Consumer behaviours in social enterprises: empathy with employees with disabilities and intention to revisit the social restaurant

Abstract

This research aims to find out why visitors tend to revisit social enterprises employing people with disabilities. The research used an exploratory sequential mixed methods design to achieve this goal. The social enterprise examined in this study is a restaurant where people with mental disabilities are employed. First, qualitative research was conducted through face-to-face interviews with visitors (n = 20). Qualitative findings have revealed four themes explaining the relationships between revisit intention and its antecedents. Secondly, quantitative research was conducted to test the hypotheses developed based on the qualitative findings and the relevant literature. Quantitative data were collected from the visitors of the social enterprise employing employees with disabilities (n = 361). According to the findings, empathic concern and pro-disability attitude positively and significantly affected consumers’ intention to revisit the social enterprise. Both dimensions of empathy, empathic concern and perspective-taking, positively and significantly affected the pro-disabled attitude. Considering that a perspective explaining consumer behavior in social enterprises has not been developed in the literature, this research contributes to explaining consumer behavior in social enterprises by creating the tripartite model with qualitative and quantitative data.

Keywords:

• Perspective taking
• empathic concern
• pro-disabled attitude
• social enterprise
• empathy-attitude-action model
• sustainability of social restaurants

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mert Gürlek

Mert Gürlek, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Turkey. He holds two PhDs, one in Management & Organization and one in Tourism Management, both from Gazi University, Turkey. His research interests include corporate social responsibility, innovation, HRM, and organizational culture. His studies has been published in top-tier journals such as The Service Industries Journal, Social Responsibility Journal, Tourism Management Perspectives, Kybernetes, and Ethics & Behavior, Journal of Sustainable Tourism.

İlker Kılıç

İlker Kılıç, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Department of Tourism Management at University of Eskişehir Osmangazi. He holds PhDs, tourism management from Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Turkey. He has experience in, influencer marketing, corporate social responsibility, tourist behaviours and hospitality management. His studies has been published in top-tier journals such as Current Issues in Tourism, Journal of Sustainable Tourism.

Elif Şenel

Elif Şenel, Ph.D, is currently a student at Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Department of Tourrism Management. Her fields of work include recreation and hospitality management, social media marketing, flow theory and tourism marketing. She also has various duties in European Union projects.