The Impact of Social Media Use on Consumers’ Restaurant Consumption Experiences: A Qualitative Study

Jooyoung Hwang, Anita Eves and Jason L. Stienmetz
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Jooyoung Hwang: Department of Tourism and Convention, Pusan National University, Busan 46241, Korea
Anita Eves: School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK
Jason L. Stienmetz: Department of Tourism and Service Management, MODUL University, Vienna 1190, Austria

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 12, 1-33

Abstract: Travellers have high standards and regard restaurants as important travel attributes. In the tourism and hospitality industry, the use of developed tools (e.g., smartphones and location-based tablets) has been popularised as a way for travellers to easily search for information and to book venues. Qualitative research using semi-structured interviews based on the face-to-face approach was adopted for this study to examine how consumers’ restaurant selection processes are performed with the utilisation of social media on smartphones. Then, thematic analysis was adopted. The findings of this research show that the adoption of social media on smartphones is positively related with consumers’ gratification. More specifically, when consumers regard that process, content and social gratification are satisfied, their intention to adopt social media is fulfilled. It is suggested by this study that consumers’ restaurant decision-making process needs to be understood, as each stage of the decision-making process is not independent; all the stages of the restaurant selection process are organically connected and influence one another.

Keywords: restaurants; decision-making process; smart phones; social media; consumer behaviours (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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