Modelling Satisfaction and Behavioural Intention of Malaysian Fine Dining Restaurants

Abstract

Consumer satisfaction was long recognized by scholars and practitioners as one major ingredient for business survival and prosperity. Hence, the main purpose of this study was to offer an integrated approach to understanding consumer satisfaction and post-dining behavioural intentions by examining the causal relationship among five constructs of fine dining restaurant with satisfaction and behavioural intentions. The Likert scale survey instrument was used to collect data via the ‘drop-off and collect’ survey technique. The sample was drawn from participating restaurants in the Malaysia International Gastronomy Festival 2017.Four hundred and nineteen useable questionnaires were garnered from eight fine dining restaurants that agreed to participate in the study. A research model based on the expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm investigating the relevant relationships among the constructs by using a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach was proposed and tested. This study examined a mediating model of the relationship between the restaurant service/product dimensions, marketing dimension centred on customer-based brand equity constructs, satisfaction and revisit intention. A parsimonious model of restaurant satisfaction and behavioural (revisit) intention was successfully developed and the proposed framework was substantially validated with four hypotheses supported and seven not. Theoretical and practical implications with relevant and importance to academicians and practitioners were offered.