Consumer involvement in ethnic restaurants: a measure of satisfaction/dissatisfaction

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether consumer orientation (active/passive) and psychological involvement (attitude, opinion, belief, and behavioral intention) affect satisfaction when dining in an ethnic restaurant. The sample represented 232 consumers who dined in participating Washington D.C. metropolitan area ethnic restaurants. Information was obtained by asking consumers to answer a four part, 86 item questionnaire. Correlation analysis revealed that opinion (r = 0.17, P < 0.04), belief (r = 0.28, P < 0.01), and behavioral intentions (r = 0.19, P < 0.02) of the active consumer significantly affect satisfaction. Whereas, for the passive consumer no significant effect was found. Results of the stepwise regression analysis revealed that consumer psychological involvement and restaurant attributes affect satisfaction with service (R² = 0.57, p<0.05), satisfaction with lunch (R² = 0.8, p<0.05), satisfaction with dinner (R² = 0.33, p<0.05), and satisfaction with the overall dining experience (R² = 0.39, p<0.0l). Further, it was found that consumers' future visitations, within the next few weeks, were affected by consumer's psychological involvement (R² = 0.53, p<0.0l). Restaurant attributes (speed of service; employee courtesy; and food quality and prices) affected overall satisfaction in dining (R² = 0.4, p<0.0l), but it weakly affected future visitations (R² = 0.04, p<0.04, negative Mallows' Coefficient). The findings of this study contribute not only to consumer self-concept theory and satisfaction theory but also have practical implications to the ethnic restaurant industry.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management

Department dc:contributor.department

Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1993

Author dc:creator

• Ladki, Said M.

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Khan, Mahmood A.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Uysal, Muzaffer S.
• Nomani, M. Zafar A.
• Azzaro, Beverly Hummel
• Murrmann, Suzanne K.

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-10242005-124134

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/40139