Ritual interaction in cultural heritage activities on authenticity and citizenship behaviour

Purpose This study aims to revise the measurement of ritual interaction (RI) for cultural heritage activities and evaluate the impact of RI on citizenship behaviour through existential authenticity, while examining how these effects differ across participation modes (dynamic participants vs. static observers) through multi-group analysis (MGA). Design/methodology/approach The research consists of two studies. To better adapt to cultural heritage activities, Study 1 qualitatively revises the RI measurement through in-depth personal interviews with 21 tourists and quantitatively purifies the measurement scale through exploratory factor analysis. Study 2 quantitatively tests the proposed model via a survey of 307 tourists participating in the Banlong Deng Parade. Findings The four dimensions of RI in cultural heritage activities were obtained: heritage atmospherics, heritage symbols, heritage ritual choreography and heritage communal resonance. These four dimensions show a positive relationship with two types of existential authenticity (intrapersonal and interpersonal), and these two types of authenticity, in turn, show a positive relationship with citizenship behaviour (word-of-mouth and feedback). MGA reveals that the dynamic participation group derives higher interpersonal authenticity from heritage ritual choreography. In contrast, the static observation group attains higher interpersonal authenticity primarily through heritage symbols. Originality/value This research provides researchers with a novel and validated multidimensional scale for measuring RI specific to cultural heritage activities. It also advances theoretical understanding by empirically establishing the mechanism through which RI fosters citizenship behaviour via existential authenticity, and by uncovering distinct effect patterns across different modes of tourist participation.