Triple grief cycle of cancelled events: the emotional crisis aftermath
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management
ISSN: 0959-6119
Article publication date: 17 May 2021
Issue publication date: 9 August 2021
Abstract
Purpose
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic response is not only devastating nations and economies across the globe but it is also severely disrupting the event industry, with government and health authorities forcing many events to be postponed or cancelled. The purpose of this study is to investigate the prospective attendees’ emotional responses to cancelled events. This study draws upon grief cycle theory to articulate different layers of the grief process in the event domain of inquiry.
Design/methodology/approach
The National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament was selected as the research context. Taking user-generated messages from Twitter, this study first performed content analysis to organize lexical patterns into categories and higher-order themes based on the grief cycle. It also performed social network analyses using UCINET to illustrate how different grief phases are inter-related.
Findings
Results not only point to attendees’ self-expression manifested through a continuum of denial, anger, bargaining and acceptance but they also reveal a three-layer hierarchy of grief, namely, event-related, socio-politics-related and crisis-related. The network analysis further illustrates how grief phases are tied into a complex network of grief messages.
Originality/value
This study advances the event literature by improving knowledge about attendees’ emotional responses to cancelled events. It increases our understanding of the grieving process in the aftermath of COVID-19. The proposed triple grief cycle helps advance the literature by showcasing how voices from prospective attendees represent three pillars of grief hierarchy. The findings also underscore the emotional crisis of the COVID-19 aftermath.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72074230).
Citation
Wong, I.A., Lin, S., Lin, L. and Liao, R. (2021), "Triple grief cycle of cancelled events: the emotional crisis aftermath", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 33 No. 7, pp. 2314-2336. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-09-2020-0953
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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