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This study aims to investigate, when a service failure occurs, whether circumstantial cues could be used to encourage more positive responses by customers toward restaurants through the mediation of causal attribution.

A 2 (cause of service failure: easily observable vs difficult-to-observe) × 2 (kitchen design: open vs closed) between-subject experiment is used to analyze customers’ causal attributions of service failures and resultant responses.

When a service failure whose cause is easy to identify occurs, customers at open-kitchen restaurants show more negative responses than those at closed-kitchen restaurants because they are likely to attribute the responsibility to the restaurant. Attribution is confirmed to mediate the relationship between the interaction of service failure by kitchen design and customers’ responses.

Diverse circumstantial cues should be actively used to encourage more positive responses by customers. The mediating role of causal attribution should be considered in managing customers’ responses toward service failures.

This study finds that circumstantial cues could be useful in dealing with service failures in restaurants by confirming the mediating role of causal attribution.

This study aims to examine the effects of self-image congruities (i.e. the match between the image of a product or brand and a customer’s image of themselves) as an affective psychological process in the context of a restaurant setting. The study proposed that a customer’s perception of congruity between his or her self-image and a restaurant could be a salient antecedent for eliciting positive affects toward restaurants, which may influences customers’ evaluations of the functional attributes of a restaurant. The relative effects of actual versus ideal self-image congruity on positive affects, along with the moderating effect of the type of restaurant, were also investigated.

An online survey was developed and distributed to randomly selected respondents in the USA and a total of 376 responses were used for the data analyses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the relationships among five constructs: actual self-image congruity, ideal self-image congruity, positive affect, evaluation of the restaurant experience and revisiting intentions. To investigate the moderating effect of the restaurant type – more specifically, to examine differences in relative importance of actual versus ideal self-image congruity based on the type of restaurant (casual dining versus fine dining) – multiple group analyses were executed.

The results showed that both actual and ideal self-image congruity significantly influence positive affect, which has a significant influence on customers’ evaluations of the functional attributes of a restaurant. Actual self-image congruity effect on positive affect was significant in casual dining restaurants, but it was not significant in fine-dining restaurants. Ideal self-image congruity effect on positive affect was significant in both casual and fine-dining restaurant.

This study provides practical implications for developing an effective marketing communication in terms of promoting different segments of restaurant (casual dining vs fine-dining) based upon the customers’ perception of self-image congruity.

This paper includes a theoretical model that explains whether self-image congruity is a salient antecedent influencing restaurant customers’ positive feelings toward a restaurant brand. It also examined the relative effects of actual versus ideal self-image congruities in different restaurant settings.

This study aims to gain an understanding of hotel experiences during the pandemic by examining sentiments of guests posted online.

This paper incorporates the balance theory, in a dyadic system to analyze the ways in which guests were motivated to restore a position of balance during the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis. Qualitative content analysis was used to detect thematic patterns of hotel experiences based on examining online reviews shared by actual guests of two major hotel brands – one more closely associated with convenience-driven automation (high-tech) and the other known for providing more guest–employee interaction (high-touch).

The analysis of the reviews yielded six main themes: “purpose of visit,” “COVID safety concerns,” “technology adoption,” “COVID limitations,” “exceeded expectation” and “hospitality of staff.” Staff displaying a welcoming attitude was the main factor in creating a convivial experience for guests at both hotel brands, but the technology was not highlighted as much in guests’ reviews. Despite the pandemic, guests of both hotel brands had similar levels of enjoyment regarding their hotel experiences regardless of the high-touch or high-tech nature of the operations.

User-generated content often reflects the opinions of those who are very satisfied or not satisfied at all. Different data collection techniques could be used to get a “big picture” view of the balance between high-touch and high-tech experiences.

The findings offer support to researchers and practitioners who advocate that high-touch and high-tech can indeed co-exist, and that these distinct service delivery modes do not have to be mutually exclusive.

This paper provides new trajectories that can broaden the approaches undertaken by hospitality/tourism scholars and practitioners based on user-generated content. This study is one of the first to adopt the lens of the balance theory, in a dyadic system, to investigate how guests may be psychologically motivated to balance their perceptions and expectations during a time of crisis.

This paper aims to explore the effect of hiring outside chief executive officers (CEOs) on restaurant performance. As outside CEOs have a mandate to bring changes but lack internal knowledge, this study expected that outside CEOs impose a significant influence on restaurant performance. It was further expected that the relationship is substantially moderated by franchising and recession.

The CEO data was manually collected from firms’ annual filings and the EXECOMP database. The COMPUSTAT database was used for company financial data. A two-way panel regression was used to examine the proposed relationships.

The results revealed that outside CEOs have a positive effect on growth but a negative effect on restaurant profitability. It was further turned out that franchising significantly moderates the outside CEO-performance relationship. However, the moderating effect of recession turned out to be insignificant.

The results suggested that outside CEOs play a critical role in determining restaurant performance. The results further imply that franchising helps to maximize the positive effect of outside CEOs while mitigating the adverse effects of outside CEOs.

This study is one of the first to examine the effect of outside CEOs in the hospitality context. Moreover, this study extended the literature by revealing the relationship in the restaurant industry and highlighting the importance of long-term organizational context.

This study aims to address a lack of studies on the attributes of ethnic restaurants that influence customers’ perceptions of authenticity. Particularly, this study extended Gilmore and Pine’s authenticity framework (is the offering true to itself and is the offering what it says it is) by incorporating a servicescape factor (i.e. employees).

This study used a 2 × 2 × 2 between-participants design which examined the effects of using an authentic sauce in a dish, advertising “authenticity” and employing staff from the native culture of the ethnic food on authentic experiences. Follow-up contact was made by phone and mail to assess their memory of ethnic Korean food tried in experimental conditions. Participants were asked how clearly and vividly they could recollect the food experience.

The results showed that all of the tested factors significantly influenced the subjects’ perceived authenticity of the food and recollection of the food experience. However, the authors did not find any significant interaction effects.

This study suggests factors that influence customers’ authentic experiences and memory. Thus, the findings provide important implications for delivering authentic and memorable experiences.

Previous researchers have emphasized the importance and urgency of providing authentic and memorable experiences. However, it is still unclear what specific attributes of ethnic restaurants influence individuals’ perceptions of authenticity and memory.

The purpose of this study was to extend the understanding of restaurant firms’ overall debt and equity financing practices by considering what drives equity financing. More importantly, this study attempted to identify whether an optimal financial leverage point exists in the relationship between debt financing and equity financing for restaurant firms.

This study used fixed-effects regression models with a sample of 1,549 unbalanced firm-year panel data to identify restaurant firms’ financial practices and the impacts of financial constraints.

First, restaurant firms tend to issue long-term debt to pay back existing debt. However, the amount of debt does not exactly match the debt’s maturity. Second, small restaurant firms’ net debt financing, as well as net equity financing, has an inverted-U-shaped relationship with financial leverage. Finally, the effect of financial leverage on external financing significantly differs between small and large restaurant firms.

Restaurant firms routinely use both debt and equity financing interchangeably to manage their financial constraints and target debt ratio. Further, firm size is an important indicator of financial constraints, while equity financing plays an important role in managing an optimal target debt ratio.

This study is unique in that it considers determinants of restaurant firms’ long-term debt financing as well as equity financing. This study also examines differences in long-term debt and equity financing practices between financially constrained and unconstrained firms.

This study aims to examine how information asymmetry, which refers to an information gap between a firm’s management and its investors regarding the firm’s true value, influences firms’ dividend and investment decisions in the restaurant industry. This study also investigated the moderating role of a firm’s level of franchising in the relationship between information asymmetry and these behaviors of restaurant firms.

This study used generalized method of moments panel regression analyses. Principal component analysis was also used to create a composite index of information symmetry.

This study demonstrated that in asymmetric information environments, restaurant managers tend to reduce dividend payments. In addition, this study showed that information asymmetry leads to restaurant managers’ investment inefficiency. However, the investment inefficiency of the restaurant industry was found to decrease as restaurant firms’ level of franchising increases.

Firms’ dividends and investment decisions are of great interest to investors because these decisions heavily influence investors’ wealth-maximization goals. By shedding light on the previously unrecognized determinants of dividend and investment behaviors in the restaurant industry, this study helps individual investors to make informed investing decisions.

Conflicting arguments can be made regarding the impact of asymmetric information environments on the dividend and investment behaviors of restaurant firms. This study aimed to verify these as-yet unclear relationships in the restaurant industry.

Given the increasing importance of relationship management in service recovery encounters, this study aims to investigate the role of consumer–organization relationship norms (communal versus exchange) in connection with the service recovery process.

Based on a thorough review of the previous literature, the model was developed. Using a scenario-based survey method, a total of 204 usable responses were obtained via self-administered questionnaires in the USA. Anderson and Gerbing’s two-step approach was used to assess the measurement and structural models.

The findings indicate that consumers’ recovery processes are influenced by relationship norms. For consumers in the communal relationship, perceived social recovery had a greater influence on satisfaction with the service recovery. Consumers in the exchange relationship reacted more sensitively to perceived economic recovery in terms of satisfaction with the service recovery.

The focus of this study is restaurant consumers’ responses to service recovery in the context of an established relationship. Therefore, the results may not be generalizable for other consumers and segments.

The findings have important implications for increasing the understanding of consumer behavior in established relationships and suggesting effective recovery strategies.

This study investigates the effect of different relationship norms that could explain varying consumer responses to service recovery within a high-quality relationship. It also provides directions for improving consumers’ satisfaction with service recovery. This differs from previous studies that mainly focused on relationship quality.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of three types of perceived healthiness (physical, psychological and economic health) on restaurant consumption activities among senior consumers.

Data were collected from 325 restaurant customers in the USA through a Web-based survey conducted by an online marketing research firm. Following previous studies’ categorization of senior consumers, this study distinguished between “senior consumers” (age 60 or older) and “younger consumers” (age 39 or younger) to better compare different age-related behaviors. A series of two-way ANOVA was conducted for dining-out frequency and the number of choice sets.

The results revealed that senior diners’ perceptions of healthiness are critical in determining senior consumers’ restaurant behaviors, such as information processing and purchasing behaviors. The results provide evidence that seniors with a positive perception of their physical and psychological status seek a greater number of alternative restaurant choices, which is actively related to purchasing frequency.

The managerial implications indicate that restaurant marketers should avoid stereotypes and instead rely on more recent and accurate information regarding today’s senior consumers.

The position taken in this study recognizes the need to enhance the understanding of senior consumers’ patterns regarding their perceived physical, psychological and economic health. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to investigate the impact of three types of health on seniors’ dining behaviors.

This study aims to identify the influences that lead to better memorability of a service by focusing on type of service failure, recovery condition and frequency of occurring.

This study used a quasi-experimental design in which customers answered questions about a restaurant they had recently patronized and then evaluated experimentally generated failure and recovery scenarios. Two follow-up contacts were made (by phone and e-mail) to assess their memory of the imagined service failures stimulated by the scenarios. Participants were asked how clearly and vividly they could recollect the service failure and to indicate their behavioral intentions at the time of recall.

The type of service failure and the subsequent recovery efforts significantly affect whether negative service experiences are memorable. Specifically, individuals showed a higher likelihood of vividly recalling a core service failure than an interactional one. Moreover, service recoveries were found to be helpful in decreasing the memorability of service failures, and that they were effective in decreasing the resulting negative customer behavioral intentions (i.e. switching behaviors and negative word-of-mouth). However, frequently occurred service failures did not significantly influence the memorability of the failures.

The current study suggested what characteristics of service failures and situations lead to strong memorability and significantly affect future behavior. Thus, the findings provide important implications for avoiding and handling the failures that trigger strong memorability.

Previous researchers have emphasized on the importance and urgency of preventing critical service failures. However, it is still unclear what type of service failures and/or factors are critical ones. The current study expands the knowledge by incorporating service failures with memory and investigates the characteristics of memorable service failures, which are likely to be remembered more vividly.