The Kano’s Method: Mature Customers’ Perceived Service Level and Satisfaction With the Restaurant Service

The mature consumer segment has become more of importance in the U.S. economy because of the tremendous increase in the number of senior population and their increasing purchasing power. It is necessary that the restaurant industry have a better understanding of this segment to provide satisfactory dining experience. This study proposes to evaluate restaurant service attributes from seniors’ point of view. The survey will be conducted to measure expectation, perception, and level of importance of restaurant attributes. Then, the Kano’s method will be applied to classify those attributes according to their relative impact on customers’ satisfaction/dissatisfaction. The study results will provide the restaurant industry with meaningful implications in better serving the mature market

Generalizing survey results from student samples: Implications from service recovery research

Using college students as research subjects in consumer research may or may not be appropriate. This paper discusses external validity of research findings using student subjects as surrogates for consumers in experimental, particularly scenario based, studies. A study that investigated differences between a student sample and a customer sample in response to service experience is described. Results were mixed. No significant mean differences were found in complaint intention, preference to complain to an employee or a manager, overall satisfaction, and revisit intention toward service providers. However, significant discrepancies were observed in testing the role of initial overall satisfaction in evaluating recovery satisfaction and in the relative importance of dimensions of justice. For both student and non-student groups, regardless their recovery satisfaction were positive or negative, initial overall satisfaction was a stronger predictor for post-recovery overall satisfaction than recovery satisfaction

The Effect of Online Restaurant Reviews on Diners’ Visit Intention: A Comparative Analysis of Expert vs. Peer Reviews

Taking advantage of restaurant review websites enables customers to exchange each other’s information and opinions toward their restaurant experience. Online reviews have been an influential role for decision-makers, yet little is known about the impact of diners’ evaluation and adoption. The purpose of this study is to determine how online restaurant reviews affect customers’ decisions to choose a restaurant. Online users who have experienced restaurant review websites will be participated for its empirical investigation and collected data will be analyzed using structural equation modeling. It is expected that reviews with reliable articulation and more recent and sufficient information will contribute to customers’ visit to restaurants. The study findings will help restaurateurs construct proper marketing strategies to encourage diners’ intentions to visit and to minimize negative online reviews

Effects of Person-job Fit and Person-organization Fit on Work Attitudes and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors of Foodservice Employees in the Continuing Care Retirement Communities

Employees who experience great level of person-job (P-J) fit and person-organization (P-O) fit may actively engage in their jobs and perform organizational citizenship behaviors at organization (OCB-O)and individual (OCB-I ) level. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of individual perceived P-J and P-O fit and work engagement (i.e., job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational commitment) on OCB-I and OCB-O. Two hundred and fifty responses from food-service employees in Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) are targeted for final data collection. Descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling will be employed to report participants’ demographic characteristics and to examine the relationships among constructs. Findings will help managers recognize the importance of P-J and P-O fit and work attitude in the development of employees’ pro-socialization behaviors

The effectiveness of service recovery and its role in building long-term relationships with customers in a restaurant setting

Doctor of PhilosophyDepartment of Hotel, Restaurant, Institution Management & DieteticsCarol W. ShanklinKi-Joon BackThis study proposed and tested a theoretical model of service recovery consisting of antecedents and consequences of service recovery satisfaction. This study further tested recovery paradox effects and investigated the effects of situational and attributional factors in the evaluation of service recovery efforts and consequent overall satisfaction and behavioral intentions. The study employed scenario experimentation with three dimensions of justice manipulated at two levels each (2x2x2 between-groups factorial design). Postage paid, self-addressed envelopes and questionnaires (600 copies) were distributed. Participants represented 15 religious and community service groups. All respondents were regular casual restaurant customers. Of 308 surveys returned, 286 cases were used for data analysis. In study 1, the proposed relationships were tested using the structural equation modeling. In study 2, multivariate analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of covariance tests were employed to test proposed hypotheses. The three dimensions of justice had positive effects on recovery satisfaction. Recovery satisfaction had a significant positive effect on customers’ trust. Trust in service providers had positive effect on commitment and overall satisfaction. Commitment had positive effects on overall satisfaction and behavioral intentions. This study indicated that, although a service failure might negatively affect customers’ relationship with the service provider, effective service recovery reinforced attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. The results of this study emphasized that service recovery efforts should be viewed not only as a strategy to recover customers’ immediate satisfaction but also as a relationship tool to provide customers confidence that ongoing relationships are beneficial to them. This study did not find recovery paradox in the experimental scenarios. The magnitude of service failure had significant negative effects on perceived justice and recovery satisfaction. Customers’ rating of stability causation had significant negative effects on overall satisfaction, revisit intention, and word-of-mouth intention. The study findings indicated that positive recovery efforts could reinstate customers’ satisfaction and behavioral intentions up to those of pre-failure. Restaurant managers and their employees need to provide extra efforts to restore the customers’ perceived losses in serious failure situations. Service providers should reduce systematic occurrences of service failure so customer will not develop stability perception

Effects of Workplace Friendship on Employee Job Satisfaction, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Turnover Intention, Absenteeism, and Task Performance

Today’s hospitality employees spend a large portion of their lives at work. Accordingly, friendships between/among employees are often formed at work. Findings of prior studies have suggested that workplace friendship has a variety of positive functions for both individuals and organizations. Workplace friendship facilitates increased communication, respect, securities, and trust among employees. These rewarding benefits have meaningful implications for the employees’ job-related outcomes in the hospitality industry. Thus, this study will examine the direct effect of workplace friendship on hotel employees’ attitude toward their job and its direct and indirect effect on organizational citizenship behavior, turnover intention, absenteeism, and task performance

Modeling roles of service recovery strategy: A relationship-focused view

This study proposed and tested a theoretical model consisting of antecedents and consequences of recovery satisfaction using scenario experimentation with three dimensions of justice manipulated at two levels each (2x2x2 factorial design). Each participant was provided the same service failure (overcooked steak) scenario and one of the eight recovery scenarios (a combination of dimensions of justice). Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses based on 286 cases. All three dimensions of justice had positive effects on recovery satisfaction. Recovery satisfaction had positive effects on trust and overall satisfaction. Trust had positive effects on commitment and overall satisfaction. Commitment had positive effects on overall satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Although a service failure might negatively affect customers' relationship with the service provider, effective recovery can reinforce attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. The study findings emphasized that recovery efforts should be viewed not only as a strategy to recover immediate satisfaction but also as a relationship tool to build long-term relationships with customers

Mixed findings on service recovery paradox: An illustration from An experimental study

The purpose of this study was to test the service recovery paradox and double deviation on customers' overall satisfaction considering definitional and methodological issues. This study employed a scenario experimentation manipulated three dimensions of justice at two levels each ( 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design). A convenience sample of 286 casual restaurant customers was used in the study. Paired sample t-tests were employed to test recovery paradox and double deviation effects after selecting four groups of customers based on recovery satisfaction to take into account the if-condition in the definition of the service recovery paradox. Customers' post-recovery overall satisfaction could be higher than their initial overall satisfaction provided customers were highly satisfied with service recovery ( recovery paradox). When customers are somewhat satisfied with recovery efforts, their initial overall satisfaction could be carried over after two transactional evaluations. Double deviation effects were obvious and consistent when customers were either highly dissatisfied or somewhat dissatisfied with service recovery