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This study aims to examine the impacts of restaurant servers’ actions on the customers’ emotional contagion and the impacts of customers’ emotional contagion on their intention to tip and the likelihood of tipping. This study also explores social compliance and examines its impacts on customers’ intentions to tip and the likelihood of tipping.

Taking a restaurant in Taiwan as an example, this study uses questionnaires to investigate five constructs of the research framework, which are restaurant servers’ actions, restaurant customers’ susceptibility to emotional contagion, customers’ intention to tip, customers’ likelihood of tipping and customers’ social compliance. The questionnaires were distributed online using Surveycake website. A total of 310 completed questionnaires were collected.

The results indicate the following: restaurant servers’ actions positively affect customers’ susceptibility to emotional contagion; customers’ emotional contagion positively affects their intention to tip and likelihood of tipping; customers’ social compliance positively affects their intentions to tip and the likelihood of tipping; and customers’ emotional contagion partially mediates the effects of restaurant servers’ actions on customers’ intention to tip and likelihood of tipping.

The hypothesis test results in this article not only successfully integrate or confirm the research findings of past scholars, but also expand the scope of research on related topics. Furthermore, the research findings of this study provide restaurant practitioners with rich marketing implications.

微笑可换来小费吗？餐厅服务员行为会影响顾客的情绪感染和小费行为吗？

摘要

本研究旨在检验餐厅服务员行为对顾客情绪感染的影响, 以及顾客情绪感染对他们给小费意愿和可能性的影响。本研究还探讨了社会合规性, 并检查了其对顾客给小费意愿和给小费可能性的影响。

本研究以台湾一家餐厅为例, 使用问卷调查研究框架的五个结构, 即餐厅服务员行为、餐厅顾客情绪感染、顾客给小费意愿、顾客给小费可能性以及顾客的社会责任。本研究使用了Surveycake线上问卷调查网站, 在线上分发问卷, 并共收集到 310 份已完整问卷。

本研究结果表示：（1）餐厅服务员的行为正向影响顾客情绪感染, （2）顾客的情绪感染正向影响他们给小费的意愿和可能性, （3）顾客的社会责任正向影响他们给小费的意愿和可能性, 以及（4）顾客的情绪感染部分中介了餐厅服务员行为对顾客给小费意愿和小费可能性的影响。

本文的假设检验结果不仅成功地整合或证实了以往学者的研究成果, 而且扩大了相关课题的研究范围。此外, 本研究的研究结果为餐厅从业者提供了丰富的营销意义。

¿Sonriendo por propinas? ¿Afectarán las acciones de los camareros al contagio emocional y a las propinas de los clientes?

Este estudio tiene como objetivo examinar cómo impactan las acciones de los camareros de restaurantes en el contagio emocional de los clientes, y cómo ese contagio emocional influye en su intención de dejar propina y en la probabilidad de hacerlo. Este estudio también explora el cumplimiento social y examina su impacto en la intención de los clientes de dejar propina y la probabilidad de hacerlo.

Tomando un restaurante en Taiwán como ejemplo, este estudio utiliza cuestionarios para investigar cinco constructos del marco de investigación, que son las acciones de los camareros del restaurante, la susceptibilidad de los clientes del restaurante al contagio emocional, la intención de los clientes de dejar propina, la probabilidad de hacerloy el cumplimiento social de los clientes. Los cuestionarios se distribuyeron online a través de la web Surveycake. Se recogieron un total de 310 cuestionarios completados.

Los resultados indican: (1) las acciones de los camareros del restaurante afectan positivamente a la susceptibilidad de los clientes al contagio emocional, (2) el contagio emocional de los clientes afecta positivamente su intención de dejar propina y la probabilidad de hacerlo, (3) el cumplimiento social de los clientes afecta positivamente su intención de dejar propina y la probabilidad de hacerlo, y (4) el contagio emocional de los clientes media parcialmente los efectos de las acciones de los camareros del restaurante sobre la intención de los clientes de dejar propina y la probabilidad de hacerlo.

Los resultados de la prueba de hipótesis en este artículo no solo integran o confirman con éxito los hallazgos de estudios previos, sino que también amplían el alcance de la investigación sobre temas relacionados. Además, los resultados de este estudio proporcionan a los profesionales de la restauración importantes implicaciones de marketing.

In hotels, room attendants are often invisible to hotel guests. This study aims to understand how customers would increase their voluntary tips when there was less or no personal interaction and communication between customers and service providers. Specifically, the purpose of this study is to investigate whether providing different greeting cards in hotel rooms would affect hotel guest tipping behavior.

A field study was conducted in an upscale independent hotel. Four types of greeting cards through two personalized factors, perceived effort and personalization, were placed in the hotel rooms. The tipping amount for each room-night was recorded during the data collection.

There were 3,285 room-nights tip records collected in this study. The results indicated that non-personalized housekeeping greeting cards did not increase the likelihood of guests to tip, but they may increase the average tipping amount; the personalization of greeting cards from room attendants had positive effects on guest tipping behavior; the hand-written greeting card and name-introduction greeting card were predictors that can significantly increase the likelihood of hotel guests to tip.

The empirical research results support social presence theory. With more consistent tipping in hotel rooms, attendants may be able to predict tips through their job performance; thus, creating a win-win in the lodging industry.

This study contributes to understanding guest-tipping behavior in the hotel rooms.

This paper aims to contribute to the literature that discusses consumer tipping behaviour in eating establishments. Because there is no detailed research into this issue with regard to consumers in Central and East European countries, the authors conducted research aimed at learning about the tipping behaviour of the Poles.

This study was carried out in 2018, using the computer-assisted web interviewing method, for a sample of 1,000 people. Six research questions were asked: How often the Poles give tips in eating establishments? What is an average size of a tip? What determinants influence the frequency and magnitude of tips? Who is likely to give a tip every one to two visits? Who is likely to tip more than the standard 10%? What influences the reasons why Polish consumers tend to tip?

The findings show the strong relationships between both a consumers’ tipping frequency and magnitude and the frequency at which these consumers eat out. This study also implicates income and education as essential factors influencing tipping behaviour and the lack of gender effect on consumers’ decision to tip. It was also noticed that such reasons as the quality of service, a taste of the dishes and a belief that it is proper to tip have a significant impact on the frequency of giving the tips. A significant diversity of the reasons’ meaning for tipping among Polish consumers depending upon their age was also stated.

It would be interesting to compare the results of the current study with studies concerning consumer tipping behaviours in other Central and Eastern European countries historically and culturally similar to Poland to investigate whether the specifics of tipping behaviour noticed in Poland apply elsewhere.

This study shows the specifics of Polish people’s tipping behaviour and partially fulfills the gap in the knowledge of this aspect of consumers’ from Central and Eastern Europe behaviour. The obtained results suggest that with the increasing incomes and the widespread use of food services, tipping is likely to become more common in Poland. Furthermore, the pragmatic reasons for tipping will become more important than social and psychological motivators.

Despite the importance of the interaction between consumers and service personnel for how consumers perceive quality, service research assumes that both customers and service provider are perfectly able to interact with each other. This might not be the case on bilingual markets. This paper aims to examine customers ' behavioral reactions to being served in their first versus second language. Specifically, the paper tests whether bilinguals who are served in their second language are less likely to tip the service provider. Moreover, it seeks to examine the mediating role of speech accommodation, and the moderating roles of bilinguals ' perceived second language proficiency and political considerations.

Study 1 tests the main hypothesis using a scenario-based experiment with adult consumers in two bilingual countries (Belgium, Finland). Study 2 further elaborates on these findings using a retrospective survey of actual customer experiences in Belgium.

Driven by perceptions of speech accommodation, the results consistently show that consumers are more likely to tip if served in their native language compared to when served in their second language. Moreover, this relationship is not dependent on consumers ' perceived second language proficiency, but rather upon their political considerations.

This is the first study of bilingual customers ' behavioral reactions to being served in their second language, among bilingual customers from different countries. Given that more than half the countries in the world are multilingual, service providers need to take customers ' native language into account when serving bilingual customers.

In many countries, service workers' (e.g. restaurant staff, bartenders) income depends highly on tips. Such workers are often female and targeted by sexual harassment. The purpose of this paper was to investigate whether the mode of compensation (tips vs. no tips) could play a causal role in the perceived legitimacy of sexual harassment.

In an experimental study (N = 161), the authors manipulated the source of income of a fictional female bartender (fixed income vs. smaller fixed income + tips) as well as whether she or her boss chose her (sexualized) clothing. The authors then asked male participants in an online survey to imagine being her customer and to form an impression of her.

The bartender was viewed as more sexualized, more manipulative and sexual behaviors toward her were perceived as more legitimate when she received tips. Further, the effect of tipping on the legitimacy of sexual behaviors was mediated by perceptions that she was manipulative. The target was perceived as more manipulative when she chose her clothes than not.

The study is an online scenario study and, as a consequence, assesses only judgments rather than actual behaviors.

Encouraging fixed salaries rather than tipping could reduce the occurrence of sexual harassment.

The present work suggests that tipping may play a detrimental role in service workers' well-being by contributing to an environment in which sexual harassment is perceived as legitimate.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study showing that mode of compensation can increase the objectification of workers and legitimize sexually objectifying behaviors toward them.

The study's purpose was to examine the role of two main factors in the design of online food delivery systems (OFDS) user interfaces: the display of pictures and calories – on consumers' attitudes toward online food delivery systems, intentions to use such systems, spending on a food item and tipping behavior.

The study is grounded in the elaboration likelihood model. A 2 × 2 randomized post-test only between-subjects experimental design manipulated the types of pictures (food item only vs consumers eating a food item) and calorie information display style (numbers vs activity symbols) to determine whether they influence consumers' attitudes, intentions to purchase, spending and tipping behaviors.

The results show that the calorie display style influences consumers' intentions to use such systems and consumers' tipping behaviors toward the delivery driver. It was also found that the type of picture shown to consumers influences their intentions to purchase through ODFS, such that pictures of consumers enjoying a product is more effective in stimulating intentions to purchase than pictures containing only the food items.

This study advances the current knowledge on web design for restaurants wishing to distribute via online food delivery systems. Moreover, this study extends the literature on persuasion in online environments by focusing on foodservice – an area that only recently has undergone substantial distribution online. Finally, this study advances the literature on tipping behavior.

This study provides several contributions for both restaurants and online food delivery system designers. Specifically, it illustrates exactly how specific elements in the design of the web interface and the message targeted at consumers influence consumers' behavior. Most importantly, this study provides insight into tipping behaviors for the delivery driver. This is important because the delivery driver is an important participant in the new value chain of restaurant delivery.

As the first study to develop an experiment that tests these important design conditions, this study offers several critical theoretical and practical implications. This study is the first attempt to examine various ways to present persuasive information in an OFDS in order to stimulate consumers' behaviors. Moreover, this study illustrates that the use of website design that enhance social presence is critical to website effectiveness in OFDS.

This paper aims to demonstrate that self-persuasion can be used as a marketing technique to increase consumers’ generosity and that the efficacy of this approach is dependent on consumers’ involvement with target behavior.

An experimental field-study was conducted to investigate the effects of self-persuasion versus direct persuasion attempts versus no persuasion attempts on consumers’ tipping behavior in a lunchroom. Additionally, in a lab experiment, the moderating role of involvement on self-persuasion versus direct persuasion was tested.

The results reveal that self-persuasion is more effective than direct persuasion attempts or no persuasive messages in increasing consumers’ generosity. This is moderated by consumers’ involvement with the target behavior. For consumers with high involvement, self-persuasion is more effective than direct persuasion, while no differences were found for consumers with moderate or low involvement.

The scope of self-persuasion is not limited to the inhibition of undesired behavior, but it also extends to the facilitation of desired behavior, which considerably broadens the scope of this technique. Self-persuasion might be used as a marketing technique to influence consumers’ purchase behavior. This might be particularly viable in situations in which consumers feel high involvement with products or behavior.

Recently, research in health psychology demonstrated that self-persuasion is a very effective way of inhibiting undesired, addictive behavior and being more successful than direct persuasion. Yet, insufficient knowledge is available about the efficacy of self-persuasion with regard to promoting other target behaviors. In particular, its potential as a marketing technique to influence consumers’ behavior and its boundary conditions are still understudied.

With the rise of social media, online tipping has developed markedly in recent years. Drawing on emotional accounting, this research examined the effects of pride-tagged money (PTM) and surprise-tagged money (STM) on online tipping. It examined the mediating role of self-inflation and the moderating role of the perceived importance of money in the proposed relationship.

Five experimental studies were conducted to test the hypotheses using ANOVA, SmartPLS3 and bootstrap analyses.

The results reveal that pride-tagged (vs surprise-tagged) money leads to higher self-inflation, which leads to an increased willingness to engage in online tipping. It illustrates that when the perceived importance of money is low, PTM results in a higher willingness to engage in online tipping than STM. However, when the perceived importance of money is high, the effect of PTM (vs STM) on the willingness to conduct online tipping is attenuated, and no significant difference exists in the willingness to engage in online tipping between people with PTM and those with STM. In addition, it shows that PTM (vs STM) leads to a higher amount of online tipping, and self-inflation mediates the proposed relationship.

Practically, web-based marketing managers should design programs (e.g. content that encourages users to feel pride in their achievements) that cause users to emotionally tag their money with pride as a means of increasing their willingness to engage in online tipping and to increase the amount of such tipping.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides the first evidence of how different sources of money influence online tipping.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether guests’ tipping motivations (i.e. server quality, social norm and food quality) and demographic characteristics (i.e. gender, age and income) influence loyalty to the server in a restaurant.

Based on a national online survey consumer panel comprised of 468 participants, the authors utilized decision tree using R statistical software. Predictor variables were tipping motivations and demographic characteristics (age, gender and income). Target variable was loyalty to the server.

The findings suggest that social norm, food quality and income influence customers’ loyalty toward the same server on future visits. Social norm turned out to be the strongest predictor. If consumers did not have high social norm on tipping, their loyalty toward a particular server was affected by the combination of determinants such as server quality, social norm, income and food quality.

Future research can identify or develop scales of tipping motivations with stronger reliabilities in the context of restaurants. Future research can also explore other demographic differences (e.g. ethnicity and sexual orientation) in tipping motivations and server loyalty.

Servers are indeed the primary contact point and they are in the most influential position with consumers. Overall, results of this study provide an interesting insight in that restaurant guests’ experience can be ruined by bad quality of food or can be mitigated by server quality. Thus, this research highlights a step-by-step process as to the actions that a server may perform and manage in order to enhance server loyalty.

Loyalty has been examined in the context of products, brands or service providers. This study focuses on loyalty toward a specific server, because the consideration of server–guest relationship provides both a compelling and timely area of study in that restaurants continue to look for unique ways to drive server–guest rapport and customer loyalty.

Academic research has supported the belief that consumers undertip minority race service workers due to implicit racial biases. However, there has been less focus in examining possible moderating factors. This paper aims to fill this gap by analyzing the role of direct and indirect experience in tipping frontline service workers from a minority background. Given the prominence of customer ratings on digital service platforms and the perception that African Americans are discriminated against, the authors look at the interplay of interaction length (direct experience) and customer ratings (indirect experience) on the relationship between race and tipping.

An expectancy disconfirmation framework was developed and tested with a sample of 360 US participants in an online experiment. The experiment followed a 2 × (race: African-American versus Caucasian) × 2 (direct experience: limited versus extensive) × 3 (indirect experience: absent versus positive versus negative customer rating) design.

The authors found consumers who have extended direct experience (longer service interaction) and no indirect experience (absent customer ratings) tipped African Americans more than Caucasians. Interestingly, this effect is reduced in the presence of indirect experience (customer ratings). Finally, where the consumer lacks direct experience (shorter service interaction) but is exposed to positive indirect experience (positive customer ratings), consumers tip African Americans more.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that examines the role of direct and indirect experience in the relationship between race and tipping. Based on the authors’ findings, the authors provide several contributions, including recommendations to reduce inequalities arising from implicit racial bias on digital service platforms.