The explanatory variables of narrative transportation and consumer engagement with a transmedia consumption experience
Résumé
Professionals in the cultural sector are increasingly designing transmedia narrative devices. By that new strategy, they expect to increase cultural consumption and attendance. Considering the central role of the narrative transportation during the transmedia experience, this article presents results about six anticipated antecedents of this process experienced by users of a transmedia device that combines digital and physical elements, and deals with the heritage history of a French province. The six variables tested are gender, age, level of education (to describe the socio-demographic profile), geographical proximity (to proxy the familiarity with the topic and contents of the story told in the transmedia device), cultural expertise (to refer to the whole acquaintance with cultural consumption), and relationship with technology (to score the propensity to adopt new technology). Regarding the consequence of the narrative transportation, the model focuses on the consumer engagement toward both the object of narration that is referring to the topic cultural professionals wants theirs visitors and viewers to discover, and the cultural genre (here the heritage and history of the region). This paper concludes with a discussion of our main results and limitations.