With the rise of the experience economy, the value creation mechanism in the tourism industry has gradually shifted from product- and service-oriented approaches to experience-centered consumption. In this context, identifying how immersive experience...
With the rise of the experience economy, the value creation mechanism in the tourism industry has gradually shifted from product- and service-oriented approaches to experience-centered consumption. In this context, identifying how immersive experience is transformed into perceived value and subsequently leads to behavioral intention is important for understanding tourists’ decision-making processes. However, previous studies have tended to conceptualize immersion as a single dimension or focus primarily on its emotional aspects, while integrated analyses of the multidimensional structure of immersive experience and the mechanism linking immersive experience, perceived value, and behavioral intention remain limited.
Accordingly, from the perspective of the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) framework, this study examined how immersive experience formed within the experiential environment of Shanghai Disneyland influences behavioral intention through perceived value. Immersive experience was divided into sensory, behavioral, and cognitive immersion; perceived value was divided into hedonic and utilitarian value; and behavioral intention consisted of recommendation intention and revisit intention.
Data were collected through an online survey of Chinese adults who had visited Shanghai Disneyland within the previous year. A total of 394 valid responses were analyzed using PLS-SEM with SmartPLS 4.0 to assess the measurement and structural models.
The results showed that sensory, behavioral, and cognitive immersion all had significant positive effects on both hedonic and utilitarian value. Sensory immersion had a relatively greater effect on hedonic value, whereas behavioral immersion had a relatively greater effect on utilitarian value. Both hedonic and utilitarian value significantly influenced recommendation intention and revisit intention, with utilitarian value showing the relatively greatest effect on revisit intention. The mediation analysis further indicated that both hedonic and utilitarian value significantly mediated the relationships between immersive experience and behavioral intention. In particular, the indirect path from behavioral immersion to revisit intention through utilitarian value showed the largest indirect effect.
This study contributes to the literature by conceptualizing immersive experience as a multidimensional construct comprising sensory, behavioral, and cognitive immersion and by distinguishing perceived value into hedonic and utilitarian dimensions. It also extends the S-O-R framework by specifying the organism component as a sequential internal process in which immersive experience is followed by value evaluation. From a practical perspective, the findings suggest that theme park operators should simultaneously strengthen multisensory design, participatory content, coherent storytelling, and visitors’ perceptions of time- and cost-related utility.
This study was limited to visitors to Shanghai Disneyland in China and did not directly measure external environmental stimuli as independent constructs. Future research should examine diverse countries and theme parks and directly measure sensory, interactive, and narrative environmental stimuli to test the complete S-O-R process.