Proceedings | Marketing area | Year 2016
 

Flow experiences and the well-being of service consumers

by T. Kolar; Randall Shannon
  
  the 7th International Research Symposium in Service Management in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand

Abstract

Superior service experiences and consumer well-being became two important imperatives and important research and management issues. Still, there is a lack of adequate theoretical frameworks that would inspire and provide guidance for the understanding and development of peak experiences and their well-being consequences in the services sector. In order to fill the identified gap this paper employs the flow concept in order to (a) inform and advance conceptualization and development of peak consumer experiences and (b) provide a link between peak experiences and consumer well-being. In the first part of the paper two most relevant aspects of the flow construct are addressed, namely core elements of flow experience and the overview of various sources from which peak experiences result (e.g. play/art, body/mind). In the second part of the paper conceptual and managerial implications of the flow experiences and consequences for the service marketing and management are discussed. Paper concludes with the brief discussion of the implementation challenges, research implications and flow construct limitations.