A Differentiation of Restaurant Types Based on Customers' Perceived Attributes: A Study in Tokyo

Introduction

Eating and drinking are two of the most basic needs that humans have, regardless of whether they are at home or away. In addition, since the intake of food and drink directly affects both the budget and health of the customers, much research has been done in order to understand their subjective preferences for and evaluations of not only the food and drinks they consume but also the providers of said products (Muñoz, et al., 2018; Vu, Li, Law, & Zhang, 2019; Wills, Danesi, & Kapetanaki, 2015). On the one hand, several studies have segmented the food/drink customers to provide details into the diverse nature of this market, particularly when the customers are travelling (Correia, Moital, Oliveira, & da Costa, 2009; Grazin & Olsen, 2008; Hwang, Choi, Lee, & Park, 2012). Yüksel and Yüksel (2002), for example, identified five clusters of restaurant patrons in Turkey, including value seekers, service seekers, adventurous food seekers, atmosphere seekers, and healthy food seekers. In addition, in another study done in Hong Kong, Tan and Lo’s (2008) analysis resulted in four clusters of coffeehouse customers: service seekers, atmosphere seekers, quality coffee seekers, and marketing-oriented customers. On the other hand, previous studies have largely overlooked the differentiation of types of restaurants in the market.

The understanding of the differences between/among types of restaurants, however, is very important with the effective management of the involved businesses. Nonetheless, a meaningful definition and differentiation of each and every type of restaurant are largely missing despite the fact that restaurants in the market are very diverse in types, including fine dining, full-service, fast food, healthy, and (non)ethnic, among others (Liu & Lee, 2017; McIntosh, et al., 2011; Turnwald, Jurafsky, Conner, & Crum, 2017; Voon, 2012). In other words, the existing literature is not able to provide sufficient implications for an effective management of the specific restaurant business. The need for a better theoretical framework is getting more prominent since traditional restaurants now have to compete with non-traditional and innovative models, such as ghost (virtual) and shared kitchens and restaurants (Nagumo, 2019; Pilon, 2020). Furthermore, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a heavy and long-term impact on all types of restaurants (Seetharaman, 2020).

Regarding the segmentation or differentiation approach, the current methods, such as interview and questionnaire, are relatively rigid. The structured design may potentially lead to certain unavoidable biases of pre-given scales and controlled evaluation modes. Fortunately, the development of the Internet, in general, and of social media platforms, in particular, have given academics an organic yet worthwhile source of data: the content generated by Internet users. In a sense, online customer reviews were found to have a positive effect on restaurants’ online popularity (Zhang, Ye, Law, & Li, 2010). In addition, customer-posted photos were observed to have an influence on restaurant selection (Oliveira & Casais, 2019). In another sense, analysis of user-generated content and user reviews can help identify the external attributes which are important to the consumption of products and services (Nghiêm-Phú & Suter, 2018). This undertaking may also have the potential to reveal the internal values that are salient to the customers (Nghiêm-Phú, 2018). Segmentation or differentiation based on user generated content (Tussyadiah, 2016), thus, can be adopted as an alternative to the traditional approach.

The purpose of the study reported in this chapter, therefore, is to expand the literature on restaurant business by differentiating and defining types of restaurants using online customer reviews. With this effort, the digitalization of customer opinions (Vial, 2019) will be utilized to provide meaningful implications for the management of traditional restaurant businesses in their competition with the non-traditional and innovative rivals in the future.