DEVELOPING AND VALIDATING A MEMORABLE GUEST EXPERIENCE SCALE IN THE PEER-TO-PEER HOSPITALITY ECOSYSTEM

INGLESE

THE RAPID GROWTH OF PEER-TO-PEER (P2P) HOSPITALITY PLATFORMS HAS FUNDAMENTALLY RESHAPED HOW TRAVELLERS EXPERIENCE ACCOMMODATION, CHALLENGING THE ASSUMPTIONS UNDERLYING DECADES OF HOTEL-CENTRIC GUEST EXPERIENCE RESEARCH. WITHIN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY SCHOLARSHIP, THE CONCEPT OF MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE HAS PROGRESSIVELY GAINED THEORETICAL PROMINENCE, FROM EARLY CONCEPTUALISATIONS OF THE EXPERIENCE ECONOMY (PINE & GILMORE, 1999) AND THE RECOGNITION OF TOURISM AS AN INHERENTLY EXPERIENTIAL PHENOMENON (TUNG & RITCHIE, 2011), TO KIM ET AL.'S (2012) SEMINAL OPERATIONALISATION OF THE MEMORABLE TOURISM EXPERIENCE (MTE) AS A MULTIDIMENSIONAL CONSTRUCT AND ITS SUBSEQUENT MEASUREMENT. YET NEITHER THE HOTEL-CENTRIC HOSPITALITY TRADITION NOR THE MTE FRAMEWORK WAS DESIGNED TO ACCOUNT FOR THE DISTINCTIVE DYNAMICS OF DIGITALLY MEDIATED, PEER-HOSTED, AND ECOSYSTEM-EMBEDDED EXPERIENCES THAT CHARACTERISE P2P PLATFORMS, INTRODUCING A DUAL GAP IN THE EXISTING LITERATURE. THE ACADEMIC LITERATURE THUS LACKS A VALIDATED INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE MEMORABLE GUEST EXPERIENCE (MGE) IN P2P HOSPITALITY, A GAP THIS DOCTORAL THESIS DIRECTLY ADDRESSES. GROUNDED IN THE MTE FRAMEWORK AND INFORMED BY A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW OF 195 PEER-REVIEWED STUDIES, THE RESEARCH ADOPTS AN INTEGRATIVE THEORETICAL ARCHITECTURE THAT COMBINES EXPERIENCE ECONOMY THEORY (PINE & GILMORE, 1999), SERVICE-DOMINANT LOGIC (VARGO & LUSCH, 2004), AND PLATFORM ECOSYSTEM SCHOLARSHIP AS COMPLEMENTARY LENSES THROUGH WHICH MGE IS CONCEPTUALISED AND OPERATIONALISED. WITHIN THIS MULTI-THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK, MGE IS CONCEPTUALISED AS A HIGHER-ORDER REFLECTIVE-FORMATIVE CONSTRUCT ENCOMPASSING DIMENSIONS IDENTIFIED THROUGH AN INTEGRATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE P2P HOSPITALITY ECOSYSTEM. THE RESEARCH DESIGN FOLLOWS CHURCHILL'S (1979) PARADIGM TO DEVELOP AND VALIDATE AN INSTRUMENT, ACROSS THREE SEQUENTIAL PHASES: DOMAIN SPECIFICATION AND ITEM GENERATION, EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS (EFA) FOR SCALE REFINEMENT, AND CONFIRMATORY COMPOSITE ANALYSIS (CCA) WITHIN A PARTIAL LEAST SQUARES STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELLING (PLS-SEM) FRAMEWORK FOR CONSTRUCT VALIDATION. THE RESULTING INSTRUMENT CAPTURES SIX EMPIRICALLY DERIVED DIMENSIONS - COMFORT, KNOWLEDGE, RELATIONALITY, PLATFORM USABILITY, NOVELTY, AND ENJOYMENT - EACH SHOWING ROBUST PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES IN TERMS OF RELIABILITY, CONVERGENT VALIDITY, AND DISCRIMINANT VALIDITY. NOMOLOGICAL VALIDITY IS FURTHER ESTABLISHED THROUGH STRUCTURAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MGE DIMENSIONS AND KEY OUTCOME VARIABLES, INCLUDING OVERALL EXPERIENCE MEMORABILITY, RETURN INTENTIONS, AND WORD-OF-MOUTH BEHAVIOUR. TAKEN TOGETHER, THESE FINDINGS YIELD A PARSIMONIOUS YET COMPREHENSIVE MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENT WITH STRONG PSYCHOMETRIC FOUNDATIONS. THE THESIS MAKES SEVERAL ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM LITERATURE. THEORETICALLY, IT EXTENDS THE MTE FRAMEWORK TO THE P2P CONTEXT, DEMONSTRATING HOW THE CONVERGENCE OF EXPERIENCE ECONOMY THEORY, SERVICE-DOMINANT LOGIC, AND PLATFORM ECOSYSTEM SCHOLARSHIP YIELDS A RICHER AND MORE CONTEXTUALLY SENSITIVE CONCEPTUALISATION OF MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE THAN ANY SINGLE THEORETICAL TRADITION COULD PROVIDE ALONE. METHODOLOGICALLY, IT INTRODUCES A RIGOROUSLY VALIDATED MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENT APPLICABLE TO FUTURE CROSS-CULTURAL AND LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH. PRACTICALLY, THE MGE SCALE OFFERS ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS FOR PLATFORM OPERATORS, HOSTS, AND DESTINATION STAKEHOLDERS SEEKING TO ENHANCE EXPERIENTIAL VALUE IN SHARING ECONOMY ACCOMMODATION. COLLECTIVELY, THESE CONTRIBUTIONS POSITION THE MGE AT THE INTERSECTION OF TOURISM EXPERIENCE RESEARCH AND DIGITAL PLATFORM STUDIES.