H.G. Parsa

The effects of restaurant quality attributes on customer behavioral intentions

Purpose – The purpose of this paper was to investigate the relationships between restaurant quality attributes and customer behavioral intentions. Design/methodology/approach – An experimental design was chosen to provide a high level of internal validity. Three separate 3 × 2 factorial design experiments were conducted through 18 separate vignette scenarios for three levels of quality (below average, average and above average) of three common restaurant attributes (food, service and ambience) in two types of restaurants (quick service and upscale). Findings – The results indicated that the type of restaurant moderated the relationship between restaurant service and ambience quality and customer behavioral intentions. Practical implications – The results of this study suggest that management of quick-service and upscale restaurants should focus on food quality, but establish different resource allocation priorities with respect to service and ambience quality. Originality/value – This study examined the l...

Change in Consumer Patronage and Willingness to Pay at Different Levels of Service Attributes in Restaurants: A Study in India

Consumer patronage and consumer willingness to pay are the two most important criteria for business development. The current study investigates the changing preferences of consumers in a developing economy with respect to three major service attributes from the restaurant industry: food quality, service, and ambiance. Results indicated that consumers give greater preference to quality over service in high-end restaurants and prefer service compared with ambiance in quick-service restaurants. Food quality was found to have strong interaction effect with two other variables. When food quality was improved from low to high, consumer preferences for ambiance and service tended to change accordingly in the same direction, but not necessarily at the same level. Thus, restaurateurs have a strategic advantage when they choose high quality food and an appropriate level of service or ambiance. Consumer expectations are significantly different for high-end, full-service restaurants and quick-service restaurants in service attributes.

Why Restaurants Fail? Part IV: The Relationship between Restaurant Failures and Demographic Factors

Although location is a significant factor in a restaurant’s survival chances, contrary to the commonly held belief, the presence of nearby homes did not help in lowering failure rates between 2000 and 2010 for restaurants in Boulder, Colorado. Instead, having a substantial population of apartment dwellers and transient residents (notably, university students) enhanced the restaurants’ success, as did the presence of people aged eighteen to twenty-four, those with higher educational levels, non-household families, and low- to middle-income families. Larger restaurants and those with chain affiliation had a greater probability of success than small, quick-service operations. Among the factors that had little effect on restaurant success or failure were unemployment rates, the nature of nearby residents’ profession, and the geographical presence of families with children under eighteen. The study’s results also support the long-held industry perception regarding avoiding locations where restaurants have already failed. When a location had experienced three ownership turnovers, the study found that the location generally ceased to host restaurants as tenants. As explained further in this article, this is the fourth in a series of examinations of the elements of restaurant success and failure.

Hotel Cancelation Policies, Distributive and Procedural Fairness, and Consumer Patronage: A Study of the Lodging Industry

ABSTRACT Hotel cancelation policies (CancPols) are designed to minimize losses for the lodging companies. Liberal CancPols have resulted in revenue forecasting errors and eventual loss of revenues. The current study investigates the effect of different CancPols on consumer patronage and willingness to pay. In addition, the effects of distributive and procedural fairness in hotel CancPols are addressed. Results indicate that there is no loss of consumer patronage between open option policies and 48-hour CancPols. No-refund policies were found to be too restrictive and affected consumer’s patronage. Consumer patronage was also significantly affected when fairness policies were violated.

Examining the effects of vacation ownership product attributes on customer satisfaction: An investigation of product purchase and use

Purpose – This research aims to propose a model that may be used to classify product attributes according to their effect on customer satisfaction within the services industry. It also aims to apply the model to vacation ownership products and to explore attributes related to both the purchase and use of the product: an owned luxury product. Design/methodology/approach – Data from 3,231 vacation ownership customers of multiple international companies were analyzed using a modified Kano model and related questionnaire. Findings – This study reveals the effect that specific product attributes have on customer satisfaction. It addresses previously unexplored attributes (i.e. sales techniques and hotel program benefits), confirms others previously identified with customer satisfaction (i.e. amenities, exchange benefits, hotel affiliation and vacation counselors) and reveals those that had no incremental effect on overall satisfaction (i.e. financing and activities). Practical implications – Results of this st...

Assessing Faculty Productivity by Research Impact: Introducing Dp2 Index

Assessing hospitality faculty-research output has become a subject of research in its own right. Unfortunately most of the currently available assessment instruments are limited in their ability to consider consistency, productivity, originality, and longevity of productivity in hospitality research. Thus, this article introduces a new research productivity index using secondary sources of data for evaluating faculty research productivity, based on four criteria: quantity, quality, consistency, and longevity. The proposed Dp2 index uses publicly available secondary data sources in assessing the research productivity of hospitality faculty. The proposed Dp2 index is parsimonious, effective, flexible, adaptable, and easy to implement.

Tipping Practices in Food and Beverage Operations: A Longitudinal Study

Convention hotels with large kitchens and dining facilities contribute significantly to culinary sciences as laboratories for product and service innovations. In foodservice operations, services are intricately interrelated with tipping. However, the nature of tipping, rate of tipping, and effect of external and internal factors on tipping vary significantly across political and cultural boundaries as well as across types of foodservice operations. The current study investigates the role of employee gender in explaining the relationship between a hotel department and tip rates recorded using a secondary data set collected from a convention hotel. The results indicate that even within a hotel, tipping rates vary between the departments. Gender of an employee was also found to be an important factor. Relatively higher gender differences were noted between the in-room service department and bars with reference to tipping.

Revenue management, hedonic pricing models and the effects of operational attributes

Utilising secondary data, the present study investigated the effect of operational attributes and product type (cuisine) on the price that consumers paid in restaurants. Contrary to the commonly held belief, food quality generally had the lowest impact on price. High-end restaurants differed significantly from low-end restaurants on the effect of food, service and ambiance quality on the price that consumers paid. Study results clearly indicated that high-end restaurants displayed a concave curve in all three operational attributes in relation to increasing price points. For low-end restaurants, the curves of operational attributes were either horizontal or convex in relation to increasing price points.

FDA Ruling and Nutritionally Focused Menus: Alternative Strategies to Comply with the U.S. Federal Guidelines

Research indicates that 65% of Americans over the age of 20 years old are considered overweight. To address this public health issue, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has proposed new nutritional guidelines for restaurant menus. This study includes development and redesigning of drive-thru menus to comply with the FDA guidelines. An experiment was conducted using real drive-thru menus from selected nationwide chains complying with FDA ruling and alternative nutritionally focused menus. The first set of experimental menus includes presentation of calorie information for all menu items offered. The second set of experimental menus includes color coded calorie specific menu categories (low, regular, and high). The obtained results indicated that the experimental nutritionally focused drive-thru menus were preferred significantly over the FDA format menus (control group). Consumers made healthier choices (low calorie menus) more often with the experimental menus over the FDA suggested format. In addition, consumer preference was higher for the experimental menus in ease of reading, layout, and convenience over the FDA suggested menu format.

Service Failure, Tipping Behavior, and the Effect of Service Industry Experience

The relationship between tipping and the service provided is not always linear. Factors such as demographic profile of the consumer, industry norms, and social norms affect the amount of tip. Results from the current study reveal that tipping varies when service failure occurs due to servers’ fault or organizational failure. Consumers with prior professional experience in the restaurant industry can distinguish between causes of failure, and tip accordingly. Consumers with prior professional restaurant experience were found to tip significantly more than those consumers that do not have prior hospitality experience. Tip rates for service failure due to organization failure tend to be higher compared with the service failure due to servers’ mistakes indicating that consumers do not penalize a server when the organization has caused the service failure.