Breaking the mold: how customer perceived innovativeness sets restaurants apart
Abstract
Purpose
The intense competition among restaurant brands made it difficult to retain and engage customers. Service innovation can play a vital role to serve this purpose, however, restaurant brands' efforts to bringing innovativeness may not yield desired results unless customers perceive them innovative. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the role of customer perceived innovativeness (CPRI) in enhancing brand love and evangelism among customers. This study compares these effects between fast-food and continental restaurants to offer deeper insights.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 303 customers of fast-food and continental restaurants through self-administered structured questionnaire. The reliability and validity were established through confirmatory factor analysis. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling and multi-group SEM with MPlus.
Findings
The findings of this study reveal that menu, experiential and promotional innovativeness dimensions of CPRI positively influence brand love. The effects of CPRI dimensions transcend to brand evangelism dimensions, i.e. brand purchase intension, positive brand referrals and oppositional brand referrals via brand love. The multi-group analysis showed that continental restaurants' menu innovativeness strongly impacts brand love and evangelism while promotional innovativeness matters more in the context of fast-food restaurants.
Practical implications
This study helps restaurant managers in devising tailor made strategies for fast-food and continental restaurants by focusing on the relevant attributes to bring innovation.
Originality/value
This research is one of the pioneering studies to investigate the relationship of CPRI with brand evangelism through the mediating role of brand love. This study also marks an initial attempt to compare fast-food and continental restaurants in the context of CPRI.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Since acceptance of this article, the following author have updated their affiliations: Muhammad Junaid is at the School of Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathum Thani, Thailand and Lusíada University – North, Portugal.
Citation
Hussain, K., Afzaal, A., Al Balushi, M.K. and Junaid, M. (2023), "Breaking the mold: how customer perceived innovativeness sets restaurants apart", Kybernetes, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-05-2023-0779
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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