The impact of hedonic dining experiences on word of mouth, switching intentions and willingness to pay

Abstract

Purpose

When customers decide to dine out, they choose a restaurant for both physiological and psychological reasons. The psychological reasons include the hedonic/enjoyment goal of the consumer. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether dining experiences that provide a positive or negative hedonic value will influence positive word of mouth (PWOM), switching intentions (SI) and willingness to pay (WTP).

Design/methodology/approach

Two survey-based experiments using student (N = 112) and general restaurant consumer samples (N = 270) were conducted to test the proposed theoretical model. The student sample provided internal validity, whereas the general consumer sample provided external validity for the study. Two types of manipulations were used to manipulate positive and negative restaurant service encounters. The second study randomly assigned participants into positive or negative scenarios.

Findings

The results suggest that positive (negative) service encounters lead to higher (lower) hedonic value. Higher hedonic value leads to PWOM, WTP and reduced SI. The findings of this study would assist restaurant managers and service scholars by bridging the gap between experiential and relationship marketing.

Originality/value

The current research investigates the dining out experience with a holistic lens.

Citation

Sukhu, A. and Bilgihan, A. (2021), "The impact of hedonic dining experiences on word of mouth, switching intentions and willingness to pay", British Food Journal, Vol. 123 No. 12, pp. 3954-3969. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-10-2020-0901