useful research tool, few in fact translate research into patronage; a disconnect that should be of significant interest to restaurateurs considering the investment return of their internet marketing dollars. Implications and suggestions for restaurants catering to vacation travelers are discussed.

While market theorists have devoted a great deal of effort to the conceptualization of service quality, the practical guidance available to service providers continues to be very limited. Utilizing the emerging role of a new marketing entity, the retail electric service provider, as an illustration, the article discusses how data envelopment analysis might be used to analyze service quality at the retail service level. Specific dimensions thought to influence consumers’ perceptions of the quality of retail electric energy services are identified, and the potential use of data envelopment analysis as a diagnostic tool for effective management of service quality by retail electric service providers is demonstrated. Generalization to different types of service providers is suggested. Empirical studies to develop practical guidance along this line of analysis are encouraged.