The Impact of Motivation, Festival Attachment, Place Attachment, and Psychological Ownership on Volunteerism: Understanding the Traverse City Film Festival from the Volunteer Perspective

In the United States, tens of millions of people dedicate their time to volunteer efforts each year. The Traverse City Film Festival annually relies on the work provided by 3,000 volunteers. There has been little research on the intentions of volunteers at festivals and what contributes to successful engagement of volunteers. This study investigated how volunteers' motivations, festival attachment, place attachment, and psychological ownership play significant roles in determining their intention to volunteer at the Traverse City Film Festival in the future. A convenience sample was collected of 172 individuals that volunteered at the 2016 Traverse City Film Festival, using an online survey. Four separate linear regression analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses. The study revealed that participants' future intentions to volunteer were significantly influenced by the values dimension of motivations, festival dependence and festival affect dimensions of festival attachment, place affect dimension of place attachment, and the belongingness and self-efficacy dimensions of psychological ownership. The results from this study provide new conceptual contributions by expanding on the constructs of motivation, festival attachment, place attachment, and psychological ownership with application to volunteerism in the festival setting. It also offers practical implications for the festival managers to strengthen relationships between volunteers and the festival organization.