Online Review on Selection of Restaurants- Research

THE IMPACT OF ONLINE REVIEWS ON THE
SELECTION OF RESTAURANT BY CUSTOMERS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Background of the Study.............................................................................................................1
Rationale of the Study.................................................................................................................1
Research Aim and Objectives......................................................................................................2
Research Significance..................................................................................................................2
Framework and Analysis.............................................................................................................3
Structure of the Thesis.................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
With the rise in time, scope of technology emerged to a great extent right from
production to customer service. Due to this, practice of word of mouth has been replaced with
online reviews to great extent. This certainly developed a habit of using information over internet
that in physical surrounding. Now a day, individual are having lot many options for particular set
of products or services and hence they search for the best one (Pantelidis, 2010). For this,
reviews are searched over different website to take buying decision. Same scenario applies while
choosing restaurant by individuals in present times. It is evident that there is significant rise in
the number of restaurant which makes decision related to visit quite complex. Therefore,
customer looks for the information and review on varied websites for gaining necessary inputs
for buying decision (Zhang and et.al., 2010). With this scenario in focus, present research is
carried out to assess the role played by online review in the decision making for selection of
restaurants.
Restaurants, whether big or small, are active on social networking sites with a motive to
spread awareness among target customers and to attract them. This practice usually invites online
review from customers who made experiences with those restaurants. These reviews can be
positive and negative which can be seen by potential customers. Also, there are several websites
related to culinary and food tourism where individuals can post review related to particular
restaurants which can be seen by internet users through Google search (Dellarocas, Gao and
Narayan, 2010). However, there are several people who don’t prefer using internet for gaining
review (usually elder); instead they seek for word of mouth (Zeytonli, Madadi and Dana, 2015).
Considering all these issues, present study has explored the extent to which online review affects
the selection of restaurant by customers. To conduct this study, causal design is taken into
account so that level of influence can be identified. This aids in developing sound conclusion.
Rationale of the Study
Main reason behind conducting this study is to acknowledge whether online review make
difference in selection of restaurant or not. This has been found from past studies that online
review is not considered by each and every individual. Also, people usually don’t trust things
updated on internet. Further, there are certain other factors that help in taking decision such as
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