PARALLEL MEDIATION OF SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION BETWEEN RESTAURANT AUTHENTICITY AND eWOM INTENTION: A PLS-SEM APPROACH

Abstract

The research investigates the effect of restaurant authenticity on perceived service quality, customer satisfaction, and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) in the context of ethnic restaurants. Additionally, it examines the mediating role of service quality and customer satisfaction, as well as their parallel mediating effect on the relationship between restaurant authenticity and diners’ eWOM intention. Data was collected from 279 diners who had experienced services at ethnic restaurants in Vietnam. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) approach was employed to investigate the relationships among the variables in the research model. The findings reveal that restaurant authenticity directly influences perceived service quality, customer satisfaction, and customers’ eWOM intention. Customer satisfaction fully mediates the relationship between service quality and eWOM, while it partially mediates the effect of restaurant authenticity on customer eWOM. However, the indirect impact of restaurant authenticity on customer eWOM through service quality was not significant. Ethnic restaurant managers should focus on enhancing the authenticity of their restaurants to generate positive outcomes such as increased customer satisfaction and eWOM intention. This study contributes to the existing literature on consumer behavior in the hospitality sector by conceptualizing the mediating role of service quality and customer satisfaction in the relationship between restaurant authenticity and eWOM intention. The research also extends the Stimuli Organism-Response model by considering restaurant authenticity as a stimulus that directly and indirectly influences service quality (stimulus), customer satisfaction (organism), and customer eWOM intention (response).

Keywords

• restaurant authenticity
• dineserv
• service quality
• customer satisfaction
• ewom