The effects of restaurant green demarketing on green skepticism and dining intentions: Investigating the roles of benefit associations and green reputation

Food overconsumption is increasingly a concern even as consumers are growing skeptical of companies’ green marketing techniques. Accordingly, green demarketing strategies, which aim to lower consumer demand, have become more prevalent in recent years. Using an online experiment, the current research investigates how green demarketing strategies (vs. green marketing strategy) affect consumers’ level of skepticism toward restaurants’ green practices and influence their dining intentions toward restaurants. Moreover, this study examines how different benefits (health vs. environment) associated with green practices and restaurants’ green reputations (high vs. low) influence the effect of green demarketing (vs. marketing) strategies. The results reveal that although green demarketing may not independently outperform green marketing, when green demarketing was practiced by restaurants with low green reputations to promote environment-associated benefits, consumers exhibited a similar or even lower levels of skepticism and higher dining intentions. This study also provides implications for effective marketing communication in the context of green demarketing.     

The Effect of Healthy Food Knowledge on Perceived Healthy Foods’ Value,Degree of Satisfaction,and Behavioral Intention: The Moderating Effect of Gender

ABSTRACT

This study seeks to determine how knowledge about healthy food impacts its perceived value, satisfaction, and behavioral intention among college students to access healthy foods, and to investigate the moderating effect of gender on the formulated relationships. The results show that knowledge about healthy food positively influences perceived value and behavioral intentions, and perceived value is a significant predictor of satisfaction and behavioral intentions toward healthy foods. In addition, knowledge about healthy food does not significantly influence on satisfaction in this study. The results regarding the moderating effects of gender show that gender only moderates the relationship between satisfaction and behavioral intentions toward healthy foods. These results offer useful information for foodservice companies and educational institutions; more specifically, for gaining a better understanding of college students’ behaviors and perceptions toward healthy foods and developing marketing strategies accordingly.     

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.     

Perceptions of Chinese restaurants in the U.S.: What affects customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions?

This study investigates American customers’ perceptions of Chinese restaurants in the U.S., using the Importance–Performance Analysis (IPA) approach. This study also examines which attributes of Chinese restaurants influence American customers’ satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The IPA shows that environmental cleanliness and attentive service are two important areas where Chinese restaurateurs can make improvements. In addition, food taste and service reliability appear to be key attributes for Chinese restaurants’ success. Overall, this study indicates that food quality, service reliability and environmental cleanliness are three pivotal attributes to create satisfied customers and positive post-dining behavioral intentions. Chinese restaurant managers should reasonably allocate their limited resources to restaurant attributes based on their contributions to customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions.     

A meta-analysis of behavioral intentions for environment-friendly initiatives in hospitality research

Research on environment-friendly initiatives has received increasing attention in hospitality research. However, an integrated literature review of research examining the impact of consumer perceptions of green initiatives on their behavioral intentions is lacking. To that end, a quantitative meta-analysis of 26 articles published in hospitality journals was conducted in order to determine the effect sizes of the relationship between consumers’ perceptions and their green behaviors. This research intended to examine how two broad categories – internalized perceptions (i.e. personal values, attitudes, environmental knowledge/awareness, and perceived benefits) and perceptions of the firm (i.e. hotel/restaurant image, perceived quality, and satisfaction) – influence consumers’ behavioral intentions toward green hotels/restaurants (e.g., word-of-mouth intentions, retentions, willingness to pay, and willingness to pay a premium). This meta-analysis shows that both internalized perceptions and perceptions of the firm had a strong positive association with behavioral intentions. The average effect sizes for internalized perceptions and perceptions of the firms were r = 0.3177 and r = 0.4240, respectively. The findings of this research suggest that the positive relationship between consumer perceptions and behavioral intentions is well-established. Therefore, it might not be fruitful to continue to apply identical frameworks (e.g., the theory of planned behavior or the theory of reasoned action) in future research. We thus suggest that hospitality and tourism researchers in the area of environment-friendly initiatives need to either significantly improve the existing models or look for new and more diverse frameworks in order to make meaningful theoretical contributions.     

Green attributes of restaurants: What really matters to consumers?

This study examined which of a restaurant's green attributes consumers deem most important and how consumers’ attitudes toward various green attributes affect their behavioral intentions. Demographic effects on consumers’ preferences for green attributes and behavioral intentions were also assessed. A quantitative analysis of 382 usable questionnaires revealed that although consumers generally perceived environment-focused attributes to be most important, those who valued food- and administration-focused attributes were more likely to pay more, wait longer, and/or travel farther to dine at a green restaurant. Women tended to rate higher than men in all three categories of green attributes. Consumers in a family with at least one child valued food-focused attributes more than those living in a household without children. Younger consumers were more willing to pay more, wait longer, and/or travel farther to dine at a green restaurant. Theoretical and practical contributions are discussed.     

How do foreigners perceive? Exploring foreign diners’ satisfaction with service quality of Chinese restaurants

China has received 138 million inbound trips in 2016. The purpose of travel may vary but these international travelers visit Chinese restaurants as an integral part of their travel experience. Our study tries to comprehend their dining experience and regional differences in service quality (SQ) perceptions. The findings indicate that food and process quality significantly influence satisfaction and behavioral intentions. More importantly, the results reveal that international travelers roving through all the six continents hold significantly different perceptions regarding SQ attributes of Chinese restaurants. Additionally, we found proficiency in Chinese language as a significant contributor in generating dissimilar perceptions.     

Perceptions of determinants of job selection in the hospitality and tourism industry: The case of Korean university students

ABSTRACT

This study explores the key factors influencing potential employees in the hospitality and tourism industry and examines whether causal relationships between behavioral attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control influence students' job selection. The study suggests that the career decision-making process is related to job selection. A total of 307 responses were analyzed. The results explain individual students' attitudes toward a behavior and perceived behavioral control in the context of their job selection. Attitudes toward a behavior and job selection had significant effects on career decisions. On the other hand, opinions of significant others had no significant effect. Perceived behaviors required to decide on jobs had a significant effect on job selection intentions. Students with internship experience were likely to form positive attitudes toward the hospitality and tourism industry, suggesting internships to be a useful source of a stronger relationship between the industry and job aptitudes of students in hospitality and tourism programs. The results have important implications.     

Halal-friendly hotels: impact of halal-friendly attributes on guest purchase behaviors in the Thailand hotel industry

This study was designed to identify the attributes of a halal-friendly hotel and evaluate the role of these attributes in motivating the behavioral intentions of Muslim customers. Qualitative and quantitative approaches identified 30 validation and reliability items involving five distinctive dimensions, which included halal-friendly service, facilities, foods and beverages, privacy, and customer-service equality. The findings from the structural model indicate that the proposed model sufficiently explains the variance in intentions; three attributes were positively related to cognitive evaluation, and four attributes had significant influence on affective evaluation. In addition, the results indicated that cognitive and affective evaluation worked as mediators.     

Influence of restaurant atmospherics on patron satisfaction and behavioral intentions

The purpose of this research was to investigate empirically the influence of restaurant atmospherics on the dining satisfaction and behavioral intentions of restaurant patrons. An extensive literature review first identified five dimensions of restaurant atmospherics, namely: facility aesthetics, ambience, spatial layout, employee factors, and the view from the window. Data were collected from 10 middle and upscale full-service restaurants in Hong Kong, and factor analysis and multiple regression analysis were then performed to unveil the relationship between restaurant atmospherics and dining satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The results reveal restaurant atmospherics to have a significant influence on patrons’ dining satisfaction and their behavioral intentions, particularly their intentions to return and spread positive word-of-mouth and their willingness to pay more. Dining satisfaction itself was also found to have a significant influence on behavioral intentions, particularly the intentions to return and to recommend the restaurant. The paper concludes with the practical implications of the research.     

Perceived values,satisfaction, and behavioral intentions: The role of familiarity in Korean restaurants

This study examined American customers’ perceptions of values regarding dining experiences in Korean restaurants in the United States. Specifically, the effects of hedonic and utilitarian values on customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions were investigated. This study also examined the moderating effect of familiarity with Korean restaurants on the relationships among perceived values, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. Overall, the results indicated that American customers valued the utilitarian aspects of Korean restaurants more than the hedonic aspects. Additionally, utilitarian aspects had a stronger impact on customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions than hedonic aspects. However, when considering customers’ familiarity level with the restaurants, hedonic aspects more effectively induced positive behavioral intentions in the low familiarity group, proving that familiarity has a moderating role. Conversely, utilitarian aspects appeared to be more influential in terms of the behavioral intentions of the high familiarity group. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.     

Price premiums for organic menus at restaurants: What is an acceptable level?

This study identifies acceptable premium price levels that customers would be willing to pay for organic menu items at restaurants in the United States. Previous literature indicates that health-related and socio-demographic characteristics significantly influence consumers’ intentions to purchase organic food. To advance our understanding of how different consumers respond to changes in organic food prices, this study examines the moderating effects of the level of health consciousness (high versus low), gender (male versus female), and age (young versus old) on the relationship between premium price levels and purchasing intentions. In addition, this study further investigates acceptable premium price levels for different consumer segments at two types of restaurants (casual dining versus fine dining). The results of this study provide guidelines for menu design and strategies for restaurateurs to devise effective price premiums for organic menu options.     

The effects of dining atmospherics: An extended Mehrabian–Russell model

This study examined the relationships among dining atmospherics, emotional responses, perceived value, and behavioral intentions, using Chinese restaurants as its research setting. Results of the study revealed that dining atmospherics had significant effects on customers’ positive emotions, negative emotions, and perceived value. Further, both positive and negative emotions and perceived value also influenced customers’ post-dining behavioral intentions. Perceived value not only functioned as the greatest contributor to behavioral intentions but also mediated the relationship between emotional responses and behavioral intentions. Positive emotions and negative emotions had asymmetric effects on perceived value. Positive emotions showed a stronger capability in predicting perceived value. Chinese restaurant managers must utilize the effects of restaurant atmospherics to improve customers’ perceived value of the restaurant and their revisit intentions. Other practical implications are discussed as well.     

Mature consumers’ patronage motives and the importance of attributes regarding HMR based on the food-related lifestyles of the upper middle class

The objectives of this study are to explore the food-related lifestyle segments of the mature market, to identify its socio-demographic characteristics, and to investigate the differences in their attitudes toward Home Meal Replacement (HMR). A survey was conducted of adults 55 years of age and older living in Seoul, South Korea. Out of the 600 distributed questionnaires, 361 were retained for final analysis, which is a response rate of 60%. Cluster analysis identified five consumer segments. Significant differences were found among the five segments in terms of socio-demographic characteristics and attitudes toward HMR. This study shows operators of HMR the patronage motives and attributes that each segment values when considering HMR.     

The roles of attitude,subjective norm,and perceived behavioral control in the formation of consumers’ behavioral intentions to read menu labels in the restaurant industry

Increases in food-away-from-home purchases brought public awareness to policies for improving nutritional value of foods served at restaurants. As a result, offering choices to consumers that affect health and wellness has become a growing concern in the food industry and restaurants, as evidenced by provisions for nutritional labeling to guide consumers’ food purchasing decisions for healthy eating. This study pursues an empirical examination of the consumers’ behavior toward reading nutritional labeling at casual-dining restaurants. The study tests the conceptual framework of the proposed effects of constructs on consumers’ behavioral intentions. Findings indicate that the variable of attitude acts as a mediator in the relationship between subjective norm and behavioral intention. This study is meaningful to academia by offering insights into the relationship between consumers’ behavior and nutritional information in the context of restaurants and is beneficial to the restaurant industry by offering implications for establishing marketing strategies to improve consumers’ perceptions of menu items.     

Exploring competitive hotel selection attributes among guests: An importance-performance analysis

This study aimed to explore the hotel selection attributes among local guests in the competitive hotel industry in Korea and to test the role of these explored attributes in building behavioral intentions. A total of seven dimensions, which involved 17 intangible and 16 tangible attributes, were identified. The findings indicated that intangible attributes are relatively more important but offer less satisfaction, whereas tangible attributes provide a higher level of satisfaction than perceived importance. Moreover, the importance-performance analysis grid visually depicted the importance and satisfaction ratings of each attribute demonstrating its strengths and weaknesses. All intangible attributes were significantly associated with intentions.     

The Antecedents and Consequences of Brand Prestige in Luxury Restaurants

The purpose of this study was to investigate the antecedents and consequences of brand prestige in luxury restaurants. Based on the existing theoretical background, it was proposed that four types of brand-related stimulus form brand experience in consumer memory and thus influence the formation of brand prestige. Through a review of the literature, it was also hypothesized that brand prestige can result in five managerial outcomes: patrons' well-being perception, information costs saved, perceived price fairness, satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Based on the theoretical relationships between the conceptual constructs, a model was proposed and then tested utilizing data collected from 527 luxury restaurant patrons. The results of data analysis indicate that two types of brand-related stimulus (sensory and intellectual) aid in the creation of brand prestige, and can thus help to: enhance patrons' well-being perception; reduce patrons' information searching efforts; and enhance perceived price fairness. As a result, patron satisfaction and positive behavioral intentions can be induced. The critical managerial implications of these findings are then discussed in the latter part of the article.     

Positive emotions and behavioral intentions of customers in full-service restaurants: Does aesthetic labor matter?

Based on the Mehrabian–Russell model, this study investigates whether aesthetic labor performance affects the positive emotions and behavioral intentions of customers in full-service restaurants. This research also identifies the mediating effects of positive emotions on aesthetic labor and behavioral intentions. A total of 320 valid questionnaires were collected from the customers of a well-known chain of restaurants in Taiwan. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate a model linking aesthetic labor, positive emotions, and behavioral intentions. The results revealed that aesthetic labor positively and significantly influences positive emotions and behavioral intentions, and that positive emotions positively and significantly influence behavioral intentions. However, when the control variables of food quality, ambiance, and service quality were added, aesthetic labor did not positively influence behavioral intentions. In addition, positive emotions did not mediate the relationship between aesthetic labor and behavioral intentions. Finally, we provide a discussion on practical implications and suggestions for future research.     

Risk,uncertainty and the theory of planned behavior: A tourism example

The differential impacts risk and uncertainty have on travel decision-making were explored by examining the constructs' influence on the antecedents of intentions to visit Australia using the theory of planned behavior. Respondents were obtained from online consumer panels in South Korea, China and Japan. The South Korean and Chinese samples were general population samples, while the sample from Japan was an international travelers' sample. The extended model fitted the data well, explaining between 21 and 44 percent of the variance in intentions. Subjective norms and perceived behavioral control significantly impacted on intentions in all country samples, whereas attitudes toward visiting Australia were only significant in Japan. Subjective norms influenced attitudes and perceived behavioral control in all country samples. Finally, perceived risk influenced attitudes toward visiting Australia in South Korea and Japan, while perceived uncertainty influenced attitudes toward visiting Australia in South Korea and China and perceived behavioral control in China and Japan.