Effects of service encounter barriers on situational abnormality and consumers' behavioral intentions at food and beverage restaurants

Naeem Akhtar, Umar Iqbal Siddiqi, Wasim Ahmad, Muhammad Usman, Xianglan Chen, Tahir Islam

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Purpose: The present study unveils the service encounter barriers – interactional and instructional – faced by foreign consumers at food and beverage restaurants in China. It builds a conceptual framework and examines (1) how service encounter barriers create situational abnormality, (2) how situational abnormality engenders foreign consumers' felt discomfort that influences their revisit intentions and (3) how expectations disconfirmation moderates situational abnormality.

Design/methodology/approach: Convenience sampling using the survey method was employed to collect data from 517 foreign consumers – who stay in Beijing (China) – at food and beverage restaurants. The study used IBM SPSS 25.0 and Amos Graphics 24.0 to analyze the data and interpret results.

Findings: Findings reveal that interactional and instructional barriers positively create situational abnormality, which ultimately leads to foreign consumers' felt discomfort and their negative revisit intentions. Expectations disconfirmation significantly aggravates situational abnormality as a moderator.

Research limitations/implications: This study investigates foreign consumers' behavior at food and beverage restaurants in China and cautions its generalizability. It suggests corroborating the foreign consumers' behavioral intentions in the context of other countries to generalize the findings and unleash other factors additive to comprehend their behavior in the wake of restaurant industry.

Originality/value: The extant literature has not examined the service encounter barriers faced by foreign consumers at food and beverage restaurants in China. The present study, responding to the previous calls, incorporated the service encounter barriers and their downstream effects on foreign consumers' behavioral responses. By doing so, it adds value to the domestic food and beverage restaurants and service firms in China, in particular, and paves the way to understand the interactional and instructional barriers in the global context, in general, by engaging the foreign consumers.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1513-1534
Number of pages22
JournalAsia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics
Volume33
Issue number7
Early online date14 Dec 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Jun 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Communication barrier
  • Expectations disconfirmation
  • Felt discomfort
  • Revisit intention
  • Service counter
  • Situational abnormality

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