Consumer Behaviour in Restaurants: Assessing the Importance of Restaurant Attributes in Consumer Patronage and Willingness to Pay
Abstract
The purpose of the paper is to explore the relationship between restaurant attributes and consumers' willingness to patronize. Current research shows that the most common factors affecting restaurant guests while making this decision are: food quality, service quality and overall restaurant environment. The present paper explores these three factors and their affect on consumers' willingness to pay and their willingness to patronize when these factors are modified from low to high and vice versa. A dynamic comparison method using scenario-based experimental primary research has been used for the current study. It is a 2 x 2 x 3 experiment with two types of restaurants, two levels of performance and three major attributes. Customers in both upscale and quick service restaurants are willing to spend more if the restaurants' resources are focused on attributes that are appropriate for that segment. These findings are significantly important to the restaurant industry as they identify the critical attributes for each segment of the restaurant industry.