The Influence of Physical Environment Perception on Restaurant Patrons' Attitude Formation : The Mediating Role of Emotional Responses

This research examines how various dimensions of physical environments influence patrons' psychological responses(especially emotional responses) in the restaurant service setting, and how these emotional responses, in turn, influence patrons' attitude formation. The result of empirical research indicates that restaurant physical environments have a significant effect patrons' emotional responses, and that these psychological experiences serve as critical mediators in the restaurant physical environments-store attitudes relationship. However, the effects of restaurant physical environments on patrons' psychological responses varied with the dimensions of physical environments. First, the effect of cleanliness on emotional responses was most significant, especially on negative emotion, out of 4 dimension of restaurant physical environment. Second, ambient conditions are the most important predictor on customers' positive emotion, and in turn, positive emotion has the most significant effects on customers' attitude formation of restaurant. Therefore, the result suggests that restaurants should manage(or, improve) their ambient conditions(e.g. background music, scents, ventilation, noise etc.) for efficiently maximizing customers' positive attitude. The implications of this study are discussed, and ideas for future work suggested.

레스토랑의 물리적 환경지각이 고객 태도형성에 미치는 영향 : 감정반응의 중개역할을 중심으로