Antecedents and outcomes of dining experience satisfaction in ethnic restaurants: The moderating role of food neophobia. Issue 7 (3rd October 2021) - El-Said, Osman Ahmed
ABSTRACT: This study aims to understand the combined and individual effects of a group of antecedents on customers' satisfaction with dining experiences in ethnic restaurants, and to understand the effect of experience satisfaction on the tendency to extend the experience. An online survey was administered to 473 customers who had previously dined at an ethnic restaurant in Muscat. The results confirmed the efficacy of the antecedents in influencing experience satisfaction, with the most impactful being communicative staging of the service-scape, followed by authenticity perception, then substantive staging of the service-scape, and finally subjective knowledge. These relationships, apart from authenticity perception, were moderated by the level of food neophobia among customers. In addition, customer satisfaction with the dining experience was positively associated with experience extension intention. This study provides evidence for the importance of the identified factors in influencing customer dining experiences in the context of ethnic restaurants. Theoretical and practical implications have been offered to complement the findings.