Effects of ethnic authenticity: Investigating Korean restaurant customers in the U.S.

This study intended to identify how dining factors in an ethnic restaurant setting influence customers’ emotions and perceived value and further affect customers’ future behavioral intentions. In particular, this study modified the extended Mehrabian–Russell model by adding the authenticity of food and atmospherics to examine how ethnic authenticity influences customer behavioral intentions. In addition, the moderating role of the restaurant segment was examined in this study. In regards to authenticity, authentic aspects of the food induced positive emotions and higher perceived value, while authentic environmental factors led to positive emotions alone. The results regarding the moderating effect of the restaurant segment showed that environmental dining factors were more important for up-scale Korean restaurants, whereas food related attributes appeared more critical for casual-dining Korean restaurants. More detailed findings and implications are discussed in the manuscript.