Dining Chinese

Abstract

With the growing popularity and consumption of Chinese cuisine, it is crucial for restaurateurs to acquire knowledge of consumer expectations and dining satisfaction. The purposes of this study were: to determine patrons' perceptions and attitudes Chinese restaurant dining and to determine if there is a difference between diners of Chinese descent, other Asians, and all other patrons with regard to their expectations concerning dining at Chinese restaurants. A structured questionnaire was used to determine the dining preferences of 192 customers of eight full service Chinese restaurants. The results indicated that slightly over 60% of the respondents considered themselves to be knowledgeable of Chinese regional cooking. Fifty-one percent of the respondents felt that the food in the restaurants was similar to the food prepared in restaurants in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan; however, 53% said the food was adjusted for American taste. Over 63% of the respondents wanted the restaurant to appear somewhat authentic. It was found that there were no significant differences between the subgroupsstudiedonthe questions.     

Identifying the critical factors of customer behavior: An integration perspective of marketing strategy and components of attitudes

The purpose of this empirical study is to operationalize the relationship of green marketing's influence on consumer attitudes via the mediating role of marketing mix towards green products to validate the proposed research model in the Taiwanese context of explaining consumers' willingness to be environmentally friendly. The model is based on structural equation modeling (SEM) from data collected from 977 online consumers. The findings revealed that green consumption intention was significantly and indirectly driven by attitude to green products. Additionally, the effect of perceived quality on marketing mix and consumer willingness in environmental concern is both significant and positive. However, when a restaurant has high consumer social responsibility (CnSR) for marketing mix, the consumer attitudes of cognitive, affective, and behavioral model (C-A-B model) is less effective. These findings have contributed to the revival of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and offer a comprehensive understanding of consumer attitude, consumer social responsibility, marketing mix and perceived quality impact that a restaurant has on the ability to raise consumer willingness to purchase green products or food. We provides valuable suggestions to marketers to design from the perspective of green marketing policies and strategies in order to accommodate Taiwan's indigenous green restaurants.     

“Why do you dine at Korean restaurants?” An ethnic food consumption model approach

This study aimed to examine how people choose an ethnic restaurant based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to uncover factors that influence consumer decision-making in ethnic food consumption situations, particularly Korean food. Specifically, this study extended the original TPB model by incorporating consumer values and other variables that are theoretically related to the attitude formation, including familiarity and affective country image. The results showed that economic value, quality value, epistemic values, and familiarity were significant factors affecting consumer attitudes toward dining at Korean restaurants. Also, attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control significantly influenced consumer intentions to dine at Korean restaurants.     

Consumer Preferences for Locally Produced Food Ingredient Sourcing in Restaurants

Increasing restaurant supply chain participants’ knowledge of consumer preferences toward the use of locally produced ingredients in restaurants may provide insight into a valuable marketing opportunity. This study uses conjoint analysis to evaluate consumers’ locally produced ingredient preferences relative to two other key restaurant attributes (the price of the dining experience and restaurant type). Results suggest that, for one fifth of surveyed restaurant consumers, a restaurant’s practice of “buying locally” is the primary restaurant attribute of importance. The implications of these results for supply chain providers (e.g., producers, manufacturers, and food service distributors) are discussed.     

Customers’ intention to adopt smart lockers in last-mile delivery service: A multi-theory perspective

Many logistics service providers are now adjusting their business service strategies to satisfy consumers' higher demands and expectations. An automated parcel locker for self-pickup is one of the options; however, there is currently no smart locker service available in Thailand. This study integrates resource matching theory, innovation diffusion theory, and theory of planned behavior to clarify Thai consumers' intention to utilize smart lockers. The data for this study were received from 302 participants living in Thailand. Convenience, reliability, privacy security, compatibility, relative advantage, complexity, perceived behavioral control, and attitude were included in the questionnaire to test if they were significant determinants of consumers' intention to use smart lockers. The results reveal that convenience, reliability, privacy security, compatibility, relative advantage, complexity, perceived behavioral control, and attitude influence Thai consumers’ intention to use smart lockers. This study contributes to the literature on combining resource matching theory, innovation diffusion theory, and theory of planned behavior; this enriches theoretical research on self-service technologies in last-mile logistics delivery, and also provides insights for consumer behavioral research.     

Clean labeling: Is it about the presence of benefits or the absence of detriments? Consumer response to personal care claims

The personal care industry is gradually shifting its promises toward health and environment-based messages, promoting either the addition of beneficial ingredients or processes or the removal of potentially deleterious additives or procedures. However, prior research has failed to encapsulate and organize the plethora of claims and to link consumer concerns, knowledge, and the influence of prosocial norms to attitude and purchase intention. This study examines the impact of absence- and presence-framed claims referring either to health or environmental friendliness on attitude and behavioral intention toward personal care products. It also explores differences in consumer profiles (concerning health, the environment, appearance, peer pressure, or disparate levels of front-of-package literacy). Using a framework based on Ajzen (1985) theory of planned behavior enriched with variables such as personal altruistic and egoistic concerns, claim credibility, and attitude, this study shows the superiority of absence-versus presence-framed claims for health and environment-based messages. Both claims pertaining to the environment and to health generate a positive attitude and are powerful in further converting it into buying intention.     

Applying an extended theory of planned behavior to examine state-branded food product purchase behavior: The moderating effect of gender

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to use an extended model of the theory of planned behavior to investigate the antecedents which lead to consumers’ purchase of state-branded food products. Relationships among attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, health-consciousness, intention to purchase, and actual purchase were examined. In addition, the moderating role of gender on consumer purchasing was assessed. The hypothetical model was empirically tested using data collected via Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk). Results implicated that consumers’ attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control of purchasing state-branded products significantly predicted their intention to purchase, and consumers’ intention to purchase significantly predicted their actual purchase of state-branded products. The relationship between health-consciousness and intention to purchase, however, was not found. Gender differences were found only between consumers’ perceived behavioral control of state-branded purchasing and their intention to purchase. Implications for marketers, farmers, and restaurant owners are provided.     

Consumer Attitude and Visit Intention toward Food-Trucks: Targeting Millennials

Food-trucks are growing in popularity, and they are now part of the foodie culture. As they fit well with Millennials’ desire to try new things—new foods, and a new food culture—the number of trucks on the streets is expected to continue to rise. To understand, how millennial consumers think and make decisions about food-truck dining, this study identifies benefits and risks of food-truck dining and their impact on a millennial consumer’s attitude and visit intention. This study finds consumers see hygienic and environmental risk and convenience and hedonic benefits in food-truck dining. The findings from this study provide evidence that hygienic and environmental risks of food-trucks negatively influence consumers’ attitudes and visit intentions toward food-truck dining experience, while hedonic benefit leads to favorable attitude and visit intention. The findings further indicate that a significant relationship exists between consumer attitude and purchasing intention. This study helps food-truck marketers and operators to develop effective marketing and operational strategies to increase the visits of existing food-truck diners and attract potential consumers.     

The influence of music tempo and musical preference on restaurant patrons' behavior

The article reports research into the effect of music tempo and musical preference on consumer behavior in a restaurant. The research investigates the extent to which these two variables influence actual and perceived time spent dining, the amount of money spent, and outcomes in terms of enjoyment of the experience and future behavioral intentions. The results show that music preference provided a better explanation of actual time spent dining than tempo, although neither variable had a significant effect on perceived time. Time spent in the restaurant was the most powerful predictor of money spent in the restaurant. Finally, the outcomes of the restaurant encounter were found to be significantly related to musical preference, but the effects of music tempo were nonsignificant. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Effects of Coupon Promotion on Repeat Visits in Restaurants

Abstract

Will customers' intention to return to a restaurant increase with coupon promotion? To answer this question, this study examines the hypothetical effects of coupon promotion on return visits to restaurants. Based on a literature review, three hypotheses were developed to test the effect of a coupon, its face value, and a patron's prior dining experience on return intention. The authors found that neither coupon use nor coupon face value contributed to explaining respondents' return intentions. However, repeat customers have a greater likelihood of returning to the restaurant than new customers. The study also showed that the quality of food and service were key indicators of return intention.     

Eliciting Consumer Preferences for Certified Animal‐Friendly Foods: Can Elements of the Theory of Planned Behavior Improve Choice Experiment Analysis?

Models used in neoclassical economics assume human behavior to be purely rational. On the other hand, models adopted in social and behavioral psychology are founded on the “black box” of human cognition. In view of these observations, this paper aims at bridging this gap by introducing psychological constructs in the well‐established microeconomic framework of choice behavior based on random utility theory. In particular, it combines constructs developed employing Ajzen's theory of planned behavior with Lancaster's theory of consumer demand for product characteristics to explain stated preferences over certified animal‐friendly foods (AFF). To reach this objective, a Web survey was administered in the largest five EU‐25 countries: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Findings identify some salient cross‐cultural differences between northern and southern Europe and suggest that psychological constructs developed using the Ajzen model are useful in explaining heterogeneity of preferences. Implications for policymakers and marketers involved with certified AFF are discussed.     

An investigation of restaurant food safety performance: A comparison between ethnic and nonethnic and chain and independent restaurants in Louisiana

This study examines health inspection data from casual dining restaurants and compares differences of food code violations between ethnic and nonethnic restaurants. A total of 7,415 violations were retrieved from the restaurant inspection reports of 769 restaurants. Ethnic restaurants have more violations than nonethnic restaurant in categories related to food time/temperature violations, cross contamination, and food condition/surface/labels. Nonethnic and chain restaurants had fewer behavioral violations than ethnic and independently operated restaurants. Ethnic restaurants were 1.74 times more likely than nonethnic restaurants to have critical violations. Meanwhile, independent restaurants were 1.64 times more likely than chain restaurants to have critical violations.     

Interpersonal Orientation of Spouses and Household Purchase Decisions: The Case of Restaurants

Buyer Behaviour does not occur in isolation, but within a larger social context. The family being a social unit, its members are constantly influenced by a number of external agencies, including peers, friends and relatives. This paper investigates how interpersonal orientation of spouses affects their roles, children's and others' roles in five sub-decisions of visiting a fine dining restaurant. Data were collected from young, educated couples of Singapore, who, due to their affluence and spending power are the focus of marketers in the region. Interpersonal Orientation was measured by 'Susceptibility to Interpersonal Influence', as proposed by Bearden, Netemeyer and Teel [1989]. Results showed that interpersonal orientation of spouses is an important determinant of their influence in the decision of visiting a fine dining restaurant. Also, children and 'others' were seen to play negligible roles in the service sub-decisions. Implications for restaurant marketers are discussed.     

Do the physical facilities in restaurants match older Americans’ preferences?

This study investigated restaurants’ response to the aging population’s preferences. Gaps between previously identified preferences and current restaurant design were examined. The observational survey assessed: parking and outside accessibility, comfort and inside accessibility, menu readability, and restrooms. Occasional gaps were found even though restaurants were generally well-designed. Casual dining restaurants were more likely to meet consumer preferences as to the exterior, seating, and service. Limited-service restaurants better met preferences for the bathrooms, lighting, and sound. This information may be helpful when building or remodeling restaurants and may help restaurants to attract older customers.     

Predicting Unethical Behavior: A Comparison of the Theory of Reasoned Action and the Theory of Planned Behavior

This study is a comparison of the validity of theory of reasoned action and theory of planned behavior as applied to the area of moral behavior (i.e., illegal copying of software) using structural equation modeling. Data were collected from 181 university students on the various components of the theories and used to asses the influence of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control on the intention to make unauthorized software copies. Theory of planned behavior was found to be better than the theory of reasoned action in predicting unethical behavior. A modified version of the theory of planned behavior, with a causal path linking subjective norm to attitude, provided a significant improvement on model fit. The results indicated that perceived behavioral control is a better predictor of behavioral intention then attitude. The direct effect of subjective norm on behavioral intention was not significant, but the indirect effect through attitude was highly significant. Applicability of the theory of planned behavior for moral behavior and the implications for future research are discussed.     

The Cosmopolitical Corporation

Moral issues have been included in the studies of consumer misbehavior research, but little is known about the joint moderating effect of moral intensity and moral judgment on the consumer’s use intention of pirated software. This study aims to understand the consumer’s use intention of pirated software in Taiwan based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) proposed by Ajzen (Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, 179, 1991). In addition, moral intensity and moral judgment are adopted as a joint moderator to examine their combined influence on the proposed research framework. The results obtained from this Taiwan case reveal that the antecedent constructs proposed in the TPB model–an individual’s attitude and subjective norms toward using pirated software, and perceived behavioral control to use pirated software–indeed have positive impacts on the consumer’s use intention of pirated software. In addition, the joint moderating effect of moral intensity and moral judgment is manifested in the consumer’s use intention of pirated software. The results of this study not only could substantiate the results of consumer misbehavior research, but also could provide some managerial suggestions for Taiwanese government authorities concerned and the related software industries devoted to fighting pirated software.     

Price image and the sugrophobia effect on luxury retail purchase intention

Consumer shopping behavior in luxury retail stores continues to be a subject of interest among marketing researchers. Such a phenomenon has led us to explore how price image and sugrophobia, a psychological feeling of being taken advantage of, would influence consumers' future behavioural intention in the context of luxury retail store. Informed by a survey of 400 consumers, this study adopts the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S–O-R) model to examine how price image triggers consumer perceptions (i.e., perceived value, trust and attitude) and results in behavioral intention. Sugrophobia is included in the S–O-R model to assess its moderating effect. Data analysis using SEM-PLS demonstrates that a retailer's price image has a positive effect on consumers' perceived value, trust, attitude, and future behavioral intention. Sugrophobia, in turn, is found to weaken the relationship between price image and consumer perceptions. The study thus highlights the relevance of sugrophobia among risk-averse consumers and the necessity to manage sugrophobic consumers effectively in the context of a luxury retail store. Implications of the study are discussed.     

Does Social Media Matter? Investigating the Effect of Social Media Features on Consumer Attitudes

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of social media's features (i.e., entertainment, usefulness, informativeness and irritation) toward consumers’ attitude toward the brand. Subsequently, this study explores the impact of this attitude toward consumers’ brand loyalty, brand awareness and purchase intention. Data for this study was collected through a large public university in Australia. Paper surveys were distributed to students, their friends and members of their immediate families (N = 724). The findings show that entertainment feature has the strongest impact on consumers’ attitude toward the brand's social media use, followed by informativeness, usefulness and finally, irritation. Consumers’ attitude toward a brand's social media strongly influences consumer loyalty, awareness and purchase intention. The findings of this research provide some insights into the impact of different features of social media which will be useful for practitioners and academics interested in social media.     

The Antecedents of Music Piracy Attitudes and Intentions

Piracy is the greatest threat facing the music industry worldwide today. This study developed and empirically tested a model examining the antecedents of consumer attitude and behavioral intention toward music piracy behavior. Two types of music piracy behavior, unauthorized duplication/download and pirated music product purchasing, were examined. Based on a field survey in Taiwan, the results showed that attributive satisfaction, perceived prosecution risk, magnitude of consequence, and social consensus are very important in influencing customers attitude and behavioral intention toward two types of music piracy behavior. In addition, singer/band idolization can affect the attitude and behavioral intention in the case of pirated music product purchasing. Perceived proximity was found to affect the attitude and behavioral intention in the case of pirated music product purchasing. However, it only influenced behavioral intention in the case of unauthorized duplication/download.Jyh-Shen Chiou (Ph.D. in Marketing, Michigan State), is professor of Marketing, Department of International Trade, College of Commerce, National Chengchi University, Taiwan. His research focuses on consumer behavior and strategic marketing. His work has been published in Information & Management, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Journal of Service Research, International Journal of Advertising, European Journal of Marketing, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Social Psychology, Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, etc.Chien-yi Huang, Associate Professor, Department of Infant and Child Care, National Taipei College of Nursing. Sin-hui Lee, Graduate student, Department of International Trade, National Chengchi University.