The use of immersive technologies has changed the consumption environment in which retailers provide services. We present findings from a study designed to investigate consumer responses toward a $17 million AI-embedded mixed reality (MR) exhibit in a retail/entertainment complex which combines advanced technology entertainment with retail shopping. Findings from our study demonstrate that the quality of AI (i.e., speech recognition and synthesis via machine learning) associated with an augmented object increases MR immersion associated with spatial immersion, MR enjoyment, and consumers’ perceptions of novel experiences. Collectively, these increase consumer engagement, and positively influence behavioral responses—specifically, purchase intentions and intentions to share experiences with social groups. Overall, findings from this study show that interactive AI and MR technology open new avenues to promote consumer engagement.
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Previous investigations of consumer subcultures in the CCT tradition focused primarily on consumer behaviours, feelings, experiences and meanings of consumption. This paper advocates that in order to deeply understand and interpret a particular subculture, researchers in consumer culture should consider more thoroughly the interaction between consumers and producers in consumption markets. This argument is illustrated with a research project on lifestyle sports. From the results of this study it appears that producers play a vital and interdependent role in meaning and interpretation processes. It is argued that processes in which consumers give meaning to activities can not be isolated from the processes in which producers ascribe meanings to activities, settings and markets. In this 'circuit of culture', production and consumption are not completely separate spheres of existence but rather are mutually constitutive of one another (Du Gay, Hall, Janes, Mackay, & Negus, 1997).
Het succes van een merk wordt steeds meer afhankelijk van de manier waarop sociale media worden ingezet. Organisaties proberen met behulp van sociale media brand communities te ontwikkelen om informatie te delen, merkwaarden te communiceren en klantrelaties te onderhouden
Fashion has become inextricably linked with digital culture. Digital media have opened up new spaces of fashion consumption that are unprecedented in their levels of ubiquity, immersion, fluidity, and interactivity. The virtual realm continuously needs us to design and communicate our identity online. Unfortunately, the current landscape of digitised fashion practices seems to lack the type of self-governing attitude and urgency that is needed to move beyond commercially mandated platforms and systems that effectively diminish our digital agency. As transformative power seems to be the promise of the virtual, there is an inherent need to critically assess how digital representation of fashion manifests online, especially when these representations become key mediators within our collective and individual public construction of self. A number of collectives and practitioners that actively shape a counter movement, organized bottom up rather than through capital, are questioning this interdependence, applying inverted thinking and experimenting with alternative modes of engagement. Starting from the research question ‘How can critical fashion practitioners introduce and amplify digital agency within fashion’s virtual landscape through new strategies of aesthetic engagement?’, this project investigates the implications of fashion’s increasing shift towards the virtual realm and the ramifications created for digital agency. It centers on how identity is understood in the digital era, whether subjects have full agency while expected to construct multiple selves, and how online environments that enact as playgrounds for our identities might attribute to a distorted sense of self. By using the field of critical fashion as its site, and the rapidly expanding frontier of digital counter practices as a lens, the aim of this project is to contribute to larger changes within an increasingly global and digital society, such as new modes of consumerism, capital and cultural value.
i-DEMO aims at supporting EU tourism professionals in acquiring and developing key competences in game-based tourism in order to foster innovation and improve overall tourism organizations’ performance by: enhancing specific skills and competences in game-based tourism; designing an i-DEMO course "Game-based Tourism"; creating an i-DEMO toolkit to apply gamification to tourism; enhancing the application and replicability potential of innovative game-based solutions.Societal IssueThe tourism and hospitality industry has rapidly evolved with technological advancements, especially through ICT and the rise of the sharing economy. Digital platforms, social media, and mobile technologies have popularized gamification in tourism, creating engaging experiences and enhancing consumer loyalty. Gamification immerses tourists in simulated travel worlds, improving satisfaction, behavior, and involvement. Benefits include increased visitor engagement, loyalty, improved marketing, and support for sustainable tourism. However, despite its potential, gamification adoption remains limited in tourism. To address this, initiatives like i-DEMO aim to enhance skills and competences, improving employability in the evolving tourism market.Benefit to societyThe benefits that gamification can offer in the travel and tourism industry are: 1: More Engaged Visitors: we must not underestimate the immersion level that games can offer to travelers; 2: Increased Visitor Loyalty: when somebody is truly satisfied with their experience, they are much more likely to come back; 3: Improved Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism: tourism and hospitality have been the biggest ones impacted by all of the lockdown restrictions; consequently they are using all kinds of marketing methods to motivate people to start travelling; 4: Sustainability: gamification could help promote more environmentally, socially and culturally sustainable forms of tourism, supporting the twin green and digital transition.
Het lectorenplatform Voedsel, Voeding en Gezondheid (LPVVG) draagt bij aan onderzoekagenda’s van de topsectoren Agri & Food, Tuinbouw & Uitgangsmaterialen en Life Sciences & Health. Hierbij wordt nauw samengewerkt met het Centre of Expertise Groen en Centre of Expertise Healthy Ageing. Het LPVVG bundelt de expertise en kracht van meerdere hbo-instellingen om impact te genereren op het gebied van gezond en duurzaam voedsel, preventie van ziekte en de relatie met voeding en gezondheid. Het bestaande LPVVG is verbreed en verstevigd en legt voor de komende jaren de focus op drie thema’s: voedselaanbod, voedselvaardigheden en voedselomgeving. Deze onderwerpen sluiten nauw aan bij de KIA’s van de missies ‘Landbouw, Water en Voedsel’met de focus op produceren en consumeren van gezond, veilig en duurzaam voedsel en ‘Gezondheid en Zorg’, waarin wordt gestreefd naar langer leven in goede gezondheid, afname van gezondheidsverschillen en het verbeteren van gezonde leefstijl en leefomgeving.Het LPVVG zet in op het verder uitrollen en aanjagen van programma-ontwikkeling gericht op praktische toepassingen met impact op betrokkenen, van beroepsprofessionals tot burgers. Dit is in lijn met de plannen die tot stand zijn gekomen in het coördinatieteam ‘Roadmap Voeding, Gezondheid en Leefomgeving’. Hierbij gebruikt het LPVVG de eerder opgezette regiokaart voor de transfer en bredere implementatie van projecten over voedsel, voeding en gezondheid tussen en naar de regio’s (social twinning). Concreet betekent dit het opzetten van en bijdragen aan regionale leergemeenschappen voor kennisimplementatie en valorisatie in samenwerken met burgers, organisaties, bedrijven, mbo, hbo en wo. Hiervoor organiseert het LPVVG t.b.v. public engagement een aantal regionale hackatons over voedsel, voeding, leefstijl en gezondheid. Kortom, dit lectorenplatform werkt aan het versterken en zichtbaar maken van de rol van het hbo-domein voedsel, voeding en gezondheid in het praktijkgericht onderzoek en de toepassing hiervan naar het werkveld en de samenleving.
