The Attraction of the Sizzle: A Service Investment Model

Abstract

This paper presents the results of the first test of the investment model for predicting attitudinal loyalty in service industries. Application of the investment model in the service context of casual dining restaurants has the potential to improve the understanding of the role of quality and the reasons that customers are loyal or disloyal to these restaurants. A focus on quality allows firms to improve performance and, as a result, improve customer retention. The research method in this work employs a survey data collection approach. Confirmatory factor analysis is used to test the predictive power of the investment model as it relates to quality and the associate retention of customers within the casual dining restaurant domain. The authors' results show that service satisfaction and investment size substantially predict a customer's loyalty to casual dining restaurants. These results provide service managers with insights into customers' attitudes toward casual dining restaurants and extend the body of knowledge on the antecedents that predict attitudinal loyalty in a service industry. This study is the first to operationalize the investment model in the casual dining services domain as well as to examine customers' internal and external motives and the role that quality plays in creating loyalty to a casual dining restaurant.

• quality
• investment model
• attitudinal loyalty
• casual dining restaurants

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kwabena G. Boakye

Kwabena G. Boakye is a doctoral candidate in management science at the University of North Texas. He received his master's degree in statistics from the University of Idaho and bachelor's degree from the KNUST, Ghana. Boakye is an ASQ certified Six Sigma Black Belt and Green Belt. His research interests include quality management, statistical quality control, service operations management, logistics service quality, and applied statistics. His works have appeared in Operations Management Research, International Journal of Bank Marketing, and the proceedings of the Decision Science Institute Conference. He can be reached by email at [email protected].

Junhyuk Kwon

Junhyuk Kwon is a doctoral candidate in management science at the University of North Texas. He received a master's degree in marketing and bachelor's degree in business at Hanyang University, Seoul. His research focuses on service operations management, service failure and recovery, and hospital supply chain management, and has appeared in the proceedings of the Decision Science Institute Conference.

Charles Blankson

Charles Blankson is an associate professor of marketing. He received his doctorate in marketing from Kingston University, London, U.K., and his master's degree in marketing from Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent, U.K. He has a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) — a U.K. teachers' qualifying certificate from the University of Greenwich, London, U.K. He holds the professional marketing diploma (Dip. M.) from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, U.K., and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the American Marketing Association, and the Academy of Marketing Science. He held managerial positions with Burger King (U.K.) Ltd. and the London Borough of Wandsworth, and graduate trainee positions with Marks & Spencer Stores Ltd. and Harrods Store Ltd. Blankson has been a visiting scholar in marketing at Kingston University Business School and the University of Ghana Business School.

Victor R. Prybutok

Victor R. Prybutok is a Regents professor of decision sciences in the Information Technology and Decision Sciences Department and associate dean of the Toulouse Graduate School at the University of North Texas. He received his bachelor's degree from Drexel University, a master's degree in bio-mathematics, a master's degree in environmental health, and a doctorate in environmental analysis and applied statistics. He is a Senior member of ASQ and active in the American Statistical Association, Decision Sciences Institute, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and Operations Research Society of America. Prybutok is an ASQ certified quality engineer, certified quality auditor, certified manager of quality/organizational excellence, and an accredited professional statistician (PSTAT®) by the American Statistical Association.