Appreciation to and Behavior Intention Regarding Upscale Ethnic Restaurants

Abstract

Appreciation is an ingredient that is essential for enhancing customers’ postconsumption service evaluations; nevertheless, few studies have explored its role in the context of ethnic restaurants. This article aims to examine appreciation’s effects on customers’ behavioral intention by first considering the cultural effects. This study develops and empirically tests a research model based on 488 questionnaires collected at an upscale ethnic restaurant in Macau. The result shows that utilitarian value, hedonic value, and cultural motivation affect appreciation positively, which in turn affects behavioral intention positively. Utilitarian value and hedonic value also affect behavioral intention directly and positively. The mediation roles of diners’ utilitarian value, hedonic value, and appreciation are also discussed. This article contributes to hospitality management theory by providing an additional insight into appreciation and suggests that, in practice, using appreciation as a business strategy could change customers’ choice.

Keywords

appreciation upscale ethnic restaurants cultural motivation

Introduction

The growth of international businesses and the huge number of travelers have led to a multicultural society with increasingly diverse ethnic restaurants. A growing number of consumers have become interested in ethnic cuisines as a way to experience a different culture. In the United States, ethnic cuisine is usually listed as the top 10 hot trends in the restaurant industry (National Restaurant Association, 2017). Approximately 80% of U.S. consumers eat at least one international cuisine every month, and 70% of consumers report that they eat more ethnic cuisines in the past 5 years (National Restaurant Association, 2017). Ethnic food has become a widely popular attraction for tourists when they visit particular destinations, since their interest in and acceptance of culturally diverse dishes have driven them to explore alternative food choice (I. K. W. Lai et al., 2019; Wang & Mattila, 2015). Consumers from different backgrounds, who often interact with one another on social media, have also intensified the awareness of and interest in exotic cuisine, including their local or ethnic foods (Ting et al., 2019).

By incorporating ethnic flavors and spices into their dishes, chefs have taken advantage of this trend to cater to the tastes of their wider range of customers (Wen et al., 2020). This change emphasizes the importance of understanding complex dishes and customers’ consumption behavior, specifically how culture affects service operations, and subsequently, service success (Jin et al., 2016; Patterson & Yu, 2006; Reimann et al., 2008). Ethnic restaurants’ success is therefore no longer solely based on a selection of “iconic dishes,” which have, to some extent, been adapted from the original (I. K. W. Lai et al., 2019; Wen et al., 2020).

Upscale restaurants describe their dishes in such a way that it highlights their exquisite craftsmanship, justifies their high prices, and addresses consumers’ growing interest (Bhaduri & Stanforth, 2017). Consequently, such restaurants provide cues, such as new dishes, styled decoration, or a differentiated service delivery, to influence patrons’ judgments of their services and offerings and to position these as exclusive (Hyun & Kang, 2014; Jin et al., 2016). Some fine dining restaurants open their cooking process to the public or offer workshops to make them understand the contribution that the craftsmen and culture behind their dishes making (Hyun & Kang, 2014).

Consequently, consumers are willing to pay premium prices for upscale restaurants and expect premium amenities that offer customer care, a higher quality experience, and convey social identity (Chavarria & Phakdee-auksorn, 2017; Kauppinen-Räisänen et al., 2018). However, Hwang and Hyun (2013), and Muller and Woods (1994) pointed out that the high cost of high-quality offerings leads to the relatively low revisit rate to upscale restaurants. Jin et al. (2016) therefore suggested that long-term customer retention in this industry requires the successful management of postconsumption service evaluations, for example, the stimulation of appreciation. Soscia (2007) also believed that satisfaction might not be sufficient to determine positive postconsumption behaviors, as appreciation, not happiness, predicts a repurchase intention.

It is important to study appreciation in the upscale ethnic restaurant context for two reasons: first, the experienced emotion is closely associated with consumers’ appraisal of the environment by means of several cognitive dimensions. Emotions’ cognitive origins can distinguish between them, for example, between satisfaction and appreciation (Smith & Ellsworth, 1985). In the upscale restaurant industry context, S. Kim and Lee (2013) identified appreciation as a significant contributor that enhances customer retention. Although empirical evidence has consistently supported the positive relationship between appreciation and behavioral intentions in the hospitality and restaurant industry (Jin et al., 2016; S. Kim & Lee, 2013), few previous studies have used the perceived quality or perceived value of the consumption of ethnic foods to predict appreciation’s effects on behavioral intentions. Second, consumers’ appreciation may be driven by motivation or knowledge of ethnic restaurants’ cultural background (Ha & Jang, 2010). Culture motivation is a key determinant of the food consumption in respect of customers who are new to the food environment (Aertsens et al., 2011). Ebster and Guist (2005) also believed that diners with a higher ethnic culture motivation are more likely to use an appreciation assessment as diagnostic information. However, few studies have revealed the role of culture motivation so as to understand the customers’ appreciation to the perceived values in a greater depth.

The present study aims to overcome the research gaps mentioned above by making two contributions to the ethnic dining literature: first, this exploratory study is an early attempt to investigate appreciation to upscale ethnic restaurants. Second, this study adds to existing work by introducing cultural motivation effects. This study attempts to probe that how cultural motivation affect the visitor appreciation through evaluative constructs—perceived values. This is an initial attempt to explain why people feel appreciation to a fine dining environment.

Literature Review and Research Hypotheses

Appreciation

As a universal attribute embedded in the fabric of human nature, appreciation is the positive sentiment humans engender after perceiving an act or thought by others that benefits them (Emmons & Stern, 2013; Palmatier et al., 2009). Beyond being an emotional expression, appreciation is also the compelling force behind mutually beneficial activities (Palmatier et al., 2009). Appreciation is the outcome of transactions between beneficiaries and benefactors (Mathews & Green, 2010) by helping the benefactor evaluate the beneficiary in a positive light and by evoking a sense of indebtedness for the provided act or gift. In Confucianism, humanity (ren {仁}) is important and includes appreciation (Brown & Cai, 2010). In traditional Chinese culture, contacts can be divided into two groups: insiders and outsiders. Chinese society maintains that insiders should help one another, but there is no such expectation with regard to outsiders. Consequently, in close relationships, the Chinese do not thank one another (Zhang et al., 2018). Similar phenomena are observed in other East Asian countries. If outsiders were to offer help, people are likely to regard their help as self-interest, requiring compensation (Hu et al., 2012). Based on these characteristics of Chinese interpersonal relationships, appreciation is generated once customers perceive their deliberate use of upscale restaurants’ premium and fashionable resources as an experience investment (Dahl et al., 2005; Filep, 2014).

S. Kim and Lee (2013) and Jin et al. (2016) recommended that upscale restaurants should work strategically to facilitate appreciation, in order to promote the development of strong customer relationships, which are a significant contributor that enhances customer retention and increases customer loyalty. The appreciation construct has been studied as reflected by diverse actions, such as tipping, positive online reviews, and so on (Lynn & Mccall, 2000; Nakayama & Wan, 2018). Appreciation is surmised that factors such as the food, environment, service, and others facilitate customer gratitude’s development. In restaurant studies, many researchers explore the factors that trigger appreciation, positive emotional states, and behavioral intentions (Table 1), including the price value, environment quality, food quality, service quality, emotional value, and the social value (Ha & Jang, 2010; Han & Yoon, 2019; Jin et al., 2018; S. Kim & Lee, 2013; Liu et al., 2018). Based on these findings, those often utilized in recent hospitality literature are hedonic and utilitarian values (C. Park, 2004). The hedonic dimension of a dining experience is derived from the uniqueness of environment or service (Ha & Jang, 2010). It is an overall assessment of experiential benefits (Overby & Lee, 2006). The utilitarian dimension focuses on the efficient, task specific, and economical aspects of food or services (Ha & Jang, 2010). Utilitarian value is an overall assessment of functional benefits (Overby & Lee, 2006). The present research proposes that both utilitarian value and hedonic value affect appreciation positively.

Table 1

Potential Antecedents of Appreciation

Authors	Antecedents	Measures
Ha and Jang (2010)	Perceived value	Hedonic and utilitarian value
Han and Yoon (2019)	Experience value	Visual appeal, entertainment, escapism, enjoyment, service excellence, efficiency, and economic value
Jin et al. (2018)	Factors that trigger positive emotional states	Food, environment, price, brand, and employees
S. Kim and Lee (2013)	Factors that trigger positive emotional states	Environment quality, food quality service quality, price fairness, and relationship benefits
Liu et al. (2018)	Factors that trigger positive emotional states	Perceived quality and perceived value

Utilitarian Value

Utilitarian value may be generated when customers compare the food or service quality with the cost of a restaurant’s food and service (Ha & Jang, 2010), because customers definitely expect high quality dishes and dining staff service at upscale restaurants. Prior studies also showed that the perception factors, including the dining environment and the building interior, are the most critical determinants of restaurant customers’ satisfaction. However, these perceptions may not be the major driving force for all diners visiting and appreciating upscale ethnic restaurants (Jin et al., 2018; S. Kim & Lee, 2013). This inconsistency may be due to customers treating high-level décor as embedded elements in upscale restaurants. In addition to the food taste and service efficiency, diners often perceive utilitarian value when judging the price of their food or service is legitimate and justifiable (Heo & Lee, 2011). Previous studies established the significance of the price value as a determinant of customer satisfaction and patronage behavior meticulously (Jin et al., 2018; Sulek & Hensley, 2004). However, the effect of price value on appreciation has received very little attention in the literature, with notable exceptions being the study by Jin et al. (2018). These authors presumed that appreciation is aroused if consumers experience the cost of their experience as fair. At upscale restaurants, consumers expect new menu choices, creative food presentation, and knowledgeable staffs. Customers will compare these factors with the prices they paid previously and the market standards, although premium prices are common at upscale restaurants (Heo & Lee, 2011). Once customers believe experience investment is worth it, they will generate appreciation. This gives rise to the following two hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1₀: Utilitarian value does not positively influence customers’ appreciation positively.

Hypothesis 1: Utilitarian value influences customers’ appreciation positively.

Hedonic Value

In addition to utilitarian value, the hedonic value is another, and equally significant, driver that triggers positive customer emotions and patronage behaviors with regard to restaurants (Nha, 2002). Hedonic value refers to the enjoyment and excitement that emotional feelings or the social benefits from dining in a restaurant evoke (Ha & Jang, 2010). Social benefits refer to feelings of personal recognition, friendship, rapport, familiarity, and social support (Berry, 1995; S. Kim & Lee, 2013).

In the case of upscale ethnic restaurants, many diners also actively seek exotic dining experiences, which include the consumption, preparation, and presentation of a dish, cuisine, meal system, or eating style (Liu et al., 2018). Some customers search for and visit bars and restaurants to participate in festivals, events, or cooking classes as a fine dining culinary experience (Stone et al., 2018). Consequently, upscale restaurant customers are not only interested in the décor and service (e.g., new ingredients, recipes, food and wine styles, and kitchenware) but also seek freedom, achievement, liberalism, materialism, prestige, and technology (Hjalager, 2004). Once customers perceive and identify a service provider’s superiority, their satisfaction with, trust in, and commitment to the provider will be further enhanced (Bove, 2000; Kelley et al., 1992; Yoo et al., 2000), resulting in a positive postpurchase appraisal (Mareike, 2015).

Emotional feeling or value relates to the internal feelings that a product or service evokes (Han & Yoon, 2019). As a cultural product, food provides customers with complex culinary experiences, which make them enjoy the reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy of the provided services. At upscale ethnic restaurants, the food is at a premium, because it is associated with the “feel good” values, which are in turn associated with consumption (Ko et al., 2018). Customers’ concerns regarding the restaurants staff members’ communication during their service, and the importance of emotional value have been well documented. W. G. Kim et al. (2006) pointed out that the responsiveness, friendliness, courtesy, and knowledge of a luxury restaurant’s staff members lead to a positive emotion and enhance the customer relationship. Research has demonstrated strong relationships between emotions and cognitive appraisal structures (Frijda et al., 1989). Appreciation research therefore focuses on specific actions for which other people are perceived as responsible (Soscia, 2007). For example, Sierra and McQuitty (2005) indicate that if service providers and customers share responsibility (e.g., heartfelt communication), this influences customers’ appreciation positively (Jin et al., 2018). Subsequently, the positive influence strengthens the relationship between the beneficiaries and the benefactors, as it may facilitate reciprocal behavior (Bartlett & DeSteno, 2006; Mathews & Shook, 2013; Palmatier et al., 2009). This finding gives rise to the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 2₀: Hedonic value does not influence customers’ appreciation positively.

Hypothesis 2: Hedonic value influences customers’ appreciation positively.

Cultural Motivation

Food consumption in upscale restaurants involves a wide range of behaviors, for example, eating, talking about food, and participating in food-related activities (Ko et al., 2018). These culinary experiences become links between gastronomy and consumption, creating an unforgettable cultural atmosphere and pushing the threshold of the unfamiliar (Jolliffe, 2005; Mason & Paggiaro, 2012). As a cultural symbol, food can penetrate foreign cultures and bridge cultural barriers (Jang et al., 2012). Thus, food can add culture value to customers, including connecting to other countries and leading to new lifestyle (Ko et al., 2018). For instance, Chinese food culture emphasis sharing main courses with others and only taking an appropriate portion by oneself (Watson, 1987). While U.S. people usually order and eat their own food (Atkins & Bowler, 2016). Japanese food is centered on rice and associated with food products rooted in regional climate and culture (Nakayama & Wan, 2018). Furthermore, most cultures consider bird nests as a frightening ingredient, instead of nutritious in Chinese gastronomy (Wu & Cheung, 2004).

Thus, it is meaningful to examine the role of cultural motivation in ethnic restaurant settings because cultural interest in ethnic culture and food is one of the primary motivations for ethnic food consumption (Liu et al., 2018). The cultural familiarity also provides customers with a framework of reference for evaluations (Ha & Jang, 2010). Therefore, interest, knowledge construct or previous experience can affect customers’ perceptions and their postconsumption responses. According to C. Park (2004), restaurant customers have various motivations for eating out—social interaction, fun, taste, efficiency, and economical reasons. Based on these motivations, diners often perceive utilitarian value or hedonic value. Frías-Jamilena et al. (2019) and Prebensen et al. (2012) also believed that the interest and knowledge can stimulate the perception of emotions, and then generate appreciation. Thus, the following hypotheses are proposed:

Hypothesis 3₀: Utilitarian value does not mediate the impact of cultural motivation on customers’ appreciation.

Hypothesis 3: Utilitarian value mediates the impact of cultural motivation on customers’ appreciation.

Hypothesis 4₀: Hedonic value does not does not mediate the impact of cultural motivation on customers’ appreciation.

Hypothesis 4: Hedonic value mediates the impact of cultural motivation on customers’ appreciation.

Behavioral Intentions

In the upscale restaurant patronage context, the attitudinal indicators of behavioral intentions comprise consumers’ willingness to repurchase and to provide others with positive recommendations (Giovanis et al., 2013; Heung & Gu, 2012; W.-T. Lai & Chen, 2011; Othman et al., 2013). Depending on consumers’ postconsumption experiences and appraisal, positive behavioral intentions can lead to a willingness to pay premium prices (Eva & Polonsky, 2012), and are often associated with more frequent patronage (Othman et al., 2013). Previous studies have specified appreciation’s impact on the intention to purchase, and discussed appreciation’s role in the increased incidences of favorable reciprocal behavior in the upscale restaurant industry (S. Kim & Lee, 2013; Soscia, 2007). Jin et al. (2016) and Shakoori and Hosseini (2019) also found a significant relationship between positive emotion and behavioral intention. These findings suggest that appreciation is a significant predictor of behavioral intentions in the luxury restaurant market, and lead to the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 5₀: Appreciation does not influence customers’ behavioral intentions positively.

Hypothesis 5: Appreciation influences customers’ behavioral intentions positively.

A number of studies reveal that cultural interest or familiarity affects various aspects of customer behavior (Pappas et al., 2014; Toyama & Yamada, 2012). In a upscale restaurant setting, when customers perceive their experiences in terms of value, they are more likely to express their opinion or recommend the restaurant to others (Choe & Kim, 2018; Ha & Jang, 2010). Thus, the following hypotheses are proposed:

Hypothesis 6₀: Appreciation does not mediate the impact of cultural motivation on customers’ behavioral intentions.

Hypothesis 6: Appreciation mediates the impact of cultural motivation on customers’ behavioral intentions.

Hypothesis 7₀: Appreciation does not mediate the impact of utilitarian value on customers’ behavioral intentions.

Hypothesis 7: Appreciation mediates the impact of utilitarian value on customers’ behavioral intentions.

Hypothesis 8₀: Appreciation does not mediate the impact of hedonic value on customers’ behavioral intentions.

Hypothesis 8: Appreciation mediates the impact of hedonic value on customers’ behavioral intentions.

The following research model is based on the aforementioned discussion (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Research Model

Research Instrument and Data

This study, which examines customers’ appreciation to behavioral intentions, employs a three-part self-administered survey. The survey questionnaire items are adopted from previous studies and listed in Table 2 (Bhaduri & Stanforth, 2017; Ha & Jang, 2010; Han & Yoon, 2019; S. Kim & Lee, 2013; Toyama & Yamada, 2012). The first part of the questionnaire aims to gather information about the antecedents of appreciation and is constructed to measure three major elements: utilitarian value (Bhaduri & Stanforth, 2017; Jin et al., 2018; S. Kim & Lee, 2013), hedonic value (Bhaduri & Stanforth, 2017; Han & Yoon, 2019), and cultural motivation. Researchers proved that the environment quality does not affect the diners’ appreciation in the luxury restaurant context (Jin et al., 2018; S. Kim & Lee, 2013), as luxury ambiances are default expectations with regard to fine dining restaurants. Consequently, utilitarian value measurement excludes environment quality items in this study. Following the definition of cultural motivation by Toyama and Yamada (2012), this study investigates culture motivation from two aspects: past experience with ethnic food and self-reported interest with ethnic culture and food. The second part of the questionnaire is designed to obtain information about appreciation and behavioral intentions (Ha & Jang, 2010; S. Kim & Lee, 2013). The last part covers the respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics. We undertook this study at an upscale Japanese restaurant in Macau from September 2019 until October 2019. The restaurant is well known for the culinary exhibition. We used systematic sampling technique (every second table) to select the population sample (the respondents). In total, this study distributed 530 questionnaires with each respondent receiving a MOP$ 10.00 discount. The final sample consisted of 488 respondents. The demographic profile of the respondents is summarized in Table 3.

Table 2

Research Instrument

Variables	Measures
1. Utilitarian value (Bhaduri & Stanforth, 2017; Jin et al., 2018; S. Kim & Lee, 2013)	1. The restaurant, unlike other restaurants, offers new menu choices.
	2. The restaurant’s food presentation is creative.
	3. Unlike in other restaurants, the food in this restaurant has a unique taste.
	4. The food in this restaurant is fresher than that in other restaurants.
	5. The dining staff is always willing to help.
	6. The dining staff is knowledgeable and confident.
	7. Is restaurant reasonably priced.
	8. The restaurant offers value for money.
2. Hedonic value (Bhaduri & Stanforth, 2017; Han & Yoon, 2019)	9. After experiencing this Japanese restaurant, my image of Japanese restaurants was much better.
	10. Experiencing this Japanese restaurant relaxed me.
	11. This restaurant would also make a good impression on other people.
	12. Visiting this restaurant should merit me social approval.
3. Appreciation (S. Kim & Lee, 2013)	13. I feel grateful to the restaurant.
	14. I feel thankful to the restaurant.
	15. I feel appreciative to the restaurant.
4. Behavioral intention (Ha & Jang, 2010)	16. I would like to dine out in this restaurant again.
4. Behavioral intention (Ha & Jang, 2010)	17. I would like to spread positive thoughts about this restaurant to others.

Table 3

Respondents’ Profiles

Measure	Items	Frequency	Percentage
Gender	Male	156	44.70
Gender	Female	192	55.01
Age (years)	18-30	268	54.9
	31-40	86	17.6
	41-50	54	11.1
	51-60	26	5.3
	>60	27	5.5
Education	Senior high school or below	198	40.6
	University	197	40.4
	Master	67	13.7
	Doctor	26	5.3
Visiting times	1	93	26.72
	2	64	18.39
	3	60	17.24
	4	25	7.18
	>4	106	30.46

Analysis and Results

This study uses partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM; Lohmöller, 1989; Wold, 1982) and the SmartPLS 3 software (Ringle et al., 2015) to estimate and evaluate our research model. The analysis follows the guidelines, procedures, and critical values as presented by J. F. Hair, Risher, et al. (2019).¹ The assessment of the reflective measurement models, which applies to all constructs in our model (Figure 1), includes indicator reliability, internal consistency reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. All outer loadings are above the critical threshold of 0.7 (Supplemental Table 1, available online), which establishes indicator reliability. Results for Cronbach’s alpha and rho_A above 0.7 indicate internal consistency reliability. This is the case for all constructs in the model (Supplemental Table 2, available online). Average variance extracted values are above 0.5 support convergent validity, which holds for all constructs in the model (Supplemental Table 2, available online).

The discriminant validity assessment uses the HTMT criterion. As shown in Supplemental Table 3 (available online), all results are below the critical value of 0.9 and significantly lower than 1 (J. F. Hair et al., 2012). Therefore, we conclude that discriminant validity has been established.

The assessment of the structural model includes collinearity among constructs, significance and relevance of the path coefficients, and the predictive relevance (e.g., R², PLSpredict). The highest variance inflation factor of the structural model has a value of 3.465, which is clearly below the threshold of 5. Hence, collinearity does not represent a critical issue for the results. Furthermore, we use the PLS-SEM results to examine the hypothesized relationships between the constructs. Supplemental Figure 1, available online, shows the results for the overall data. Significance testing uses the bootstrapping with 5,000 subsamples. Utilitarian value (β = .192, p < .001) and hedonic value (β = .394, p < .001) have significantly positive effects on appreciation, thereby providing support for Hypothesis 1 and Hypothesis 2. Cultural motivation has significantly positive effects on utilitarian value (β = .537, p < .001), hedonic value (β = .654, p < .001) and appreciation (β = .337, p < .001). This study also finds that both utilitarian value and hedonic value represent partial complementary mediators for the relationship between cultural motivation and customers’ appreciation (J. F. Hair et al., 2017; Nitzl et al., 2016), thereby providing support Hypothesis 3 and Hypothesis 4. Appreciation (β = .478, p < .001) has significantly positive effects on behavioral intentions, thereby providing support Hypothesis 5. Utilitarian value (β = .302, p < .001) and hedonic value (β = .161, p < .001) have significantly positive effects on behavioral intentions. At the same time appreciation represents a partial complementary mediator for the relationships between cultural motivation, perceived values and behavioral intentions, thereby providing support Hypothesis 6, Hypothesis 7, and Hypothesis 8. In addition, this study assesses if endogeneity at a critical level by following the procedure based on the Gaussian copula approach (S. Park & Gupta, 2012) as introduced by Hult et al. (2018) for PLS-SEM. For all coefficients in the structural model, the copula terms are not significant. Hence, we do not assume that endogeneity affects the outcomes.

For the importance-performance map analysis (Ringle & Sarstedt, 2016), utilitarian value has a higher performance (y-axis) when focusing on the construct appreciation (Supplemental Figure 2, available online), and indicator Utilitarian 5 (“The dining staff is always willing to help”) has a relatively high importance (y-axis) when focusing on the construct appreciation (Supplemental Figure 3, available online). For the predictive quality assessment, we first focus on the R² values. Appreciation has an R² value of .666 and behavioral intentions has an R² value of .736, which both are at substantial level indicating high within sample predictive relevance of the model. To assess the out of sample predictive relevance, this study runs the PLSpredict procedure (Shmueli et al., 2019). All Q² predict values in Supplemental Table 4 (available online) are larger than zero, indicating the model’s superiority over a naïve prediction. The PLS-SEM errors are not normally distributed nor highly nonsymmetric. Hence, this study uses the root mean square error (RMSE) to compare the predictive power of PLS-SEM with that of the linear model (LM). According to table, the PLS-based prediction yields more accurate out-of-sample predictions (i.e., smaller prediction errors) for most indicators. This indicates a medium predictive power.

Discussion and Implications

The objective of this study is to investigate the role of appreciation that underlies the perceived values of and the cultural motivation with upscale ethnic restaurants. Three major findings emerged from the analysis. First, the utilitarian value and hedonic value lead people to pay more attention to the appreciation experience. These perceived values represent a high interest and involvement in, and the personal relevance of the consumption experiences, and helps explicate consumer behaviors in upscale ethnic restaurants. If the perceived values fall short of the consumers’ expectations, they are likely to generate negative postpurchase appraisal of the restaurant experience. This study finds that experiencing something beyond their expectations is the most important reason for consumers’ being grateful for their upscale restaurant visit, including social approval or new menu choices.

Second, the appreciation that perceived values generated has an especially important influence on behavioral intentions. As Ajzen and Fishbein (1977) mentioned, one’s attitude toward an object influences the overall pattern of responses to this object. This study extends prior research result by revealing that not only an upscale restaurant’s product or service does not engenders customers’ behavioral intentions (e.g., food choice and consumption behavior) but also that customers’ attitude toward such a restaurant as a whole engenders their behavioral intentions. The results show that appreciation plays an important role in the relationship between perceived values and the beneficiaries’ behavioral intentions, including the likelihood of visiting a restaurant again in the future and/or of recommending it to friends or family through word-of-mouth. In other words, lower levels of appreciation will influence subsequent purchase behavior negatively.

Third, cultural motivation affects appreciation through the utilitarian value and hedonic value. In other words, customers with a higher cultural motivation who experience something different or exotic and learn about different cultures are more likely to experience higher levels of appreciation, which cause positive behavioral intentions. At upscale restaurants, ethnic food is a culture product. Consequently, culture motivation plays a significant role in what a consumer considers appropriate to eat; therefore, ethnic foods deserve more research attention in this context. Cultural motivation also affect behavioral intentions through appreciation. For upscale ethnic restaurants customers, eating at restaurants is an intentional, exploratory participation, particularly the eating of another culture’s foods. Motivation influences customers’ information searching process and attitude, and subsequently stimulates their positive behavioral intentions, for example, the likelihood that they will revisit this culture’s food at such a restaurant.

Implications for Research

This research contributes to prior literature by providing several important theoretical implications. First, since most prior restaurant studies focused on the benefits of customers’ satisfaction or loyalty (Ko et al., 2018), it is also important to investigate the role of postconsumption evaluations of upscale ethnic restaurants. This study finds that appreciation is also a significant driver of consumers’ behavioral intentions. This result indicates that when restaurant (benefactors) provide customers with relational benefits (in the form of a fair price, social identity or a heartfelt service), this social exchange can lead to positive emotional responses and appreciation. According to social exchange theory, relationships between social actors are based on rational and economic evaluations (e.g., a gap between the price and the relationship’s benefits) and lead to an emotional response (Kemper, 1973). The examination of customer appreciation is in line with the previous proposition and not only tests the effects of utilitarian value and hedonic value but also establishes the importance of emotional responses to social exchange in the context of an upscale ethnic restaurant.

Second, based on a path model that includes upscale restaurant customer behavior in three stages, including-preduring- and postvisitation, this article probes that how the cultural motivation (previsitation stage) affect the appreciation and customers’ behavioral intentions (postvisitation stage) through evaluative constructs: utilitarian value and hedonic value (during—visitation stage). By exploring the relationship between cultural motivation, appreciation, behavioral intentions, and the intermediary evaluative constructs—perceived values in various contexts and cases (Shakoori & Hosseini, 2019), particularly at upscale ethnic restaurants, can help better understand restaurant customers future behavior as well as to expand the past studies. Although some studies analyzed tangible or intangible factors, such as atmospherics, the taste of the food, or the employee service performance, as triggers of positive emotional states and behavioral intentions (Ko et al., 2018). This study posits and verifies that the influences of both utilitarian value and hedonic value. The results show that both of these two factors all affect appreciation. Future research is suggested to verify these findings.

Third, although the literature discusses the relationship between appreciation and behavioral intentions (Jin et al., 2018; S. Kim & Lee, 2013), it has not explained the reason for customers evaluating their impact nor the way they do so. It has been reported that motivation and knowledge of ethnic food can influence attitude and behavior positively (Seo et al., 2018). Consumer psychology researchers suggests that cultural motivation with ethnic food could help affect the both utilitarian and hedonic value (Aertsens et al., 2011; J.-H. Kim & Li, 2020). However, cultural issues may not be the major driving force for all diners visiting upscale ethnic restaurants, particularly when such consumers search for information in an unfamiliar context. This study fills this gap by incorporating cultural motivation as part of the research model and examines the relationships between appreciation and behavioral intentions. In addition, the study finds that culture-oriented diners who are more familiar with an ethnic culture and its food will pay more attention to the appreciation that a relevant restaurant evokes in them and take this into consideration when evaluating the overall dining experience. To the best of our knowledge, this study is among the first to examine the mediating role of appreciation in respect of influencing the relationship between cultural motivation and behavioral intentions, and the mediating role of perceived values in respect of influencing the relationship between cultural motivation and appreciation in the context of an upscale restaurant. Moreover, this study predicts Chinese customers’ behavior toward food consumption in a Japanese restaurant. The differences between the two countries’ food cultures are therefore relevant to understanding Chinese consumers’ behavior.

Implications for Practice

This research offers several implications for upscale restaurant managers. First, this study contends that appreciation might play an important role in building successful relationships with diners. Managers should enhance customers’ marketing investments and generate feelings of appreciation, which should lead to purchase intentions and increased firm performance (i.e., revenue and sales growth). It might, for instance, ask the service personnel to tell diners stories, such as the history of a dish or about their famous customers. Customers could be encouraged to take pictures and share them via social media to spread their good impression to others. Culinary activities that tourists might have difficulty locating and organizing, such as a unique cooking process, could also be provided to enhance the dining experiencing and encourage patronage.

Second, this study finds that cultural motivation is based on the premise that diners embrace a different culture or knowledge background when visiting ethnic restaurants. Managers should therefore classify the diners into different market segments based on their culture background. Staff members could ask the diners about their culture background regarding ethnic food and provide services that will satisfy all the conventional requirements of a distinct segment, including the planning of menus, appropriate eating styles or techniques. Furthermore, food and drink that could create stronger connections between a culture and the diners should be provided, as they will enhance the diners’ personal and sensory memories of consumption in that culture setting. The enhanced memories will allow the diners, particularly gastronomy tourists, to feel a connection to their awareness, knowledge, and previous experiences during and after their visit.

Conclusion and Limitations

This study is an early empirical study that focuses on customer appreciation to upscale ethnic restaurants. The model provides a useful framework to test consumers’ appreciation and behavioral intentions. This study hypothesizes the perceived values in terms of the utilitarian value and hedonic value, which are factors that constitute appreciation. The empirical results show that appreciation, which perceived values embody, is indeed positively and significantly related to behavioral intentions, which in turn reaffirms previous studies’ findings. The study also finds the mediating role of appreciation and perceived values, which influences the relationship between cultural motivation and behavioral intentions, and the relationship between cultural motivation and appreciation, respectively.

This study has some limitations. First, this study collected data via a cross-sectional approach. Future research should adopt a longitudinal approach to collect data at different points in time in order to verify the constructs’ causality. Second, the respondents completed the questionnaire based on their perception of Japanese food. Future research might replicate this study based on another cultural context to improve our results’ generalizability. Finally, future research could take up our model and uncover unobserved heterogeneity (e.g., using FIMIX-PLS or PLS-POS) and analyze observed heterogeneity using multigroup analyses (J. F. Hair et al., 2018).

Supplemental Material

sj-docx-1-jht-10.1177_10963480211011544 – Supplemental material for Appreciation To And Behavior Intention Regarding Upscale Ethnic Restaurants

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-jht-10.1177_10963480211011544 for Appreciation To And Behavior Intention Regarding Upscale Ethnic Restaurants by Yide Liu, Hiram Ting and Christian Ringle in Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research

Footnotes

This research was supported by the Science and Technology Development Fund, Macau, and the Family Readiness Group funds at Macau University of Science and Technology. Mr. Dazhong Hu provided support for data collection. Moreover, this research uses the statistical software SmartPLS 3 (). Ringle acknowledges a financial interest in SmartPLS.

ORCID iDs

Yide Liu

Hiram Ting

Supplemental Material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

Notes

Yide Liu (corresponding author; e-mail: ydliu@must.edu.mo) is an associate professor at the School of Business, Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macau. Hiram Ting (e-mail: hiramparousia@gmail.com) is an associate professor in the Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management, UCSI University–Sarawak Campus, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, and Department of Leisure and Recreation Management, Ming Chuan University, Taiwan. Christian Ringle (email: c.ringle@tuhh.de) is a professor of management at the Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg, Germany, and an adjunct professor at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.

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