Do satisfied customers recommend restaurants? The moderating effect of engagement on social networks on the relationship between satisfaction and eWOM

Abstract

PurposeAcademics and managers scour to understand which perceived quality factors are paramount to consumers during their restaurant experiences and how they influence their emotions, satisfaction, propensity to loyalty and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). However, previous studies are divergent regarding the impacts of satisfaction on eWOM. This survey aims to (a) investigate the impacts of perceived quality by restaurant consumers on positive emotions, negative emotions and satisfaction; (b) verify the impacts of satisfaction on the propensity to loyalty and eWOM; (c) test whether the consumers’ behavioural engagement in the SNS (CBE-SNS) moderates the relationship between satisfaction and eWOM.Design/methodology/approachThis survey included 416 university students in Peru who completed an electronic form about their experiences at à la carte restaurants. PLS-SEM tested the hypothetical model based on S-O-R Theory (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974).FindingsThe perceived quality by consumers regarding their restaurant experiences positively impacts satisfaction and positive emotions and negatively affects negative emotions. Satisfaction strongly influences the propensity to loyalty but weakly the eWOM. The CBE-SNS moderates the intensity of the relationship between satisfaction and eWOM.Originality/valueThis study is the first to concomitantly test the relationships between perceived quality, positive and negative emotions, satisfaction, the propensity to loyalty, e-WOM and CBE-SNS. Consumer engagement moderates the relationship between satisfaction and eWOM. Accordingly, to stimulate positive eWOM, restaurants must provide their customers with experiences with high perceived quality, impacting their satisfaction, emotions and propensity for loyalty, and developing strategies to increase CBE-SNS.

Organic food-buying intention drivers: a study based on means-end chain theory

“…Lastly, future scholarly endeavours could enrich the theoretical model by incorporating additional constructs or integrating frameworks like the MEC, the Stimulus-Organism-Response Theory (Chinelato et al. , 2023; Souki et al.…”

“…Consumers' behavioural intentions have been the object of interest of managers and researchers in marketing and consumer behaviour in recent decades (Bagozzi, 1992;Ajzen, 1991;Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). In this context, buying intention relates to the consumer's willingness and desire to purchase a specific product or service or engage in consumption behaviour in a given time (Chinelato et al, 2023). Fleșeriu et al (2020) state that behavioural intentions are predictors of actual behaviour, as they reflect people's desire to act in line with declared intentions.…”

“…Lastly, future scholarly endeavours could enrich the theoretical model by incorporating additional constructs or integrating frameworks like the MEC, the Stimulus-Organism-Response Theory (Chinelato et al, 2023;Souki et al, 2023b) and the theory of planned behaviour (Devi et al, 2023;Valero-Gil et al, 2023), to broaden the understanding of how consumers perceive and process stimuli, their cognitive and emotional responses and impacts on subsequent intentions and behaviour based on their values.…”

Emotional, cognitive and behavioural repercussions of hotel guests' experiences

“…Serra-Cantallops et al (2020) and Bravo et al (2019) affirm that positive emotions positively impact hotel guest satisfaction. Chinelato et al (2023) argue that positive emotions contribute to satisfying experiences while negative emotions negatively impact consumer satisfaction. Oliveira et al (2023) corroborate that consumers who experience negative emotions tend to consider their expectations frustrated.…”

“…In recent decades, academics, managers and marketers have focussed their work on assessing the perception of customers about their experiences with services in economic sectors such as restaurants (Chinelato et al, 2023;Souki et al, 2020) and hotels (Bravo et al, 2019;Alnawas and Hemsley-Brown, 2019;Aguilar-Rojas et al, 2015). Customer experience involves cognitive, affective, social and physical responses to interactions with a service provider or product across multiple touchpoints during their journey (Kim and So, 2022).…”