ABSTRACT
Recent research has found that time orientations or timestyles influence consumer behavior and consumption experiences (Cotte et al. 2004). In addition to the dimension of time, place is another fundamental aspect of consumer lifestyles that structures and organizes their identities, behaviors, and experiences (Cuba and Hummon 1993; Sherry 2000, 1998; Thrift 1997). We thus concur with Sherry that “place exhibits perception-shaping, behavioral inducing properties” (1998: 4). While research on retailing atmospherics and servicescapes (Bitner 1991) shows how place structures consumer behavior and experience within the servicescape, research in consumers’ relationships with place and the influence of these relationships on consumer behavior has been scarce. Lack of research on the topic of place in consumer behavior is also reflected in recent calls for more attention to the ways that consumers’ relationships to place structure their consumption, especially their experience of servicescapes (Sherry 2000; Thompson and Tambyah 1999). In social sciences, the main concept used to characterize the emotional and meaningful relationship between people and places is the concept of home (Altman and Werner 1985). By focusing on one notion of home, this study presents a new perspective, home-as-order, to help understand how place influences consumption of certain dwelling servicescapes, such as hotels.
