Does mandatory food safety training and certification for restaurant employees improve inspection outcomes?

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between mandatory food safety training and certification and inspection results of chain restaurants and independent restaurants, using current food safety inspection results of food service establishments in Central Florida. More specifically, this study examines whether there is any statistically significant difference in the violation frequency among chain and independent restaurants. Reducing the risk of any foodborne illness is a critical strategy that industry stakeholders should pursue in an area dominated by tourism such as Orlando, Florida. A one-way ANOVA was used to determine the differences between the two types of restaurants. Findings indicate that there is significant difference between chain and independent restaurants for critical violations. No difference was found when comparing chain verses independent restaurants for non-critical violations.     

The mediating role of consumption emotions

Although the importance of affective reactions has been emphasized in the service industry, there are still relatively few empirical studies which conclusively explain how consumption emotions induce in a consumption situation and how such emotions play a role in customers’ satisfaction judgments in the context of ethnic restaurants. Accordingly, this study aimed to examine how differently positive and negative emotions mediate the influence of two fundamental values of ethnic restaurant consumption on levels of customer satisfaction. Data obtained through an online survey was analyzed by means of structural equation modeling analysis. Results demonstrate that utilitarian value directly and indirectly affects consumption emotions and customer satisfaction, whereas hedonic value only indirectly affects customer satisfaction through positive emotions. The findings suggest that not every perceived hedonic value leads to customer satisfaction unless customer experience positive emotions from such a value. In that regard, this study holds significant implications to ethnic restaurant marketers.     

Authentic dining experiences in ethnic theme restaurants

The literature on ethnic theme restaurants has already shown that patrons of such restaurants often wish to experience authentic ethnic culture, and customer satisfaction correlates with authenticity. This study examines the relationship between importance and performance of perceptions of authentic dining experiences in ethnic theme restaurants, and attempts to verify the influence of authentic dining experiences on repurchase intention in ethnic theme restaurants. After designing questionnaire content and sampling, this study obtained 538 samples. The analytical results show that authentic dining experiences effectively indicate customer repurchase intention. This study thus concludes that to attract more customers, ethnic theme restaurants should improve their service, settings, and food to provide customers a more authentic dining experience.     

Perceived attributes of Asian foods: From the perspective of the American customers

The objectives of this study were to examine and compare the attributes of six types of Asian foods (Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese) as they are perceived by American customers. To achieve these objectives, a questionnaire examining the attributes of Asian foods was developed. The data was collected through a web survey completed by 424 American customers of the six types of Asian food. Importance-performance analyses showed that across the six types of Asian foods some common attributes were perceived. However, the analyses also indicated that each type of Asian food was perceived to have its own particular characteristics, signifying each cuisine's uniqueness when compared to other types of Asian foods. The results suggested basic information pertinent to marketing strategies for positioning and product development for Asian food restaurants.     

The effects of acculturation and uncertainty avoidance on foreign resident choice for Korean foods

This study attempts to identify dining-out patterns among foreign residents in South Korea, examining the differences in foreign residents’ attitudes toward Korean foods and behavioral intentions to patronize Korean restaurants based on their acculturation and uncertainty avoidance levels. The results show that foreign residents in South Korea dine out frequently and intend to revisit Korean restaurants. However, the high acculturation group has a more positive attitude toward, better understanding of, and more preference for Korean foods than the low acculturation group. Satisfaction, revisiting, and recommendation intentions for Korean restaurants are higher among the high acculturation group than the low. The low uncertainty avoidance group spends more money for dining out than the high uncertainty avoidance group, who perceive Korean foods as expensive. Attitudes toward, understanding of, and preference for Korean foods, do not differ significantly between the two uncertainty avoidance groups; nor do satisfaction and behavioral intentions to Korean restaurants.     

How do authenticity and quality perceptions affect dining experiences and recommendations of food trucks? The moderating role of perceived risk

A growing number of food trucks differentiate themselves in the competitive market by serving ethnic foods. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of customers’ authenticity and quality perceptions of ethnic food trucks on their memorable dining experience (MDE) and, consequently, word of mouth (WOM) while considering customers’ perceived risk. Data were collected from 540 customers who had dined at ethnic food trucks in the U.S. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression were employed to test the proposed hypotheses. The results indicated that authenticity perceptions influence quality perceptions and dining satisfaction directly, and MDE indirectly through dining satisfaction. Moreover, dining satisfaction affects WOM directly as well as indirectly through MDE. Among the three dimensions of perceived risk, hygienic risk mitigates both of the relationships between authenticity perceptions and dining satisfaction as well as between quality perceptions and dining satisfaction. Implications and suggestions for future research were discussed.