Articles
DOI DOI: 10.62441/actainnovations.v63i.1124

EXPLORING EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE AND BEHAVIOURAL MEANING-MAKING IN PRE-PLANNING BEREAVEMENT SERVICES: A PRELIMINARY QUALITATIVE STUDY

Wai Sin Yoong 1, Wong Chee Hoo2, Mei Sze Low 3, Jeffery Vui Shing Ho4, Ying Tuan Lo 5, Christian Wiradendi Wolor6
  1. 1 Faculty of Business and Communication, INTI International University.
  2. 2 Faculty of Business and Communication, INTI International University.
  3. 3 Department of Hospitality and Information Technology, Sunway College Johor Bahru.
  4. 4 Department of Business and Financial Programmes, Sunway College Johor Bahru.
  5. 5 XJTLU Entrepreneur College (Taicang), Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.
  6. 6 Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Negeri Jakarta.

Abstract

The bereavement services are a very sensitive market segment and one that is not sought after, especially among the Malaysian community where traditional superstition has strong taboos against talking about end of life planning. Although the functional attributes have been extensively examined in service marketing literature, empirical studies on the experiential service design as a tool to actively change cultural avoidance behaviours are still limited. The study employs an interpretive qualitative approach and explores consumer emotional experiences and behavioural changes in an existential servicescape as a preliminary study. Thematic analysis with NVivo 15 software was used to systematically analyze the qualitative data extracted from the semi-structured interviews conducted with a purposive pilot sample, (N=6) participants, who participated in an immersive, closed-coffin laying awareness program at Nirvana Johor. The empirical results show that customer engagement consists of three main dimensions: symbolic-cultural engagement, humanized service interaction and an emotionally supportive servicescape. Remarkably, this study presents the Ritualistic Mortality Salience Transformation (RMST) Model, which describes the participant's live psychological process through four phases: anticipation, visceral crisis, catharsis and resolution. The practical implications of this research are that it offers death care managers a model to move from transactions to a customer experience. Building upon this framework, the analysis explicitly details how experience-driven engagement and emotional transformations directly cultivate customers' behavioural meaning-making toward pre-planning services. This process illustrates how controlled mortality salience reframes death care from a feared omen into proactive choices driven by filial responsibility and family preservation.

How to Cite

Yoong , W. S., Hoo, W. C., Low , M. S., Shing Ho, J. V., Tuan Lo , Y., & Wolor, C. W. (2026). EXPLORING EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE AND BEHAVIOURAL MEANING-MAKING IN PRE-PLANNING BEREAVEMENT SERVICES: A PRELIMINARY QUALITATIVE STUDY. ACTA INNOVATIONS, 63, 526–549. https://doi.org/10.62441/actainnovations.v63i.1124
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