Literature Review: Dining Consumption in a Restaurant Setting

This literature review analyzes four research articles focusing on dining consumption in a restaurant context. It examines customer satisfaction, service quality, and the dining experiences of obese individuals. The review explores key themes, research methods, and findings, including the application of Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) for quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and the impact of tangible service quality attributes on customer satisfaction. It also addresses collaborative consumption and food waste. The review highlights differences in research designs, limitations, and future research directions, such as exploring the interaction of factors like speed, value, and cleanliness, and examining the dining experiences of obese people in various settings. The review underscores the importance of customer satisfaction and its impact on business success within the restaurant industry. The document is available on Desklib, a platform providing students with past papers and solved assignments.

Running Head: LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature Review
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1LITERATURE REVIEW
The structured abstract reviews the topic of “Dining consumption in a restaurant context”
through the research studies of (i) Kimberly Mathe –Soulek, Lisa Slevitch and Loana Dallinger
(ii) Quang Nguyen, Tahir M. Nisar and Dan Knox (iii) Yaniv Poria, Jeremy Beal and Amir
Shani (iv) Jeffrey Parker, Nita Umashankar and Martin Schleicher.
Elaboration of the Theory and assessment of the progression in field:
The article of Kimberly Mathe –Soulek, Lisa Slevitch and Loana Dalinger( 2015) have
addressed the problems connected to formation of the critical quality attributes. The basic aim of
the research was to address crucial shortcomings. The common agreement is that the optimal
delivery of products or services can drive maximum customer satisfaction earning competitive
advantage to the restaurant. The customer satisfaction is usually operationalized by the
Importance- Performance Analysis (IPA). The IPA method is a strong approach where a range
of attributes are offered at the initial stages and then the customers are requested to evaluate a
particular product /service based on the degree of the way each attribute has been delivered. The
importance of the attributes is also rated by the consumers. The article supports to address the
problem of the performance optimization and recognize a superior set of the QSR attributes in
order to allocate the resources.
On the other hand, the article of Quang Nguyen, Tahir M. Nisar, Dan Knox, Guru
Prakash Prabhakar,(2018) is aimed at examining the impacts of five dimensions of service
quality on the satisfaction of the customer in the context of UK. It indicates which factors from
the five dimensions have a primary role in the entire customer satisfaction. The study of Yaniv
Poria, Jeremy Beal and Amir Shani (2019) explores the major components in the hospitality
experience of people that is “eating out”. It suggests that the restaurant experiences are not

2LITERATURE REVIEW
influenced only by the difficulties and constraints growing from the physical environment. It is
also shaped by the personal beliefs of the participants. Hence, the body image of the patron must
be considered in the restaurant dining experience. The article of Parker, Umashankar and
Schleicher(2019) is an explorative study on the overconsumption and wastage of food being the
most disadvantageous factors for the society and the consumers. The food based collaborative
consumption is the main focus of the study.
Common Themes / Findings
The study of Mathe, Slevitch and Dallinger (2015)revolves around customer satisfaction
which is considered to be one of the most critical indicators affecting the future of the business.
Higher levels of the customer satisfaction lead to customer loyalty increasing the profit levels of
the restaurant. It also presents that the customer satisfaction leads to reduction in the price
sensitivity, increase in the cross-buying and positivity through the word-of-mouth. It studies the
performance analysis for optimal quality of service delivered in the restaurant.
Similarly, the theme of the article of Nguyen(2018)and others is the analysis of the five
dimensions of service quality and the satisfaction of the customer. It explores the fast food
market of UK to get a conclusion. Both the article suggests that the tangible attributes of the
service quality are key to the ultimate customer satisfaction.
The theme of the study of Poria, Beal and Shani (2019), is the dining experience of the
people suffering from obesity in the restaurant context. The indirect focus is on the customer
satisfaction of the people with obesity in a restaurant. It is of economic importance, how the
obsess people are being treated in a restaurant context as they have string purchasing power.
Their dining satisfaction has been concerned in this study.

3LITERATURE REVIEW
On the other hand Parker, Umashankar and Schleicher (2019)engaged themselves in the
study of collaborative consumption which is an unrecognized cause of the overconsumption,
over purchasing and wastage of food. The findings suggest that the over purchase of food occur
in group contexts and wastage. It is closely related with the consumer motivation to purchase the
food, rather over purchase the food.
Different themes/findings
In the all four articles, there are differences in the research methods, contexts and
situation. However, the themes are interrelated in one way or the other. The first article uses the
qualitative analysis of the topic and examines the performance analysis method to analyse its
drawbacks.
The article of Nguyen(2018) is completely based on the context of UK and cannot be
matched with the findings of the other articles up to some extent.
The study of Poria, Beal and Shani(2019) takes up the case of the obese people who face
difficulties through the dining experience. The case of the obese people is quite different from
that of the normal customers. However, it relates to the common fact of customer satisfaction
and customer motivation. The last article uses mixed methods for showing the consumer
purchasing behaviors.
However, there are no such major differences but all the researchers have re-visited the
topic from diverse characteristics.

4LITERATURE REVIEW
Study restrictions and their variation in different research designs
The study of Mathe (2015) and others aimed to develop a suitable approach which
identifies the drivers of satisfaction for the quick –service restaurant (QSR ) at the unit level. It
has to be noted that there has been controversy over the primary influencers of the restaurant
satisfaction. This is because there have been different segments of the restaurant with different
expectations related to service and product.
The study of Nugyen (2018)and others is limited as it conducts the quantitative survey of
only 147 people. The framework of the study is constrained to its own objectives. There might
be other factors influencing the customer satisfaction.
The study of Poria(2019) and others is based on 36 semi-structured interviews along with
content analysis. There can be no statistical representations of the study because of its research
approach. Moreover, it is limited to the dining experience of obese people in North American
context.
The last article of Parker (2019) and others is limited as it cannot provide extensive
examples of the food based collaborative consumption.
Future research directions proposed in the articles
The article of Mathe (2015)has future research possibilities founded on the findings of
the current study. The interactions impacts should be explored in-depth in future and examine the
way factors like speed, value and cleanliness interact and correlate with each others.
The study of Nugyen(2018) and others should examine specific behavioral traits of the
customers and the staffs which impact the customer satisfaction level in the UK.

5LITERATURE REVIEW
The article of Poria (2019)and others must focus on the dining experiences of obese
people at other places too. The exploration should be done where the attributes are different
from those in the U.S studies towards obese people.
The study of Parker(2019) and others might diver deeper into the way the individual
characteristics influence the motivational forces and where the cognitive biases are more
possible.

6LITERATURE REVIEW
References
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.
Nguyen, Q., Nisar, T.M., Knox, D. and Prabhakar, G.P., 2018. Understanding customer
satisfaction in the UK quick service restaurant industry: The influence of the tangible attributes
of perceived service quality. British Food Journal, 120(6), pp.1207-1222.
Parker, J.R., Umashankar, N. and Schleicher, M.G., 2019. How and Why the Collaborative
Consumption of Food Leads to Overpurchasing, Overconsumption, and Waste. Journal of
Public Policy & Marketing, 38(2), pp.154-171.
Poria, Y., Beal, J. and Shani, A., 2019. Does size matter? An exploratory study of the public
dining experience of obese people. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 39, pp.49-
56.