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This study aims to explore the role of restaurant experienscape in affecting diners' emotions and satisfaction with solo dining, considering the moderating role of solo dining willingness and public self-consciousness (PSC).

In total, 403 Korean customers who had dined alone at restaurants in the past three months participated in this study. Structural equation modeling, including multiple group analysis, was conducted to examine the hypotheses.

The dining atmosphere influenced solo diners' positive emotions but not their negative emotions. Responses from other guests and the interactional fairness of employees affected solo diners' negative emotions but not their positive emotions. Food sensory influences both positive and negative emotions. This study found that PSC significantly moderated the effect of the dining atmosphere on positive emotions, and solo dining willingness significantly moderated the impact of food sensory on positive emotions.

This study suggests that restaurant managers should pay close attention to providing fair service to all customers by training and educating employees because the unfair treatment that solo diners receive from employees affects focal customers' negative emotions.

The experienscape model was applied to the solo dining context based on Mehrabian and Russell's (1974) stimulus–organism–response paradigm and Pizam and Tasci's (2019) experienscape concept, which reflects the growing trend in solo dining.

This study aims to examine the effect of self-construal on solo dining intentions and its underlying mechanism through consumer emotions. Furthermore, the study also investigates the moderating effect of the composition of other diners on the relationship between self-construal and solo dining intentions.

A 2 (self-construal: independent vs interdependent) × 2 (other diners: solo diners vs social diners) between-subjects experimental design was adopted to test the hypotheses. The data were collected from 317 Chinese consumers, followed by an analysis using IBM SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0.

The findings indicate that consumers with an independent self-construal are more likely to have the intention to dine alone at a restaurant. Nevertheless, this effect is contingent upon the composition of other diners. The effect is significant only when nearby diners are social diners, and perceived enjoyment partly mediates the relationship. Conversely, when nearby diners are also solo diners, consumers' self-construals do not significantly affect their solo dining intentions. Moreover, the results indicate that consumers generally experience low levels of perceived stress when dining alone.

This study incorporates individual personality traits into research on solo diners and highlights the crucial role of positive emotions in solo dining, which provides insights for relevant enterprises to develop effective marketing strategies.

The solitary consumption market has grown in the hospitality industry. However, research on the behavior of solitary consumers and differences between solitary consumers of different nationalities is rare. The relationships between solo dining motivations and customer satisfaction were investigated for consumers in Taiwan and the United States.

A survey was conducted among Taiwanese and American consumers; 628 valid questionnaires were retrieved. Structural equation modeling was performed to test the hypotheses.

Significant differences were observed between Taiwanese and American consumer motivations. Higher solo dining motivation was positively associated with customer satisfaction; in particular, “escape and relaxation” and “enjoyment” were both positively associated with customer satisfaction. American consumers had a stronger relationship between motivation for social interaction and customer satisfaction.

Only solo diners in Taiwan and the United States were investigated. The results might not be generalizable to solo diners in other regions.

The study's findings on the associations between solo dining motivations and consumption experience contribute to food consumption research. Furthermore, the results enable an understanding of differences in the motivations and behaviors of solitary consumers in different countries.

Solo travel for leisure and business is increasing. It is therefore timely to conduct research into the experiences of solo tourists. This paper aims to explore one aspect of the solo tourist experience that can be challenging, that of dining alone. This topic has received little attention in the tourism or hospitality literature.

A qualitative approach was adopted and narrative inquiry was selected as the optimum route to obtain detailed and rich accounts of the experiences of solo diners. In-depth interviews of 27 solo tourists were conducted with varying socio-demographic characteristics.

This study shows that though travelling alone is prized by participants, dining alone, especially in the evening, is often discomfiting. Discomfort is caused by the perceived negative judgement of others and is mitigated by the use of various props such as books and mobile phones.

A research agenda is put forward on the aspects of the solo tourist/diner experience.

The paper concludes by asking what can be done to ameliorate the solo dining experience and provides some recommendations to hospitality operators to support this market and improve competitiveness and profitability. The paper shows that inclusive environments can attract multiple market segments and agile restaurants can develop both solo and plural dining experiences.

This paper addresses a topic that has received limited scholarly attention as well as industry engagement despite the growth in solo travel.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the interactive effect of social crowding and solo consumers’ sense of power on attitudes toward the restaurant menu with popularity and scarcity cues.

In total, 181 US consumers were recruited. Using a quasi-experimental design, social crowding and promotional cues on a restaurant menu were manipulated and solo consumers’ sense of power was measured.

Low-power individuals exhibited more favorable attitudes toward the menu with a popularity cue at a crowded restaurant. High-power individuals’ attitudes toward the menu were equally favorable across the two promotional cues and crowding levels.

Restaurant managers might want to leverage popularity cues on the menu during peak hours to appeal to solo diners. After diners indicate their dining type (alone vs with others) in kiosks and tablets, restaurants can tailor promotional cues accordingly. Restaurants can also embed more popularity cues in dinner (vs lunch) menus because dinner is more hedonic and social in nature.

This study contributes to the crowding literature by examining promotional cues on the menu and sense of power as moderators of consumer responses to crowding. This study further adds to the solo consumption literature by extending the notion of power and social crowding to ethnic dining contexts.

Solitary dining is a growing worldwide trend, but still evokes a strong emotional response. Some solo diners choose to be alone; others feel lonely due to circumstances. This study aims to explore solitary dining in Japan and Taiwan, moderated by negative emotions.

Based on a survey of 372 participants, this study uses structural equation modeling to examine anticipated loneliness and anticipated negative evaluation from others (the “spotlight effect”) associated with solitary dining intention among university students in Japan and Taiwan.

Taiwanese university students report solo dining behaviors and intentions with as much frequency as their Japanese counterparts. While Japanese university students associate solitary dining with neutral or positive emotions, Taiwanese university students associate solitary dining with negative emotions, anticipating loneliness and negative evaluation from others.

This study concludes with future research directions for both cross-cultural and post-colonial studies of solitary dining behavioral intention.

From a managerial perspective, the findings provide useful insights to restaurant practitioners and managers in East Asia, recommending settings designed to enhance warmth, quiet and a sense of belonging.

This study examines colonial and post-colonial influences, and concludes with recommendations for future research on both cross-cultural and post-colonial approaches solitary dining behavioral intention.

This study contributes to existing cross-cultural studies in Europe and East Asia, but is the first to compare solitary dining in a Chinese linguistic context and the first to compare solitary dining in Taiwan and Japan.

Though social trends are driving consumers toward solo consumption of various services, many are reluctant to do so. There is little guidance for service providers as to how to effectively induce solo consumption. This study aims to examine the joint effect of self-esteem and an incidental similarity cue (e.g. a person’s initials) on anticipated satisfaction with with a solo consumption experience to fill this gap.

This study used a two-factor (incidental similarity cue and self-esteem) quasi-experimental design to test the hypotheses. The respondents read a scenario depicting a solo service consumption experience and completed scales that measured perceived fit with the service context and anticipated satisfaction with the experience.

Results indicate that, in the absence of an incidental similarity cue, self-esteem has a positive effect on solo consumers’ perceived fit. In the presence of such a cue, however, self-esteem has a minimal impact on perceived fit. Furthermore, perceived fit mediates the effect of self-esteem on anticipated satisfaction when the cue is absent.

The authors’ findings suggest that promoting incidental similarities with consumers may not be an efficient strategy to attract solo consumers. Conversely, service providers wishing to induce solo consumption may benefit from situationally increasing self-esteem among potential solo consumers. The current research advances the authors’ understanding of the effect of an incidental similarity cue and self-esteem in the context of a growing social trend of solo consumption.

This study aims to examine whether indirect customer-to-customer interactions (CCI) affect consumers’ behavioral intentions and how that effect is generated. It also explores the effect of dining experience on customer behavioral intentions and how that effect varies by party type.

The research consists of an experimental survey-based study of n = 491 real-world consumers from a marketing research panel. Structural equation models are analyzed to examine hypothesized relationships.

Indirect CCIs significantly affect all five dimensions of experiential value. Food and beverage (F&B) excellence, aesthetics and service excellence positively affect customer revisit intentions and word-of-mouth intentions via restaurant image. Furthermore, party type moderates the effect of aesthetics on behavioral intentions so that the effect is significant for the social diner group only. Customer return on investment and playfulness show non-significant impacts on behavioral intentions.

Managers should be aware that indirect CCIs influence all aspects of the restaurant experience. Since F&B excellence, aesthetics and service excellence affect restaurant image and behavioral intentions, management can operationalize these elements of service. The impact of aesthetics differs by consumers’ party type, enabling management to create unique servicescapes based on their target customer segment.

The study pioneers an investigation of how indirect CCI is associated with behavioral intentions through the mediating effects of experiential value and restaurant image. It contributes to the literature by examining how the impact of diners’ experiences differs by party type.

The advent of digitalization and the trend of social distancing coincide with the individualized lifestyle that is emerging among contemporary shoppers. This study explores the unique market of “smart solo shoppers”. Two empirical studies are conducted, which aim to identify the major dimensions of multi-channel shopping activities that are engaged by the shoppers (Study 1, n = 64) and to differentiate the shoppers' valuation of time invested in the distinct dimensions under different cultural influences (Study 2, n = 519).

A survey questionnaire is used for data collection, and data are analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Results reveal that the shopping activities converge into four principal dimensions: offline shopping, online shopping, post-shopping delivery and product return activities. Shoppers who perceive offline shopping activities as a time burden and online shopping and delivery activities as venues of value creation are more strongly self-identified as smart solo shoppers. Furthermore, smart solo shoppers who are under a strong influence of individualistic culture are found to spend time on multi-channel shopping to make the right purchase the first time, whereas shoppers perceiving being in a weak individualistic culture prefer to engage online channels while being prepared to return the unwanted purchases.

This study highlights an emerging research field in the nexus of solo consumption and smart shopping. Emphasizing the utility-driven and ego-expressive nature of smart solo shoppers, the authors provide an initial profile of these shoppers based on their time-valuation patterns and the contextual impacts of individualistic culture.

This article examines single baby boom consumers on demographic and psychographic dimensions tested in a survey of 267 respondents. We found differences between singles and marrieds in social self‐image, age identification, nature and frequency of leisure activities, and shopping habits. Singles are characterized as “Social Seekers” because they socialize more and show more concern with their social image than marrieds. Marketing implications exist for a variety of products related to gender and marital status.