Quick Service Restaurant Industry Research Articles

Enhancing word of mouth in the quick service restaurants: role of perceived brand globalness and localness

PurposeDue to changing consumer thinking patterns and market dynamics, the quick service restaurant (QSR) industry has changed dramatically in the past few years. Considering this, this study aims to examine the influence of perceived brand globalness and perceived brand localness on consumer word of mouth through brand attitude by considering consumer ethnocentrism and perceived brand origin as moderators.Design/methodology/approachThis study obtained 750 responses from Turkish consumers through a survey and analyzed the data using the maximum-likelihood estimation technique with structural equation modeling.FindingsThis study discovered that perceived brand globalness and perceived brand localness are critical components that drive brand attitude, influencing consumers' WOM toward global and local QSR brands. Similarly, perceived brand globalness and perceived brand localness are important brand attributes influencing consumer WOM. Importantly, this study found the significant effects of perceived brand origin on brand attitude mainly toward perceived local brands compared to global QSR brands. Although this study did not uncover the influence of consumer ethnocentrism as expected. However, these insights may assist global and local managers to rethink their strategies toward Turkish consumer settings.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was conducted exclusively in Turkey. However, additional studies in other countries, such as the comparative Asian versus European consumers' perspectives, may be considered to generalize the findings.Practical implicationsThis study provides recommendations to global and local managers to support them in designing and executing several brand positioning strategies in the QSR industry.Originality/valueThis novel study contributes to the accessibility diagnostic theory and signaling theory by examining consumers' perceptions of local and global brands.

Flipping burgers and financials: QSRs COVID-19 Journey

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic presented formidable challenges to India's Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) industry, profoundly impacting its revenue streams, employment landscape, and operational modalities. This analysis delves into the intricate ramifications of COVID-19 on India's QSR sector, elucidating short-, medium-, and long-term repercussions including alterations in consumer behavior, operational adaptations, and macroeconomic shifts. Amidst the pandemic's upheaval, QSR establishments navigated through a landscape fraught with uncertainties, resorting to agile strategies such as contactless ordering, delivery optimization, and workforce reskilling to endure and thrive in the face of adversity. Furthermore, the study underscores the imperative of addressing health apprehensions, mitigating supply chain disruptions, and countering competition from international players to fortify the industry's resilience and foster sustainable recovery.

Exploring the influence of sensory brand recognition on brand loyalty within the quick service restaurant industry: an analysis of branded food retailers in Kerala

In today's competitive business landscape, organized retail establishments are facing formidable challenges from online counterparts, while fast-food retailers are also facing the pressure. The rise in popularity of online food delivery apps has compelled organized restaurant businesses to swiftly adapt and innovate to thrive in this new business environment. When customers order food through online, the differentiating factor primarily is the taste of the food. However, when customers physically visit a restaurant, their experience is influenced by four additional sensory elements present in the retail outlet: sight, smell, sound, and touch. These sensory elements are intentionally employed by companies to position and distinguish their brand from competitors. This study intends to investigate how these sensory components affect consumers' perceptions of quality, which in turn affect purchase intentions. The study focuses on a selection of internationally recognized retail food outlets, with a significant presence across the globe, that have established locations in three major cities in Kerala: Kochi, Trivandrum, and Kozhikode

A Service Quality Assessment Tool for the Quick Service Restaurant Industry in Indonesia

The development of the fast-food restaurant industry, especially in the field of fast food throughout the world, is growing even in Indonesia. This study aims to analyze the factors that can affect consumer satisfaction in fast food restaurants in Indonesia through service quality, physical environment quality, and food quality. The population of this study is all consumers of McD fast food restaurants in Indonesia. The number of samples used in this study was 300 samples, where the number was obtained using the ISAC table. The data collection method uses online questionnaires using Google Forms. Data measurement uses a Likert scale. The data that has been collected is then entered into the AMOS 24 Software using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis method to be used later to test the measurement model and the research hypothesis. The results of this study found that only service quality and food quality affected consumer satisfaction, while the quality of the physical environment did not affect McD's customer satisfaction.

The effect of in-store electronic word of mouth on local competitor spillovers in the quick service restaurant industry

The effect of in-store electronic word of mouth on local competitor spillovers in the quick service restaurant industry

UNVEILING SUCCESS: PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS IN QUICK SERVICE RESTAURANT CHAINS

This study examines the importance and effectiveness of performance measurement systems in quick service restaurant (QSR) chains. With the highly competitive nature of the QSR industry, it is crucial for restaurant chains to implement robust performance measurement systems to track and evaluate their operational and financial performance. This research investigates the key metrics and indicators used in performance measurement systems within QSR chains, as well as the impact of these systems on business success. A combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, including interviews and surveys, is employed to gather insights from industry professionals and managers. The findings shed light on the significance of performance measurement systems in driving operational efficiency, enhancing customer satisfaction, and improving overall business performance in the QSR industry.

Franchise Contract Regulations and Local Market Structure

Many US states have regulations that restrict the ability of franchisors to terminate franchise contracts. We estimate the economic effects of these regulations with a focus on how they impact market structure. Using data from the quick-service restaurant industry, we find that implementing franchise regulations results in 4–5 percent fewer establishments in the average county. Our results imply that franchise regulation leads to increased concentration in a large number of markets, as the number of counties in the bottom quartile of concentration would increase by between 12 percent and 15 percent with regulation.

QUICKSERV: a service quality assessment tool for the quick-service restaurant industry

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to empirically develop and validate a practical, consistent and specific scale to assess perceived service quality at the service encounter at quick-service restaurants (QSRs).Design/methodology/approachDevelopment and validation of the scale involved a five-stage process. Data were collected from 430 customers of a QSR belonging to an international brand located in Barcelona. Surveys were applied immediately after the service encounter, using the face-to-face method. The scale development procedure involved exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses.FindingsThe results suggest a specific and parsimonious measurement scale, whose structure comprises 14 items in four dimensions. In contrast to previous studies, this study identified the appropriateness of splitting the interaction quality dimension into two single dimensions, one focusing on the interaction time and other on staff–customer interaction. Furthermore, these indicate that a speedy service, pleasant treatment and food quality are the most valued attributes in QSR.Practical implicationsThis scale is a useful instrument to administer and assure service quality standards within QSR management systems. Its practical approach and short survey length ease data collection, considering that customers spend short amounts of time in this type of restaurant. Furthermore, it could also be used by franchisors and restaurant operators as a tool to monitor continuing compliance with service quality standards.Originality/valueThe resulting scale introduces a novel four-factor structure with high goodness of fit to effectively measure customers' perceived service quality in QSRs, where the ease of use and speed of gathering client responses are a key factor for successful implementation.

Application of constrained association method for determination of the development factors of the quick service restaurant industry

Application of constrained association method for determination of the development factors of the quick service restaurant industry

VALUE CREATION AND PROFITABILITY OF QUICK SERVICE RESTAURANTS IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

The Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) industry makes a significant contribution to the Nigerian economy; providing substantial revenues to government and sizable employment opportunities at the processing and retailing levels. Previous studies in Nigeria scarcely investigated organisational value creation impact on firm performance particularly in the QSR industry. Despite the increasing popularity of “eating out,” Quick Service Restaurants in Nigeria have shown a negative growth rate, with decline in total income, as it has become increasingly difficult to satisfy modern restaurant customers who seek unique experiences that are more than just consuming food. Hence, this study investigated the effect of value creation on profitability of Quick Service Restaurants in Lagos State, Nigeria. Cross-sectional survey research design was adopted. The total population was 414 owners/managers, accountants of Quick Service Restaurants in Lagos State, Nigeria. A well-structured and validated questionnaire was used for data collection. Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficients for the constructs ranged from 0.72 to 0.92. The response rate was 73.2 percent. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings revealed that value creation dimensions had significant effect on profitability(Adj. R2 = 0. 395; F(6,296) = 33.801, p< 0.05).The study concluded that value creation had significant effect on profitability of Quick Service Restaurants in Lagos State, Nigeria. The study recommends that Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs) in Lagos State, Nigeria should continue to deploy their resources effectively and efficiently, identify and satisfy the interests of their key stakeholders in order to enhance profitability.

VALUE CREATION AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION OF QUICK SERVICE RESTAURANTS IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

The Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) industry is one of the key contributors to the Nigerian economy; providing substantial revenues to government and sizable employment opportunities at the processing and retailing levels. Previous studies in Nigeria investigated customer value from the customer’s perspective but rarely has research sought to achieve both QSRs’ owners/managers and customers’ perspectives in a single study. Despite the increasing popularity of “eating out,” Quick Service Restaurants in Nigeria have shown a negative growth rate, with decline in total income, as it has become increasingly difficult to satisfy modern restaurant customers who seek unique experiences that are more than just consuming food. Hence, this study investigated the effect of value creation on customer satisfaction of Quick Service Restaurants in Lagos State, Nigeria. Cross-sectional survey research design was adopted. The population of the study was 799 owners/managers, accountants and customers of Quick Service Restaurants in Lagos State, Nigeria. A well-structured and validated questionnaire was used for data collection. Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficients for the constructs ranged from 0.72 to 0.92.The response rate was 75.8 percent. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings revealed that value creation dimensions had no significant effect on customer satisfaction (Adj. R2 = -0.011; F(6,296) = 0.450, p<0.05).The study concluded that value creation had no significant effect on customer satisfaction of Quick Service Restaurants in Lagos State, Nigeria. The study recommends that owners / managers of Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs) in Lagos State, Nigeria should go beyond transactional operations and develop customer relationship management programmes in order to enhance customer satisfaction.

Entrepreneurial Resources as a Driver of Performance Differences in a Quick Service Restaurant Franchise System

This study explored performance differences between corporate-owned and operated and franchised outlets in the quick-service restaurant (QSR) industry. While studies have shown that there is a performance difference favouring franchisees, the reasons for this difference have not been explained. Using the Resource-Based View of the Firm, the operational differences between two ownership modes within the same franchise ecosystem were assessed. The study used qualitative data collected from twenty interviews with a broad range of stakeholders across a single South Africa quick-service restaurant brand that included company-owned and operated stores and franchised operations. The study identified a range of performance factors: franchisee motivation, franchisee empowerment and flexibility, manager focus, opportunity realisation, corporate rigidity and tactical restaurant management that contribute to enhancing the entrepreneurial resources and orientation that, along with strategic flexibility, provide franchisees with a performance advantage. This study has implications for those in the QSR sector and the hospitality industry in general, detailing what drives or hinders firm performance. This research has value for theoreticians in its novel application of the Resource-Based View of the Firm theory to a franchise-based entrepreneurial environment.

IoT based intelligence for proactive waste management in Quick Service Restaurants

Quick Service Restaurant industry is a massive sector which has a huge and ever increasing share in the global food market. Efficient management of resources is crucial to provide service optimization and to avoid massive amount of wastes in such a huge domain. This requires fully automated intelligence by using the power of the Internet of Things (IoT), instead of human based methods that are inefficient and prone to errors. In an IoT platform, edge computing is a vital technology to provide low latency, less redundancy, resource utilization, extra security and real time decisions. In this paper, an edge oriented IoT architecture for Quick Service Restaurants is proposed. In the proposed architecture, data is collected from a variety of wireless sensor nodes and data sources and processed at the edge to make predictions, to create timely and meaningful alerts and to make some intelligent decisions with an aim of waste management and reduction. For this purpose, it is mainly focused on anomaly/outlier detection and production service level estimation by incorporating lightweight clustering and classification techniques. Several experiments are performed in a real restaurant environment and the results show that the IoT based automation system is capable of correctly deciding on (in advance) production level, as well as triggering alerts in case of any kind of anomalous waste conditions.

Effect of core and peripheral product line extensions on overall product line revenue

Purpose Firms often use upward product line extensions to achieve gains in brand evaluations and in overall demand. Despite the prevalence of such extensions, previous research has provided little guidance about how upward line extensions influence overall revenue when they are launched as a core product as opposed to a peripheral product. The purpose of this study is to fill this research gap. Design/methodology/approach Using data from the quick service restaurant industry, this study looks at the effects of upwardly extended core and peripheral products on product line revenue. The empirical study uses a quasi-experiment to compare customer purchases across the pre- and post-launch of upward line extensions. Findings The results of this study reveal that launching core and peripheral products as upward line extensions can each increase total product line revenue. In addition, findings illustrate that as compared to a core launch, this total product line revenue increase is substantially higher in the case of a peripheral launch. Research limitations/implications First, the estimated model does not include supply availability and competition. Second, the data span only six months and this restriction prohibits us from investigating alternative sources of the causal effect. Third, the empirical setting in this study is limited to financial data in the quick service restaurant industry as a proxy of actual behavior. Finally, given that customers are not randomly assigned to treatment and control groups, the author is unable to definitively rule out the effect of unobservable attributes. Practical implications The findings suggest that firms should prioritize peripheral upward line extensions but use both types considering resource constraints (cost and human resources) and strategic importance to the firm. Originality/value This study bolsters the extant literature related to upward product line extensions by providing an empirical framework that evaluates the causal effect of upward line extension on total revenue, using field data in a real-life setting (as opposed to survey or lab experiment data) and actual firm revenue (as opposed to a perceptual outcome measure such as behavioral intentions). In addition, findings contribute to the new product development literature.

The South African quick service restaurant industry and the wasteful company it keeps

The South African quick service restaurant industry and the wasteful company it keeps

Making Sense in Marketing–Sensory Strategies For International Quick Service Restaurants

"Given the importance of Sensory Marketing in the field of QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) industry, the objective of this paper is to identify the key sensory factors that influence customers’ selection of a fast food restaurant. The purpose is to find out the factors in order of influence to answer the question of whether sensory factors play any significant role in the choosing a fast food restaurant. For this quantitative study, data of 1600 respondents were collected through structured questionnaire from four international fast food chain restaurants (KFC, McDonald, Domino’s and Subway) across four cities (Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad) of India. To meet the research objective and to test the hypothesis statistical tools; Factor Analyses and Multiple regression were used. Factor analysis revealed three components, namely: Sensory influence, Promotional influence and Monetary influence, due to their high factor loadings. Further, multiple regression analysis results indicated that the Sensory factor contributed significantly to the model followed by Promotional factor and Monetary Factor. This study concludes that Sensory Factor is the most influencing factor for customers to select a fast food restaurant contrary to the belief of Promotional and Monetary factor. This study not only adds to theoretical insights of the literature of Sensory marketing but also recommends its practical implications to the marketing managers and practitioners of the QSR industry.

Trends in Own Revenue of Indian States: Is Special Status Justified?

"Given the importance of Sensory Marketing in the field of QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) industry, the objective of this paper is to identify the key sensory factors that influence customers’ selection of a fast food restaurant. The purpose is to find out the factors in order of influence to answer the question of whether sensory factors play any significant role in the choosing a fast food restaurant. For this quantitative study, data of 1600 respondents were collected through structured questionnaire from four international fast food chain restaurants (KFC, McDonald, Domino’s and Subway) across four cities (Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad) of India. To meet the research objective and to test the hypothesis statistical tools; Factor Analyses and Multiple regression were used. Factor analysis revealed three components, namely: Sensory influence, Promotional influence and Monetary influence, due to their high factor loadings. Further, multiple regression analysis results indicated that the Sensory factor contributed significantly to the model followed by Promotional factor and Monetary Factor. This study concludes that Sensory Factor is the most influencing factor for customers to select a fast food restaurant contrary to the belief of Promotional and Monetary factor. This study not only adds to theoretical insights of the literature of Sensory marketing but also recommends its practical implications to the marketing managers and practitioners of the QSR industry.

Effect of employee training in the quick service restaurant industry

Effect of employee training in the quick service restaurant industry

Understanding customer satisfaction in the UK quick service restaurant industry

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the five dimensions of service quality on customer satisfaction in the UK fast food market and to indicate which factors among the five dimensions have a main role in driving overall customer satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachPrimary data in the form of 147 questionnaire responses were been collected from a variety of quick service fast food restaurants in the UK. Likert seven-point rating scales were used to structure the questionnaire. Data were collected from the customers at two KFC restaurants, two McDonald’s restaurants, and one Burger King Restaurant.FindingsThe results of the analysis indicate that tangibles, responsiveness and assurance play the most important role in driving customer satisfaction in the UK fast food industry, followed by reliability and empathy. Results of correlation and regression analysis show that physical attributes (tangible) of service quality are key to customer satisfaction. In a nutshell, the tangibles variable is the most important factor driving customer satisfaction in the context of the UK fast food market.Originality/valueThis research incorporates unique and original insights in relation to the British fast food restaurants market and the results constitute novel findings pertaining to the importance of physical facilities and attributes. This account of the relative importance of service quality dimensions in fast food restaurants in the UK adds value to the field. The findings of this research have contributed to a better understanding of the main factors that influence service quality and customer satisfaction and have implications from a managerial point of view in the highly competitive UK fast food and wider foodservice industry.

Aging society : A study on the role of philanthropic corporate social responsibility in the quick service restaurant industry

In recent years, the issue of poverty among the elderly has become an issue that the Korean government has made great efforts to solve. For example, the Korean government planned to create about 430,000 new jobs for the elderly by 2017. At this point, finding a role of the elderly in the food service industry is very important. Thus, this study examined the important role of philanthropic corporate social responsibility (PCSR), focusing on restaurants where people aged 65 and over provide services. For this, a theoretical model was developed in order to find the impact of PCSR on customer citizenship behavior (CCB). In addition, based on the existing theoretical background, it was proposed that brand preference moderates the relationship between PCSR and CCB. Data were collected from 259 customers who had visited a McDonald’s restaurant where those aged 65 and over had provided services in the past three months in Korea. The data analysis results indicated that PCSR has a positive influence on all four dimensions of CCB including tolerance, advocacy, helping, and feedback. Lastly, this study found the moderating role of brand preference in the relationships between (1) PCSR and advocacy and (2) PCSR and feedback. The important theoretical/managerial implications that were derived from the data analysis are presented and discussed in the last part of the paper.