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

Flavia Braga Chinelato (CENTRUM Catolica Graduate Business School, Lima, Peru) (Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, Lima, Peru)
Alessandro Silva de Oliveira (Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Chapadão do Sul, Brazil)
Gustavo Quiroga Souki (Research Centre of Tourism, Sustainability, and Wellbeing (CinTurs), Faculty of Economics, Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal) (TRIE̙ISMAT -Lusófona, ISMAT, Portimão, Portugal)

Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics

ISSN: 1355-5855

Article publication date: 23 May 2023

Issue publication date: 22 November 2023

1229

Abstract

Purpose

Academics 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/approach

This 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).

Findings

The 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/value

This 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.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Funding: This paper is financed by CENTRUM Catolica Graduate Business School, Lima, Peru and Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Perú.

Citation

Chinelato, F.B., Oliveira, A.S.d. and Souki, G.Q. (2023), "Do satisfied customers recommend restaurants? The moderating effect of engagement on social networks on the relationship between satisfaction and eWOM", Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 35 No. 11, pp. 2765-2784. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJML-02-2022-0153

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited

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