Locally Sourced Restaurant: Consumers Willingness to Pay

This study tested (1) the theory of planned behavior to identify factors influencing customers’ willingness to pay more when visiting a locally sourced restaurant, and (2) assesses the effect of health consciousness and community attachment on willingness to pay more through attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control in visiting a locally sourced restaurant. A total of 423 responses were analyzed using a two-step approach of structural equation modeling. The findings indicated that health consciousness and community attachment positively influences attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control in visiting a locally sourced restaurant, which ultimately influence willingness to pay more.     

国际商务旅游活动中对中国式餐饮的需求解读

食品安全是国际商务旅游人士最基本的需求,由于目前中国式餐饮的食品安全问题还存在很多问题,导致国外旅游商务人士在中国就餐时对食品卫生安全的心理需求非常强烈。中国餐饮业应高度重视这一问题,注意食材产地、餐厅环境、餐具及食品加工卫生以及从业人员的素质;在接待服务中要努力满足国外游客的国际社交需要,尊重其国际礼仪和风俗;提供舒适的用餐环境,树立良好食品形象,满足其审美需求以及相对更高层次的需求,使之感受到在中国用餐是一种享受,以吸引和留住客源,增加餐饮业的竞争力。     

Book Reviews

This study examines whether the restaurant food expenditure patterns of two-earner Canadian households are consistent with a hypothesis that restaurant meals are convenience rather than luxury items. Results of the study indicate a positive relationship between the proportion of total food expenditures allocated to discretionary restaurant meals and the wage rates (value of time) of both the household head und spouse and a negative relationship between proportionate restaurant food expenditures and unearned income. Both results support the hypothesis. The study also examines relationships between proportionate restaurant food expenditures and a set of household characteristics variables.     

The Perceived Value of Value Meals

Abstract

This study provides a new explanation as to why restaurants frequently sell value meals along with the meals' components separately. We argue that beyond the traditional economic model of extracting the surplus from customers with extreme valuation for particular dishes, mixed bundling unintentionally creates a decoy price effect. With mixed bundling, the value meal might seem more attractive than with pure bundling, generating more profits for the restaurant. The combination of extracting additional consumer surplus and the increased demand due to decoy pricing makes the mixed bundling strategy a highly valuable marketing tool for restaurants. We test the theory by measuring subjects' willingness to pay for value meals while varying the prices of the meal's components that appear separately on the menu. The results strongly support our prediction that customers' willingness to pay for a value meal can be manipulated by controlling the price of the components.     

Food allergy information sharing and communication strategies in full-service restaurants in the U.S.

The purpose of this study was to explore how restaurant staff shares food allergy information with and communicate risks to customers with food allergies. Results of the online survey indicated that very few restaurants had separate allergen-free menus, yet the majority of servers had never or rarely asked if customers had any food allergy. Informing customers when the food preparer is unable to provide allergen-free meals, including a statement on the menu advising customers to inform servers their food allergies, and having a written protocol with procedures for serving allergen-free foods were perceived as the three most effective communication strategies.     

Influence of price and brand image on restaurant customers’ restaurant selection attribute

The study examines the influence of price and brand image on three major restaurant quality attributes (ambiance, food quality, and service quality). A total number of 363 cases from the survey were used to assess the proposed model for structural equation modeling. The results of this study indicated that brand image significantly affected customers’ restaurant attribute preference. Living status (residents vs. tourists) partially affected customers’ restaurant attribute preference. This study provides valuable information about restaurant customers’ preferences. The results also demonstrate how restaurant operators attract new customers and retain existing customers by improving their ambiance, food, and service quality.     

The country-of-origin lie: impact of foreign branding on customers’ willingness to buy and willingness to pay when the product’s actual origin is disclosed

If you think about the last television commercial for an Italian pasta brand you have seen, are you sure it is really Italian? In many cases, especially in the food sector, neither the company nor the product originate from the advertised country, meaning that the company is pursuing a foreign branding strategy and is trying to benefit from positive stereotypes customers have about the specific foreign country. By collecting both quantitative and qualitative data through a point-of-sale intercept survey, this article assesses the impact of alleged origins on customers’ willingness to buy (WTB) and willingness to pay (WTP) if the actual origin is disclosed. The sample consisted of 200 German customers who were asked to answer questions related to one of two hedonic products they had just bought. It is empirically shown that foreign branding has a positive impact on the brand’s performance. However, as soon as customers find out that they were misled with regard to the origin of the product, both their WTB and their WTP decrease. This study contributes to the knowledge on the role of products’ origins on customers’ WTB and WTP. In contrast to the vast majority of the studies in this field, the communicated origin of the product is based on a foreign branding strategy and not on the product’s actual origin. Consequently, it was possible to manipulate within-subject variables by disclosing the actual origin of the product. The results of our study suggest that foreign branding may be a successful strategy for companies to increase their customers’ WTB and WTP. At the same time, our results raise concerns about the suitability of foreign branding as a long-term marketing strategy, unless a company can successfully maintain its foreign image. Future research opportunities include the choice of consumers with a different cultural background, of other hedonic products or of utilitarian products.     

消费者安全乳品支付意愿研究

消费者对食品安全支付意愿的大小是决定食品安全市场能否长期存在并不断发展壮大的关键因素.本文应用条件价值评估法,基于对内蒙古呼和浩特市、和林格尔县200名消费者的随机调查数据,对消费者乳品安全支付意愿进行研究.研究结果显示,与普通牛奶相比,呼和浩特市与和林格尔县的消费者愿意为安全液态奶多支付29.33％的价格.安全液态奶的价格、消费者的购买经验、质量安全信息需求、风险感知、家中老人数以及家庭月总收入等因素,对消费者购买安全液态奶意愿具有显著影响.因此,本文提出,为提高消费者安全食品支付意愿,政府应不断增加质量安全信息供给,提高政府管制的公众信任度,加大安全食品标识的宣传力度.     

How Have Restaurant Firms Responded to Food Safety Crises? Evidence From Media Coverage

Media communication has become a crucial part of crisis communications due to the rapid dissemination of information along with its immense impact on consumers and other stakeholders. Based on a structured content analysis of electronic media reports on restaurant-associated food safety crises from 1993 to 2015, this study examined media reporting patterns focusing on three elements: instructing information, crisis response strategies, and stakeholders. This study also identified the effect of situational factors (severity of risk and crisis type) on the media reporting patterns using Chi-square tests. The results indicated that restaurant firms were more likely to use proactive than passive response strategies, and identified primary stakeholders during a food safety crisis such as regulatory agencies, victims, and customers. Finally, two situational factors were found to influence the pattern of media reporting. The media reporting patterns were found to vary by risk severity and crisis type.     

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.     

Understanding Mature Customers in the Restaurant Business

Summary

The study reported here examined die differences between intangible service experiences of mature and younger customers in quick-service, casual, and fine-dining restaurants. The authors used ten unpleasant service experiences to identify the significant experiences that can impede satisfaction in three types of restaurants. No unpleasant service experiences were significant for either mature or young customers. However, in the casual dining restaurants, the (1) lack of product knowledge and (2) inattentive servers created significantly unpleasant service experiences for mature customers. In the quick service restaurant, the (1) lack of product knowledge, (2) inattentive servers, (3) rudeness, and (4) lack of cleanliness produced significantly unpleasant service experiences which in turn impeded the satisfaction for the mature customer. The reasons for these findings are discussed, and the authors suggest that the restaurant industry pay more attention to the mature population in order to increase both customer satisfaction levels and profits. A literature review precedes a discussion of the characteristics and service requirements of mature restaurant customers.     

Effect of Normative and Affective Aspects on Willingness to Pay for Domestic Food Products—A Multiple Price List Experiment

There is limited knowledge about which factors underlie consumers’ preferences for domestic food products. We used a non-hypothetical multiple-price list experiment to investigate the effect of affective (product-related emotions) and normative (consumer ethnocentrism and subjective norms) factors on consumer willingness to pay for domestic food products. A total of 166 Croatian consumers were given a choice between domestic and foreign food products with different price premiums for domestic food. The results indicate that consumers are willing to pay a premium for both low- and high-involvement domestic food products. Consumer willingness to pay for domestic products is influenced by ethnocentrism, product-related emotions, and sociodemographic variables, but not by social norms.     

Understanding local food consumption from an ideological perspective: Locavorism,authenticity, pride,and willingness to visit

Extant research on local food consumption is emerging yet limited. This study aims tofill a void to test locavorism as a second-order construct and its effects on authenticity,pride, and willingness to visit. Further, the boundary condition of the effect oflocavorism is also explored. Results suggest that restaurant managers that endeavorto offer locally-sourced menus need to emphasize the characteristics of locavorism(i.e., lionization, opposition, and communalization) when marketing to locavores as atarget consumer group. This study provides valuable insights into local foodconsumption behavior within the restaurant context by examining the factors andeffects of locavorism.     

Moderating effects of self-image congruity on the relationship between advertisement message strength and revisiting intention

This research note delineates the effect of restaurant customers’ perceived self-image congruity (i.e., the match between the image of a product or brand and customers’ image of themselves) on the relationship between the strength of a restaurant advertisement and customers’ intention to revisit that restaurant. This study posits that customers’ preference for a restaurant brand, formed by their perceived self-image congruity, can alter the effects of ad message strength on their revisiting intention. More specifically, due to the biasing effect caused by self-image congruity, the effect of an ad’s argument strength on behavioral intentions may be diminished when customers have a high perceived level of self-image congruity. The findings indicate that strong ad messages elicit significantly higher revisiting intentions than weak ad messages when customers perceive a mismatch between the image, the brand, and themselves; however, no significant difference in revisiting intentions was detected between strong and weak ad messages when customers perceived a match between image and restaurant brand. Furthermore, this study examines how gender-based information-processing tendencies influence this effect of self-image congruity on the relationship between ad message strength and revisiting intention. Overall, this study provides a theoretical understanding of the biasing effect of self-image congruity on customers’ information processing and has important managerial implications for restaurant marketing.     

Restaurants’ outdoor signs say more than you think: An enquiry from a linguistic landscape perspective

Building on the linguistic landscape theory and literature on customers' experience with restaurants' authenticity and status, this study investigates whether restaurants' outdoor signs influence customers' perceptions and behavioral intentions. Using an experimental design comprising two studies, supported by data collected from Chinese consumers, we test how display characters and text flow may jointly impact on customers' perceptions of the status and authenticity of ethnic (Japanese and Taiwanese) restaurants, thus influencing their visiting intentions and willingness to pay. We find that display characters influence Chinese customers' perceptions of authenticity and status in both Japanese and Taiwanese restaurants in Mainland China. There is an interaction effect between display characters and text flow on customers' perception of authenticity and status in Japanese restaurants in Mainland China. This study applies the linguistic landscape theory to a restaurant context and examines how such features may influence customers’ perceptions and decisions. The findings have important practical implications on managing customer experiences and perceptions via effective restaurant sign designs.     

Customer perceived value,satisfaction, and loyalty: the role of willingness to share information

This study proposes and tests an integrative model to examine the relationships among customers’ willingness to share information, satisfaction, perceived value, and loyalty in a retailing context. This study extends research on customers’ willingness to share information from trust and privacy concerns toward key outcome measures such as perceived value, customer satisfaction, and loyalty, and is thus among the first to model customers’ willingness to share information with companies in robust theoretical retailing frameworks. The proposed relationships were tested using data from two retailing contexts – groceries (N = 429) and do-it-yourself (DIY) (N = 895). Findings from the two samples suggest that both perceived value and satisfaction are significant determinants of customers’ willingness to share information with a company. Although some differences emerge in the two studies, structural modeling largely supports the hypothesized framework and positions customers’ willingness to share information as an important antecedent of their loyalty intentions and behavior. This study provides practitioners with preliminary insight into the relationship between willingness to share information and perceived value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. This study advances retailing research, as it is one of the few empirical studies investigating the role of customers’ willingness to share information in driving loyalty and its relationship with perceived value and satisfaction in a retailing context.     

Willingness to Pay for Golden Rice in India: A Contingent Valuation Method Analysis

We estimated students’ willingness to pay for golden rice by using the double-bounded contingent valuation method. We found that nearly 55% of the students are willing to buy golden rice at the same price as that of conventional rice, and around 85% at a certain discount. The estimated mean willingness to pay is a 4% price premium. Furthermore, we found that global (food security) and personal (health) benefit perceptions have a positive significant influence, and risk perceptions and sociodemographic variables have an insignificant influence on willingness to pay for golden rice. Overall, our findings indicate that India has a potential market for golden rice.     

When counterfeits raise the appeal of luxury brands

Counterfeiting is a widespread practice throughout the world. The conventional wisdom is that it affects branded goods negatively. In this paper, however, we suggest that counterfeiting may actually benefit certain luxury brands. By means of two studies, we show how the market presence of luxury counterfeit items can increase consumers’ willingness to pay for original brands. In Study 1, we show that the presence of luxury counterfeits can increase consumers’ willingness to pay for well-known original brands, but not for lesser-known ones. Brand awareness plays a moderating role in the positive relationship between counterfeiting and willingness to pay (WTP). In Study 2, we address the psychological mechanisms that explain this increased willingness to pay. The results show that consumers’ (a) pleasure at being envied, (b) pleasure in distinguishing themselves, and (c) perception of the quality of the original goods fully mediate the relation between the presence of counterfeit in the market and consumers’ WTP for originals. We subsequently discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of the two study results.     

Third‐person perception and purchase behavior in response to various selling methods

Two studies investigated whether various tactics of personal selling that generate different levels of resistance also produce different degrees of third‐person perceptions. Furthermore, the studies compared third‐person perceptions to the actual influence on behavior. Study 1 showed that more direct and blatant selling methods produce more TPP. Study 2 showed that people tend to underestimate the influence of the more direct method, especially with regard to themselves. The study concludes by identifying the ideal selling method as one in which the customers are asked about their willingness to listen to the sales campaign before they are told about it. This method increases sales and creates satisfied customers. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.