A Means-End Investigation of Ropes Course Experiences

Introduction Means-end theory seeks to understand the important meanings that individuals associate with the products and services they purchase, consume, and experience. More specifically, means-end theory seeks to characterize the relationships among particular objects or behaviors, "the means", and the outcomes and personal values important to the individual, "the ends". Means-end theory and its associated methodology have typically been used to develop a better understanding of the factors influencing consumer choice or decision-making behavior. For example, the technique has been used in previous research to understand the factors involved in buying a tennis racquet (Mulvey, Olson, Celsi & Walker, 1994), purchasing a greeting card (Walker & Olson, 1991 ) , and selecting a ski destination (Klenosky, Gengler & Mulvey, 1993). Recent research has applied the means-nd perspective in less traditional product/service settings, for example, to understand the factors driving weight loss (Pieters, Baumgartner & Allen, 1995), recycling behavior (Bagazzi & Dabholkar, 1994), and park visitors' usage of interpretive service offerings (Klenosky, Frauman, Norman & Gengler, 1998). This study extends means-nd research by using the approach to examine the factors associated with the experience of participating in a particular recreation activity-a ropes course program. A ropes course is a series of activities and initiatives that challenge groups of individuals to work together to solve problems and complete tasks. The purpose of this research was to learn more about the role and meaning of the benefits associated with this type of programming. More specifically, the objectives were to identify the different benefits participants derived from completing a ropes course program and examine the means-end relationships that help explain why and how participants view these benefits as important. We begin by reviewing previous empirical research on the benefits of ropes course and adventure education programming. We then overview means-end theory and its associated methodology and explain how the approach was adapted in the present study of ropes course participants. Next, we present the details of the methodology and report the major findings of the ropes course study. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for researchers interested both in studying ropes course experiences and conducting means-end research in other leisure and recreation settings. Previous Research on Ropes Course Benefits Experiential education is "learning by doing." The available evidence generally supports the view that direct experiences with nature, people, objects, things, places, and tasks lead to faster learning, better retention, and a greater appreciation and understanding of learned material (Freeberg & Taylor, 1963, p. 1). Experiential education can take many forms, such as an internship, class field trip, or outdoor adventure program. Ropes courses represent a large and growing form of these later types of experiential education programs. Ropes course programs, bring together groups of individuals and present them with a series of challenges or problems to solve. These activities are then followed by a debriefing or processing period where group members are encouraged to share the lessons they learned and, ideally, how these lessons could be applied in other settings. Ropes courses are usually held outside, and made out of a variety of elements spread out over a space of ground. An element or initiative is a task or problem that the members of the group are challenged to complete or solve. Wood, cinder blocks, trees, cables, buckets, cans, ropes, and other materials may be used to create the elements. Ropes courses can be made up of low and/or high elements. Low elements, which are conducted at or near ground level, are generally designed to get individuals to work as a group or team. …