How do push and pull factors affect consumers' emotional perceptions of the music festival attractiveness and drive their approach behavioral intentions: From the asymmetric causal perspective

The investigation on enhancing the attractiveness of music festivals and sustainable consumption is an important subject in the development of the leisure tourism market. It is necessary to pay close attention to the push-pull motivational factors influencing consumers' emotional connection and behavioral intentions towards a music festival product. Using the Xi'an International Music Festival as a research case (n = 324), data were collected from December 12 to 26, 2023. The results revealed that seven dimensions (arousal, pleasure, well-being, learning, escapism, socializing, and relaxation) and six dimensions (atmosphere of music concerts, reputation of the music festival, fullness of music culture, staff service, accessibility, and infrastructure) could be the important push and pull factors in the music festival consumption. Based on the push-pull theory and complexity theory, this study used SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0 to examine the linear relationships among constructs. Furthermore, fsQCA 4.1 software was employed to explore the net effects from push-pull factors to music festival attractiveness and approach behaviors, and identified causal recipes for predicting different levels of music festival attractiveness and approach behaviors, with the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Research findings provided essential theoretic and managerial implications on how to satisfy tourists' needs, perceived attractiveness and approach behaviors towards the music festival products.