The Importance of Being Earnest orCommitted: Attribute Importance andConsumer Evaluations of the Live Arts

Experience

J. CHARLENE DAVIS

Department of Business Administration, Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, USA

SCOTT R. SWANSON

Department of Marketing, University of Wisconsin – Whitewater, Whitewater, Wisconsin, USA

This study examines the importance of five service attributes(employees, show time, facility access, ancillary quality, andvisual aesthetics) used by attendees when evaluating the servicequality of their experience at performing arts events. Theimportance of service attributes were considered by patrons’commitment level and demographic characteristics. Study datawas obtained from the performing arts center associated with amid-sized university located in the mid-west. The sample wasdrawn from patrons at five unique performances that took placeon different days of the week and times over a two-month period. Atotal of 457 audience members participated in the study.Importance of service attributes did vary by commitmentcharacteristics, as did behavioral intentions. As the level ofcommitment with the organization increased, the more likelythey were to recommend, attend in the future, subscribe to, anddonate time or financial resources to the performing artsorganization.

KEYWORDS service attributes, commitment, performing arts

Consumers are busier than ever and time is perceived as a preciouscommodity (Peers, 2004). Between work and family responsibilities, little

56

Address correspondence to J. Charlene Davis, Department of Business Administration,Trinity University, One Trinity Place, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200. E-mail: cdavis2@trinity.edu

Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, 21:56–79, 2009Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 1049-5142 print / 1540-6997 onlineDOI: 10.1080/10495140802111968

time may be available for leisure or personal pursuits, thereby making thesechoices even more important. In addition to perceptions of diminished freetime, consumers have an increasing number of options for how to use theirleisure time (The Economist, 2006). How then do organizations seekingconsumers’ patronage stand out in the crowded arena of leisure options?While this is an important management question for a variety oforganizations, the need to attract patrons is particularly salient to performingarts organizations. As government funding has eroded over the past severalyears the need for private patronage has reached an all time high (TheEconomist, 2003; Hume, Sullivan, & Winzar, 2007; Polonsky & Garma, 2006;Royne, Stafford, & Tripp, 2000). So in addition to the valuable role patronsplay when purchasing tickets and attending events, performing arts groupsalso rely on building sufficient satisfaction such that patrons are motivated toprovide additional financial support.

This heightened need for attendance and financial support is occurringduring a time when consumers are increasingly likely to stay home andenjoy arts performances in front of their television (American Demographics,2003). Logically then, attracting and retaining patrons who will regularlyattend performances and provide additional support are a priority ofperforming arts organizations (Rentschler, Radbourne, Carr, & Rickard,2002). Rentschler et al. (2002) state there is a need to go beyond thepresumption of a consumer connection to arts organizations to conductingresearch that focuses on how to become more customer oriented. Thisarticle examines how performing arts managers can use service qualityattributes to determine what factors are most important for attracting andretaining consumers. Adopting a customer focus represents a shift from one-time transactions to a concentration on the essential elements needed tobuild long-term relationships (Coleman, 2002). In utilizing service qualityattributes this research augments existing performing arts literature whererelational bonds and patronage have primarily been examined demogra-phically and psychologically. While understanding customer demographicprofiles can aid in creating a greater understanding of patrons, demographicsare not managerially controllable. Similarly, understanding a target market’spsychographic profile may inform managers’ decisions as they shape andcraft persuasive messages and product offerings, but again these variablesare not under the control of the organization. Identification of factorscontrollable by the marketer, if shown to be of significant importance toaudience members, could be a potentially rich source of patron satisfaction.

This exploratory study identifies specific importance attributes andfactors that theater patrons use when evaluating a performing arts serviceexperience. We investigate the potential relationship of these factors withpatron demographics and commitment characteristics. Commitment is ‘‘animplicit or explicit pledge of relational continuity between exchangepartners’’ (Dwyer, Schurr, & Oh, 1987, p. 19) and is a critical component

Importance of Being Earnest 57

of successful relational exchanges (Dorsch, Swanson, & Kelley, 1998;Gundlach, Achrol, & Mentzer, 1995). Similar to Gundlach, Achrol, andMentzer (1995), this article utilizes the three-component conceptualization ofcommitment which includes instrumental, temporal, and attitudinal compo-nents. In the next section of this article we provide a brief literature review ofservice quality. We then briefly discuss the instrumental, temporal, andattitudinal components of commitment and some of the traditionaldemographic segmentation variables that will be explored for possibleassociations with importance factors. This is followed by the presentation ofthe research methodology and results. Finally, findings of the study arediscussed and limitations as well as potential future research directions areoffered.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Service Quality

Service quality reflects a consumer’s judgment about the overall superiorityof the perceived quality of a firms product offering (Parasuraman, Zeithaml,& Berry, 1988). Because services are largely a performance, service quality isdistinctly predicated upon the customers’ perception of how (functional orprocess quality) the service is delivered as well as their post-purchaseevaluation of what (technical quality) was delivered (Andaleeb, & Basu,1994; Gronroos, 1984; Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1985). Althoughcumulative satisfaction with an organization may represent separate anddistinct service attributes, service quality dimensions may vary across servicetypes and should be identified for specific types of services.

The performing arts offer a unique context in which to study servicequality due in part to the complex nature of a live performance. First, patronswill have interactions with performing arts contact employees which mayinclude contact with ushers, parking attendants, ticket personnel, andconcession workers. The importance of the interaction process betweenexternal customers and the contact employees of the organization in thenonprofit sector has been noted by a number of authors (e.g., Ewing, &Caruana, 2000; Judd, 2001; Royne Stafford, & Tripp, 2000; Yucelt, 2000).Operating in the service sector, nonprofit organization employees helpcreate and deliver the service offering. Contact employees that favorablyreinforce customer perceptions can improve visitor satisfaction (Judd, 2001;Yucelt, 2000). Relevant dimensions of perceived employee quality mayencompass elements such as prompt delivery of service (responsiveness),personalized attention (empathy), courtesy and knowledge (assurance), anddependability and accuracy (reliability) (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry,1988). Royne Stafford and Tripp (2000) suggest that perceptions of theatrical

58 J. C. Davis and S. R. Swanson

performances are likely influenced by these service quality attributes and callfor their investigation in a performing arts context. Second, the show orperformance itself is the core offering of a live arts organization, and similarto Garbarino and Johnson (1999), we would expect customers to distinguishshow quality issues from other importance attributes. Finally, the extendedexposure and prominence of the physical setting in the consumption ofleisure services warrants greater consideration regarding the environment’srole in patrons’ evaluation of those encounters.

As Hightower, Brady, and Baker (2002) note, the service environmenthas received relatively less research attention than other aspects of theservice encounter, such as the interpersonal nature of such transactions.Wakefield and Blodgett (1994) note that the consumption of leisure servicesare more likely to be driven by emotional motives and thus the servicescape(i.e., the physical setting where the service is delivered) may have asubstantial role in perceptions of service quality. While the inseparability ofservices supports such strong interest in the interaction between customersand service personnel, there is nonetheless a need to understand the role thephysical environment can play in customers’ evaluation of serviceencounters. In studies that have examined the role of physical structureand atmospheric cues for museum patrons, tangible elements of the artsexperience had a significant impact on consumers’ approach/avoidancebehaviors (Kottasz, 2006) and level of satisfaction (Yucelt, 2000). Indeed, forservice experiences that extend over a larger span of time, such as a theatertrip, musical concert, or attending a sporting event, the physical environmentmay supersede the interpersonal elements in importance due to the ‘‘armslength intimacy’’ of these types of encounters. While there may be somedirect interaction with service providers, ticket office, ushers, etc., the coreservice providers (i.e., performers), are seldom in direct personal contactwith customers. This arms-length distance between core provider andcustomer, as well as the extended duration of the encounter, may makeaspects of the physical environment of special significance. Kotler and Scheff(1997) suggest that occasional visitors often judge their live arts experiencepredominately in terms of atmospheric attributes.

A more thorough understanding of service qualities in the performingarts is needed (Hume, Mort, & Winzar, 2007). Arts managers often makedecisions based on past experience and consider market researchunnecessary; but for a variety of reasons, arts organizations are increasinglyadopting appropriate marketing tools and practices to enhance efforts atattracting and retaining clients (Cuadrado, Gil, & Molla, 2000). Given thenatural intersection of interests between services marketing research wherethe experience is the product and the performing arts, our study providesanother context for examination of that intersection. This research providesan exploratory empirical assessment of the importance of service attributesused by arts patrons when evaluating the quality of their service experience

Importance of Being Earnest 59

at live arts performances. As such, we seek to address several researchquestions. First, what are some of the key performing arts service qualityimportance factors? What, if any, differences are there in the meanimportance values of these factors across instrumental, temporal, andattitudinal commitment? Commitment is discussed next.

Commitment

Relational elements of involvement, trust, and satisfaction have beenconsidered in the nonprofit and arts literature (Thomas, Cunningham, &Krauss Williams, 2006) as well as loyalty (Rentschler, Radbourne, Carr,& Rickard 2002) and identification (Bhattacharya 1998; Bhattacharya, Rao, &Glynn 1995; Swanson & Davis 2006). It has been suggested that identificationbe extended from its traditional use in examining employee or alumni ties toan organization to also include consumers (Bhattacharya, 1998;Bhattacharya, Roa, & Glynn, 1995). Bhattacharya, Roa and Glynn (1995)discuss the concept of commitment, but note ‘‘We emphasize that the notionof identification differs from the related notions of brand loyalty (cf. Kahn &Meyer, 1989; Raj, 1985) and organizational commitment (cf. Hunt, Chonko,& Wood, 1985; Hunt, Wood, & Chonko, 1989) that have been discussed inthe marketing literature’’ (p. 47). Similarly, Rentschler et al. distinguishbetween loyalty and commitment, suggesting the latter leads to the former.Our manuscript builds on these works to examine what has not beenpreviously studied, how the relational element, commitment, may beassociated with the quality importance factors of live arts performance. Anunderstanding of the interactions between quality importance factors andcommitment may provide insights to arts managers to aid in the building ofrelationships with customers. This study utilizes the three-componentconceptualization of commitment which includes instrumental, attitudinal,and temporal components (Gundlach, Achrol, & Mentzer, 1995).

Relationship marketing seeks to establish, maintain, and enhancerelationships with customers to better meet the objectives of the involvedparties (Gronroos, 1996). Commitment has an instrumental componentwhen there is ‘‘an affirmative action taken by one party that creates a self-interest stake in the relationship and demonstrates something, more than amere promise’’ (Gundlach, Achrol, & Mentzer, 1995, p. 79). One way toconceptualize this sense of commitment is by examining actual customerpurchase behaviors or attendance frequency.

People can be sorted based on their arts attendance: those who rarelyattend, those who attend infrequently, and those who attend frequently(Garbarino & Johnson, 1999; McCarthy & Jinnett, 2001). Casual, relative tomore frequent, attendees will differ in their motivations for attending liveperformances (McCarthy & Jinnett, 2001), and ‘‘the characteristics of frequentvisitors often differ sharply from those of others’’ (McCarthy, Ondaatje, &

60 J. C. Davis and S. R. Swanson

Zakaras, 2001, p. 9). Attending performances is an act that is more than amere promise. Attending multiple performances constrains opportunitiesavailable to the customer to allocate resources elsewhere.

Commitment to a performing arts facility can occur through a variety ofmeans beyond simply attending multiple performances. Some patrons mayhave a more formal affiliation with the arts organization by having a paidmembership or subscription to a series of performances. In this study we donot restrict the respondents to only members but also look at non-members.Three instrumental/input variables were explored for potential associationsto service importance factors: 1) the number of events attended over the pastyear, and if the respondent was a 2) supporting member of the artsorganization, and/or 3) a series ticket buyer.

The concept of commitment being demonstrated consistently over timeinherently encompasses a temporal dimension. Temporal commitment isestablished by the durability and consistency of a relationship (Dwyer,Schurr, & Oh, 1987) such as the length of time a person is actively involvedwith an organization. The number of years the subject had been attendingthe performing arts center is measured in this study to capture temporalcommitment.

Anderson and Weitz (1992) suggest that commitment also includes anattitudinal component. This attitudinal component includes intentions tomaintain and develop a relationship over time (Dorsch, Swanson, & Kelley,1998; Gundlach, Achrol, & Mentzer, 1995). Behavioral intentions demon-strate a commitment to the relationship in the future and thus goes beyondpast actions. Four proposed attitudinal aspects of commitment as outlined byBhattacharya and Sen (2003) are examined in this research.

First, attitudinal commitment can be demonstrated via social promotionof the concern by suggesting to others that they attend performancesprovided by the organization. The intention to make recommendations toothers to attend performances demonstrates commitment as the art patronbecomes an advocate for the organization. Word-of-mouth intentions reflectconsumers’ stated belief that they would/would not tell members of theirsocial set about a service experience (Richins, 1983). Word-of-mouthintentions are of special interest to services researchers as consumers arethought to be more likely to consult private sources of information and todeem them more credible when making a service purchase (Gronroos, 1984;Murray, 1991). Intentions to purchase tickets and to become a subscribingmember of the organization would both be indicators of an attitudinalcommitment to the organization. Repurchase intentions are consumers’stated belief that they will/will not repurchase a particular service (Boulding,Kalra, Staelin, & Zeithaml, 1993; Malhotra, 1993). Purchase intentions arefrequently used as surrogates for actual behavior (Bagozzi, 1981). It has beensuggested that subscribers are more relational in their exchange orientationswith arts organizations, whereas nonsubscribers are transactional (Garbarino

Importance of Being Earnest 61

& Johnson, 1999; Johnson & Garbarino, 2001). When patrons purchasetickets for a series of live performances they are demonstrating acommitment towards that organization. Finally, intentions to donate timeand money to the organization would be another indicator of an attitudinalcommitment to the organization.

The relationship between future intentions towards the arts organiza-tions (i.e., attitudinal commitment) and previous behaviors as evidenced viainstrumental and temporal commitment are also investigated in this study.Positioning this aspect of the study as purely exploratory seems a bitmisplaced. As such, specific hypotheses have been postulated. First, it ispredicted that demonstrated greater levels of instrumental commitment willbe positively associated with stronger attitudinal commitment.

H1: Organizational members will be more likely to a) plan to suggest toothers that they attend, b) attend themselves, c) subscribe to, or d)donate to the theatre in the future, relative to non-members.

H2: Series ticket holders will be more likely to a) plan to suggest toothers that they attend, b) attend themselves, c) subscribe to, or d)donate to the theatre in the future, relative to single ticket buyers.

H3: The number of shows attended in the past year will be positivelyassociated with intentions to a) engage in positive word-of-mouth, b)repurchase tickets, c) subscribe, and d) donate to the theatre in thefuture.

Next, we also predict that greater levels of temporal commitment will bepositively associated with stronger attitudinal commitment.

H4: The number of years attending the performing arts organization willbe positively associated with intentions to a) engage in positive word-of-mouth, b) repurchase tickets, c) subscribe, and d) donate to the theatrein the future.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Identification of the demographic composition of one’s target market can becritical to devising a marketing strategy that more closely meets the needs ofcustomers (Royne Stafford, & Tripp, 2000). However, McCarthy and Jinnett(2001) found that most arts organizations used only demographiccharacteristics when identifying target populations. Unfortunately, consu-mers who regularly attend arts events have been found to be demographi-cally similar, making it difficult for managers to identify differences amongpatrons (DiMaggio, Useem, & Brown, 1978). A more complete under-standing of patrons may be obtained by taking into account additional

62 J. C. Davis and S. R. Swanson

segmentation variables in addition to demographics (Thyne, 2001). Ifspecific service importance factors were found to be associated withparticular patron demographics, this could add new insights to aid in thesegmentation of an art organizations’ consumer base.

Previous research has found that attendance rates are generally strongerfor those individuals with higher levels of education, particularly those withfour-year college or graduate degrees (McCarthy & Jinnett, 2001; NEA, 1998;Yucelt, 2000). Toffler (1964) suggests that appreciating the arts often forcesattendees to think in the abstract, a skill often developed at higher levels ofeducation. Although differences in attending the arts have been found tovary by level of education, there are attendees that come from all levels ofeducation. Specifically, ‘‘education does not ‘explain’ participation’’(McCarthy, Ondaatje, & Zakaras, 2001, p. 15). Participation in the arts hasbeen shown to increase as people reach their mid 30s to early 60s and thendrops off (Nichols, 2003). In addition, participation increases as income rises(NEA, 1988), with high-income arts attendees tending to be over representedat arts events (Nichols, 2003). In this study potential associations of serviceimportance factors with level of education, annual household income, age,and respondent gender are investigated. Royne Stafford and Tripp (2000)point out that these four demographic variables have been identifiedrepeatedly as predictive of the typical performing arts attendee, but ‘‘what isabsent is the critical link between the demographic profiles of performingarts supporters with particular dimensions of the performance’’ (p. 33). Thefinal research question explored in this study is what, if any, relationship dodemographics (i.e., age, education, gender, income) have with theimportance factors theater patrons use when evaluating a performing artsexperience?

METHODOLOGY

Sample

Cooperation was obtained from a performing arts center located in a mid-west community of approximately 12,000 residents and is associated with amid-sized university centrally located approximately an hour and one-halffrom three larger metropolitan markets. The arts center predominately drawsits patrons from local and surrounding communities within a sixty mileradius. To generate a diverse group of respondents, samples were drawnfrom patrons attending five unique performances of a single subscriptionseries: choral troupe (n 5 103), classical string performance (n 5 82),dramatic theatrical production (n 5 60), musical theatrical production (n 5

86), vocal popular music (n 5 126). The performances took place ondifferent days of the week and times over a two-month period. Potential

Importance of Being Earnest 63

respondents were approached individually at the entrance areas of the artsfacility and provided a pencil and questionnaire attached to a clipboard. Aresearcher stayed with the respondent to address any questions or concernsand collect the completed form. The average time to complete thequestionnaire was six minutes; the respondent was then given a numberedticket. Study participants were anonymous in that no personal identifyinginformation was collected. An announcement was also made duringintermission of each performance asking for cooperation, informingaudience members that researchers were in the lobby areas. Using thepreviously distributed numbered tickets a random drawing for a pair of freetickets to an upcoming performance was conducted at the end ofintermission for all those that had completed a questionnaire. After the firstdata collection effort, subsequently participating subjects were asked if theyhad previously completed a questionnaire for this study. To reduce thechance that a respondent’s information would be duplicated, these surveyswere removed from consideration in our analysis, although the respondentwas still eligible for the respective drawing(s).

Measurement

This study first sought to investigate the importance of service attributes artpatrons use when evaluating the quality of the service experienced at liveperformances. Hoffman and Turley (2002) note that for theatres (amongother services), the applicability of the traditional five-dimension ServiceQuality Model (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1988) needs to bereconsidered. Utilizing existing service quality and performing arts literaturein addition to information provided from interviews with theater adminis-trators, a list of 22 attributes was generated (see Table 1). A seven-pointLikert-type scale with anchors of Very Unimportant (1) and Very Important(7) was utilized to ascertain the perceived importance of these attributes. Inaddition to the 22 service attributes included in the perceived importancescale, the survey included classificatory items on relationship commitmentand respondent demographics.

The previously discussed three dimensions of commitment were allmeasured in this study. Measures of instrumental commitment included thenumber of times the subject had attended an event at the particular artsfacility in the past year, if they were currently a member of the artsorganization, and if they had previously purchased a ticket series. Thenumber of times a live performance was attended at this particular arts centerin the past year was categorized as: once; two to three; four to five; six to ten;or more than ten performances. Membership status (yes/no) and series ticketpurchases (single ticker buyer/series ticket buyer) were both determinedthrough dichotomous questions. The temporal component of commitmentwas measured as the number of years that the respondent had been

64 J. C. Davis and S. R. Swanson

TABLE 1 Mean Importance Values and Exploratory Factor Analysis Results

Attribute Mean SD Component

Factor 1Employee Quality

Factor 2Experience Value

Factor 3Access

Factor 4AncillaryQuality

Factor 5 VisualAesthetics

Employees who are always willing to helpcustomers

5.86 1.1 .865

Employees have the knowledge to answeryour questions

5.72 1.1 .853

Employees are sympathetic and reassuring ifthere is a problem

5.73 1.2 .822

Employees who are not too busy to respondto customer requests promptly

5.92 1.1 .802

Employees who give you personal attention 5.70 1.2 .772Employees who are polite 6.02 1.2 .735Ease of buying ticket 5.60 1.2 .628Seat location 5.81 1.2 .777Acoustics/sound quality 6.33 1.1 .747Quality of theperformance

6.44 1.0 .421 .733

Ticket price 5.61 1.2 .635Seating comfort 5.91 1.1 .623Speed of entrance intothe theater

4.64 1.4 .855

Speed of exit from the theater. 4.76 1.4 .823The conduct of otherpeople around me

4.94 1.4 .614

Parking location 5.48 1.3 .467Concession prices 4.11 1.5 .833Concession food quality 4.16 1.6 .776Price of gift shop items 3.24 1.7 .720Availability of pre-show activities 4.37 1.6 .670

Importa

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Attribute Mean SD Component

Factor 1Employee Quality

Factor 2Experience Value

Factor 3Access

Factor 4AncillaryQuality

Factor 5 VisualAesthetics

Employees are well dressed 4.93 1.3 .803The theater is visually appealing 5.55 1.2 .789

Variance explained: 39.9%, 12.1%, 7.7%, 5.4%, and 4.6%, respectively.

Cronbachs Alphas are .94, .85, .79, .78, and .77 respectively.

TABLE 1 (Continued)

66

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attending events at the performing arts organization: one; two to three; fourto five; six to nine; ten years or more. Attitudinal aspects of commitmentwere measured utilizing four, five-point Likert-type scales with anchors of‘‘Strongly Disagree’’ (1) and ‘‘Strongly Agree’’ (5). Similar to Garbarino andJohnson (1999), future intentions questions asked whether the subjectplanned to suggest to others that they attend, to attend themselves, tosubscribe to, and/or to donate to the theatre in the future.

The survey concluded with questions regarding respondent demo-graphics (age, education, gender, income). Age categories were createdbased on percentiles and included 18–22, 23–42, 43–52, 53–61, and over 62years of age. Education level was measured through a categorical variablewith four levels: high school degree or less, some college, college degree,and advanced degree. Income level of the patrons was measured through acategorical variable with the following groupings: below US $15,000; US$15,000 to US $24,999; US $25,000 to US $34,999; US $35,000 to US $49,999;US $50,000 to US $74,999, and over US $75,000.

RESULTS

A total of 457 audience members (62.9% female) participated in the study. Ofthese, 72.5% had previously attended a performance at this theater from oneto twenty times (mean 5 4.7, SD 5 3.9) in the past 12 months, and had beenattending events there from one to 30 years (mean 5 5.3, SD 5 4.6). Agesranged from 18 to 87 years (mean 5 44.6, SD 5 18.2), with over 50% of therespondents having a four-year college (25.9%) or advanced (27.4%) degree(High School or Less 5 11.4%, Some College 5 35.3%). A wide range ofannual household income levels were represented (Below $15,000 5 14.2%,$15,000 to $24,999 5 7.0%, $25,000 to $34,999 5 12.6%, $35,000 to $49,9995 13.4%, $50,000 to $74,999 5 22.5%), although the most noted incomelevel was the $75,000 or greater category at 30.5%.

Mean Importance Values

First, the mean importance value for each of the service quality attributes wascalculated (see Table 1). Inspection of the mean values indicates that theperformance itself (6.44) is the most important characteristic considered inthe survey. Other important aspects would also appear to be related to theenjoyment of a performance such as acoustics (6.33), comfortable seating(5.91), and seat location (5.81). Other key importance attributes are related toemployees. Specifically, employee politeness (6.02), responsiveness (5.92),helpfulness (5.86), assurance (5.73), knowledge (5.72), and attentiveness(5.70) all scored high. Only the price of gift shop items had a mean importancevalue lower than the midpoint on the seven-point scale used in the survey.

Importance of Being Earnest 67

Exploratory Factor Analysis

An exploratory factor analysis of the attribute importance items was thenconducted utilizing principle component analysis with varimax rotation (seeTable 1). Rotation converged in six iterations resulting in five factors witheigenvalues greater than 1, explaining 70.0% of the variance in the data.Only one item with a cross-loading above .35 was detected. The item clustersimplied by the factor loadings indicate an employee quality dimension(seven items), a experience value dimension (five items), access dimension(four items), ancillary quality dimension (four items), and visual aestheticsdimension (two items). None of the items were deleted based on item-to-total correlations (Nunnally, 1978), and all of the scales demonstrated stronginternal consistencies with Cronbach’s alphas of .94, .85, .79, .78 and .77being obtained for factors 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively. The results of thefactor analysis were used to create new variables for subsequent analyses inorder to identify differences in the mean importance values of these scalesacross the commitment and demographic characteristics measured in thisstudy. The results of these analyses are reported next.

Patron Commitment

The five performing arts quality dimensions were examined for differencesacross the three commitment types examined in this study: instrumental(whether the subject was a member of the arts organization, whether therespondent was a single or series ticket buyer, the number ofperformances attended in the previous twelve months), temporal (thenumber of years the respondent had been attending events at this artsorganization), and attitudinal (word-of-mouth, repurchase, subscription,and donation intentions).

Instrumental Commitment

Similar to many arts organizations, supporters of the performing arts facilityinvestigated in this study can join a supporting foundation. Supportingmembership is determined by various levels of monetary donations to theperforming arts center. Foundation membership was determined through adichotomous question (yes/no). MANOVA resulted in a significant Wilks’Lambda of .958 (df 5 5, p 5 .002). ANOVA results indicated significantgroup differences existed for the following dimensions: experience value(6.25, df 5 1, p 5 .013), access (F 5 5.46, df 5 1, p 5 .020), ancillary quality(F 5 4.78, df 5 1, p 5 .029), and visual aesthetics (F 5 6.38, df 5 1, p 5

.012). The findings suggest that employee quality was equally important forboth members (mean 5 5.86, SD 5 .76) and non-members of the foundation(mean 5 5.78, SD 5 1.05), but issues related to the show itself (meanmember

68 J. C. Davis and S. R. Swanson

5 6.39 SD 5 1.61; meannon-member 5 5.98, SD 5 .95), facility access(meanmember 5 5.36 SD 5 .74; meannon-member 5 4.90, SD 5 1.14), ancillaryconcerns (meanmember 5 4.40 SD 5 1.43; meannon-member 5 3.92, SD 5 1.24),and visual aesthetics (meanmember 5 5.71 SD 5 1.08; meannon-member 5 5.19,SD 5 1.17) were more important to supporting members.

Series ticket buying behavior was determined through a dichotomousquestion. A significant Wilks’ Lambda resulted from the MANOVA (Wilks’Lambda 5 .955, df 5 5, p 5 .001). The univariate ANOVA results indicatedthere was a statistically significant group difference for only the experiencevalue dimension (F 5 13.75, df 5 1, p 5 .000). Specifically, issues relateddirectly to the performance (e.g., acoustics, quality of the performance) weremore important to series ticket buyers (mean 5 6.29, SD 5 .75) than singleticket buyers (mean 5 5.93, SD 5 .95).

The number of performances attended in the past year was categorizedas one performance, two to three performances, four to five performances,or more than five performances. MANOVA resulted in a significant Wilks’Lambda of .910 (df 5 5, p 5 .015). Further univariate ANOVAs providedsimilar findings to the series ticket buying behavior. Specifically, experiencevalue was significant (F 5 5.44, df 5 3, p 5 .001). A Scheffe post-hoc testsuggests that those attending more than five performances in the previousyear (mean 5 6.33, SD 5 .79) rated the importance of the show performancehigher than any other group (mean1 5 5.98, SD 5 .75; mean2–3 5 5.82, SD 5

1.09, mean4–5 5 5.96, SD 5 .80).

Temporal Commitment

The number of years attending performances was not found to bestatistically significantly related to any of the importance factors identifiedin this study (p . .05).

Attitudinal Commitment

Behavioral intentions can be defined as currently planned actions to betaken some time in the future (Malhotra, 1993) and may be consideredindications of whether the customer will remain with or defect from a firm.The four proposed attitudinal aspects of commitment as outlined byBhattacharya and Sen (2003) were examined both individually and inconjunction with the previously discussed service importance factors,instrumental/input-, and temporal-commitment indicator variables (seeTables 2 and 3).

Overall, the respondents of this survey were likely to suggest to othersthat they attend a performance at this arts facility (mean 5 4.45, SD 5 .77). Astatistically significant correlation at the .01 level (2-tailed) was found for

Importance of Being Earnest 69

employee quality (.274), experience value (.253), access (.217), aesthetics(.197), and at the .05 level (2-tailed) for ancillary quality (.104), with word-of-mouth intentions.

T-test results (p 5 .000) suggest that foundation members were morelikely to engage in positive word-of-mouth (mean 5 4.89, SD 5 .40) thannon-members (mean 5 4.41, SD 5 .78), as were series (mean 5 4.81, SD5 .47) versus single (mean 5 4.31, SD 5 .82) ticket buyers. ANOVAsindicate positive word-of-mouth intentions based on both the number ofperformances attended in the previous twelve months (F 5 8.80, df 5 3, p5 .000) and the number of years attending the arts organization (F 5 4.73,

TABLE 2 Pearson Correlations for Importance Factors by Attitudinal Commitment

AttitudinalCommitment

Importance Factors

EmployeeQuality

ExperienceValue

Access AncillaryQuality

Aesthetics

Word-of-Mouth .274** .253** .217** .104* .197**Repurchase .173** .246** .187** .056 .180**Subscribe .006 .130** .144* .205** .061Donate .016 .053 .080 .210** .091

**Correlation is significant at the .01 level (2-tailed).

* Correlation is significant at the .05 level (2-tailed).

TABLE 3 Instrumental- and Temporal-Commitment by Attitudinal Commitment

Attitudinal Commitment

Word-of-Mouth

Repurchase Subscribe Donate

Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD

Instrumental Current MemberYes 4.89 .40 4.86 .55 4.71 .78 4.26 .98No 4.41 .78 4.38 .91 3.16 1.41 2.53 1.27

Ticket Buyer TypeSingle 4.31 .82 4.24 .96 2.78 1.30 2.38 1.25Series 4.81 .47 4.87 .47 4.58 .86 3.40 1.30

Times Attended in Previous Year1 time 4.33 .82 4.39 .81 2.78 1.38 2.30 1.102–3 times 4.65 .59 4.64 .65 3.25 1.37 2.66 1.274–5 times 4.70 .54 4.66 .65 3.80 1.14 3.32 1.186 or more times 4.82 .46 4.89 .47 4.53 .97 3.47 1.38

Temporal Years Attended1 year 4.53 .68 4.58 .68 3.41 1.32 3.03 1.392–3 years 4.62 .63 4.63 .63 3.38 1.37 2.57 1.144–5 years 4.53 .72 4.56 .79 3.65 1.30 2.90 1.326–9 years 4.84 .37 4.92 .27 3.82 1.29 3.21 1.1110 or more years 4.88 .32 4.88 .32 4.32 1.25 3.45 1.46

70 J. C. Davis and S. R. Swanson

df 5 4, p 5 .001). Scheffe post hoc analysis indicates that respondentswho had attended only one show in the last year had a significantly lowerlikelihood of engaging in positive word-of-mouth (mean 5 4.33, SD 5

.82). Those subjects who had attended performances at the artsorganization for more than ten years were more likely to have positiveword-of-mouth intentions relative to any other group (mean 5 4.88, SD 5

.32). Findings support H1a-H4a.In this study respondents were asked to indicate how strongly they

planned to attend future performances at the arts organization. Overallintentions to attend in the future appeared to be strong (Mean 5 4.42, SD 5

.89). A statistically significant correlation at the .01 level (2-tailed) was foundfor employee quality (.173), experience value (.246), access (.187), andaesthetics (.180), with repurchase intentions. Not surprisingly, series ticketbuyers (mean 5 4.87, SD 5 .47) and members (mean 5 4.86, SD 5 .55) weresignificantly more likely to indicate this intention relative to single ticketbuyers (mean 5 4.24, SD 5 .96) or non-members (mean 5 4.38, SD 5 .91).ANOVA with a Scheffe post-hoc test suggests that those who have attendedthe most years (F 5 4.42, df 5 4, p 5 .002), and the most often ((F 5 7.99, df5 3, p 5 .000), were more likely to plan on attending performances at thisarts organization in the future. Hypotheses H1b-H4b are all supported.

Subscribing to a series of shows in advance may indicate a higher levelof customer commitment than simply intending to attend a show at somefuture point in time. Overall, the reported intentions to subscribe were abovethe scale mid-point (Mean 5 3.29, SD 5 1.44). Findings from t-tests (p 5

.000) indicated that foundation members had greater intentions to purchasea subscription (mean 5 4.71, SD 5 .78) than non-members (mean 5 3.16,SD 5 1.41), as did series (mean 5 4.58, SD 5 .86) relative to single (mean 5

2.78, SD 5 1.30) ticket buyers. ANOVAs indicated subscription intentiondifferences based on both the number of performances attended in theprevious twelve months (F 531.10, df 5 3, p 5 .000) and the number ofyears attending the arts organization (F 5 5.15, df 5 4, p 5 .000). Scheffepost hoc analysis indicated that as the number of performances attendedincreased, the intentions to subscribe in the future significantly increased aswell. For the number of years attended, those who have been attending thearts organization for ten years or more were more likely (mean 5 4.32, SD 5

1.25) to have future subscription intentions relative to those with up to threeyears of attendance (mean1 year 5 3.41, SD 5 1.32; mean2–3 years 5 3.38, SD5 1.37). Findings supported H1c-H4c. A statistically significant correlation atthe .01 level (2-tailed) was found for the importance factors of experiencevalue (.130), ancillary quality (.205), and at the .05 level (2-tailed) for access(.114), with subscription intentions.

As noted earlier in this article, the need for private patronage hasreached an all time high. Thus, being able to identify those patrons with thegreatest intentions to donate could be particularly helpful to arts marketers

Importance of Being Earnest 71

targeting efforts. Of the behavioral intentions investigated in this study,consideration for donating time or money scored lowest overall (mean 5

2.68, SD 5 1.34). However, intentions to donate were significantly correlatedat the .01 level (2-tailed) with ancillary quality (.210). T-test results (p 5 .000)suggest that foundation members had greater intentions to donate to the artsorganization (mean 5 4.26, SD 5 .98) than non-members (mean 5 2.53, SD5 1.27), as did series (mean 5 3.40, SD 5 1.30) versus single (mean 5 2.38,SD 5 1.25) ticket buyers. ANOVAs indicated positive donation intentionsbased on both the number of performances attended in the previous twelvemonths (F 5 15.04, df 5 3, p 5 .000) and the number of years attending thearts organization (F 5 3.80, df 5 4, p 5 .005). Scheffe post hoc analysisindicated that respondent donation intentions were significantly greater forthose that attended at least four to five times (or more) in the past year.Those subjects who had attended performances at the arts organization formore than ten years had significantly higher donation intentions (mean 5

3.45, SD 5 1.46) than did those with only two-to-three years of attendancehistory (mean 5 2.57, SD 5 1.14). Findings support H1d-H4d.

Patron Demographics

The five performing arts quality importance dimensions were examined fordifferences across the following demographic characteristics: age, educationlevel, gender, and income level. Age, gender, and income level were notfound to result in statistically significant differences (p . .05); however, theMANOVA for the analysis in which educational level was used as anindependent variable resulted in a significant Wilks’ Lambda of 1.72 (df 5

15, p 5 .04). ANOVA results indicated that of the five dimensionsconsidered, only ancillary quality differed significantly (F 5 4.69, df 5 3, p5 .003). Utilizing a Scheffe post hoc analysis suggests that ancillary items aresignificantly more important to those patrons with a high school or lesseducation (mean 5 4.32, SD 5 1.17) relative to those with post-graduatedegrees (mean 5 3.65, SD 5 1.40).

DISCUSSION

The question of what importance quality attributes patrons use to evaluatelive arts performance and how specific factors relate to audiencecommitment and demographic information guided this study. Our findingsmay benefit arts marketers by providing fresh insights regarding thedevelopment of more effective approaches to segmentation. As such, wefirst addressed the research question of what are some of the key performingarts service quality importance factors. Service encounters are complex, caninvolve a large number of servicescape variables, and managing these ‘‘gives

72 J. C. Davis and S. R. Swanson

firms additional opportunities to influence consumer decision-making’’(Hoffman & Turley, 2002, p. 41). This study identified five quality dimensionsin the performing arts context. The mean scores provide some indication ofwhich components are relatively more important to patrons. Specifically, indescending order is the performance itself, quality of the employees,aesthetics, facility access and convenience, and ancillary quality. Due to thehigh importance of employee quality, we agree with Royne Stafford andTripp (2000) that ‘‘proprietors should carefully train all staff, emphasizing theparticular contribution each individual and each attribute of service qualitymakes to a patron’s overall theater experience’’ (p. 41).

Our second research question focused on identifying differences in themean importance values of these factors across instrumental, temporal, andattitudinal commitment variables. The findings indicated that the five factorswere not perceived uniformly by respondents.

Not only were issues related directly to the performance (e.g., acoustics,quality of the performance) most important overall, they were moreimportant to members, series ticket buyers, and those attending moreperformances. Interestingly, it was the quality of ancillary items thatappeared to be particularly influential in patrons’ intentions to donate tothe organization and to become a subscribing member in the future. Yet,ancillary quality was not related to intentions to actually attend performancesand was only weakly correlated with engaging in socially promoting the artsorganization. Future studies may better isolate and consider the role ofconsumer information processing on such evaluations.

For arts managers, an important first step in first attracting and thenestablishing a relationship with a newer patron may be to highlight theancillary aspects of the performance. As indirect aspects of the core serviceoffering, ancillaries are satisfiers that can act to create delight in thecustomer. A gift shop or restaurant can be the main destination of somevisitors (Chong, 2002) and has been viewed as an opportunity to convert apoint of attraction to actually attending a performance in the future. In thisstudy items such as concessions or the gift shop were not as likely to be adeciding factor to revisit or a topic of conversation to encourage others toattend a performance. However it is likely that ancillaries indicate to thepatron that the arts organization has a focus on quality even in areas notdirectly related to the show. This positively reflects on the entireorganization, making it more attractive to the customer to increase her/hislevel of commitment through subscription and donation behaviors. Inaddition, ancillary cues may provide an outwardly apparent delight factorthat prompts an interest in attending a performance, much as sports venuesand movie theaters have found with adding greater food variety and seatingoptions. Arts managers may wish to highlight these ancillary aspects of theperformance to attract new patrons. This does not imply that the core servicecan be of a lower quality. For long-term patrons, continuing the relationship

Importance of Being Earnest 73

by supporting the foundation and attending events likely indicates a basiclevel of satisfaction with the overall caliber of performances, thus theancillaries may be a lagniappe, an unexpected but pleasing ‘‘gift’’ oraccompaniment to the main product being purchased. These results couldalso suggest a different explanation: those who are long-time attendantshave more occasions to test and use ancillary services, thus they mightbecome important. For a single event, for example, the food quality might benot relevant, since one is there just for the show. This relationship is one thatfuture researchers will want to investigate in greater detail.

One means of assessing the strength of the customer relationship with afirm is by customer intentions to engage in active behaviors that support theorganization (i.e., attitudinal commitment). Not surprisingly all of the futureintentions toward the arts organization measured in this study and previousbehaviors as evidenced via instrumental and temporal commitment wererelated. As with other organizations, performing arts managers must identifythe right market segments and understand them to more effectively createand build relationships. Dividing a market into distinct groups that sharecommon, meaningful characteristics is the strategic process of segmentation.Those patrons who had been building a relationship (i.e., current foundationmembers, series ticket purchasers, those who attend a greater number ofperformances, and those who have more years of association throughattendance at shows) were most likely to indicate that they would engage incommitment building activities with the arts organization in the future. Forthe arts manager these are also the easiest targets to reach as they provide anumber of touch-point opportunities.

Several researchers have also suggested that commitment behaviorssuch as purchasing series tickets or making donations can best be explainedvia the identification construct (e.g., Bhattacharya, Rao, & Glynn, 1995;Bhattacharya & Sen, 2003; Brady, Noble, Utter, & Smith, 2002; Swanson &Davis, 2006). Swanson and Davis (2006) define patron identification as the‘‘perceived connectedness to an arts organization and the experience of thefacilities’ failings and achievements as one’s own’’ (p. 126). Brady et al.(2002) content that identification may be more enduring and more salientrelative to service quality importance dimensions. Incorporating identifica-tion into future studies on relationship building and the segmenting of artsaudiences would appear to be warranted.

Interestingly, the number of years attending performances was notfound to be significantly related to any of the importance factors identified inthis study. There may be a problem with how respondents interpreted, andthus responded to, the question. For example, what if number of yearsattended was sporadic? This could potentially explain the lack of significantresults for this variable. The findings could also indicate that the keyimportance factors identified in this study are stable over time.

74 J. C. Davis and S. R. Swanson

This study pooled the data of five different types of performancestogether for analysis. The five performances belong to a single subscriptionseries and were chosen to provide a diverse group of respondents. Our lastresearch question used this diversity to determine what, if any, relationshipdo demographics have with the importance factors theater patrons use whenevaluating a performing arts service encounter. It appears that importancefactors are perceived very consistently across gender, age, householdincome, and educational level. So while commitment levels may offer pointsof differentiation for arts managers to pursue in creating and maintainingpatron relationships, demographic categories do not, again highlighting theneed for more powerful and accessible means for segmenting patrons.

LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH

Turley and Milliman (2000) note that in retail contexts changes in aestheticsand access/layout can have significant impacts in how consumers may reactto a store. This is not a new idea. Kotler (1973) notes that ‘‘one of the mostsignificant features of the total product is the place where it is bought orconsumed’’ (emphasis ours). For arts performances the theaterscape is bothwhere the product is purchased and consumed and that factor combinedwith a larger deficit in government support makes the issue of patroncomfort and appeal to aesthetics particularly compelling. This studymeasured a number of items in these areas, and future researchers maywant to consider manipulating these factors to explore their potential impacton patron quality perceptions.

To generate a diverse group of respondents, samples used in this studywere drawn from five unique performances that took place on different days ofthe week and times over a two-month period. Researchers were stationed withmultiple clipboards (50 in total) so that several questionnaires could be filledout simultaneously, making it more likely that anyone who wanted toparticipate could fill out a questionnaire. However, the study utilized a non-probability judgment sample for which there are no appropriate statisticaltechniques for measuring random sampling error, so projecting the databeyond the sample is statistically inappropriate. Self-selection bias is also apossible limitation of the study. The marketing director of the arts facility wasasked to compare the demographics of the sample with the knowndemographics of the arts facility patrons and did not find any biases inresponse patterns. Although no demographic group appeared to be under-represented in this research, future studies should utilize a probability samplingprocess to address the bias inherent in non-probability sampling procedures.

Pooling the data of different types of performances together in theanalysis may also be considered a limitation of the study. The fiveperformances belong to a single subscription series and were chosen to

Importance of Being Earnest 75

provide a diverse group of respondents. It is possible that particularimportance factors or attributes may hold a different level of importance forparticular performance types. ANOVA results indicated no statisticallysignificant difference for any of the importance dimensions based on thetype of performance. Conducting the same analysis with the twenty-twoimportance attributes also yielded no statistically significant findings. Oneinterpretation is that the level of importance for these variables are constant,irrelevant of the performance genre. It is also possible that the use of Likert-type scales failed to adequately capture these differences. Future researchersmay wish to consider having respondents rank importance attributes orutilizing constant sum scales to explore the generalizability of the relation-ships investigated in this study.

Swanson, Davis and Zhao (2007) recently discussed how the customermay desire and react emotionally to the live performance consumptionexperience. Post consumption behavioral intentions and responses can alsobe related to emotion (Bougie, Pieters, & Zeelenberg, 2003; Westbrook,1987). Emotional stimulation has been investigated previously as amotivation to experience live performances but not specifically as adimension of service quality. Edvardsson (2005) argues for an expandedview of the service quality concept, one that includes emotions. Grove, Fisk,and Dorsch (1998) also state that the service setting may impact consumer’semotional or cognitive reactions and subsequent behaviors and should bestudied beyond the anecdotal fashion found in the extant literature. Theinvestigation of emotion in conjunction with cognitive responses in formingservice quality perceptions is an issue that should be examined in the future.

To effectively use marketing, arts managers need additional knowledgeof the marketing discipline to effectively implement their objectives(Cuadrado, Gil, & Molla, 2000; Polonsky & Garma, 2006; Yucelt, 2000).This research provides some insight into what customers want whenconsuming a live arts performance. However, the dimensionality ofperceived service quality may be a function of a particular nonprofitindustry (McFadyen, Harrison, Kelly, & Scott, 2001), and thus futureresearchers should investigate the generalizability of these findings acrossa broader range of nonprofit services.

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