Food culture and online rating behavior

Abstract

Culture has been confirmed to play an important role in the process of online word-of-mouth generation. To extend the knowledge of extant literature, we answer the question that whether food culture can influence tourist reviewers’ online rating behavior considering both the food culture in their residence and that in their destination. We find that tourist reviewers are more likely to give a lower online restaurant rating when they experience a food culture in the destination consistent with that in their residence. In addition, they tend to give more weight on the taste dimension than on the environment and service dimensions when they experience a food culture consistency. We also find that reviewers’ travel experience can strengthen the negative relationship between food culture consistency and online ratings. These findings have both theoretical and managerial implications.