How value co-creation and experiential marketing affect experiential value within the context of museum souvenir purchasing experience

This study aims to delve into the impact of customers' participation in value co- creation and their perception of experiential marketing on their experiential value. Furthermore, it seeks to explore whether customers with varying levels of expertise and cultural omnivorousness exhibit differences in these effects. The research is conducted within the context of the Palace Museum souvenir shop. With the advent of the experience economy, the Palace Museum souvenir shop has transformed from a traditional retail space into a venue emphasizing cultural creativity and experiential aspects. Based on previous literature, this study hypothesizes that customers' level of museum expertise and cultural omnivorousness moderate the impact of "experiential marketing on experiential value." Specifically, when customers possess higher expertise and greater cultural omnivorousness, the influence of experiential marketing on experiential value is amplified. Furthermore, this study postulates that customers' level of expertise and cultural omnivorousness moderate the impact of 'value co-creation participation on experiential value.' In this regard, when customers have higher expertise and greater cultural omnivorousness, the effect of participation in value co-creation on experiential value becomes more pronounced. To validate these hypotheses, I employed a quantitative research approach and designed a survey questionnaire, collecting 362 responses to investigate the participation of different types of customers in value co-creation, their perception of experiential marketing strategies, and experiential value. I used customers' value co- creation participation and their perception of experiential marketing as independent variables, and experiential value as the dependent variable while considering customers' cultural omnivorousness and museum expertise as moderating variables. Through statistical analysis of the collected data using software, I verified the hypothesized relationships among these variables. The research findings indicate that within the shopping experience at museum souvenir shops, customers' perception of experiential marketing positively influences their experiential value. In the relationship between experiential marketing and experiential value, customers' degree of cultural omnivorousness exerts a positive moderating effect, whereas customers' level of expertise in museums does not exhibit 3 any significant moderating influence. Additionally, consumers' participation in value co- creation positively affects their experiential value. In the impact of consumers' participation in value co-creation on experiential value, customers' level of expertise in museums plays a positive moderating role, while their degree of cultural omnivorousness does not show any significant moderating effect. These findings help us to explore more deeply the impact of consumer’s museum expertise and cultural omnivorousness on individual cultural consumption experience. The findings also provide guidelines for museum souvenir shop to better understand the characteristics of different consumer groups (museum expertise and cultural omnivorousness), so as to carry out different types of experiential marketing and value co-creation activities.