Attachments to places and activities: the relationship of psychological constructs to customer satisfaction attributes

Abstract

This study explores the nature of place attachment, enduring involvement and human territoriality and their relationship with customer satisfaction for a diverse group of anglers at lakes in the New England region. Previous work has made limited headway in our understanding of how place attachment, enduring involvement, and human territoriality relate to people's evaluations of experiences and settings. This study attempts to address the deficiencies of previous research by combining the three constructs and examining their relationship with customer satisfaction. These constructs and their sub-dimensions (independent variables) were examined with twelve importance and satisfaction items as well as gap scores (dependent variables). The results suggest that, as place attachment and attraction (EI) increase, satisfaction with the type of fish an angler can catch increases. Meanwhile, as territorial beliefs increase, anglers' satisfaction with the type of fish they can catch decreases. Significant paths were also found for other domains of customer satisfaction.

Parent Publication

• Proceedings of the 2001 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium

Citation

Wickham, Thomas D.; Graefe, Alan R. 2002. Attachments to places and activities: the relationship of psychological constructs to customer satisfaction attributes. In: Todd, Sharon, comp., ed. 2002. Proceedings of the 2001 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium. Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-289. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station. 356-364.