Positive and Negative Word of Mouth about Restaurants: Exploring the Asymmetric Impact of the Performance of Attributes |
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| Authors: | Ziqiong Zhang Zili Zhang Rob Law |
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| Institution: | 1. School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, HarbinPeople's Republic of Chinaziqiong@hit.edu.cnxiaojia0459@yahoo.com.cn;4. School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, HarbinPeople's Republic of China;5. School of Hotel and Tourism Management, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong |
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| Abstract: | This study examines the relationship between attribute performance of a restaurant and customers' positive and negative word of mouth (WOM). We present an analysis of 168,262 customer reviews, which consist of an overall rating of a dining experience, ratings of food, physical environment and employee service, and real expenditure for a meal, totally covering 1,542 Chinese restaurants on a restaurant guide website. The results indicate that the performance of attributes has an asymmetric impact on positive and negative WOM for the restaurant industry as well as for low-end and mid-to-high-end restaurants. Our results also show that, in most cases, there is a combined effect of two attributes on both positive and negative WOM. |
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| Keywords: | word of mouth restaurants asymmetric combined effects |
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