How Dissimilarity Attributes At Restaurants Trigger Negative Emotions And Associated Behavioral Intentions:The Role Of Attribute Performance

Consumers’ perceptions of different aspects pertaining to servicescape and social servicescape at restaurants have received little consideration in the hospitality literature.To fill this gap,the author develops a model that conceptualizes and empirically examines the impact of dissimilar attributes(i.e.,other customers’ misbehavior;employee misbehavior;ambient conditions;layout and functionality;and symbols,signs,and artifacts)in restaurants on the development of negative emotions;and the impact of negative emotions on consumers’ dissatisfaction,which in turn determine consumers’behavioral intentions.The author uses the moderating effect of restaurant attributes performance to strengthen the link between negative emotions and these dissimilar attributes(i.e.,other customers’ misbehavior;employee misbehavior;ambient conditions;layout and functionality;and symbols,signs,and artifacts).To achieve the study’s goals,the author conducted two investigations,Study 1 and Study 2,in Bangladesh and China,respectively.For study 1,600 data were obtained from local Bangladeshi consumers,while for study 2,396 foreign customers in China were surveyed.The critical incident method was used to select all of the respondents who had dining experience in fullservice restaurants.An online survey was used to obtain the data(i.e.www.mikecrm.com).The collected data were analyzed by using Structural Equation Modeling(SEM).To demonstrate the direct and moderating effects among the constructs,the author utilized IBM AMOS Graphics version 24.0.To measure the indirect effects,the author utilized PROCESS macro(3.2)for SPSS version 22.0,a 95%confidence interval with 10,000 samples based on the biased-corrected bootstrap technique.Both studies 1 and 2 found that these dissimilar restaurant attributes(i.e.,other customers’ misbehavior;employee misbehavior;ambient conditions;layout and functionality;and symbols,signs,and artifacts)had significant positive effects on the development of negative emotion,positive effects of negative emotion on consumer dissatisfaction,and positive influence of consumer dissatisfaction on consumers’behavioral intentions(i.e.negative word-of-mouth communication,complaint behavior,and switching behavior).Results of both studies 1 and 2 also showed that restaurant attributes performance positively moderates the relationships between dissimilar attributes(i.e.,other customers’ misbehavior;employee misbehavior;ambient conditions;layout and functionality;and symbols,signs,and artifacts)and negative emotion.Results of study 1 showed that negative emotions and consumer dissatisfaction mediate the effects of dissimilar attributes(i.e.,other customers’ misbehavior;employee misbehavior;ambient conditions;layout and functionality;and symbols,signs,and artifacts)on the consumers’behavioral intentions(i.e.negative word-of-mouth,complaint behavior,switching behavior).Results of study 2 showed that negative emotions and consumer dissatisfaction mediate the effects of dissimilar attributes(i.e.,other customers’misbehavior;employee misbehavior;ambient conditions;layout and functionality;and symbols,signs,and artifacts)on the consumers’ behavioral intentions(i.e.switching behavior and negative word-of-mouth).The research’s empirical findings have a substantial theoretical and practical impact.Future directions for hospitality and researchers are suggested in this study.