Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior in the entertainment Industry During and after COVID-19

Dorothy Bryans and Dr. Irina Toteva

Introduction

• Movie theaters have been a staple in American culture since the opening of the very first movie theater, The Nickelodeon, in 1905 (Mondello, 2005). Even 115 years later, movie theaters continue to be a main source of entertainment for consumers, young and old.

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• Movie theaters create a home for major film releases and people with similar interests, provide a place for social gatherings, and bring in large amounts of revenue both nationally and locally, making them an important piece of American culture and economy.

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• The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has left movie theaters and the entertainment industry as a whole handicapped.

Purpose

The purpose of this project is to address how safety measures, among other factors, could influence the purchase intention of consumers at movies theaters and to address possible factors influencing a consumer’s likelihood to get entertainment outside of their home.

Research Questions

• How can safety measures influence the purchase intention of consumers at movie theaters?
• What other factors could influence a consumer’s likelihood to get entertainment outside of the home?

Literature Review - Fear

• While there has been some research on Covid-19 itself, there has been little research on the effects that Covid-19 has had on consumer behavior, specifically consumer behavior in the entertainment industry, and what factors generally influence individuals to seek entertainment outside of the home.
• Fear is defined as an emotion made in response to a stimulus that is perceived as threatening or dangerous that can influence change in the behavior, attitude, and actions of a consumer (LaTour, Rotfeld, 1997).
• In a study investigating the effects of fear on the economic decline during the pandemic, evidence was found linking the voluntary decrease in commercial activity during the pandemic to the fear of becoming infected, where “the drop in consumer visits [was] strongly correlated with the number of local COVID deaths”(Goolsbee, Syverson, 2020). In agreement with these findings are the results of a study focusing on the SARS pandemic of 2003.
• In a study focusing on anxiety-related conditions after the pandemic, studies suggest that some individuals may have developed a Covid-19 related “PTSD”, where precautionary behaviors acquired during the current pandemic may have become lasting behaviors (Taylor, S., & Asmundson, G., 2020).

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Literature Review - Fandom

• The term Fandom simply refers to a collective group/subculture of devoted fans or admirers of something/someone who share a common interest and who develop a closeness or bond with one another, examples fandoms being the Star Trek fandom, the Star Wars fandom, the Harley-Davison fandom, and the Britney Spears fandom, among others (Thorne, 2011) (Huang, Tsui-Ju, 2016).
• In an article by John Lyden, he equates the concept of fandom to religion, discussing how fandom experiences, such as the fan experience seen at movie theaters, “at least have a dimension that is analogous to religion” (Lyden, 2012).
• Beyond their mere devotion, a book discussing fandoms links the concept of fandoms to a sense of community and subculture (Gray, Sandvoss, Harrington, 2017). Fandoms create a way for individuals to organize and create a community of like-minded people (Gray, Sandvoss, Harrington, 2017).

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Literature Review – Value of Social Interaction

• In an article examining motivation and team identification, the findings showed that “people motivated by social interaction for spectating sports may not watch sports frequently” (Gau, Wann, James, 2010).
• People that place high levels of value on social interaction at sports events are likely to go out to physically see the sports event instead of watching them from home and may even be unmotivated to watch sports at home in the absence of social interaction.
• In a study investigating the role that social Interaction plays in playing massively multiplayer online role-playing games, studies showed that “Social interaction within MMORPGs is of paramount importance, influencing both the enjoyment and the level of engagement that a gamer has” (Chen, V. H. H., Duh, H. B. L., Phuah, P. S. K., & Lam, D. Z. Y., 2006).

Conceptual Model

Value of Social Interaction

Hypotheses

H1: Individuals with higher levels of fear are less likely to attend movies at movie theaters than those with lower levels of fear.

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H2: Individuals who are highly devoted to a particular fandom are more likely to attend movies at movie theaters than those who are not highly devoted to a fandom.

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H3: Individuals that place high levels of value on the social aspect of entertainment are more likely to attend movies at movie theaters than those who place lower levels of value on the social aspect of entertainment.

Methodology

Type of Study:

• The research in this study will be based on a causal research with an experimental design.
• In this study, a five-point Likert scale survey will be used to collect data from participants.
• In general, there’s a need for primary data collection of this kind because it explores a connection between variables that have never been explored before.

Target Population:

• The target population for this study will be men and women between the ages of 18 and 65.
• The sample size for this study will be 97 participants based on a 3 factor ANOVA design.

Sample Design and Data Collection Method:

• An online survey will be administered to online participants for this study
• Participants will be recruited in part through Amazon Mechanical Turk where survey participants will be monetarily compensated for the completion of the survey. This research will also utilize the resources of the education research company, The Findings Group, in finding participants as they have connections to universities and various other clients.
• To ensure validity and avoid bias, already validated instruments, scales, and procedures from previous research studies will be used in this research.

Procedure

1. Sit participants in front of computer and introduce survey
2. Participants will be presented with independent variables where they will be presented with one of 2 possible conditions
3. Participants will be presented with the dependent variable where they will be asked how likely they are to attend a movie at a movie theater on a scale from 1 to 5, 1 being very unlikely and 5 being very likely.
4. Participants will be presented with the final independent variable where they will first be presented with the definition of fandom and then participants will be presented with several questions relating to fandoms where answers will be based on a 5 - point scale, 1 being strongly disagree and 5 being strongly agree.
5. Once the participants have been presented with all of the independent and dependent variables, the participants will be asked general demographic questions including income level, age, race, gender, and education level.
6. After participants answer the demographic questions, participants will be presented with closing statements.

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Results

Once the data has been collected during this experiment, three-way ANOVA analysis will be used to analyze all of the variables. The projected results are seen below.

These projected results show that:

• individuals with high levels of fear are less likely to attend movies at movie theaters than individuals with lower levels of fear
• individuals with high levels of devotion to a fandom are more likely to attend movies at a movie theater than those with lower levels of fear
• individuals that place higher levels of value on social interaction in entertainment are more likely to attend movies at movie theaters than those who place lower levels of value on social interaction in entertainment

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Conclusion

• This research can be applied to movie theaters and the entertainment industry as a whole
• Based on the information found in this experiment, entertainment firms can appeal to a consumer’s devotion to a particular fandom or appeal to the value they place on social interaction in entertainment to increase the overall likelihood that consumers will seek entertainment outside of the home.
• In situations where there are higher levels of fear in consumers concerning visiting a movie theater or visiting other entertainment venues due to fear of infection, fear of physical harm, etc. entertainment firms can use the information from this experiment to implement safety measures to reduce the levels of fear in consumers and increase the likelihood of consumers to seek entertainment outside of the home.

THANKS

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References

• Chen, V. H. H., Duh, H. B. L., Phuah, P. S. K., & Lam, D. Z. Y. (2006, September). Enjoyment or engagement? role of social interaction in playing massively mulitplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGS). In International Conference on Entertainment Computing (pp. 262-267). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
• Gau, L.-S., Wann, D. L., & James, J. D. (2010). Examining Relations of Entertainment with Social Interaction Motives and Team Identification. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 111(2), 576–588. https://doi.org/10.2466/05.07.PMS.111.5.576-588
• Goolsbee, Austan, and Chad Syverson. 2020. “Fear, Lockdown, and Diversion: Comparing Drivers of Pandemic Economic Decline 2020.” NBER Working Paper No. 27432, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.
• Gray, J., Sandvoss, C., & Harrington, C. L. (Eds.). (2017). Fandom: Identities and communities in a mediated world. NYU Press.
• John C. Lyden, Whose Film Is It, Anyway? Canonicity and Authority in Star Wars Fandom, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume 80, Issue 3, September 2012, Pages 775–786, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfs037
• LaTour, M. S., & Rotfeld, H. J. (1997). There are threats and (maybe) fear-caused arousal: Theory and confusions of appeals to fear and fear arousal itself. Journal of Advertising, 26(3), 45-59. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/236566350?accountid=11227
• Sadique, M. Z., Edmunds, W. J., Smith, R. D., Meerding, W. J., de Zwart, O., Brug, J., & Beutels, P. (2007). Precautionary behavior in response to perceived threat of pandemic influenza. Emerging infectious diseases, 13(9), 1307–1313. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid1309.070372
• Taylor, S., & Asmundson, G. (2020). Life in a post-pandemic world: What to expect of anxiety-related conditions and their treatment. Journal of anxiety disorders, 72, 102231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102231
• Thorne, S. (2011). An exploratory investigation of the theorized levels of consumer fanaticism. Qualitative Market Research, 14(2), 160-173. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13522751111120675

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