A lot is being written and said about the transformation from a service oriented economy to a new kind of economy. Books about this transition, be it from a service economy to an attention economy, experience economy, dream society or emotion economy, are instant bestsellers. Companies all of a sudden want to build communities of clients, want to stage customer experiences, want to improve the user experience on their website, want to experientialize the offices to satisfy and retain employees, want to transform their brand into an experience etc. By doing things like these, companies try to differentiate themselves from their competition, since allegedly it is becoming more and more difficult to differentiate oneself on the sole basis of quality of service or products.
Most of the research that is currently being done in this area is focused on examples of this new experience economy. Fundamental research about what exactly experiences are and what their value is for companies and customers alike, is however lacking. In this research project the discussion about experiences is clarified by explaining the one-sidedness within the literature on experiences and by constructing a conceptual model in which various potential views of experience are taken into account. This leads to an answer to the question:; How can the contemporary one-sidedness within literature on the experience economy be solved?

The experience economy is seen within a broader societal framework of development. Instead of focusing solely on the economic reasons for the emergence of experiences, in this research project experiences are seen as a manifestation of many different kinds of developments in society and culture. The history of the different meanings of the term ‘experience’ is traced and a spectrum of experience concepts is constructed. When exploring definitions of the term ‘experience’, one can make distinctions based on the degree of actual contact, the temporal dimension, and the level of meaning-making. The degree of actual contact clarifies the difference between secondary and primary experiences. An example would be reading or hearing about WWII (secondary experience), versus actually having been alive during WWII (primary experience). The conceptual difference based on a temporal dimension has often been described, especially by German scholars, who distinguish so-called Erlebnissen from Erfahrungen. Where Erlebnis has a more isolated and immediate connotation, Erfahrung can be seen as an ongoing process of doing and undergoing, giving and taking, causes and consequences, action and reflection. The level of meaning-making can vary from something that has meaning within the original context (for example the best dinner ever, having meaning within the context of past, present and future dinners), to something that has a meaning that transcends the original context (a dinner that for some reason inspires the individual to change careers to become a chef). By paying attention to the entire spectrum of experience concepts that can be constructed based on these differences, the one-sidedness of the discussion on experiences within the marketing- and business realm, in which experiences are often treated as static products, can be solved.
A second way in which current literature on the experience economy seems one-sided, is in its focus on hedonic effects and the effort to manage these. Hedonism is a view of life in which a good life is sought in having more pleasure than pain, and in having as much pleasure as possible in general. I explain how critique on hedonism can be related to the critique that has been expressed about the contemporary view on the experience economy, and based on literature about the construction of meaning, especially deriving from theories on learning, I show how the one-sided view on hedonic effects can be broadened, so to incorporate also the positive effects that go beyond mere pleasure.
Based on the aforementioned spectrum of experience concepts and the positive effects that can arise from experiences, I finally discuss the one-sided view on the value of experiences in contemporary literature on the experience economy. The reason that is often given for the emergence of the experience economy, is the lack of possibilities that organisations have to gain a competitive advantage based on their products and services alone. While attention is being paid to other types of value, besides benefits/ utility, that should be provided to the customer, the fact that the customer him- or herself also invests other types of value, besides monetary value, is often neglected. By focusing on what value is and the specific characteristics of experiences which make them different from products and services, I explain how value can be created. I also discuss some pitfalls which cause organizations to think differently about value in an economy that is more and more based on immaterial values. Over time we, as a society, have come to focus on aspects of reality that are quantifiable, measurable, tangible, countable and in a way controllable, stressing scientific and economic values at the expense of other important values. In this research project the goal is to find out whether an integration of the values of experience is possible.
The exploration of conceptual, effectual and value differences will lead to a clearer understanding of what experiences are and how one could ´measure´ the quality of experiences. Of course, the bigger the role for the individual in the experience, the less possible it becomes to provide a positivist scientific formula for successful experiences. Indepth existential phenomenological interviews with individuals who have experienced a so-called free choice learning experience are used to gain additional insight on the individuals’ perspectives on experiences.
The differences between the concepts, effects and values of experience have vast consequences for discussions about experiences, not only in what we have come to call the experience economy, but also in the discourse about education, politics and every other part of human reality. Experiences are not just a marketing trick or hype that is to be exploited for financial gain; they are a phase in the development of human logic. Human logic is shifting from monologues to dialogues, from facts to possibilities, from searching for the truth, the answer, the solution, to the creative imagination and the recognition of multiple truths, from listening to experts to the social construction of meaning, from producing carriers of meaning to helping people discover how to make meaning in the first place. A profound understanding of this shift will help in understanding how value can be created in a dynamic world.