The twenty-first century is characterized by a diversified environment of information, knowledge, culture, and society, in which every form of design and phenomenon reflects the features of the times. Social transformation implies that the field of de...
The twenty-first century is characterized by a diversified environment of information, knowledge, culture, and society, in which every form of design and phenomenon reflects the features of the times. Social transformation implies that the field of design can provide relevant value to human life, and the perceived value and behaviors of consumers in immersive exhibition design have also undergone significant changes. However, existing research on immersive exhibitions primarily focuses on the benefits of immersive experience and technological performance, while consumers’ sacrifices during immersive exhibition experiences, as well as the factors influencing perceived value and social media engagement, remain underexplored. Therefore, drawing on affordance theory, perceived value, and related literature, this study proposes a process model to examine how affordance characteristics of immersive exhibitions—namely cognitive, functional, physical, and sensory affordances—affect consumers’ perceived value and social media engagement.
A quantitative research method was adopted, and data were analyzed and validated using SPSS 26.0. A total of 558 Chinese consumers who had visited or previously experienced the “teamLab Massless” exhibition in Beijing participated in on-site and online surveys conducted between February and March 2025. Based on these data, this study empirically investigates how affordances influence perceived value and social media engagement during immersive exhibition experiences, and clarifies the mediating role of perceived value and its components—perceived benefits and perceived sacrifices—between affordance characteristics and social media engagement. Furthermore, the feasibility of the proposed affordance process model for immersive exhibitions is confirmed.
The findings are as follows:
First, the affordance characteristics of immersive exhibitions exert significant effects on consumers’ perceived benefits (perceived usefulness, perceived immersion, and perceived social image). Thus, affordance characteristics should be regarded as essential considerations for enhancing perceived benefits in future immersive exhibition designs. In contrast, affordance characteristics did not demonstrate significant impacts on consumers’ perceived sacrifices (perceived cost and perceived physical risk). However, physical affordance was shown to increase consumers’ perceived cost and physical risk, and functional affordance was found to increase perceived cost.
Second, the results indicate that immersive exhibitions generate positive perceived value for consumers. Perceived benefits exert a highly significant positive effect on perceived value. This suggests that the more benefits consumers perceive within the exhibition space, the more valuable they evaluate the space to be. By contrast, perceived sacrifice does not produce a negative effect on consumers’ perceived value.
Taken together, these findings show that although physical affordances and functional affordances may increase consumers’ perceived sacrifice in the exhibition space, cognitive, functional, physical, and sensory affordances simultaneously enhance consumers’ perceived benefits. Consequently, the sacrifices perceived by consumers in the exhibition space do not undermine their overall value perceptions.
This result addresses our initial question. Because immersive exhibitions possess distinctive affordances, they may impose substantial costs on consumers and entail sacrifices such as bodily risks associated with technology; however, these sacrifices do not diminish consumers’ positive value perceptions of immersive exhibitions or their enthusiasm for participation.
Third, perceived value has a positive effect on social media engagement. That is, the higher the value participants attribute to an exhibition, the greater their level of engagement on social media. Therefore, future development of immersive exhibitions should prioritize strategies that enhance perceived value in order to stimulate engagement behaviors.
Fourth, perceived value and its components serve as important mediating variables between affordance characteristics and social media engagement. Affordance characteristics influence consumers’ value perceptions through perceived benefits and perceived sacrifices, which subsequently affect their engagement behaviors.
In summary, this study advances research on affordance characteristics, perceptual processes, and behavioral outcomes in immersive exhibitions by clearly identifying affordance components and proposing a process framework. It also validates the feasibility of the proposed affordance process model. The findings contribute to the theoretical foundation for the sustainable development of China’s immersive exhibition market, extend affordance theory and perceived value theory, and supplement existing research on social media engagement. The study further provides academic insights for the sustainable growth and practical development of immersive exhibitions both in China and internationally.
Moreover, by examining the relationships among affordances, perceived value, and social media engagement in immersive exhibitions, this study explains consumers’ enthusiastic behaviors and explores how technological advancement, social transformation, and shifting consumption ideologies influence art and consumer experiences. The findings offer valuable implications for future research on immersive exhibitions and for the design and practical implementation of immersive exhibition projects.
Keywords: teamLab immersive exhibition, spatial affordance, perceived value, social media engagement