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The purpose of this study is to analyze and describe the drivers in the physical environment that help to form customers' service experiences at restaurants, as described by customers in their own words.

A critical incident study was conducted through 122 interviews resulting in a total of 195 favourable and unfavourable customer service experiences in restaurants. Data were analysed inductively in accordance with the principles of constant comparison and the results were interpreted by regarding customers as creators of their own meaning.

The physical environment has both a functional and a social dimension and it is an important driver of customer service experiences in restaurants. Customers interact with these drivers individually and create their own meanings and value expressed as feelings, thoughts, imagination and behaviour.

The results develop the tenets of service‐dominant logic by offering some insight into customers' own logic in value creation and the design of the physical restaurant environment.

Customers actively construct their own individual meanings from the physical environment, throughout the whole service process, indicating that the customer service experience is not controlled solely by restaurant management. As some drivers are only experienced in their absence or when they are noticeably disturbing or pleasing, it is important for managers to understand these dimensions in order to treat them appropriately. Both favourable and unfavourable service experiences need to be considered.

The physical environment can be described as a dynamic driver which includes a social dimension and customers are regarded as active creators of their own experience.

The purpose of this study is to propose an integrated model that examines the impact of three elements of foodservice quality dimensions (physical environment, food, and service) on restaurant image, customer perceived value, customer satisfaction, and behavioral intentions.

Data were collected from customers at an authentic upscale Chinese restaurant located in a Southeastern state in the USA via a self‐administered questionnaire. Anderson and Gerbing's two‐step approach was used to assess the measurement and structural models.

Structural equation modeling shows that the quality of the physical environment, food, and service were significant determinants of restaurant image. Also, the quality of the physical environment and food were significant predictors of customer perceived value. The restaurant image was also found to be a significant antecedent of customer perceived value. In addition, the results reinforced that customer perceived value is indeed a significant determinant of customer satisfaction, and customer satisfaction is a significant predictor of behavioral intentions.

The proposed model and study findings will greatly help researchers and practitioners understand the complex relationships among foodservice quality (physical environment, food, and service), restaurant image, customer perceived value, customer satisfaction, and behavioral intentions in the restaurant industry.

This study is the first to develop an integrated model that explicitly accounts for the influence of three restaurant service quality factors on restaurant image and customer perceived value. Using structural equation modeling, this study empirically confirms that the model with the causality from quality, in particular three dimensions of foodservice quality in this study, to restaurant image is superior to the one with causality from image to quality in the context of restaurant.

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.

This study aims to identify key factors that affected US respondents’ dining behavior at restaurants during the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to the lack of a prior framework or model to test customers’ perceptions of dining-out behavior during this unprecedented time, this study used a mixed-methods approach, conducting two focus group discussions to generate potential restaurant attributes, followed by a US-based survey using an online panel. Using structural equation modeling, this study tested eight developed propositions.

The findings of this study indicated that the three key factors (i.e. restaurant dining environment, communication and hygiene and contactless features) made customers feel comfortable dining in the restaurant during the pandemic. Out of these three factors, only the restaurant dining environment and communication and hygiene were essential predictors for customers’ perceived trust toward the restaurant, leading to their willingness to pay more. This study used two moderators, customers’ perceived risk and support for restaurants to examine how they affected customers’ perceived trust and willingness to pay, respectively.

This study provides both theoretical and practical implications to the current body of knowledge in customers’ dining-out behavior and the development of operational strategies for restaurants to accommodate customers’ changing dining-out behavior due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To develop a holistic conceptual framework, this study incorporates two COVID-19-focused measurement items, perceived risk and support of the restaurant, to identify their moderating roles in the relationships among the five proposed measurement items. This study provides restaurant operators with insights into the altered dining-out behavior of their customers due to the COVID-19 pandemic and prepares them for the post pandemic environment.

During the unprecedented pandemic situation, few customers are willing to dine in restaurants. As local and national governments lifted the mandated COVID-19 protocols, restaurants opened their business slowly to cater to customers in compliance with the centers for disease control’s health and safety regulations. It is of utmost importance for restaurant operators to accommodate their customers’ needs when they dine in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a paucity of research that has examined customers’ comfort level when dining in restaurants and customers’ preferred dining environment during the pandemic.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how regional factors affect customer satisfaction in the food service sector. This is achieved through investigating the moderating effects on the most important attributes of restaurants.

Hierarchical linear models, comprising customer observations nested within regions, were developed to explore whether there is any variance in customer satisfaction with the restaurants of an international chain (hereafter known as K Restaurants) across 52 regions in China and which regional factors contribute to understanding such variance.

The results indicate that there is an apparent difference in customer satisfaction across regions. Regional consumption level can positively (negatively) moderate the relationship between food taste (physical environment) and customer satisfaction. Economic condition and population density have a negative moderating effect on the relationship between the physical environment and customer satisfaction. Education level, however, does not have any regional effect on satisfaction.

Multinational companies or chain corporations must account for regional influences when evaluating their performance based on customer satisfaction surveys. Standardization across a nation is not necessarily the best approach because the various regions of a nation may differ in terms of socioeconomic condition.

This pioneering study examines the moderating effects of regional factors on the relationships between the attribute qualities of a restaurant and customer satisfaction.

This study was designed to contribute to the extant literature by discovering the perceptions of restaurant employees and managers toward equal opportunities in restaurant labor and working in a diversity-rich restaurant work environment.

A qualitative research approach was utilized. Through in-depth interviews, data were collected purposefully from restaurant workers in different positions (e.g. managers, servers, chefs and cooks) in the USA.

As a result of content analysis, different perspectives emerged on equal employment opportunity and diversity in restaurant labor. While some employees and managers believe that restaurant labor has equal employment opportunities, others think there is a lack of equal employment opportunity and partial equal employment opportunity in the industry. Most participants perceive working in a diversity-rich restaurant work environment as beneficial (an opportunity to learn about different cultures and an opportunity to learn different experiences and approaches).

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to explore employees' and managers' perceptions of equal employment opportunity and diversity in the hospitality labor context, specifically restaurant labor. Therefore, the research findings will create value for scholars to understand the view on equal employment opportunity and diversity in restaurant labor. Further, it will assist practitioners in designing their labor structure regarding equal employment opportunity and diversity management for the future.

The purpose of this paper is to identify, portray and analyse the frequent drivers of customer service experiences as described by customers in their own words – the voice of the customer.

A critical incident technique study was conducted, based on 122 interviews, including 195 favourable and unfavourable narratives, about customer experiences. The data were analysed in an inductive manner and the results are presented by means of extracts from the narratives.

The findings describe the dimensions of drivers of customers' favourable and unfavourable experiences and the frequent drivers, the social interaction, the core service and the physical context.

Customer experiences are processes and include dynamic interactions and the customer as a co‐producer. The study context is limited to the restaurant setting and Swedish customers.

For managers the results suggest that great effort needs to be put into understanding the process of customer experiences and the various interactions involved, especially social interactions and the crucial roles of contact employees and customers involved in these interactions.

The paper provides a detailed description and analysis of the frequent and less frequent drivers of favourable, and unfavourable customer experiences – the constellation of drivers. The findings are illustrated by extracts from customer narratives and show how experiences occur and that experiences are processes occurring in a social and physical environment when people do things together. Furthermore, the paper introduces customer experience to service dominant logic by describing the dynamics of resource interactions in customer experience formation.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the effects of indoor plants on customers' shopping decisions in the restaurant environment.

The assumption of the research is that there is a relationship between restaurants where indoor plants are used and the customers' shopping decisions (restaurant entry and purchase). A hypothetical study was performed to test this assumption that was based on the digital images of two different restaurants (restaurant with and restaurant without indoor plants) modelled in a virtual environment. The Likert scale questionnaire used in this study was completed by 335 participants.

Results indicated that restaurants designed with indoor plants had a more positive effect on the shopping decisions of participants than restaurants designed without indoor plants. The statistically significant results between evaluations of customers and their demographic backgrounds were determined. The male participants with a 26–35 age range showed more positive opinions about the plant designed restaurants than female participants with a 36–55 age range. Also, higher education graduate participants showed more positive opinions about the plant designed restaurant than secondary education graduate participants.

This paper reveals a significant relationship between restaurant design and shopping decisions. Results of the study suggest that retailers and designers may be able to make easily stores more appealing for customers by designing them with indoor plants.

The gradual ageing of global population has necessitated the creation of conducive and supportive food and beverage environments for older adults. This study identifies the key evaluation criteria for senior-friendly restaurants and examines the importance of each criterion.

This study uses the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) to synthesis the key evaluation criteria for senior-friendly restaurants and analyses the weights of these criteria. It identifies and prioritises four main criteria and twenty sub-criteria in the hierarchical framework by employing the sophisticated approach.

The results indicate that the main criteria ranked by importance are “barrier-free environment”, “food quality”, “service quality” and “corporate social responsibility (CSR)”. There are five most important sub-criteria, such as “simple and intuitive use” and “perceptible information” belonging to the main criterion “barrier-free environment”, “hygiene and safety” and “food freshness” belonging to the main criterion “food quality” and “assurance” belonging to “service quality”. Incorporating the analytical findings, this study suggests the key evaluation criteria to facilitate the construction and development of senior-friendly restaurants.

The precisely hierarchical model and key criteria proposed in this study provide clear guidelines for managers of senior-friendly restaurants to develop feasible strategies and also contribute to the theoretical development of food-friendly environments and services for elderly consumers.

The purpose of this study is to ascertain the effects of place attachment on brand loyalty. This study further ascertains whether the effects of emotion-based attachment on brand loyalty are stronger for customers who have a positive experience with a restaurant brand. Additionally, the authors investigate whether emotion-based attachment mediates the relationships between identity-based attachments, place dependence and brand loyalty in the restaurant setting.

The authors administered the questionnaire to customers (diners) of restaurants in Ghana, and they were completed via a paper and pencil/pen approach. The authors tested their hypotheses using structural equation modeling.

The findings show that identity-based and emotion-based attachment enhances brand loyalty within a restaurant setting. The results also show that place dependence attachment promotes emotional bonding with restaurant brands. The study's findings also show that place dependence attachment does not have a direct and positive significant effect on brand loyalty except when an emotional response is produced.

Place attachment studies in a restaurant setting are rare. This study thus contributes to the place attachment literature in restaurants setting.