Managing the restaurant experience: re-specifying the role of food, interaction, and atmosphere as contributors to the optimal flow experience

Abstract

ABSTRACT The flow experience’s role in helping people feel greater enjoyment and involvement is often used in online-consumer behavior platforms may be applied and refined further in a restaurant setting. While considering the challenging boundary conditions of the flow experience, this study contains the results of an exploration into whether the state of flow occurs during a relatively passively dining activity on the consumer’s part. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) because of its prediction-oriented nature, this study found that the flow experience can occur in a dining environment where one’s involvement is less active than that of online settings influences consumer word-of-mouth and revisit intentions. This study also demonstrates that extrinsic cues change people’s level of acceptance of intrinsic cues in restaurants. Academically, this study expands the theory of flow in the hospitality context. Practically, I suggest that restaurant managers need to continuously develop and monitor the factors that can induce flow experiences in restaurants.