Business Research Methodology Report: Customer Behavior

This report provides an analysis of business research methodology, focusing on the dining behaviors of customers and factors that influence their satisfaction in restaurants. The report begins with a literature review of four academic articles, each exploring different aspects of dining experiences, including the impact of group size, wine consumption, online reviews, and quick service restaurant attributes. It summarizes the key findings of each article, identifying common and distinct themes related to customer behavior, service quality, and restaurant environment. The report also discusses the limitations of the studies and suggests directions for future research, such as the application of multinomial logistic regression models, the influence of restaurant environment, and the analysis of customer sentiment. The report concludes by emphasizing the practical implications of the research for restaurant managers and entrepreneurs, highlighting how an understanding of customer behavior can drive business growth and improve the overall dining experience. All the references are provided using the Harvard Referencing Style.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Business research Methodology
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Provide reference for each academic article (formatted
using the Harvard Referencing Style)
Conceptual article
(proposed theory)
Clauzel, A., Guichard, N. and Riché, C., 2019. Dining alone or
together? The effect of group size on the service customer
experience. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 47,
pp.222-228
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969698918305800
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2018.11.010
Quantitative
article
Bruwer, J., Cohen, J. and Kelley, K., 2019. Wine involvement
interaction with dining group dynamics, group composition and
consumption behavioural aspects in USA
restaurants. International Journal of Wine Business
Research, 31(1), pp.12-28.
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJWBR-06-2018-
0027/full/html
Qualitative article Gan, Q., Ferns, B.H., Yu, Y. and Jin, L., 2017. A text mining
and multidimensional sentiment analysis of online restaurant
reviews. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality &
Tourism, 18(4), pp.465-492.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1528008X.2016.1250243
Mixed method Mathe-Soulek, K., Slevitch, L. and Dallinger, I., 2015.

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article Applying mixed methods to identify what drives quick service
restaurant's customer satisfaction at the unit-
level. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 50,
pp.46-54.

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Table of contents
Brief summary of the theory and progression.................................................................................4
Common themes..............................................................................................................................4
Different themes..............................................................................................................................4
Study limitations..............................................................................................................................5
Future research directions................................................................................................................5

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Brief summary of the theory and progression
Changing consumption trend among the customers play a significant role in the dinning
behavior in a restaurant. There are various factors that can bring the significant impact on the
dining practices in the restaurants. It is true that due to changes in socio economic status,
restaurant selection behavior of the customers has got changed. In order to construct the
customer economic behavioral model, the correlations between customer satisfaction and service
quality is being developed (Clauzel, Guichard and Riché 2019). Food quality can be considered
as the crucial factor that can bring significant impact on the dinning motivation process.
Especially in case of family dining, the behavior of the customers gets influenced based on the
high cooking standard as well as safe ingredients. It is true that in order to satisfy the
consumption trends of the customers, understanding individuals’ needs is important for the
managers to reach the target market. Through the construction of customer behavior model in the
workplace, behavioral factors of individuals can be identified that can bring the significant
impact on the restaurant selection process.
Common themes
Depending on the changing consumption trends of the customers, different managerial
practices in the workplace get influenced. In order to ensure the customer satisfaction in the
restaurant business, it is important for the managers to focus on ensuring the standard dining
experience by providing standard food quality as well as positive ambience in the restaurant. In
the first article ‘Dining alone or together? The effect of group size on the service customer
experience’, the author has focused highlighting the consumption habits of the customers which
can get influenced based on the size of the group (Clauzel, Guichard and Riché 2019). By
continuing this, the author has mentioned that depending on the changing perceptions of the

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customers, meal experience of the customers can vary. In the second article ‘Wine involvement
interaction with dining group dynamics, group composition and consumption behavioural
aspects in USA restaurants’, the author has also highlighted the behavioral aspects of the
customers as the important key driver for changing dinning consumption trends (Bruwer Cohen,
and Kelley 2019). In this article, it has also been mentioned that restaurant environment is an
important influential factor that influence the customer motivation towards dinning practices. In
the third article, it is mentioned that depending on the service style, food quality as well as
restaurant environment, customers’ sentiment can get influenced (Gan et al. 2017). Similarly the
fourth article has focused on the different factors such as service in the restaurant, temperature,
accuracy and food quality for influencing the consumption trends of the customers in the
restaurant (Mathe-Soulek, Slevitch and Dallinger 2015).
Different themes
In the first article, it has been mentioned that size of customers group brings the
significant impact on the meal experience process in the restaurant. Introducing the multinomial
logistic regression models in this article, the author has tried to elaborate the spending habits of
the customers on the restaurant (Clauzel, Guichard and Riché 2019). In the second article, wine
consumption behavior of the customers can get influenced based on the social nature of dinning
out. The wine involvement process can bring significant impact for constructing the wine
consumption behavior of the customers. It is true that restaurant environment is an important
component that ensure the high involvement of customers as well as it influences the dinning
group dynamics (Bruwer Cohen, and Kelley 2019). The third article ‘A text mining and
multidimensional sentiment analysis of online restaurant reviews’ has shed light on the online
restaurant reviews and those impact for examining the attributes as well as sentiments of the

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customers (Gan et al. 2017). Depending on the service, food quality, ambience as well as price of
the dishes, reviews are being provided by the customers. The fourth article ‘Applying mixed
methods to identify what drives quick service restaurant's customer satisfaction at the unit-level’
has shed light on the factors those are the important satisfaction drivers for the QSR. Introducing
different techniques for solving the performance optimization issues in the restaurant, the author
has focused on identifying the optimal set of QSR attributes. In this study it has been identified
that in order to provide standard service in the restaurant, temperature, accuracy as well as taste
of food is important (Mathe-Soulek, Slevitch and Dallinger 2015).
Study limitations
The four articles, which have been described in this study have highlighted different
directions of dinning consumption practices in the restaurant and those significant impact on the
management implications. Although these four articles have highlighted different research
directions in this particular topic, but due to some of the limitations, the scope of these research
papers have got reduced. In the first article, the author has mentioned about the multinomial
logistic regression models, however, the proper implications have not been properly described.
On the other hand, in the second and third article individually qualitative and quantitative
research methods have been used by the authors. In the first case due to use of quantitative
method, the information has been collected in the numerical form, which has not provided the
descriptive information. On the other hand, in case of third article, qualitative research method
has been highlighted. Due to this reason, the researcher has not got the chance to cover large
area. As its result, the research has specifically focused on the online reviews. In case of fourth
article, both the quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods have been used by the

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researcher. However, in this article, the author has not mentioned any specific country. In that
case, it can be assumed that the implication of the research can be difficult in different countries.
Future research directions
The four articles, which have been used in the study can bring significant impact in term
of generating growth in the restaurant business. In the first article, the author has highlighted the
significance of multinomial logistic regression models for driving the consumptions of the
customers. In both the second and third article, different key factors have been highlighted which
are important for motivating the dinning consumptions of the customers. Following these factors
the managers can be able to provide better experience to the customers in future. Analyzing the
fourth article it can be said that the QSR attributes, which have been mentioned in the research
paper can help entrepreneurs to understand the behavioral aspects of the customers that can help
them to develop business in this sector.

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Reference list
Bruwer, J., Cohen, J. and Kelley, K., 2019. Wine involvement interaction with dining group
dynamics, group composition and consumption behavioural aspects in USA
restaurants. International Journal of Wine Business Research, 31(1), pp.12-28.
Clauzel, A., Guichard, N. and Riché, C., 2019. Dining alone or together? The effect of group size
on the service customer experience. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 47, pp.222-
228.
Gan, Q., Ferns, B.H., Yu, Y. and Jin, L., 2017. A text mining and multidimensional sentiment
analysis of online restaurant reviews. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality &
Tourism, 18(4), pp.465-492.
Mathe-Soulek, K., Slevitch, L. and Dallinger, I., 2015. Applying mixed methods to identify what
drives quick service restaurant's customer satisfaction at the unit-level. International Journal of
Hospitality Management, 50, pp.46-54.