The Effects of Local Specialty Experience on Place Attachment and Loyalty: The Mediating Effect of Experience Flow and the Moderating Effect of Perceived Value Name : Kim Kyo-Young Advisor : Prof. Park Kyoung-jong, Ph.D. Department of Management, Grad...
The Effects of Local Specialty Experience on Place Attachment and Loyalty: The Mediating Effect of Experience Flow and the Moderating Effect of Perceived Value Name : Kim Kyo-Young Advisor : Prof. Park Kyoung-jong, Ph.D. Department of Management, Graduate School of Gwangju University This study aims to examine the structural relationships between local specialty product experiences, place attachment, and loyalty, focusing on the mediating role of immersion and the moderating role of perceived value. As contemporary tourism consumption shifts from “seeing and buying” to “doing and engaging,” experiential value has become a key driver of emotional and behavioral responses among tourists. Local specialty products embody regional identity, culture, history, and symbolic meaning, functioning not only as physical commodities but also as experiential assets that connect tourists emotionally to a destination. However, prior research has primarily focused on product attributes, satisfaction, or purchase intention, and has not sufficiently explored the psychological transformation process that occurs through specialty product experiences. To address this gap, this study conceptualized local specialty product experiences into three dimensions—emotional, cognitive, and behavioral experiences—and proposed a model linking experience, immersion, place attachment, and loyalty. Immersion, based on Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow Theory, was introduced as a key psychological mechanism that connects experience with deeper emotional bonds toward a place. Perceived value was divided into emotional and functional dimensions to examine its moderating effects on the relationship between experience and place attachment. Data were collected from 340 tourists who had experienced local specialty products within the past six months at regional festivals, traditional markets, specialty product experience centers, and rural experiential villages. Using SPSS 28.0 and PROCESS Macro (Model 4 and Model 1), the study conducted mediation and moderation analyses, along with reliability, validity, and common method bias tests. Results indicated that all three types of experiences positively influenced immersion, with emotional experience showing the strongest effect. Immersion significantly predicted place attachment, which in turn positively influenced loyalty. The mediation analysis revealed that immersion partially or fully mediated the effects of experience on place attachment; cognitive experience demonstrated full mediation, suggesting that knowledge-oriented experiences require immersion to be internalized into emotional attachment. Regarding moderation, emotional value strengthened the effect of experience on place attachment, whereas functional value did not show a significant moderating effect, implying that affective components play a more critical role in specialty product experiences. Theoretically, this study contributes to experiential tourism literature by clarifying the multidimensional structure of specialty product experiences and empirically validating the sequential process of experience → immersion → attachment → loyalty. Practically, the findings highlight the importance of emotional and participatory experience design, immersive environment creation, and value-based communication strategies for enhancing regional branding and sustainable tourism development. Keywords: Local specialty product experience, immersion, place attachment, loyalty, perceived value