School of Management, University Sains Malaysia

The effect of hedonic and
utilitarian values on satisfaction
and behavioural intentions for
dining in fast-casual restaurants
in Iran
Mehran Nejati
School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM),
Penang, Malaysia, and
Parnia Parakhodi Moghaddam
Department of Business Management, Science and Research Branch,
Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Purpose – This study seeks to examine the influence of hedonic and utilitarian values on customers’
satisfaction and behavioural intentions for dining out in the context of fast-casual restaurants in Iran.
Design/methodology/approach – A total of 379 surveys were collected (342 deemed usable) from
respondents who had experienced dining out in a fast-casual restaurant at least once within one month
prior to the survey collection time. A research model was tested using structural equation modelling
(SEM) to examine the research hypotheses.
Findings – Results of the study revealed that both hedonic and utilitarian values significantly
influenced satisfaction and behavioural intentions. Besides, satisfaction was also found to have a
significant positive influence on behavioural intentions. The study also showed that utilitarian value
has a more powerful influence on the behavioural intention of customers in the context of fast food
restaurants.
Research limitations/implications – The main limitation of this study pertains to the sample
which is collected from a limited section of the society with high level of education. This study helps to
expand the body of literature on the behaviour of young customers in developing countries. Besides,
the current study has also contributed to theory by examining the usefulness of two distinct structures
of consumer service values, namely hedonic and utilitarian.
Practical implications – This study expands the understanding of owners/managers in the food
and hospitality industry about the influence of distinct value types on customers’ satisfaction and
behavioural intentions.
Originality/value – This study examined two distinct structures of consumer service values on the
behavioural intentions of customers from a developing country. Since the structure of the fast food
industry is different from most other countries, in that none of the giant fast food chain restaurants
operate in Iran, the results of this study can provide invaluable insights from a different perspective.
Keywords Iran, Purchase intention, Customer satisfaction, Fast food, Hedonic values, Utilitarian values
Paper type Research paper
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0007-070X.htm
The first author would like to acknowledge the support of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) by
providing Vice-Chancellor Award.
Effect of hedonic
and utilitarian
values
1583
Received 15 October 2011
Revised 15 April 2012
Accepted 24 April 2012
British Food Journal
Vol. 115 No. 11, 2013
pp. 1583-1596
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0007-070X
DOI 10.1108/BFJ-10-2011-0257

Introduction
Most people eat out every now and then. Given the numerous dining-out options
provided, consumers can now choose to eat in a variety of full-service or fast food
restaurants. Behaviour of consumers with regards to food purchase in most emerging
economies, including Iran, has significantly changed due to an increase in the per capita
income, global interaction, information and communication technologies, and education
(Ali et al., 2010). Fast food has become one of the fastest growing industries globally,
including Iran. However, the alarming rise of obesity, which is associated with an
increased risk of multiple health problems including disability, cardiovascular disease,
diabetes and some of the most common cancers, has concerned healthcare professionals
about the growing habit of fast food consumption. Some journalists have proposed a link
between the exponential growth of the fast food industry and the epidemic expansion of
obesity in the world (Schlosser, 1998).The latest survey on obesity in Iran was conducted
by International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO) during 2005 and found that
27.9 per cent of men and 29.3 per cent of women (aged 15-64) were overweight, while 9.1
per cent of men and 19.2 per cent of women (aged 15-64) were obese. In 2005, 33.7 per cent
of adults were at risk of developing metabolic syndrome and eight million Iranians
suffered from this syndrome. Previous studies indicate that almost 2 to 3 million Iranian
individuals have type 2 diabetes and at least 4 million adults live with hypertension. The
growing obesity trend in Iran has been associated with the greater availability of fast
food coupled with a low activity lifestyle.
Iranians now tend to eat more frequently in fast food restaurants due to the gradual
change in people’s life style while 20 years ago, it was not common to eat fast food in
Iran. Fast food industry in Iran is distinct from most European and Western countries,
as franchising is not much common and fast food industry giants such as KFC and
McDonalds do not operate in the country. However, their imitators operate in many
cities and provide various types of fast food including sandwiches and burgers. This
has resulted in the fast food industry of Iran to be like an open market where new
competitors can find their own share in the market, given the growing interest in fast
food especially among the young generations in the country. However, fast food
industry has been challenged with intense competition in the recent years due to the
saturation of a fast-food restaurant market and the worldwide economic downturn
(Min and Min, 2011). Thus, for fast food restaurants to be successful and keep this
rising interest of consumers alive, they need to retain customers through offering a
value for money food compared to other restaurants. Indeed, the longer customers
remain with a particular fast-food restaurant, the more profitable they become to the
fast-food restaurant (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990; Lovelock and Wright, 2002).
Values have been shown to have influence on attitudes towards organic foods
(Chryssohoidis and Krystallis, 2005; Kihlberg and Risvik, 2007; Saher et al., 2006),
convenience in food preparation and consumption (Botonaki and Mattas, 2010; Rose
et al., 1995), food choice motives (Lindeman and Sirelius, 2001) and perceptions of food
(Osinga and Hofstede, 2004). Nonetheless, what motivates Iranian consumers to eat in a
fast food restaurant remains unexplored. Despite previous studies on food preferences
of consumers, the influence of some underlying values on consumption intentions of
customers from a developing country to eat in a fast food restaurant has not been well
investigated. Hence, considering the fact that the fast food industry is flourishing in
Iran, the current study aims to identify how underlying values (utilitarian and hedonic
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values) foster Iranian consumers’ intention to eat in a fast-casual restaurant. By
definition, a fast-casual restaurant is a restaurant market niche which falls between
fast food and casual dining and does not offer most of table services. What
differentiates a fast-casual restaurant from a fast food one is the promise of fast-casual
restaurant to offer somewhat higher quality of foods and atmosphere than fast food
restaurants, which is more consistent with the casual dining segment (Ryu et al., 2010).
Some of the largest fast-casual franchises include Panera Bread, Zaxby’s, El Pollo Loco,
Boston Market, Jason’s Deli and Five Guys Burgers and Fries.
Ritzer (2001) argues that although fast food restaurants are not so efficient and cheap
compared to eating at home, the fast food industry has been a worldwide success. He
relates this to the illusion of efficiency and frugality by people, coupled with the fun and
entertainment part of dining in such restaurants. Since consumption behaviours are
driven by utilitarian and hedonic considerations, they can influence consumer selection.
While according to utilitarian values, consumption is goal-oriented and accomplishes a
functional or practical task (Dhar and Wertenbroch, 2000; Strahilevitz and Myers, 1998),
hedonic consumption behaviour is pleasure-oriented and relates to the multisensory,
fantasy and emotive aspects of one’s experience with products/services (Hirschman and
Holbrook, 1982). As compared to utilitarian aspects, value’s “festive” side has received
less attention in the previous studies and Arnold and Reynolds (2003) argue that
academic research is lagging in investigating the hedonic side of consumers’ evaluations
of their consumption experience. This study provides a response to this call for further
research, by examining the role of utilitarian and hedonic values on customers’
intentions and behaviours for eating in a fast-casual restaurant. Thus, the key questions
to answer are: what is the influence of individual values on customers’ satisfaction? and
what is the influence of individual values on the behavioural intention of consumers in
developing countries to eat in a fast-casual restaurant?
Considering the growing interest in research studies on hedonic and utilitarian
outcomes in consumer experiences, the current study aims to examine the practicality
and application of a model in the fast-casual industry in Iran, by examining the
influence of utilitarian and hedonic values on satisfaction and behavioural intention of
Iranian consumers. Findings of this study can provide invaluable practical insights for
investors, as well as current and future fast food and fast-casual restaurant managers
in Iran to gain a better understanding of the consumers’ preferences and the underlying
values which influence their satisfaction and behavioural intentions.
Values, satisfaction and consumers’ behavioural intentions
Consumption can be categorised into two types depending on the level of pleasure it can
cause, which creates a distinction between hedonic and utilitarian consumption
(Hirschman and Holbrook, 1982; Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982; Strahilevitz and Myers,
1998; Dhar and Wertenbroch, 2000). The former group focuses on the “shopping’s fun
side” (e.g. Bloch and Bruce, 1984; Hirschman, 1984; Sherry, 1990), while the latter depicts
the theme of “shopping as work”, which accounts for distressed consumers experiencing
the “dark side of shopping” (e.g. Fischer and Arnold, 1990; Sherry et al., 1993). Some
researchers have discussed about the trend towards convenience and linked it with the
changes in consumer values. For example, Goldsmith et al. (1995) found weak but
significant relationships between various items in the List of Values (Kahle, 1983) and a
pro-snacking scale. Nonetheless, many consumption activities stimulate both hedonic
Effect of hedonic
and utilitarian
values
1585

and utilitarian values. Pettijohn et al. (1997) found quality, cleanliness and value as the
three most important attributes in fast food restaurants, while atmosphere and menu
variety were relatively unimportant. Values are representative of the important and
desirable end goals. Perceived value of the service has been noted as one of the most
influential measures of customer satisfaction and loyalty (Sweeney et al., 1996;
Parasuraman, 1997; Patterson and Spreng, 1997; Cronin et al., 2000; Parasuraman and
Grewal, 2000; Eggert and Ulaga, 2002). Convenience is specifically important in meal
preparation and consumption as it saves time and energy for professional ambitions and
personal success (Botonaki and Mattas, 2010).
While marketing researchers are beginning to focus more on the hedonic aspects of
the consumption experience (Wakefield and Baker, 1998; O’Curry and Strahilevitz, 2001),
the situation might be different in fast food industry, where more focus is paid to
functionality and fast service delivery. Although the role of values on convenience and
fast food consumption has not received much attention, some researchers have examined
this. Rose et al. (1995) investigated the attitudes and behaviour of working and
non-working women on their preference for convenience over price and ease in
preparation of food, and showed that working was associated with an emphasis on ease
in preparation of food-related consumption. Other studies also did not show any impact
for employment status of the wife on the purchase of convenience food items for home
use (Darian and Klein, 1989; Kim, 1989; Strober and Weiberg, 1980), suggesting a more
positive attitude not only to eating out but also to quickly prepared meals (Jackson et al.,
1985). Fast food and fast-casual restaurants are known to provide food at a faster pace
than the other restaurants and hence might be the preferred choice by many students
who are busy with university classes and have limited time as lunch break, which makes
their condition similar to working people. Thus, we conjecture that the utilitarian value
of eating out is more related to consumption in fast-casual restaurants among students.
By examining the relationship among the three elements of value (namely core
quality, relational quality and service value), customer satisfaction and future
intentions across four services (dentist, hairstylist, auto repair and restaurant),
McDougall and Levesque (2000) found that all the three variables of core quality,
relational quality and service value significantly affect customer satisfaction, which in
turn results in future intentions. They showed that perceived value has the largest
impact on potential demand for restaurants, compared to other investigated sectors.
Many researchers have asserted that value has a significant influence on customer
satisfaction and behavioural intentions (Patterson and Spreng, 1997; Andreassen and
Lindestad, 1998; McDougall and Levesque, 2000; Pura, 2005; Chen and Tsai, 2007; Lee
et al., 2007). Previous studies in the food service (e.g. Almanza et al., 1994; Johns and
Tyas, 1996) have confirmed that customer satisfaction leads to positive behavioural
intentions, such as repurchase or return patronage. Besides, a positive relationship
between perceived value and intention to purchase/repurchase has been depicted
(Dodds et al., 1991; Parasuraman and Grewal, 2000). Thus, the following research
hypotheses are as the following:
H1. Perceived value has a positive impact on customer satisfaction in the
fast-casual restaurant segment.
H1a. Hedonic value of dining experiences has a positive impact on customer
satisfaction.
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