The Role of Space in Creating an Experience Economy: Examining Starbucks and Kahve Dünyas？ in the Context of Experience Economy and Third Place

The experience economy emerged in the early 2000s as part of the transformation of the global economy and the changing consumer demands in the service sector. The concept of experience economy has always been analyzed from consumer/demand perspective, but the role of the producer/supplier has been ignored in creating experience and space. Using the concepts of “experience economy” and “third place”, this paper is aiming to examine how space operates and functions in the process of creating an experience and space. Today, experience economies involve many spaces (shopping mall, branded coffees, toys shop, etc.) and products (coffee, mobile phone, etc.). For this reason, the research questions put forward in this paper has analyzed methodologically by means of a single product - coffee - and a single place - coffee places. In this context, Starbucks and Kahve Dünyas？, which exemplifies the notions of experience economy and third place, have been analyzed from the perspective of the producer using social media messages, advertisements, news and field observations. As a result, producer is a more fundamental actor than consumer in creating the experience economy. In addition, space creates the experience rather than product. Therefore, the role of “space” in the process of creating an experience economy is critical. Finally, the study proposes to move the discussion beyond the limited perspective presented by Oldenburg and to use the third space concept instead of the third place