Experience Economy - Hospitals

Pine and Gilmore (1998) have popularised a key idea in service management; that we are now in an experience economy. Pine and Gilmore (1998) set out how theatrical and entertainment experiences are moving beyond and out of their traditional home in theme parks into restaurants (eater-tainment), retail (retail-tainment) and into all sorts of services one wouldn't expect to see entertainment (e.g. hospitals).

In the following diagram from their article, we can see that Pine and Gilmore see the development of the experience economy as being a part of an evolution in economies so that the experience economy is more advanced than service, industrial and primary economy.

The Progression of Economic Value - Pine and Gilmore (1998)

In the next diagram, we can see how relationships differ in each of the stages. For example, the consumer has moved from being called 'market', to 'Guest'.

Economic Distinctions from Pine and Gilmore (1998)

In the next diagram, we can see that experiences can be divided into four types. An example of an escapist experience could be an online gaming one. An example of an entertainment experience could be going to the movies or a concert.

The Four Realms of an Experience, from Pine and Gilmore (1998)

The following video from Ted Talks shows speaker Ted Lee talking about the relevance of Pine and Gilmore's work for the health sector, demonstrating its spread into other industries beyond Disney.