Perceived authenticity of traditional branded restaurants (China): impacts on perceived quality, perceived value, and behavioural intentions

ABSTRACT

This study attempts to investigate the perceived authenticity of consumers in Chinese traditional branded restaurants, as well as to investigate the specific factors that contribute to consumers’ perceived authenticity. It constructs a systematic model addressing whether, and how, consumers’ perceived authenticity, can influence their behavioural intentions through perceived quality of food, service, and dining environment, as well as perceived values in traditional branded restaurants. Results were derived from a mixed-method approach where 68 consumers were initially interviewed, followed by interviewer-administered questionnaire survey with additional 418 consumers. Qualitative analysis, along with exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis confirmed five factors that influencing consumers’ authenticity perceptions: historical and cultural value, brand value, nostalgia, environment authenticity, and food authenticity. Structural equation modelling analysis revealed positive impacts of consumers’ perceived authenticity and perceived service quality on their perceived value of dining experience, which in turn predict consumers’ behaviour intentions.

KEYWORDS:

• Perceived authenticity
• perceived quality
• traditional branded restaurants
• consumers’ dining experiences

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 41771146, the Philosophy and Social Science Foundation of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions under Grant 2018SJA1126, and the Yangzhou University Qing Lan Project.