Factors Influencing Consumer Menu-Item Selection in a Restaurant Context
This study utilises the Best-Worst method to examine consumer-based preference in relation to the relative importance of attributes that influence the menu-item choice of casual and fine-dining restaurant patrons. Respondents should have patronised a casual or fine-dining restaurant within the last 4 weeks and 6 months respectively and were randomly allocated the task to respond the questions either with a casual-dining context in mind or with a fine-dining context in mind. Consumer attribute-based preferences are also examined in relation to an individual’s level of food involvement and effect of social context, giving the authors the opportunity to split the entire sample into sub groups. The overarching objective is to draw comparisons in order to determine whether the attributes that influence menu-item choice differ between segments of consumers. Quantitative data was collected from 1208 respondents in Australia representative of casual and fine-dining restaurant patrons.Results of the study indicate that “the combination of ingredients” is the most influential attribute on patrons’ menu-item selection at casual and fine-dining restaurants, with a probability of 100% for that attribute to be chosen as the most important one when selecting a dish. Conversely, the “avoidance of certain foods” and “the core ingredient of the dish is sustainably produced” are the least important attributes influencing the menu-item selection of restaurant patrons, with a prob...
Source: Food Quality and Preference - Category: Food Science Source Type: research