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This research investigates the effects of consumers' online information searching on their dining satisfaction in upscale restaurants during the pandemic. Customers frequently rely on online sources to gather information about upscale restaurants prior to their visits.

Data from 307 diners across the top ten popular upscale restaurants in Hong Kong were analysed by using SEM to explore the links between customers' needs, information search, restaurant attributes and customer satisfaction.

This study uncovers customers' online search behaviours and identifies restaurant attributes that are associated with customer satisfaction, which were not typically emphasised before the COVID-19 pandemic. Driven by their social and psychological needs, customers devoted more time to reading written comments by other consumers compared to visual images or self-descriptions from restaurants. Only service attribute significantly influenced customer satisfaction, while food and price attributes were not significant.

The findings of this study provide valuable insights for researchers and practitioners, shedding light on the altered needs and preferences of consumers following the unprecedented health crisis.

This study contributes to the development of expectancy disconfirmation theory and needs theory through the investigation of consumers' online information searching behaviours and dining satisfaction in upscale restaurants during the pandemic. By identifying the most important attributes influencing customer satisfaction, this research can aid upscale restaurants in developing effective marketing strategies and enhancing customer experiences.

This paper aims to explore the perceived hedonic and utilitarian value of organic dining along with its antecedents and dining outcomes.

Data were collected from two groups of US consumers who had recently visited a quick-service or upscale restaurant to consume organic menu items. Data were analyzed using factor analysis and hierarchical regression analyses using Hayes’ PROCESS procedure.

Perceived hedonic value has two dimensions (dining-centered excitement and social attention and escapism), as does utilitarian value (tangible value and intangible value). Involvement with organic food is a significant antecedent of perceived value. Satisfaction exhibits various mediating effects on behavioral intention, depending on the value factor considered.

This study contributes to knowledge regarding the perceived dining value of consuming organic food at restaurants. Findings shed light on the importance of understanding perceived value in predicting diners’ behavioral intentions across two restaurant segments. Consumers’ value perceptions of organic dining differ from those related to general organic food shopping.

The findings provide clear ways for restaurants to increase the perceived utilitarian and hedonic value of organic food dishes. This study assists restaurant practitioners in managing customer satisfaction and loyalty by prioritizing the effort invested in developing different value perceptions.

This research is one of the first attempts to delve into consumers’ dining experiences with organic food across two major restaurant segments.

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the relationships between restaurant quality attributes and customer behavioral intentions.

An experimental design was chosen to provide a high level of internal validity. Three separate 3 × 2 factorial design experiments were conducted through 18 separate vignette scenarios for three levels of quality (below average, average and above average) of three common restaurant attributes (food, service and ambience) in two types of restaurants (quick service and upscale).

The results indicated that the type of restaurant moderated the relationship between restaurant service and ambience quality and customer behavioral intentions.

The results of this study suggest that management of quick-service and upscale restaurants should focus on food quality, but establish different resource allocation priorities with respect to service and ambience quality.

This study examined the linearity of the relationships between three common restaurant attributes (food, service and ambience) for three levels of quality (below average, average and above average) in two types of restaurants (quick service and upscale).

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a comprehensive hierarchical model of the interrelationships among five higher order marketing constructs (service quality, customer satisfaction, perceived value, restaurant image and behavioural intentions) for moderate upscale restaurants in Malaysia. A third order conceptualisation of service quality is also included in the empirical analysis.

The data were analysed using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equations.

Service quality, customer satisfaction and restaurant image all have a strong, positive impact on the behavioural intentions of moderate upscale restaurant patrons. Service quality, perceived value and restaurant image are also important determinants of customer satisfaction. Behavioural intentions to re-patronise a restaurant and recommend it to friends are influenced more strongly by restaurant image than by customer satisfaction. Three primary dimensions and ten pertaining sub-dimensions are modelled in the third order conceptualisation of service quality. The primary and sub-dimensions also vary in importance amongst the customers in the sampling frame.

This is the first empirical research that develops and tests a comprehensive hierarchical model for moderate upscale restaurants to provide a complete and integrative analysis of a service setting. The interrelationships among service quality, customer satisfaction, perceived value restaurant image and behavioural intentions are assessed. A third order conceptualisations of service quality is also included in the modelling framework.

This study aims to compare customers’ perceived importance of various post-COVID-19 recovery strategies (i.e. sanitary practices, discounts, menu modification and marketing strategies) adopted by independent full-service restaurants (casual dining versus upscale/fine dining) using the salience theory. It also assesses the associations between customers’ perceptions and their restaurant spending patterns.

An online survey was administered to assess 657 US adult participants’ restaurant spending behaviors at different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic using recall questions. Higher-spending versus lower-spending participants’ perceived importance of restaurant recovery strategies were compared in the casual dining versus upscale/fine dining contexts.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, sanitary practices were the most important factor in participants’ restaurant choices, and it was more important for independent casual dining restaurants than for upscale/fine dining restaurants. No significant difference was found in participants’ perceived importance of sanitary practices across different geographic regions. Higher-spending diners (HSD) perceived almost every restaurant recovery strategy as important. Lower-spending diners (LSD) only considered sanitary practices as important.

This study identified important strategies that restaurant operators and public health officials can adopt to help full-service restaurants recover from pandemic losses.

This study differs from previous consumer choice studies; in that it compared HSD with LSD regarding their perceived importance of various restaurant recovery strategies. This study also provides new insights for understanding the salience theory of choice under the impact of COVID-19.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate customers' perceptions and purchase intentions related to green practices in an upscale, green certified restaurant, on a university campus located in the southeastern USA. Design/methodology/approach

The survey was adapted from a previous survey conducted by DiPietro et al.

The results revealed that customers believed that they are knowledgeable about green practices but they would still like to know more about them. Customers also expressed preferences related to restaurants that are environmentally friendly and use environmentally safe products. Moreover, female customers and people with higher education were more conscious regarding green practices. Customers who utilized green practices at home intended to visit green restaurants more often. Research limitations/implications

The respondents were sampled from an upscale university restaurant, and were mostly within the age range of 50 and older (60.7 percent), which is not typical of a university foodservice operation. The restaurant used in this study catered more to faculty, staff and other professionals close to the university, and did not have a large student customer base. Another limitation of the study is that the prior knowledge and preferences of respondents regarding green practices was not measured. Because of the use of a convenience sample, the results are not generalizeable, but can be used to further research in this area. Practical implications

The practical implications of the study are that restaurant managers should target more specific marketing strategies and employee training related to green practices. Green restaurants that have a high proportion of female and highly educated customers should pay attention to promoting green practices, especially in areas that are visible to the guest, as these are the respondents who had the highest preference for being informed about green practices. Originality/value

The current study looked at an upscale, on-campus university restaurant that had a very highly educated and older population. Previous studies analysed fast food or casual dining restaurant perspectives. Compared to the Hu et al.

The purpose of this study is to explain the impact of innovation characteristics (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity and perceived risk) and individual differences (inertia, technology anxiety, need for interaction and previous experience) on customer intentions to adopt tablet-based menus in various restaurants settings.

An experimental design was used in this study to explore tablet-based menu acceptance intentions across three restaurant settings: quick-service, midscale and upscale. A total of 415 participants were randomly assigned to one of the three scenarios describing a dining experience. Each scenario placed participants in a restaurant setting where a tablet-based menu was a part of the guests’ dining experience.

The study results indicated that out of the four innovation characteristics, compatibility and relative advantage are strong predictors of adoption intention of tablet-based menus. Among customer individual differences, technology anxiety and need for interaction were not found to have a statistically significant impact on intentions to adopt tablet-based menus. It was also found that customers dining at quick-service and midscale restaurants are more likely to adopt tablet-based menus than customers dining at upscale restaurants.

Managers in quick-service and midscale restaurants may consider investing in tablet-based menus, as customers of these restaurant types demonstrate higher adoption intentions compared to the customers of upscale dining establishments. The results of this study suggest that upscale restaurants should plan carefully before switching to table-based menus.

The findings of this study may assist restaurant managers in recognizing the importance of customer acceptance of new technologies such as tablet-based menus, which will lead to informed decisions about implementing tablet-based menus in their establishments.

Today’s successful restaurant manager needs to possess a diversity of talents, abilities, and skills. Presents profiles of successful managerial recruits for quick service, midscale and upscale restaurants in the US. Factor analysis was used to reduce the number of attributes and traits that were identified for being a successful manager in the restaurant industry. Seventy‐two success attributes and traits were reduced to 12 identifiable components. The components’ relationships with the demographic factors were then studied using Chi‐square tests. Profiles for being a successful manager in quick service, midscale and upscale restaurants were developed.

This research examines the influence of consumer environmental consciousness and perception of menu information in the formation of restaurant image. The concepts of mindfulness and mindful consumption were used as the theoretical background for the study.

Using a quasi-experimental setting, data were collected from restaurant consumers dining at an upscale casual restaurant in the southeastern United States over a four-week time. Structural equation modeling, multi-group analysis and mediation analysis were used to test the hypothesized relationships between research constructs.

Results suggested that consumer environmental consciousness does not have a direct effect on the formation of restaurant image. However, consumer environmental consciousness influenced consumers' perception of menu information, and the perception of menu information consequently influences the restaurant image.

Foodservice industry increasingly interested in sustainability practices. Consumers want to know the connections between food and its impact on their health and the environment. Findings reveal that environmentally conscious consumers actively sought out menu information, and that once the information they were seeking was perceived, it significantly strengthened the perception of restaurant image.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first research that investigated the environmental consciousness construct in a live restaurant context.

This paper aims to review existing restaurant classifications within the literature in the restaurant management field. The authors discuss intra-industry ramifications of the limited use of recognized typologies and the need to prescriptively guide the description of restaurant context in the literature to communicate the internal and external validity of findings.

Restaurant categories from accepted typologies are used as keywords to collect 345 empirical studies from ten relevant journals serving the global restaurant management discipline. Content analysis of titles, abstracts and methodology sections is used to examine three propositions regarding the standardization, rationalization and efficiency of restaurant classification in imparting restaurant context in published works.

Findings show inconsistent use of existing typologies and limited use of effective restaurant descriptors to inform users about the situational context in which data were gathered or hypotheses were tested. There is a general preference for categories commonly associated with those of the National Restaurant Association.

Researchers should standardize descriptions of restaurants in manuscript titles, abstracts and methods sections, thereby enhancing integration of international research, the ability to conduct macro-level industry studies, and communication of findings to practitioners for operational use.

Recommendations are offered to optimize the use of restaurant classification so that the content of empirical studies may be more effectively accessed, digested and compared, thereby enhancing the communication of advances in the restaurant management body of knowledge to practitioners and other researchers.