A Dining Career Ladder: Customers’ Motivation of Visiting Internet-Famous Restaurants

Abstract

ABSTRACT Customers visiting internet-famous restaurants enjoy unique dining experiences. However, few studies have explored customers’ motivation for visiting internet-famous restaurants. Integrating different motivational theories, this study proposes a dining career ladder to conceptualize customers’ initial motivations to visit internet-famous restaurants, and their (un)varying motivations when they gain increasing experience. With reflections from 27 participants, we found that dining career ladder consists of four levels, from the primary level of physiological needs (dine out and relaxation, gourmet food), to stimulation and novelty (curiosity and novelty seeking, effect of unique atmospherics, and restaurant online reputation), belongingness and socialization (social occasions and bandwagon effect), and self-esteem and recognition (fear of missing out). Customers have multidimensional motivations for going to restaurants initially, but they show a descending pattern of motivations moving from higher level of needs to lower levels by concentrating on physiological needs when they accumulate negative experiences. Dining companions play a role in customers’ motivations to visit internet-famous restaurants.