The Quality of the Dining Experience – A Literature Overview

Marko Kukanja
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Marko Kukanja: University of Primorska, Faculty of Tourism Studies – Turistica, Portorož, Slovenia

Academica Turistica - Tourism and Innovation Journal, 2014, vol. 7, issue 1, 47-60

Abstract: The importance of quality has been recognized in most service industries, as it generates revenue and has a significant impact on customer behaviour. Measurement of the quality of restaurant service has attracted increasing attention from hospitality researchers since the implementation of the DINESERV model in the mid-1990s. As a fairly new topic, it requires frequent and critical monitoring, which would shed light on current research and make needed adjustments in terms of methodological research processes and the focus of inquiry. However, to date, there have been few systematic reviews of this body of work. As such, this study aims to fill this void by conducting a qualitative analysis of research on restaurant quality since the mid-1990s. Particular attention has been devoted to a marketing perspective and different marketing attributes (food, people and price), as there is no consensus on which marketing attribute is the most important in assessing the quality of the dining experience. Food quality often seems to be accepted as the fundamental component in determining the quality of dining experience, but several studies have identified service quality (people) to be the most important factor in the restaurant industry. A qualitative study with a grounded theory approach has been used via analysis of the relevant scientific literature. Data of guests’ perceptual responses has been collected from restaurant quality-related articles retrieved from major academic databases. Based on an extensive literature review, the findings reveal that restaurant quality research remains at the stage of developing industry tailored-research models. The research results also reveal that the results of numerous studies are mutually inconsistent and contradictory. Therefore, it is not possible to simplify and highlight just one quality attribute as the most important. Scholars should, therefore, adapt their research techniques to different environments and types of catering facilities. This research has raised many questions in need of further investigation. Future research should include a broader range of quality dimensions. It is suggested that the association of different marketing attributes be empirically investigated in future studies.

Keywords: restaurant industry; marketing attributes; dining experience; service quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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