Royal Holloway，University of London

The Impact of Internet on Chinese Young Consumer’s Information Search for Restaurant
Supervisor: Cathy Harbor
1st September 2008
The dissertation is submitted as part of the requirement for the award of the
MSc International Management
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The interactive feature of the Internet provides an effective communicative channel forconsumers to share their experience of selecting products.
In order to understand the impact of internet on Chinese young consumers’ informationsearch for restaurants, this study is designed to investigate the conditions when diningout and internet usage; examine the importance and usage frequency of variousinformation sources of restaurant for Chinese young consumers; analyze the opinionleaders’ online information search for restaurants.
The results of a web-based survey show that Chinese young consumers are active
Internet users and like dining out at various restaurants. Moreover, the results ofperceived importance of various information sources show that some type of onlinerestaurant information sources (i.e. online rating from other consumers has alreadybecome the most important sources for Chinese young consumers. Lastly, the opinionleaders do spend more time and energy searching online information which furtherincreases the influence of internet on Chinese young consumers’ restaurant informationsearch.
KEYWORDS. Internet, experience product, information search, opinion leader
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CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...............................................................................................................1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..............................................................................................................3
1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................4
1.1 BACKGROUND.................................................................................................................... 4
1.2 RESEARCH QUESTION...................................................................................................... 7
1.3 MOTIVATION OF THE STUDY.......................................................................................... 9
1.4 OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE.................................................................................................. 12
1.5 OVERVIEW........................................................................................................................ 12
2. LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................................14
2.1 DINNING OUT AT RESTAURANT................................................................................... 14
2.2 INFORMATION SEARCH.................................................................................................. 19#p#分頁標題#e#
2.3 IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATION SOURCE ................................................................. 24
2.4 USAGE FREQUENCY OF INFORMATION SOURCE .................................................... 25
2.5 OPINION LEADER............................................................................................................. 27
3. METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................................31
3.1 RESEARCH METHOD....................................................................................................... 31
3.2 SELECTION OF SAMPLE ................................................................................................. 31
3.3 DESIGN OF QUESTIONNAIRE........................................................................................ 32
3.4 MEASUREMENTS ............................................................................................................. 33
3.5 DATA COLLECTION.......................................................................................................... 36
4. FINDINGS.................................................................................................................................38
4.1 OVERVIEW........................................................................................................................ 38
4.2 ABOUT DINING OUT AT RESTAURANT ....................................................................... 38
4.3 ABOUT INTERNET USAGE.............................................................................................. 43
4.4 IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATION SOURCE ................................................................. 46
4.5 USAGE FREQUENCY OF INFORMATION SOURCES .................................................. 49
4.6 OPINION LEADER AND INFORMATION SOURCE...................................................... 51
5. CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................53
5.1 DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATION .................................................................................. 53
5.2 LIMITATION AND SIGNIFICANCE................................................................................. 57
BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................................................59
APPENDICES................................................................................................................................66
QUESTIONNAIRE USED FOR THE SURVEY...................................................................... 66
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am highly appreciating and grateful to the guidance and patience of my dissertation
supervisor Cathy Harbor throughout the course of this assignment. Without her advice
and kind support, it is almost impossible to finish this project.#p#分頁標題#e#
I would like to acknowledge all the participants of my research survey for their
unselfish donation of time and attention.
Also, my appreciation extends to: Elaine Hong for her daily care, useful advice and
creative ideas; Jordan Dai for his proofreading my drafts; Cherry Lau for his
suggestions and ideas to this dissertation; my friends and tutors in this university for
their constant encouragement and support;
Finally, I would like to thank my family members and friends in China for their constant
and unfailing love and support.
Hao Yu
London, United Kingdom, August 2008
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1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
It is generally accepted that dining out at restaurants is an indispensible experience for modern consumers. It not only satisfies their basic physiological needs such as hungerbut also social needs, which are listed in Maslow's hierarchy of needs (Gunasekeran,1992). As of date, eating in a public commercial setting restaurant has become a veryimportant social experience and one of the popular forms of entertainment for modernconsumers (Gregory & Kim, 2004). It goes beyond satisfying their appetite but ratherprovides people an opportunity to catch some words after working hours, meet friendsfrom old time, be amazed by exotic food presentations, and even to nail some crucialbusiness deal when the food and settings are just right. Consumers enjoy eating out atrestaurants, and they expect to gain pleasure and satisfaction from it (Warde & Martens,2000).
As dining out plays such an important role in people’s daily life, the catering industryhas witnessed an ever increasingly intensifying competition to win the customers.
Different types of restaurants have emerged in the marketplace and they are variousfrom the price, location, theme, ambience, service level, and cuisine style (Kivela, 1999).
On the other hand, people’s choice for restaurant has been diversified. In some cases,the consumer’s decision-making process for selecting restaurant is simple and a familiar
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place is selected. However, in the case of enjoying a dinner at a new restaurant, itbecomes much more complicated because of the higher expenditure or the meanings ofthe event, especially in a place where restaurants industry is highly developed andchoice of restaurants is extremely variety and thus information search in the selectionprocess becomes important (Bei, Chen, Rha, & Widdows, 2003).
However, the fact is that consumers have limited access to useful information on a newrestaurant before the Internet era. Most of these information sources were passedthrough print media or TV advertising, which is one-way street and not to mention
products-selling-purposes-oriented except a handful of mouth-of-mouth informationfrom friends or relatives. According to Nelson (1970), purchasing a service like diningout at a restaurant never visited before is experience-oriented and its quality can not be#p#分頁標題#e#
easily searched before the consumer experience it by themselves. Nevertheless, as is
aforementioned, the scarcity of reliable and handy information increases the search cost.
And as the cost for searching restaurant information was unaffordable high so that go to
the restaurant directly and experience it first-hand becomes the optimal choice (Nelson,1970). Therefore, the numerous choices of restaurant in the market sometimes becomeone’s nightmare that is lack of effective channel for useful restaurant information.
Fortunately, it has been suggested that the interactive nature of the Internet will improvemarket efficiency by creating a new channel of communication that allows the provisionof information about experience attributes in a readily available format like online rating
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by other consumers (Bei, Chen, Rha, & Widdows, 2003). Therefore, the information
what is necessary for consumers selecting a new restaurant to dine out become moresearchable in the Internet era because of the huge amount of useful information online
(Bei & Chen 2004). Restaurant information on the Internet is not only advertisings, newrestaurant releasing information but also word-of-mouth information from otherconsumers’ evaluation, rating, opinion, and discussion. As Chrysanthos (2003)
concludes that through the Internet, not only can organizations reach audiences ofunprecedented scale at a low cost, but also, for the first time in human history,individuals can make their personal thoughts, reactions, and opinions easily accessibleto the global community of Internet users.
In China, the success of a restaurant evaluation website reflects the contribution of
Internet for consumers to search restaurants information. This website has two majorfunctions. The first one is that consumers can discuss, release comments and rate anyrestaurant they have experienced on the website. Another function is consumers cansearch restaurant according to their personal requirement (i.e. cuisine style or location)and obtain information about that restaurant based on other consumers experience,
ratings, and comments. Incorporated with the two basic functions, the website attracts100 millions click rates every month and provides over 300 thousands restaurants
information covering 295 cities in China. Cite Shanghai as an example, this website
provides information of 26374 restaurants and dinning place in the city. All of these
restaurants information are from consumers’ experience. These information really
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facilitate consumers to select the right restaurant they wanted when dine out (Zhang,
2008).
Nowadays, consumers have the opportunity to choose restaurants according to their
personal preferences and special requirements if only they can get enough reliable
information. The advent of Internet and its derivatives i.e. blog, personal website gives
the public more power and space to air their voice and opinion, which makes a two-way#p#分頁標題#e#
communication channel for the mass. The recent years have witnessed an influx of
diversified, reliable and useful information on-line of all kinds of restaurant and more
and more people are willing to utilize and believe cyber information. In this regards,
understanding the influence of online restaurant information on consumers become
essential for marketers in this new media environment.
1.2 RESEARCH QUESTION
As Internet become so important in people’ daily life, to what extents does it change
their information search behaviour? Specially, what is the impact of Internet on Chinese
young consumers’ information search for restaurants? Does online restaurant
information exert a profound impact on the selection of restaurants for this group of
consumers? Moreover, does young opinion leader in restaurant industry search more
online information to help them obtain more restaurant information? The purpose of the
study is trying to answer these questions.
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In order to understand Chinese young consumers’ information search for restaurant in
this new media environment, some details of their dining out activity and Internet usage
is to be examined as well as their evaluation of importance and use frequency of various
restaurant information. The following questions were addressed in this study:
1. Does Chinese young consumer often dine out at restaurants?
2. How much does Chinese young consumer spend on dining out on an average basis?
3. What kinds of attribute(s) of restaurant does Chinese young consumer take into
consideration when selecting new restaurants?
4. How often Chinese young consumer use Internet?
5. Does Chinese young consumer’s ability of online information search good enough?
6. What is Chinese young consumer’s attitude towards online information of
restaurant?
7. Does Chinese young consumer often discuss with their friends and relatives about
dining out and restaurants?
8. Is online restaurant information source important to Chinese young consumer?
9. Does and to what extend does Chinese young consumer utilize online restaurant
information when selecting new restaurant?
10. Does the preference of opinion leader correlate with the extent of usage of online
restaurant information?
Overall speaking, among so many restaurant information sources from different media,
how does Chinese young consumer search them? Does Internet change the way that
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consumers search information for restaurants? This study investigated the impact of
Internet on Chinese young consumer’ information search for restaurant by exploring the
importance and usage frequency of various information source for restaurant to help the
marketers design more efficient marketing communication strategy in China.
1.3 MOTIVATION OF THE STUDY#p#分頁標題#e#
The research value of Internet and information search for experience product is relative
high (Bei, Chen, Rha, & Widdows). This study is designed and motivated by the
following reasons.
Firstly, catering industry is developed so fast and under constant change in China.
After 20-year-plus economic reform, China achieves a great deal in different areas, such
as the catering industry. According to an on-line report, China’s food and drink
industry's annual sales revenue totalled more than 100 billion Yuan in 2007, while the
number in the beginning of economy reform was only about 5 billion. This number has
continuously increased by 10% per year in the last fifteen years. Chinese restaurant
industry has been expanding these years; business forms and cuisine types are more
diversified than before. In addition, service level is increased dramatically.
Collectively, all these changes are aimed to improve healthiness, quality and nutrition of
Chinese people’s diet step by step. Apart from the traditional private meal preparation,
restaurant plays a more and more important role in consumers’ life and economic
growth in China. Moreover, consumer may acquire restaurant services for various
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reasons but no matter what the reason, the potential customer has to search related
information in order to compare the alternatives and make the best selection (Zhang,
2008).
Secondly, the scope of this study is narrowed with a geographic criterion. China is
chosen as the scope of research due to the fact that as of date China has an astounding
number of Internet-savvy populations and the figure is still on the rise. A report released
by China Internet Network Information Centre (“CNNIC”) on development of the
Internet in China, the number of Internet users in China has already outnumbered the
figure in the United States to rank the first in the world by the end of February 2008,
reaching 221 million. One of the most popular internet services is online information
search. About 72.4% Internet users utilizes search engine and approximately 7.4% users
choose search engine as their first-thing-to-do online.
Thirdly, Chinese young consumers are chosen as the sample group for the following
reasons: i) according to the report released by CNNIC, there are about 104 millions
Chinese young consumers are Internet users which accounts for nearly 49.9% of
China’s online population (2008); ii) young consumers tend to eat out more frequently
than other age-groups (Auty, 1992); iii) Latina (2001) suggests that young consumers
are more willing to seek variety of products and services and as such young have more
possibility to acquire more restaurants information especially from Internet.
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To wrap it up, the catering and internet services industry are developed profoundly in#p#分頁標題#e#
China in past few years with an even great potential in the future. The understanding of
the on-line search behavioural pattern of Chinese young consumers is very essential for
the development of both sectors.
Apart from the economical-related research value mentioned above, this study is also
motivated by the absence of literature for Chinese consumers’ restaurant information
search. Major reasons may include: i) available researches relevant to online search
behaviour are mainly focused on pre-purchase information search behaviour but little
attention is paid to the importance of ongoing information search; ii) many
determination factors of online information search effort and patterns of online
information search were found, but only in very few studies discuss the importance of
various information sources (Bei, Chen, Rha, & Widdows, 2003); iii) very few
researches examine the information search behaviour for experience product, most of
which are product-oriented; iv) research on consumers’ online information search
behaviour for new restaurant is still rare compare with research such as pre-purchase
online information search for product; v) due to the culture and demography difference,
previous research by Bei, Chen, Rha, & Widdows (2003) for Taiwan and American
consumer for this regards cannot be wholesaled to China’s unique case; vi) when comes
to the case of restaurant information, there is no relevant information for reference in
China. Moreover, the way that opinion leaders get restaurant information has not been
examined yet.
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1.4 OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE
The main objective of this dissertation is to understand the importance of Internet to
Chinese young consumers in terms of restaurant information search.
The following objectives were also essential in this study: i) understand the demands of
dining information, especially online information by investigating the basic status quo
of Chinese young consumer’s dining out activity and their tendency of seeking variety
new restaurants; ii) obtain information about the daily-spend online hours and perceived
ability of Chinese young consumers and their attitudes towards online restaurant
information; iii) comprehend Chinese young consumers overall evaluation of Internet;
iv) examines the importance and use frequency of different types of information sources
for Chinese young consumers; v) understand the weight of various online and
traditional information sources in consumers’ information search process; vi) explore
the relationship between the preference of opinion leader and usage extent of online
restaurant information and understand the influence of Internet on these consumers who
are active disseminator of restaurant information.
For the above purpose, information search behaviour of young consumers in China is#p#分頁標題#e#
tested.
1.5 OVERVIEW
In the next section, relevant literature regarding dining-out at restaurant and information
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search will be reviewed accordingly. Section III discusses the methodology employed
and final sample selected in this study followed by measurement and data collection.
The survey result is revealed and a detailed analysis is performed on the fourth section.
The last section gives a conclusion, implication and significances as well as limitations
of the study.
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2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 DINNING OUT AT RESTAURANT
Eating away from home goes beyond just satisfying hunger and has become a popular
form of entertainment (Gregory & Kim, 2004). Gunasekeran (1992) concludes that a
restaurant takes a basic drive the simplest act of eating and transforms it into a civilized
ritual which involving warmth, hospitality, graciousness, satisfaction, and imagination.
Hunger is a need that produces physiological discomfort, which can be satisfied by
eating. Restaurants can satisfy this physiological need and can also satisfy a person's
higher level needs like social need which is listed in Maslow's hierarchy of need. Going
to a restaurant is a very essential social experience (Maniam & Mehta, 2002)
Celebration, social occasions, business necessity, and quick meals and convenience are
all potential reasons of consumers dine out (Kivela, 1997; Maniam & Mehta, 2002).
Two markets can be defined by their ability to satisfy a customer's needs; the dining
market are those who need to satisfy both their social and ego needs which may be
motivated by recognition, prestige, status, or norms; while the eating market is
motivated by physiological needs (Gunasekeran, 1992; Maniam & Mehta, 2002). The
dining market can further be divided into two market segments, leisure and business,
based on their reasons for dining. Leisure segment consists of those who are visiting a
restaurant to entertain friends and/or relatives, celebrate a birthday or special occasion,
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or do not want to cook. On the other hand business segment consists of those who
attend restaurants for economic benefits and meeting with clients (Maniam & Mehta,
2002).
Maniam & Mehta (2002) find that food quality, ambience factors, image, and friendly
staff are more important that other factors for consumers when selecting a dining
restaurants. Consumers sometimes need consider a lot of factor according to the
motivation of dining out when they select restaurant. Auty (1992) concludes that also
consumers say that food type and food quality are the primary variables of restaurant
choice, once a choice set appropriate to the occasion and segment has been evoked, a
restaurant's style and atmosphere become the deciding factors. Other factors like value
of money, location and speed of service are also essential for consumers to choose#p#分頁標題#e#
restaurant. In this study, the following factors that will influence Chinese young
consumers’ choice of restaurant were examined: food quality and taste, food type, food
origin, value of money, location, ambience factors, and service.
The need of consumer to acquire new restaurant services is motivated by various
reasons and variety seeking is one of them. Variety seeking, the desire to choose new
alternatives over more familiar ones, can influence consumers to switch from their
favourite product or service to a less pleasurable item. This can occur even before an
individual becomes satiated or tired of his or her favourite product. Research supports
the idea that consumers are willing to trade enjoyment for variety because the
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unpredictability itself is rewarding (Rebecca, 1999). In addition, consumers often
engage in brand switching, even if their current brand satisfies their needs (Solomon,
2006).He also pointed that sometimes it seems that people just plain like to try new
things-they are interested in variety as a form of stimulation or to reduce boredom.
Variety seeking is especially likely to occur when people are in a good mood, or when
there is relatively stimulation elsewhere in their environment (Menon & Kahn, 1995). In
the case of foods and beverages, variety seeking can occur due to sensory-specific
satiety. Put simply, this means the pleasantness of a food item we have just eaten drops,
while the pleasantness of uneaten foods remains unchanged (Inman, 1999). So even
though we have favourites, we still like to sample other possibilities. Therefore, their
tendency of selecting new restaurants may be related to level of variety seeking. Young
consumers ageing from 20 to 30 also have a higher tendency of variety seeking
compared with other age level according to the research by Latina (2001). In this study,
Chinese young consumers’ tendency of variety seeking for new restaurants will be
examined.
Mehta & Maniam (2001) suggest the need to acquire restaurant services may be
motivated by various reasons, such as leisure, business, celebrations, or not having time
to cook, etc. But, whatever the reason, the potential customer has to search for
information on the desired service in order to compare the alternatives and make the
best purchase decision (Mehta & Maniam, 2001). However, restaurants information
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used to be difficult to search before the Internet era (Bei & Chen 2004).
Nelson (1970, 1974) develops an extremely simplified theory of consumer’s quest for
information about quality of goods and divided the goods into two types: search goods
and experience goods. Consumers can determinate the quality of a search good from
their purchase information search activity by inspecting the product attributes or
information, but the quality of an experience good is difficult to pre-determinate#p#分頁標題#e#
(Nelson, 1974). Experience goods are further defined as those dominated attributes of
product or service cannot be known until use of the product or purchase of the service
(Klein, 1998). Moreover, information search for experience product is more expensive
or difficult than directly experience it (Klein, 1998). Events like dining out at a new
restaurant is a typically experience product (Bei & Chen, 2004).
Empirical researches have found out that consumers’ information source of experience
goods were mainly from word-of-mouth communications, organized services
evaluations, and similar sources of individual or group judgment regarding the quality
of the service (Bei, Chen, Rha, & Widdows, 2003; Hill, King, & Cohen, 1996; King &
Balasubramanian, 1994). Murray (1991) suggests that the costs of information search
for experience product like new restaurant can be unaffordable, as most of these
information sources are not so convenient to access.
Consumers usually use their own experience from past consumption as their
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information source for their next decision because food service in restaurant is
dominated by experience attributes (Bei, Chen, Rha, & Widdows, 2003). These kinds of
internal information are not enough when they consider dining out at a new restaurant
which they had never visited before. Consumers will certainly feel uncertainty which
may be knowledge uncertainty (i.e. how is the taste of Tai food) as well as choice
uncertainty (i.e. choose which Tai food restaurant) before their first trial. In such a
circumstance, consumers might feel the lack of restaurants information and thirst for
some useful and effective information source to help them eliminate these uncertainties
from other channels.
The role of information for consumers to choose restaurant is changed as the appearance
of Internet (Bei, Chen, Rha, & Widdows, 2003). Klein (1998) points out that Internet
have the potential to transform experience goods into search goods. The Internet is an
interactive medium that give consumers an opportunity to obtain information from other
consumers’ experience which make the information of experience product become more
searchable (Bei & Chen, 2004). Lindbeck & Wikstrom (2000) concludes that the
interactive communication process on the Internet includes extended information search
which help from special search agents. Consumers provide the agent with information
about restaurant like location, food type, and food quality that indicate their preferences
and agent use specially software and program to find the restaurant according with
consumers’ preference from database. By searching for restaurants that match
customer’s requirement, agents help consumers and other buyers to find services in the
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market with a precision never achieved before (Lindbeck & Wikstrom, 2000). With the#p#分頁標題#e#
help of Internet, information search for restaurants become easier and more effective.
2.2 INFORMATION SEARCH
The process by which the consumer surveys the environment for appropriate data to
make a reasonable decision they think is called information search (Solomon, 2006).
Srinivasan (1990) concludes that there are three major theoretical streams of consumer
information search literature. The first is the psychological and motivational approach.
This approach incorporates the individual, the product class, and task-related variables.
The second is called economics approach. It uses the cost-benefit framework to study
information search. The last one is the consumer information processing approach. This
approach focuses on memory and cognitive information processing limitations of
consumers. Later, a comprehensive model had been developed by Jeffrey (1996) who
combines the psychological and economic streams of research into a cohesive whole.
This model consistent with other past research and proposed that information search
activity to be driven by a consumer’s ability and motivation, which varies across
purchase situation and influenced by both search benefits and search costs.
Solomon (2006) also points out that information sources can be broken down into two
types: internal and external. The internal information is the knowledge already in
memory about certain product as a result of prior experience while external information
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search help consumer find supplement knowledge for their new decision that will
happen. Consumer usually searches external information about product and service
through advertisements, friends, and other channels.
External information effort is usually defined as the degree of attention, perception, and
effort directed toward obtaining environmental external information associated with
consumption-related objects, regardless of whether the consumption objects are related
to a specific purchase under consideration (Solomon, 2006). Sundaram & Ronal (1998)
sum up that offline information search effort are often influence by income, education
level, age, perceived benefit, perceived risk, product involvement, product knowledge
and importance of external information source. Another research focus on Chinese
consumers’ offline information search efforts found out that Chinese consumers are lack
of offline product information from third neutral party because the information system
is not mature in China(Jin, 2001). Therefore, consumers in China are not easy to search
offline neutral product information in his opinion. However, the neutral information
sources from restaurant are not the case. Consumers can easily find article introduced
restaurant and TV program about restaurants in China especially in some big city like
Shanghai.
Moreover, information search process can be classified into pre-purchase and ongoing#p#分頁標題#e#
search (Bloch, Sherrell, & Ridgway, 1986). The process of a consumer recognize a need
and then search the related information for satisfied the need is called pre-purchase
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information search. If consumers just enjoy browsing a magazine that introduce new
restaurant, they are engaging in ongoing information search process. In this study both
pre-purchase and ongoing information search will be examine.
The appearance of Internet changed the situation dramatically. Internet has been
suggested as a useful, new, low-cost source of information by many studies (Bakos,
1997; Barilan, 2001; Bickart & Schindler, 2001; Dellaert, 1999; Eighmey & McCord,
1998; Senecal & Nantel, 2001). One of the most important characteristic of Internet is
its interactive which means consumer have the opportunity to upload their own
information. This kind of information becomes the important source for consumers who
are searching other consumers’ experience of certain service. Klein (1998) believes that
searching information for an experience good like restaurant is relatively costly through
traditional channels like communicate with other consumers and can be drastically
reduced through the Internet.
Following variables have been identified by researchers that have potential influences
on the consumer’s online information search: age (Li, Kuo & Russell, 1999), gender
(Frankel, 1990), duration of working hours (Urbany, Dickson & Kalapurakal, 1996),
Internet access at home (Karahanna & Straub, 1999), product knowledge (Srinivasan &
Ratchford, 1991), perceived risk (Dowling & Staelin, 1994), and perceived usefulness
(Lin & Lu, 2000). A research about Chinese consumers’ online information search
behaviour shows that when Chinese consumers search product information online they
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consider more neutral sources like online product reports and news rather than sources
from consumers and sellers (Sun & Xu, 2007). This case may be not true when
consumers search service information like restaurants, because the perceived risk of
service like dining out is not as high as purchasing a mobile (Ling & Liu, 2000).
Previous researches have divided information source in different way. Senecal & Nantel
(2001) point out the online information sources can be classified by multiple
dimensions, such as the information providers (i.e., consumers, experts, or producers,
etc.) and website sponsors (i.e., commercial websites, commercially, or
non-commercially linked third party websites, etc.). Bei, Chen, Rha, & Widdows (2003)
suggest both Internet source and source from traditional media need be considered, in
order to investigate the relative importance of information sources. As the Internet is
only one of the possible communication channels of information source from which#p#分頁標題#e#
consumers can gather restaurant information; therefore, it should be studied with the
other traditional information source (Bei, Chen, Rha, & Widdows, 2003; Peterson,
Balasubramanian, & Bronnenberg. 1997; Rowley, 2000).
In order to examine the influence of Internet, external information sources are often
classified into online and offline source according to their storing media. Ratchford
(2001) argues that the Internet can provide all the relevant product information, and
Internet product information source are corresponding with real-life information.
Moreover, a key finding of Klein & Ford (2001) in their study of using the Internet as
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information source for automobiles is that off-line information source appears to have
three dimensions according to the provider: i) dealer visits/advertisements; ii) consumer
reports and other third-party sources of print information; iii) interpersonal contact with
friends/relatives. These dimensions each have on-line counterparts: i)
manufacturer/dealer sources; ii) buying services and other third parties, and iii) bulletin
board/chat sources.
Bei, Chen, Rha, & Widdows (2003) suggest both the online and traditional information
sources were classified into three types according to the sources of providers: sellers,
consumers, and neutral sources. In this study, the following ten types of information
sources were examined according to the previous study and the special character of
restaurant information. The different types of restaurant information sources are divided
based on media and provider. Ten information sources were evaluated, comprising of
four traditional restaurants information sources and six online restaurants information
sources. The four traditional offline information sources were classified into three
categories, from other consumers (i.e. discuss with friends or family about restaurant),
from sellers (i.e. restaurants advertising on newspapers, magazines, TV or radio, and
restaurants visit or discuss with sales people), and from neutral third party (i.e.
magazine articles about restaurants). The six online information sources were classified
into three categories, from sellers (i.e., online restaurants advertising, restaurants’
official websites), from other consumers (i.e., online consumers’ opinion, online
consumers’ rating, discussion with other consumers online), and neutral sources (i.e.,
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online articles about restaurant).
2.3 IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATION SOURCE
Bei & Chen (2004) conclude that when consumers search experience products (i.e.
travel package & restaurants), information sources from other consumers become more
important compared with search products (i.e. shoes). Since consumers usually have
limited networks while trying to gather information for experience products, online#p#分頁標題#e#
information sources from others consumers become more important than other sources.
Bei, Chen, Rha, & Widdows (2003) compare the Taiwan and American consumers and
found out that information from other consumers is considered more important than
information from sellers for both countries. Discussion with friends and family was
perceived to be most important information source when search restaurant information
in Taiwan and American. In the US, traditional restaurant information sources were
perceived to be more important than online restaurant information source. Among
online information sources, ‘Restaurant official website’ was perceived to be the most
important online information sources compared with online restaurant information from
other consumers (i.e. online consumers’ rating and opinion). Online restaurants
advertising is the least important information sources for American. While in Taiwan,
online information sources were perceived to be more important than offline
information sources. ‘Other consumers’ opinion online’ and ‘other consumers’ rating
online’ are the most important online information sources for Taiwan consumers.
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Meanwhile, offline information sources from restaurants are the least important sources
for Taiwan consumers.
2.4 USAGE FREQUENCY OF INFORMATION SOURCE
Rha (2002) argues that the usage frequency of the information online would not be
different for experience and search products. But Bei & Chen (2004) suggest that the
perceived benefits of collecting information from Internet foe experience and search
products are different because gathering information for experience products in the real
world is more difficult than search products. Therefore, consumers tend to use online
information sources more frequently for experience products than for search products
(Bei & Chen, 2004). A research about Chinese consumers’ online information search
behaviour shows that when Chinese consumers search product information online they
consider more neutral sources like online product reports and news rather than sources
from consumers and sellers (Sun & Xu, 2007).
Bei, Chen, Rha, & Widdows (2003) suggest consumers use the information source more
frequently when perceive these information sources to be more important than others
and they have more positive attitudes towards these information sources. According to
theories about attitude and behaviour, there is a positive relationship between attitudes
toward the object and the corresponding behaviour. Therefore, consumers should use
certain types of online information more if these information sources are perceived to be
important (Bei, Chen, Rha, & Widdows, 2003).
26
Bei, Chen, Rha, & Widdows (2003)) also conclude that American consumers tend to#p#分頁標題#e#
search for information more frequently than consumers in Taiwan. Traditional
information sources were used more frequently when searching for information about a
restaurant for fine dining. In the United States, online source from seller such as
restaurant official website was the most frequently used information source among the
online sources while in Taiwan online word of mouth information from other consumers
was the most frequently used source among the online sources In Taiwan, online
information sources from consumers and neutral source were used more frequently than
information from sellers Traditional information sources from consumers and neutral
source are used more frequently than information from sellers by Taiwan consumers as
well. In the case of mainland China consumers, a research focusing on Chinese
consumers’ offline information search efforts shows that generally Chinese consumers
are lack of offline product information from third neutral party because the information
system is not mature in China (Li, 2001). Therefore, in general terms, it can be
concluded that Chinese consumers will encounter more difficulty than consumers in
American in the terms of searching offline neutral product information.
In China, consumers use more word-of-mouth information from other consumer both
online and offline. Moreover, online neutral source are more popular than offline neutral
source. Consumers show little interest and generally have a low trust level in online
source from sellers. And the offline source from sellers may only have the function of
increase awareness (Sun & Xu, 2007).
27
2.5 OPINION LEADER
Opinion leader is the consumer who in frequently able to influence other consumers’
attitude and behaviours (Rogers, 1983).They are knowledgeable about products or
experienced about service, so their advices are taken seriously by others (Solomon,
2006).
Opinion Leaders are particularly valuable information sources providers for the
following reasons: i) Menzel (1981) believes that opinion leaders possess knowledge
power because they have pre-screened, evaluated, and synthesized product information
in an unbiased way; ii) they are more credible as they do not actually represent the
interests of one company like commercial endorses do. Unlike advertising and other
company-sponsored communications tend to focus exclusively on the positive aspects
of their product or service, the opinion leaders are willing to provide both positive and
negative information about product performance or service satisfactions; iii) Opinion
Leaders also be found that they tend to play a more socially active and highly
interconnected role in their communities (Venkatraman, 1989); iv) Rogers (1983) argues
that another reason is opinion leaders usually share many similarities with other#p#分頁標題#e#
consumers in terms of their education, social status, values, and beliefs; v) Solomon
(2006) implies that opinion leaders are often among the first to buy new product or
experience new restaurants, so they absorb much of the risk which perceived by others
consumers. Their evaluation and experience reduces the uncertainty for other
consumers who are not as courageous or have more limitation. However, the
28
assumption of generalized opinion leaders was questioned by marketers and social
scientists in recent work. In is rare to find a generalized opinion leader, but in a
limited field like restaurant industry in one area, it is possible.
Opinion leaders also are likely to be opinion seekers, as they are more generally
involved in a product or category and search more information than other consumers
(Solomon, 2006). Laura (1995) finds out that opinion leaders are more willing to talk
about certain products and service with others as well as solicit opinions or information
from others. Belk (1971) points out that opinion seeking is especially high for food
products, which means consumers talk a lot of restaurant information in their daily
conversation.
Williams (1992) describes a two-step flow of communication model which suggests that
marketing information flows via different media to opinion leaders and other audience
but cannot be accepted by some consumers for different kind of reason. However,
opinion leaders digest that information then try and evaluate related product or service.
The other audiences include these that missed information at first stage will like to look
for the information and evaluation from opinion leaders. This means opinion leaders can
not only reach members of the target audience who may not have been exposed to the
information, but may also reinforce the impact of the information on those who have
through interpersonal networks. The process is illustrated by FIGURE 1.
29
FIGURE 1
The Two-step Flow of Communication
Williams (1992) points out that in FIGURE 1, C is an opinion leader while A and B
have not been exposed to the information and C’s acts as an original information source.
D and E have been exposed to the information and C reinforces its impact by further
communication.
Obviously, this model is oversimplification as the flow of information often takes place
through three or more stages and different media, but it reflects the influence of opinion
leaders in the process of marketing communication effectively.
Because opinion leaders are so important to consumer decision making, markets are
quite interested in identifying them for a product or service category. However, most of
the opinion leaders are everyday consumers and are not formally included in marketing
efforts which means it is harder to find them. As such, a self-designating method is#p#分頁標題#e#
employed with the advantage of being easy to apply to a large group of potential
30
opinion leaders. In this study, a revised and updated version of the opinion leadership
scale was applied for identifying opinion leaders in Chinese restaurant consumers.
Since the opinion leaders are active information seekers, once they are capable of
surfing the Internet, they are expected to have higher motivation to seek online
information as well. Therefore, it is hypothesized that consumers with a higher tendency
to opinion leaders will make more frequent usage of restaurant information from
various sources:
H1: Opinion leadership is positively related to the usage of information from online
consumers’ source
H2: Opinion leadership is positively related to the usage of information from online
sellers’ source
H3: Opinion leadership is positively related to the usage of information from online
neutral source
31
3. METHODOLOGY
3.1 RESEARCH METHOD
Primary research method used in this project was a web-based and self-administered
questionnaire which conducted solely in China. The reason to choose this method was
that it can gather larger amount of useful data in cost-effective way within a short
timeframe. Another reason is that due to the scope of study is narrowed in China,
Internet survey is considered to be more feasible than questionnaire, or experimental
methodology via phone or face-to-face interview. Moreover, to achieve the objectivity,
well-structured questionnaire would be much appropriate to collect data used for
analysis purpose with the help of statistical software. It is advantageous in that it offered
statistically significant data at reasonable cost. However, it should be noticed that
Internet research has its own limitation. One admitted shortcoming was that the
collection or participation rate was lower than it might have been using other
methodologies (Johnson, 2001; Ranchhod & Zhou, 2001).
3.2 SELECTION OF SAMPLE
As the purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of Internet on Chinese young
consumers’ information search for restaurants, the target sample group selected was
Chinese young consumers who can access to Internet. Specially, consumers who live
in Shanghai (Shanghai is a big city in China and has more than 18000 restaurants as
well as huge amount of restaurant information from different media sources (Zhang,
32
2008)) and graduated from university in last five years were selected as the sample
group. They are frequently Internet users, have the experience of Internet information
search and have easy ready access to Internet. The targeted group was contacted
through an e-mail invitation to the account holder from the list of email address. The
e-mail they received contained a link to the website which contains an presents the#p#分頁標題#e#
survey.
3.3 DESIGN OF QUESTIONNAIRE
The questionnaire was designed based on previous research and contained five sections
(Bei, Chen, Rha, & Widdows, 2003; Latina, 2001; Li, 2001: Sun & Xu, 2007; Terry,
1984)
The questions in the first section were related with Chinese young consumers’ dining
out experience. These questions include the frequency and average spending of their
dining out activities; the preferences of restaurants choices; and their tendency of
seeking variety for new restaurants.
In the second section, questions related with Chinese young consumers’ Internet usage
were asked. Questions focus on participants’ daily online hours, perceived ability of
online information search, and attitude to the online restaurants information.
The third section tests Chinese young consumer’s tendency of opinion leader which
33
concerned restaurant specific measurement of opinion leadership. Six items are listed to
test the participants’ tendency to be an opinion leader in restaurant area. Participants
will select the items according to their performance in the discussion with other
consumers related with new restaurants.
The following part focuses itself on the importance of various restaurant information
sources for consumer. Participants were required to select items according to the
importance of various restaurants information for them.
The last section concerns the usage frequency of various restaurant information sources
that consumers used for their selection of new restaurant. Participants select the items
according to the times that they used these sources to help them select new restaurants.
Since all the participants are Chinese young consumers, the survey was translated
carefully into Chinese in order to help participants totally understand the question in
questionnaire. In addition, the English version of the survey would is shown in the
Appendices section in this study.
3.4 MEASUREMENTS
Most of the measurements in this study were finished and developed based on previous
research. Two variables with reference to consumers’ dining out experience (i.e.
frequency of dining out, tendency variety seeking, and opinion leadership) and two
34
variables regarding Internet i.e. perceived importance of online information, perceived
ability of online information search were employed. The measures of variety seeking
and perceived importance of online information were all five-point Likert-type scales as
in previous studies (Bei, Chen, Rha, & Widdows, 2003; Latina, 2001). Perceived ability
of online information search which reflects consumers’ perceived ease of use of Internet
(David, 1989) was adopted from previous study for determinants of consumer online
information search effort (Sun & Xu, 2007). Opinion leadership was tested by a revised#p#分頁標題#e#
and updated version of the opinion leader scale which adapted from previous research
(Chiledrs, 1984; Flynn, Goldsmith, & Eastman, 1994).
Others factors, which were not the focus of this study but may influence the extent of
information usage on the Internet, were considered as well. Four variables related to
dining out activity (i.e. average spending per meal, frequency of dining out per week,
restaurant choice preferences), one variables related to Internet usage (i.e. daily online
hours).The measure of average spending was rated from ‘less than 30 RMB Yuan
(“Yuan”)’, ’30-50 Yuan’, ’50-100 Yuan’, ‘100-200 Yuan’, and ‘more than 200 Yuan’.
Frequency of dining out per week was rated from ‘Scarcely any’, ‘1-2 times’, ‘3-4
times’, and ‘more than 4 times’. Daily online hours were rated from ‘Few any ’, ‘less
than 1 hour’, ‘1-3 hours’, and ‘more than 3 hours’. Restaurant choice preferences
include food type, food quality and taste, food origin, value for money, atmosphere,
location, themes, and service (Gregory & Kim, 2004).
35
The different types of restaurant information sources are divided based on the research
findings of previous studies. Ten information sources were evaluated, comprising of
four traditional restaurants information sources and six online restaurants information
sources. The four traditional offline information sources were classified into three
categories, from other consumers i.e. discuss with friends or family about restaurant,
from sellers i.e. restaurants advertising on newspapers, magazines, TV or radio, and
restaurants visit or discuss with sales people, and from neutral third party i.e. magazine
articles about restaurants. The six online information sources were classified into three
categories, from sellers i.e., online restaurants advertising, restaurants’ official websites,
from other consumers i.e., online consumers’ opinion, online consumers’ rating,
discussion with other consumers online, and neutral sources i.e., online articles about
restaurant. These information sources were identified from prior research (Bei, Chen,
Rha, & Widdows, 2003; Bickart & Schindler, 2001; Dellaert, 1999, 2000; Hoffman &
Novak, 1996; Laura, 1995; Ratchford, Talukdar, & Lee., 2001; Rodgers & Thorson,
2000; Senecal & Nantel, 2001; Ward & Lee, 2000).
The usage frequency of various restaurant information sources and perceived
importance of various restaurant information sources were measured in this study. The
measures of perceived importance were five-point Likert-type scales as in previous
studies (Bei & Chen, 2004). The measures of usage frequency were rated as follows:#p#分頁標題#e#
‘never heard,’ ‘never use,’ ‘1–2 times,’ ‘3–4 times,’ and ‘4 times above.’ They were
scored from one for ‘never heard’ to five for ‘4 times above’ (Bei, Chen, Rha, &
36
Widdows, 2003).
3.5 DATA COLLECTION
As mentioned above, the questionnaire of the survey was translated into Chinese to
facilitate the understanding of specially designed questions because the data was
collected in Shanghai by Chinese young consumers. All the participants were first
received an Email which invited them to finish the online survey with web links about
the questionnaire.
All the participants received an e-mail with a web links directly to the questionnaire.
Then they have to follow the designated instruction to answer the five parts of the
questions. Once they finished the entire questionnaire, their answers were recorded in
the database automatically. The web sites used for this survey can output the results
according to the requirement automatically for the further analysis. The online
questionnaire was created on the 10th August, 2008. Till 15th August, 2008. a total
number of 150 target were approached and contacted, and 114 people (76%) agreed to
participate in this study. As of date, among the questionnaires received, 102 (89%) were
properly completed and analyzed for the purpose of this study.
In addition, all the 102 completed questionnaires regarding Chinese young consumers’
dinning out, Internet usage experience, perceived importance and usage frequency of
different types of restaurant information source were coded and entered into the SPSS
37
statistical package for further analysis.
38
4. FINDINGS
4.1 OVERVIEW
In order to further understand behaviour of Chinese young consumers’ information
search for restaurants, some basic questions (i.e. frequency of dining out at restaurants)
as well as complex ones (i.e. the perceived importance of various information sources)
were included in this study. The following parts show the results and analysis of the
web-based survey. The first part will conclude the frequency of dining out at restaurants
and average spending on this activity of Chinese young consumers. The influence
factors of Chinese young consumers’ selection of restaurant will be discussed and to
what extent do Chinese young consumers like trying new restaurant out. The second
part discuss the trend that Chinese young consumers spending more than on the Internet
and their perceived ability of online information search as well as importance of Internet
on restaurant information compared with traditional media. The next two parts
concentre on the importance and usage frequency of various restaurants information to
Chinese young consumers. The last part analyses the influence of tendency of opinion#p#分頁標題#e#
leader on consumers’ restaurant information search behaviour.
4.2 ABOUT DINING OUT AT RESTAURANT
The higher frequency and average spending of dining out for Chinese young consumers,
the more information they will need to search to avoid perceived risk (Li, 2000). The
following results answered these research question related to Chinese consumers’
39
dining-out custom:
1. How often do Chinese young consumers dine out at new restaurants?
2. How much money do Chinese young consumers spend on their dining out activity?
3. Do Chinese young consumers like trying new restaurants?
TABLE 1
Weekly Frequency of Dining out
Number of Times Participants Percentage (%)
Hardly any 6 5.9
1-2 58 56.9
3-5 26 25.5
Above 5 12 11.8
Total 102 100
TABLE 1 presents the frequency of Chinese young consumers’ dining out per week.
Most of them (56.8%) dined out one to two times per week, followed by three to five
times which account for 25.5% and 11.8% of consumers claimed that they eating away
from home at least five times a week and this number is pretty high compared with 1.75
times per week which represent the average frequency of Shanghai consumers dining
out at restaurant (Zhang, 2008). These numbers reflects that eating away from home
becomes increasingly ingrained among Chinese young consumers. Dining out with
friends and family member become more and more important in Chinese consumers’
life. However, young consumers may dine out for different reason from other age level
consumer (i.e. middle age consumers dining out more for business and young
consumers for leisure).
40
On the other hand, as seen in TABLE 2, half of the Chinese young consumers spent 50
to 100 Yuan per capita on their dining out activities. One-fourth of them spent more than
100 but below 200 and 18.6% of them spend less than 50 and above 30 Yuan. Very few
consumers claimed that they spend more than 200 or less than 30 Yuan. This level is
related high in Shanghai compare with the overall average cost dining out 49 Yuan in
Shanghai according to Zhang (2008).
TABLE 2
Average Spending on Dining out Per Capita
Amount of Money (Yuan) Participants Percentage (%)
Below 30 4 3.9
30-50 19 18.6
50-100 51 50.0
100-200 26 25.5
Above 200 2 2.0
Total 102 100
Variety Seeking is the tendency of Chinese young consumer to seeking variety of
restaurant. TABLE 4 reflect that most of Chinese young consumers are willing to try
new restaurants even they already have favourite one to fulfil their variety seeking. This
attitude of young consumers to new restaurant provides restaurants an opportunity to
attract Chinese young consumers. In the process of seeking variety of restaurants,
Chinese young consumers need a lot of restaurants to help them fulfil this demand.#p#分頁標題#e#
Information from traditional media like TV and newspapers may increase awareness of
certain restaurant for consumers and Internet will provide more detail information about
that restaurant for consumers to decide whether try this restaurant or not.
41
TABLE 3
Variety Seeking
（
To what extent do you agree that you like changing restaurants often to get variety and try things
out?
）
Extent of Agreement Participants Percentage (%)
Strongly agree 20 19.6
Agree 60 58.8
Neither agree nor disagree 21 20.6
Disagree 1 1.0
Strongly Disagree 0 0
Total 102 100
As Chinese young consumers like changing restaurants often to get variety and try
things out, their need a lot of useful restaurant information to help them eliminate
choice uncertainty and perceived risk. However, as the character of experience product,
this kind of information is not easy search on traditional media. But Internet provides an
efficient channel for Chinese young consumers to access that information easier than
before.
TABLE 4 shows the most important restaurant attribute they consider is food quality
and taste followed by location and ambience factors when Chinese young consumers
select restaurant. This finding is interesting. Firstly, Chinese young consumers seem to
be less considering the cuisine style as this attribute is ranked eight. This reflect when
Chinese young consumers dine out, they are willing to accept different type of food no
matter where it from. As there are so many kind of food in China, when consumers
choose restaurant, they will face more choice uncertainty and need more information to
support them make the right decision. Secondly, the location of the restaurants is so
important for Chinese young consumers. If restaurant is located in an area that
42
consumers are not familiar with, the marketer need communicate more information with
consumers to help them easily find the restaurant (i.e. details online direction map or
traffic information). Thirdly, as the food quality is the most important factor, marker
need think about how to manage their reputation of their food quality. For example, if
some consumers send some negative word-of-mouth on a restaurant’ food quality and
taste, this influence will be disaster for that restaurant. Other factors like ambience
factors, value of money, and service are also very essential for Chinese consumers to
select restaurant and how to reflect these attribute into information is essential for the
successful of restaurants.
TABLE 4
Restaurant Preference
Rank Preferences Factor Participants Percentage (%)
1 Food quality and taste 91 89.2
2 Location 67 65.7
3 Ambience factors 57 55.9
4 Value of money 44 43.1
5 Service 48 42.1
6 Cuisine origin 34 33.3#p#分頁標題#e#
7 Cuisine style 31 30.4
8 Themes 13 12.7
As preference of restaurant will influence consumers’ selection (Auty, 1992),
information which can reflect the food quality and taste become very important.
However, this kind of information is difficult to search without the help of Internet (Bei,
Chen, & Widdows, 2004).Therefore, Internet which can provide information other
consumers’ experience of certain restaurants and their evaluation of the food quality and
taste of this restaurant will become very popular for the consumers who need that kind
of information.
43
These results reflect the relative high frequency and average spending of dining out of
Chinese young. Moreover high tendency of variety seeking for restaurants and the
difficult to search the information included preference attribute of restaurants. All of
them results in the higher demand for restaurant information especially only restaurant
information of Chinese young consumer.
4.3 ABOUT INTERNET USAGE
According to previous study, the perceived usefulness of the Internet and ease of
Internet use is positively related to the extent of consumers’ usage of various
information sources on the Internet. In this study, the importance of the Internet as
restaurant information provider reflected the perceived usefulness of the Internet for
restaurant information search and perceived ability of online information search
reflected the ease of Internet use. Therefore, if Chinese young consumers spent more
time online, perceived Internet as a more important media that provide restaurant
information, and perceived higher ability of online information search, they will search
more online restaurant information (Sun & Xu, 2007).
Obviously, from TABLE 5 we can found that 71.6% of the participants spend more than
3 hours per day on the internet. This numbers show the extent of Chinese consumer
exposing to online information is enough. The more time they spend online the more
information they get from it. They spend a lot of time on information search, browse
44
online information and communication with other consumers online. Internet
information may be the most information source for Chinese young consumers as they
spend so much time on it. Their attitude for online restaurant information can reflect the
importance of Internet for them to search restaurant information.
TABLE 5
Daily Online Hours
Duration Participants Percentage (%)
Hardly any 0 0.0
Below 1 hour 2 2.0
1-3 hours 27 26.5
Above 3 hours 73 71.6
Total 102 100
Whether internet is substitution or complement for the traditional media when
consumers search restaurants information? It will need to consider the importance of
different information source both online and offline. This result shown in TABLE 6#p#分頁標題#e#
shows that most of the Chinese young consumers (84.3%) strongly agree or agree that
internet is important for them to get information about new restaurants compared with
other traditional media. Consumers can get new restaurant information either they
positive search on the Internet or negative receive these information from traditional
media. This is the biggest difference between Internet and traditional media. On Internet,
consumers search what they want to know, and traditional media just impulse what they
want consumers know. Therefore, it is not surprised that Chinese young consumers’
attitude to Internet is so positive.
45
TABLE 6
Perceived Importance of Internet Information
（
To what extent do you agree that Internet is very important for you to get information?
）
Extent of Agreement Participants Percentage (%)
Strongly agree 36 35.2
Agree 50 49.1
Neither agree nor disagree 16 15.7
Disagree 0 0
Strongly Disagree 0 0
Total 102 100
As shown in TABLE 7 the average scores of four items are above 4 which reflect most
of the Chinese young consumers feel that search information on the Internet is pretty
easy for them. Actually, consumers’ ability of online information search is related to
their usage frequency of online information and their attitude to online information
source. Most of Chinese young consumers agree they are familiar with various skills of
online information search. More than 79% of the participants feel that they can use
different type of online information sources freely while 91% of them believe they are
capable of finding the information you need easily online.88% of participants argue that
they can easily find valuable information online. Very few participants feel it is difficult
to search information online. All these figure reflect one true is that Chinese young
consumers have the confidence to search information they need on the internet.
All the results found in this part implies that Internet has already play an important role
in Chinese young consumers life and these consumers agree the importance of Internet
as media that provide restaurant information and they have the ability to find useful
46
information on the Internet.
TABLE 7
Perceived Ability of Online Information Search
Question: To what extent do you agree the following opinions?
1. You are familiar with various skills of online information search
Strongly
agree
Agree Neither agree
nor disagree
Disagree Strongly
disagree
Rating
Average
Participants
40(39%) 49(48%) 13(17%) 0 0 4.3 102
2. You can use different type of online information sources freely.
Strongly
agree
Agree Neither agree
nor disagree
Disagree Strongly
disagree#p#分頁標題#e#
Rating
Average
Participants
33(32%) 48(47%) 21(24%) 0 0 4.1 102
3. You are capable of finding the information you need easily online.
Strongly
agree
Agree Neither agree
nor disagree
Disagree Strongly
disagree
Rating
Average
Participants
36(35%) 57(56%) 9(11%) 0 0 4.3 102
4. You can easily find valuable information online.
Strongly
agree
Agree Neither agree
nor disagree
Disagree Strongly
disagree
Rating
Average
Participants
29(28%) 55(60%) 18(18%) 0 0 4.1 102
4.4 IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATION SOURCE
The impact of Internet on Chinese young consumers’ information search for restaurants
can be reflected by the perceived importance of various online information sources
compared with traditional sources. The more important online restaurant information
sources are for Chinese young consumers, the more impact that Internet has on these
consumers’ information search for restaurants (Bei & Chen, 2003). The following
results answered these research question related to the importance of various restaurant
information sources to Chinese consumers.
Table 8 provides the perceived importance of various information sources to Chinese
young consumers. ‘Online consumers rating’ was perceived to be the most importance
47
source of information when search information for restaurant followed by ‘Offline
discussion with friends or family’. The third importance source is ‘Online consumers’
opinion’. The neutral information from ‘magazine and other traditional media’ is the
fourth important sources and ‘online consumer discussion’ is the fifth. The last five
sources are: ‘online web article’, ‘Traditional media advertising’, ‘Restaurants visit and
discuss with sales’, ‘Restaurants website’ and ‘Online restaurant advertising’
respectively.
TABLE 8
Mean, Standard Deviation and Ranking of Importance of Various Information Sources
Mean Std. Deviation Rank
From offline consumers' source
Discuss with friends or family 3.95 0.60 2
From offline sellers' source
Traditional media ads 3.09 0.85 7
Restaurant visit or discussion with sales 2.96 0.78 8
From offline neutral source
Magazine article or TV program 3.71 0.77 4
From online consumers' source
Online consumers' opinion 3.78 0.77 3
Online consumers' rating 4.17 0.80 1
Online consumers' discussion 3.44 0.84 5
From online sellers' source
Online restaurants ads 2.51 0.78 10
Restaurants websites 2.71 0.85 9
From online neutral source
Web article about restaurants 3.35 0.83 6
Some of the results need be further analyses. Firstly, ‘online consumer rating’ is more#p#分頁標題#e#
important than ‘discuss with friend and family’ for young Chinese consumers while
previous study shows ‘discuss with friend and family’ is the most important source for
Taiwan and US consumers. After these years development of restaurants rating website
in China, young consumers gradually found out the advantage of the information
48
provided by these website. Secondly, some types of online sources from consumers (i.e.
online opinion and online discussion) are less important than offline sources (i.e. discuss
with friends and family). The potential reason that ‘online consumers opinion’ and
‘online consumers discussion’ are too detailed and can not provide directed indicate for
consumers like ‘online consumers’ rating’. Consumers may not have the patient to read
all the opinions from other consumers for just select a restaurant which has low
perceived risk. Sometimes a rating of certain restaurant is enough for consumers to
make decision. Thirdly, the offline neutral information is more important for Chinese
young consumers than online neutral information even the cost of searching for neutral
product evaluation through the Internet is less than in the real world (Bei, Chen, &
Widdows). This reflects traditional media still has its own advantage compared with
Internet. Fourthly, both online and offline sources from sellers are not important for
Chinese compared with others. Rha (2002) had already found that consumers who
searched for experience products’ information ranked the information from other
consumers to be more important, therefore that information from sellers is not important
for Chinese young consumers are not surprised.
Overall, information from online consumers is perceived important for Chinese young
consumers and other traditional neutral source has its own advantage compared with
online neutral source.
49
4.5 USAGE FREQUENCY OF INFORMATION SOURCES
Usage frequency of information sources can further reflect the impact of Internet on
consumers’ information search behaviour. The more online restaurant information
sources Chinese young consumers used to select restaurants, the more impact that
Internet has on consumers’ information search for restaurants (Bei & Chen, 2003).
From the result in TABLE 9, the ‘online consumers rating’ was the most useful
information source about restaurants for Chinese young consumers followed by
traditional word-of-mouth information from ‘discussion with friends and family’. This
result is different from previous research for Taiwan and US consumers as these
consumers use offline discussion with friends and family most. Therefore, online
information seems to be more important for Chinese young consumer compared with#p#分頁標題#e#
Taiwan and Us consumers. Moreover, information from offline neutral source such as
‘magazine article or TV program’ used more often than other ‘online consumers’
opinion’ and ‘traditional media advertisings’. However, information from sellers online
is not popular for Chinese young consumers such as ‘restaurants website’ and ‘online
restaurants advertising’. It reflect not all online information sources are used by Chinese
young consumers and some of the traditional information sources still have their values
like traditional neutral source (i.e. Magazine article) and ‘traditional media advertising’
which ranked 3rd and 5th respectively. ‘Online discuss with other consumer’ seems to
be very special as it is the least important only information sources from other
consumers and ranked 7th. The potential reason is consumers prefer to search easy to
50
understand information about restaurant to help them select restaurants (i.e. online
rating for restaurants) rather than complex opinion and details discussion information
from other consumers. This trend may be caused by dining out activity is low risk and
overall evaluation ratings is enough for consumers to eliminate choice uncertainty or
select the one has highest score from other consumers. If consumers search automobile
information online, they may pay more attentions on the details and discussion from
other consumers. Related research need be done to show the consumers’ preference of
information type of online word-of-mouth.
TABLE 9
Mean, Standard Deviation and Ranking of Usage Frequency of Various Information Sources
Mean Std. Deviation Rank
From offline consumers' source
Discuss with friends or family 3.78 0.85 2
From offline sellers' source
Traditional media ads 3.04 0.84 5
Restaurant visit or discussion with sales 2.91 0.69 6
From offline neutral source
Magazine article or TV program 3.44 0.85 3
From online consumers' source
Online consumers' opinion 3.43 0.96 4
Online consumers' rating 4.11 0.90 1
Online consumers' discussion 2.83 0.90 7
From online sellers' source
Online restaurants ads 2.29 0.83 10
Restaurants websites 2.42 0.86 9
From online neutral source
Web article about restaurants 2.67 0.82 8
Overall, the online information sources from other consumer’s rating, the offline
sources from discussion with friends and family and traditional media’s neutral sources
are the most frequent sources used by Chinese young consumers.
51
4.6 OPINION LEADER AND INFORMATION SOURCE
If opinion use more only restaurant information sources, the more important that
information sources will become, because opinion leaders will communicate with other
consumers and tell them these information. H1, H2 and H3 are tested by correlations#p#分頁標題#e#
analysis with opinion leader, usage frequency of the online sources from consumers,
neutral and sellers as variables (see TABLE 10). The results show that opinion leader
was positively and significantly related with the usage of online information sources
from consumers because the correlations value is .324 and it is significant at the 0.01
level. Therefore, H1 is supported while H2 and H3 are rejected as they do not
statistically significant.
TABLE 10
Correlations of Opinion Leader and Usage Frequency of Various Online Information Sources
Online consumers' source Online neutral source Online sellers' source
Opinion Leader Pearson Correlation .324(**) .081 .111
Sig. (2-tailed) .001 .418 .266
N 102 102 102
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
The results reflect not all online restaurants information sources have different means
for opinion leaders. They also prefer online restaurants information sources from other
consumer as the special attribute of experience product. Opinion leaders search more
online restaurants information from other consumers to help them find more fine
restaurants with very low cost. They experience these restaurants recommended by
online consumers and recommended them to their friends or family again. The influence
of online word-of-mouth in was magnified and spread to the offline environment by
52
opinion leaders as they often communicated and influence others people around them
about restaurants opinion.
However, the correlations of opinion leader and usage frequency of offline information
sources reflect that offline restaurants information is still important for opinion leader
(see TABLE 11). Offline neutral source seems to be more important for opinion leaders
as the Pearson Correlation is highest compared with offline consumers and sellers’
sources.
TABLE 11
Correlations of Opinion Leader and Usage Frequency of Various Offline Information Sources
Offline consumers' source Offline neutral source Offline sellers' source
Opinion Leader Pearson Correlation .274(**) .443(**) .240(*)
Sig. (2-tailed) .005 .000 .015
N 102 102 102
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Overall, opinion leader search more online information from consumers’ source before
they select restaurant and they are more likely to use multiple sources of restaurant
information as they search more offline sources than other consumers.
53
5. CONCLUSION
5.1 DISCUSSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of Internet on Chinese young
consumers’ information search for restaurants. To serve this purpose, a web-based
survey was conducted among experienced online young consumers in China and their#p#分頁標題#e#
perceived importance of various restaurant information sources and usage frequency of
each source were explored. Also, factors related to Chinese young consumers’ dining
out activity and usage of Internet and tendency to opinion leader were examined to
provide a better understanding of Chinese young consumers’ behaviour of information
search for restaurants.
As observed, generally nine out of ten young Chinese consumers will chose to eat out in
a commercial setting restaurant for at least one time per week and the average spending
per capita seems relatively high compared with traditional standard. They consider the
dining out as an important event and take the weekly social gathering seriously. In this
regards, they will painstakingly plough through tons of information of different
restaurants and bars, just to make a wise choice. They have many selection criteria
which help them find an easy way to make choices, among the top of which are food
taste, restaurant location, environment, and value of money. According to the facts
above, restaurants managers should improve their food quality and taste and introduce
54
new type of food to attract more customers. Then, choosing a good location, decorating
the restaurants appropriately and increasing the value of money are also on the priority
list. Moreover, the marketing determination of Chinese young consumers’ dining out
activity and their preferences should be further analysed according to different segment
and occasions. The influence of culture on consumers’ preference of food taste need
also be studied.
As the survey reveals, most of the Chinese young consumers spend three plus on-line
hours per day, which is generally considered high. Chinese young consumers are
familiar with on-line search process, such as website location, all kinds of search engine,
etc. and they are quite certain about their ability of online information search. In
addition, most of the Chinese young consumers agree that internet is an important
media and source that provides information for restaurant compared with traditional
media. Further research about young Chinese consumers’ online information search
effort for experience product need be studied.
The results of importance of various information sources show that Chinese young
consumers perceived online consumers’ rating more important which ranked 1st than
other online word-of-mouth sources like online consumers’ opinion and online
consumers’ discussion which ranked 3rd and 5th respectively. Traditional restaurants
information from consumers and neutral sources are still important for Chinese young
consumers as they ranked 2nd and 4th respectively. However, online restaurants
55
information from neutral and online/offline sources from sellers are not so important for#p#分頁標題#e#
Chinese young consumers. Through the analysis and research on the importance of
different information for dining-out selection, it is identified that some certain on-line
information plays a quintessential role in restaurant selection but the traditional media
still makes eminent sense from the perspective of image enhancement and publicity.
Consumers absorb various information sources if only they regard the source of
information useful and reliable. For the market makers, how to use the advantage of
traditional media as information sources and supplement it with online information is
essential to the success of their business. Since word-of-mouth information is so
important for consumers to select restaurants, market makers really have to treat
customers as their God so as to create and maintain their goodwill and reputation.
From researcher perspective, study about why different online information sources have
different importance to consumers is very essential.
The usage frequency of various information sources shows that when Chinese young
consumers select new restaurant, they leverage more on information from online
consumers’ rating, from friends and family, magazines and news article than other
sources. Moreover, online consumers’ opinion and traditional media advertising were
used as 4th and 5th most frequently used sources. Chinese young consumers nearly
never use sources like restaurant website and online restaurant advertising. Accordingly,
marketer should pay more attention the fact that some on-line rating figure may bring
great opportunity as well as truculence strike to their restaurant business. Even though
56
internet becomes so important in youngsters’ daily life; other channels conveying
information still cannot be ignored completely such as advertising. So the allocation of
marketing budgets regarding different communication channels should be seriously
considered. Understanding what kind of online information is more useful for
consumers will help web designer provide more user-friendly eye-catching and
trust-worthy information.
In addition, young Chinese consumers who have higher tendency of opinion leaders do
search more online information source from other consumers than the other consumers.
However, opinion leaders do not search more online source form neutral and sellers but
the use more offline sources from neutral and sellers than the other consumers. Opinion
leader are using more information to help them select new restaurants and these
information combined with their own experience also become important information
sources for other consumers. Since opinion leader do search more information than
other consumers, marketer should pay more attention on these consumers as their
opinions are very influential among consumers around them. The provision of#p#分頁標題#e#
tailor-made information that opinion leader wants and will share with others is crucial.
Moreover, restaurants manager should consider how to reward frequent diners and
current patron for referring friends and family. Further research about opinion leader
and their influence on Internet era is very important. Understanding what kind of
information is opinion leader looking is also important.
57
In conclusion, Internet has exerted a profound impact on Chinese young consumers’
information search for restaurants. It can be reflect from the importance of certain
online restaurant information sources for Chinese young consumers and the high
frequency of online information sources. Moreover, the opinion leaders who play an
essential role in the offline environment when consumers discussion about restaurants
do search more online information to get enough information which they would used for
further communication with other consumers.
5.2 LIMITATIONS AND SIGNIFICANCES
The sample chosen in this study are mainly live in urban area and their behavioural
pattern may vary from young consumers live in rural area. Most of the participants in
this study are living in Shanghai. However, the survey result of consumers from
different cities may be different from the sample group in this study and the results may
be limited only in a small area. Moreover, the analysis is mainly based on relevant
information provided by the sample group. In preparing this study, I have not audited or
performed other procedures to confirm the accuracy of such information which may
materially affect the analytical conclusions presented herein. I also have not audited or
performed other procedures to confirm the accuracy and completeness of the data and
information from public database or other public source.
Apart from the limitation, understanding the impact of Internet on Chinese young
consumers’ information search for restaurant is essential for the marketers to design
58
restaurant promotion strategy and provide useful marketing communication information
for consumers. Undoubtedly, online information search will become more and more
popular in China especially for experience product like dinning out and travelling.
Therefore understanding the importance of online information especially information
from consumers is very important. It is a supplement of consumers’ behavior in the new
media environment. Moreover, finding out the opinion leaders’ information search
pattern and information source they consider to use will provide a clue for advertiser to
draw more attention from these most important audiences. Overall, findings in this
study would be useful for planning communication strategies of experience product,
website design, etc.
59
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APPENDICES
QUESTIONNAIRE USED FOR THE SURVEY
Survey about Chinese Consumers’ Restaurant Information Search
(Screenshot from online questionnaire: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=olKJaTH9dY2PfmTgfGtieg_3d_3d)
1. Introduction
Dear Sir or Madam
I appreciate your participation of this survey. The following questions are about your information search activity for
new restaurant. This questionnaire is consisting of five parts. It would take you about 5 to 10 minutes to finish the
whole survey. The information you provide is essential to my research.
Thanks very much for your cooperation and I am looking forward to receiving your response.
Yours Sincerely,
Hao Yu
Royal Holloway, University of London#p#分頁標題#e#
2. About Dining out at New Restaurant
This part is related to your dinning out activity at new restaurants.
Notice: All the questions in five sections are compulsory. If any questions were missed in one section, you may not be
able to switch to the next section. Please confirm that you have answered all questions in this section before you
continue next part.
1. How many times do you dine out every week on average?
Hardly any
1-2 Times
3-5 Times
Above 5 times
2. How much does it cost per capital when you dinning out at restaurant on average?
Below 30 Yuan
30-50 Yuan
50-100 Yuan
67
100-200 Yuan
Above 200 Yuan
3. Choose the most important attributes for you when you select a new restaurant? (Multiple choice)
Location
Service
Ambience factors
Themes
Price
Cuisine style
Food quality and taste
Cuisine origin
Others
4. To what extent do you agree the following opinion?
You like changing restaurants often to get variety and try things out
Strongly agree Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree
3. About Internet Usage
This part is related to your Internet usage.
Notice: All the questions in five sections are compulsory. If any questions were missed in one section, you may not be
able to switch to the next section. Please confirm that you have answered all questions in this section before you
continue next part.
1. How much time do you spend on Internet everyday on average?
Hardly any
Below 1 hour
1-3 hours
Above 3 hours
2. To what extent do you agree the following opinion?
1. You are familiar with various skills of online
information search Strongly
agree
Agree
Neither agree
nor disagree Disagree
Strongly
disagree
68
2. You can use different type of online
information sources freely. Strongly
agree
Agree
Neither agree
nor disagree Disagree
Strongly
disagree
3. You are capable of finding the information
you need easily online. Strongly
agree
Agree
Neither agree
nor disagree Disagree
Strongly
disagree
4. You can easily find valuable information
online. Strongly
agree
Agree
Neither agree
nor disagree Disagree
Strongly
disagree
3. To what extent do you agree the following opinion?
Compare with traditional media, Internet is very
important for you to get restaurant information.
Strongly
agree Agree
Neither agree
nor disagree Disagree
Strongly
disagree
4. About Opinion Leader
This part of question is related to the discussion between you and your friends.
Notice: All the questions in five sections are compulsory. If any questions were missed in one section, you may not be#p#分頁標題#e#
able to switch to the next section. Please confirm that you have answered all questions in this section before you
continue next part.
1. Please rate yourself on the following scales relating to your interactions with friends and neighbors regarding
restaurants.
1. In general, how often do you talk to your friends and neighbors
about restaurants?
Very little Little
Neither
little nor much Much
Very
much
2. When you talk to your friends and neighbors about restaurants,
the amount of information that you provide is:
Very little Little
Neither
little nor much Much
Very
much
3. During the past six months, the number of people that you have
told about a new restaurant is:
Very little Little
Neither
little nor much Much
Very
much
4. Compared with your circle of friends, the likely that you are
asked about a new restaurant is:
Very little Little
Neither
little nor much Much Very
69
much
5.In discussion of new restaurants, the amount of information your
provide to others compared with the amount information that others
provide to you is: Very little Little
Neither
little nor much Much
Very
much
Overall in all of your discussion with friends and neighbors, the
number of your advices been accepted by others is
Very little Little
Neither
little nor much Much
Very
much
5. About the Importance of Various Restaurant Information Source
This part examines the importance of various restaurant information sources for you. Please select the degree you
agree with the opinion.
Notice: All the questions in five sections are compulsory. If any questions were missed in one section, you may not be
able to switch to the next section. Please confirm that you have answered all questions in this section before you
continue next part.
1. To what extent do you agree the following opinion?
1. Discussions with friends or family about restaurants are very
important restaurant information for you. Strongly
agree
Agree
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
2. Restaurant advertisings on traditional median are very
important restaurant information for you.
Strongly
agree Agree
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
3. Visit restaurants or discuss with sales people from it are very
important restaurant information for you.
Strongly
agree Agree
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
4. Offline neutral sources (i.e., magazine articles about
restaurants) are very important restaurant information for you. Strongly
agree
Agree#p#分頁標題#e#
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
5. Other consumers' opinions or trial results about restaurants
on the Internet are very important restaurant information for
you.
Strongly
agree
Agree
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
6. Online restaurants ratings by other consumers are very
important restaurant information for you. Strongly
agree
Agree
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
70
7. Discussions with other consumers online are very important
restaurant information for you.
Strongly
agree Agree
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
8. Restaurant online advertisings are very important restaurant
information for you.
Strongly
agree Agree
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
9. Restaurant's official websites are very important restaurant
information for you. Strongly
agree
Agree
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
10. Web articles about restaurants are very important restaurant
information for you.
Strongly
agree Agree
Neither
agree nor
disagree
Disagree
Strongly
disagree
6. About Usage Frequency of Various Restaurant Information Source
This part is related to the usage frequency of various restaurants information in your life.
Notice: All the questions in five sections are compulsory. This is the last part of questionnaire. Please confirm that
you have answered all questions in this section before you submit the results.
1. Do you have use the following information sources to help you select restaurants? If so, please indicate how many
times you have used.
1. Discussions with friends or family about
restaurants
Never heard Never use
Use
1-2 times
Use
3-4 times
Use more
than 4 times
2. Restaurant advertisings on traditional median
Never heard Never use
Use
1-2 times
Use
3-4 times
Use more
than 4 times
3. Visit restaurants or discuss with sales people
from it
Never heard Never use
Use
1-2 times
Use
3-4 times
Use more
than 4 times
4. Offline neutral sources (i.e., magazine articles
about restaurants)
Never
heard Never use
Use
1-2 times
Use
3-4 times
Use more
than 4 times
5. Other consumers' opinions or trial results about
restaurants on the Internet
Never heard Never use
Use
1-2 times
Use
3-4 times
Use more#p#分頁標題#e#
than 4 times
6. Online restaurants ratings by other consumers
Never heard
Never use
Use
1-2 times
Use
3-4 times
Use more
than 4 times
71
7. Discussions with other consumers online
Never heard Never use
Use
1-2 times
Use
3-4 times
Use more
than 4 times
8. Restaurant online advertisings
Never heard Never use
Use
1-2 times
Use
3-4 times
Use more
than 4 times
9. Restaurant's official websites
Never heard Never use
Use
1-2 times
Use
3-4 times
Use more
than 4 times
10. Web articles about restaurants
Never heard Never use
Use
1-2 times
Use
3-4 times
Use more
than 4 times
Word Count: 13,634. (Excluding Executive Summary and Bibliography)