Soocheong (Shawn) Jang

Purdue University | Purdue · School of Hospitality and Tourism Management

Many previous research studies have offered alternative approaches to segmenting travel markets, but few have provided any decision rules for selecting target markets. This study used factor-cluster analysis to define three benefit-based segments of the Japanese outbound travel market (novelty/nature seekers, escape/relaxation seekers, and family/o...

Seasonality is one of the most problematic but least understood aspects of tourism. Many destinations are suffering from this phenomenon every year, yet limited efforts have been made to overcome the troublesome issue. This research proposed an approach to obtaining quantitative solutions which can ultimately assist marketers in mitigating seasonal...

The senior market draws attention in the tourism industry mainly because of its substantial size, increasing purchasing power and time flexibility after retirement. The primary objectives of this study were to delineate the travel motivations of Taiwanese seniors and to discover what variables are important in explaining the variances of the motiva...

Destination revisit intention has been viewed as an important research topic both in academia and the tourism industry. It is important to observe tourists’ revisit intentions from a time perspective because the intention often changes over time. To understand the formation of temporally changing destination revisit intention, this study explored t...

In order to address a lack of comprehensive evaluation of restaurant quality, this study extends Mehrabian and Russell's stimulus–organism–response framework by incorporating restaurant-specific stimuli and including restaurant-specific measures of emotion. Using structural equation modeling, this study shows that atmospherics and service function...

Purpose – This study aimed to identify effective ways to promote plant-based foods in quick-service restaurants by considering customers’ food-related health involvement. Design/methodology/approach – This study conducted a 2 (message format: myth/fact or fact-only) × 2 (message focus: benefit- or attribute-focused) × 2 (health involvement: high o...

Green demarketing is defined as a marketing technique that promotes a brand as environmentally friendly and health conscious by moderately lowering product consumption. Even though the influence of demarketing techniques have previously been explored, how personal characteristics influence customers’ green behavioral intentions under the effects of...

Cultivating tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior is critical for coastal tourism destinations to remain competitive. Building upon the extended ‘cognitive-affective-conative’ framework and the theory of social exchange, this study investigated the relationship between destination image and tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior in...

This study explored the intra-regional and store size strategies of coffee chains using big data from Seoul, Korea. The results show that the multi-locational capabilities of coffee chains lead to a competitive edge through intra-regional and size strategies, resulting in substantially longer survival than independent coffee shops. In addition, int...

Purpose Given the increasing need after the outbreak of COVID-19 to encourage restaurant customers to dine in, the purpose of this paper is to examine the effects that anthropomorphic cues jointly with brand awareness and subjective social class have on restaurant-visit intention. Design/methodology/approach To better comprehend the use of anthrop...

Purpose This study aims to gain an understanding of hotel experiences during the pandemic by examining sentiments of guests posted online. Design/methodology/approach This paper incorporates the balance theory, in a dyadic system to analyze the ways in which guests were motivated to restore a position of balance during the unprecedented COVID-19 c...

Purpose This paper aims to examine the interaction effect among the subjective social class, service level and recovery type on post-failure service evaluations (recovery satisfaction and willingness to spread positive word-of-mouth). Design/methodology/approach A total of 270 US consumers were recruited via Amazon MTurk. This study adopted a 2 (S...

Incorporating an experimental design, this study examines willingness to travel to another country for the first time after having long-term relations with natives of that country. It advances the term “people-centered image” to refer to the image projected by the natives of a destination. Leveraging the contact hypothesis and relational exchange t...

Environmentally responsible behaviors are highly relevant with the sustainability of beach tourism. Research goal is to provide acomprehensive framework for understanding the formation of beach tourists’ environmentally responsible behaviors. Building upon the value-attitude-behavior model, this study explores the relationship between environmental...

Despite an increase in food crisis incidents and their negative influence, little attention has been paid to spillover effects from food crises on competitor brands. Thus, this study examined reciprocal spillover effects (horizontal and vertical) from food crises on competitors' brands depending on the directionality of spillover and association st...

Food overconsumption is increasingly a concern even as consumers are growing skeptical of companies’ green marketing techniques. Accordingly, green demarketing strategies, which aim to lower consumer demand, have become more prevalent in recent years. Using an online experiment, the current research investigates how green demarketing strategies (vs...

Despite the importance of intangible assets in firm valuation, the value-relevance and reliability of intangibles remain unclear. Specifically, intangible assets are critically important to restaurant firms because of the intangible nature of their core services. Thus, this study examined the value-relevance and reliability of intangible assets in...

Considering the increasing number of food recall incidents in the restaurant industry, it is crucial to examine the impact of food recall on consumers' negative word-of-mouth (N-WOM) intentions. This study examined the effects of the food recall announcement on consumers’ N-WOM intentions, focusing specifically on crisis level and two brand-related...

Previous studies have shown how a strong relationship between a customer and a firm can exacerbate dissatisfaction after a service failure. However, the effectiveness of providing preferential benefits to loyal customers during a service recovery has been less explored. The purpose of this paper was to examine the impact of differential treatment o...

Purpose This paper aims to explore the effect of hiring outside chief executive officers (CEOs) on restaurant performance. As outside CEOs have a mandate to bring changes but lack internal knowledge, this study expected that outside CEOs impose a significant influence on restaurant performance. It was further expected that the relationship is subst...

Are religious consumers less wasteful? If so, to what extent and by what mechanisms does religiosity motivate consumers to reduce food waste? To address these questions, this study proposes a conceptual model and evaluates it empirically using PLS‐SEM and data from 583 consumers. The results reveal that religiosity encourages food waste reduction....

Due to the cosmetic standards of food service operators, most consumers have had limited exposure to visually unappealing foods. Thus, unused ugly foods end up becoming food waste. To encourage consumers to buy ugly foods with the hope of relieving the severity of food waste, this study attempts to further verify the effectiveness of anthropomorphi...

This study identifies whether profit-driven or growth-driven mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are more beneficial to a restaurant firm aiming to achieve profitable growth after an M&A. The results indicate that despite the challenges that must be overcome to achieve profitable growth through M&As, profit-driven acquiring firms are more likely to hav...

It is important to reduce food waste by successfully promoting ugly food consumption. Thus, this study uses the food quality attribute model to investigate certain key factors-motivators and demotivators that can influence consumers' attitudes toward and subsequent purchases of ugly produce. This study further examines differences in these key fact...

Purpose This study aims to examine the motivating factors that influence intentions to book shared rooms through Airbnb as well as the moderating effects of past experience and gender. Design/methodology/approach This study analyzed data from 214 leisure travelers who had previously stayed in shared rooms through Airbnb and 207 participants who ha...

Among the diverse strategies that restaurants use in recessions, some studies have shown that strategies that increase advertising, profit margins, or asset turnover have yielded promising results in terms of firm performance. However, the success of these turnaround strategies might be due to the health or size of a firm rather than the implementa...

Many business leaders have the tendency to vigorously pursue rapid firm growth, but this focus is often criticized as problematic in terms of operating performance. Accordingly, this study suggested that the asset growth anomaly is an inevitable phenomenon for growing restaurant firms: operating profitability increases as assets grow to the optimum...

This research aimed to empirically explore whether impulsive consumption in the hospitality industry could be explained as a form of compensatory behavior that individuals engage in to cope with pessimistic self-evaluations. In this study, these self-evaluations have been operationalized as status discrepancy and perceived socioeconomic immobility....

Ugly food refers to vegetables and fruits that are oddly shaped, colored, or sized. Ugly food is typically thrown out, which represents a significant amount of food waste. This study aimed to identify effective ways to promote ugly food consumption by analyzing the relative persuasiveness of advertisements in terms of three variables: anthropomorph...

Lodging REITs are required to hire unaffiliated third-party operators to manage their properties. It has been noted that some lodging REITs use only one operator, whereas others hire a number of different operations. However, why lodging REITs choose to hire one or more operators has not been verified yet. Accordingly, this study intended to examin...

This study examined the effect of employee compensation on restaurant performance from both short-term and long-term perspectives. The results of this study showed that increasing employee compensation immediately enhances (decreases) restaurant revenue growth (profitability) but decreases (improves) restaurant revenue growth (profitability) after...

Ensuring that tourists behave in a civilized manner is critical to maintaining the competitiveness of tourism destinations. Hence, the purpose of this study is to understand which factors lead tourists to behave in a civilized manner at tourism destinations in order to increase the sustainability of coastal tourism. This study proposes a theoretica...

It is generally accepted that investors tend to react favorably to share repurchases. However, it is actually not uncommon for investors to underreact to some share repurchases. Recently, a number of restaurant firms have spent huge amounts of internal cash on share repurchases but little is known regarding the market’s underreaction to share repur...

This study examined the effect of CEO overconfidence on restaurant performance and how franchising, a key business format in the restaurant industry, affects the relationship. Based on the notion that overconfident individuals take more risks than non-overconfident people, this study hypothesized that CEO overconfidence positively (negatively) infl...

This study examined the effect of federal minimum wage increases on the U.S. restaurant industry. Based on the competitive labor market perspective, this study expected that minimum wage increases would negatively (positively) influence restaurant employment (compensation), while franchising would positively moderate the minimum wage-employment (mi...

The demand for kosher food has increased remarkably as consumers perceive kosher foods to be healthier and safer options. To identify effective ways to promote consumers’ healthy eating at restaurants, this study investigated influences of kosher labeling on consumers’ perceived healthfulness and purchase intentions toward a menu item. The relative...

Ethnic restaurant markets are proliferating due to expanding consumer demand for global flavors. This study investigated the most effective advertising formats for encouraging U.S. consumers to eat ethnic foods. This study compared the effectiveness of picture-dominant advertisements (food-focused vs. spokesperson-focused) and text-dominant adverti...

Purpose This study aims to identify why restaurant firms go public (IPO) despite high financing costs and which factors make firms stay public for the long term after an IPO. Also, this study aimed to link and compare restaurant firms’ pre- and post-IPO accounting information and how IPO proceeds were used. Design/methodology/approach This study u...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of three types of perceived healthiness (physical, psychological and economic health) on restaurant consumption activities among senior consumers. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 325 restaurant customers in the USA through a Web-based survey conducted by an online mark...

This study reviewed the previous literature and suggested a model that maps the determinants of SCBs across the different stages of a sustainable experience: pre-behavior, behavior, and post-behavior. Principally, this paper suggested that to capture the complexity of SCBs, it is fundamental to consider the three core components of sustainable beha...

Earnings management has become more prevalent in many firms. Accordingly, the financial accounting literature has made efforts to identify the determinants of earnings management behavior in various industries. However, for the restaurant industry it may be necessary to consider the effects of franchising to accurately understand earnings managemen...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to develop an index for financial constraints, specifically for restaurant firms, and to further validate the developed financial constraint index. Design/methodology/approach This study used logistic regression with a composite criterion based on the dividend payout ratio, KZ index and Cleary index to estimate...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of increasing the federal minimum wage on productivity in the restaurant industry. Based on the equity theory and fair-wage hypothesis, this study empirically investigated the relationship between the federal minimum wage and restaurant productivity. The results revealed that increasing the federa...

This study aims to address the psychological aspects of sharing restaurant experiences on Social Networking sites (SNSs). To provide deeper insights into the SNS phenomenon in the foodservice industry, the current study proposed a conceptual framework to capture restaurant customers’ online activities on SNSs. Significant psychological drivers that...

This study investigates the impact of signaling on customers’ evaluations of service qualities, customer satisfaction and revisit intentions in times of service failures. Open kitchen design is selected as a signal. An online survey is conducted to collect data on customers’ evaluations of service qualities in open kitchen restaurants in comparison...

Purpose This study aims to investigate how consumer forgiveness is formed by examining rumination and distraction by consumers in hotel service failures. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire in the USA. A total of 371 usable responses were obtained. Anderson and Gerbing’s two-step approach was u...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the dimensions of restaurant customers’ engagement or disengagement with healthy eating in terms of individual and environmental factors to develop a scale. The results identified the underlying constructs of customers’ individual motives for and perceived barriers to healthy eating, as well as enviro...

This study examined the effectiveness of comparative appeals in destination advertising through an experiment with a randomized paired comparison design. Both cognitive and affective responses were measured toward comparative versus non-comparative advertising of a ski resort. The findings demonstrate that respondents viewed comparative advertising...

The so called “dividend puzzle” has prompted many researchers to examine industry-specific factors in order to explain the dividend behaviors of various industries. However, due to the unique differences in characteristics between franchise and non-franchise restaurants, it may not be appropriate to view the restaurant industry as one entity displa...

The main purpose of this study is to examine the marginal value of cash in franchise restaurants by extending Faulkender and Wang’s three cash regimes into the franchise framework. Utilizing theoretical underpinnings from prior studies, this study attempted to verify that franchising is a quasi-debt financing tool for restaurant firms. The sample u...

This study tested whether geographic clustering differs by restaurant segment due to the differences in consumers’ hedonic and utilitarian values by using Ripley's K function and a Tobit model. This study found that higher priced restaurant segments have stronger clusters than lower priced restaurants, which implies that restaurants that focus on h...

The purpose of this article was to provide an understanding of the ownership effect on firm investment in the hotel industry. Specifically, a linear relationship between institutional ownership and firm investment was investigated, while a nonlinear relationship between managerial ownership and firm investment was tested based on the convergence of...

In order for a franchise system to obtain long-term sustainability, balancing the benefits between franchisors and franchisees is critically important. In order to expand this area of research, this study reviewed prior franchise literature and then outlined what a healthy franchise system is. Further, this study also proposed a model for sustainab...

This study identifies acceptable premium price levels that customers would be willing to pay for organic menu items at restaurants in the United States. Previous literature indicates that health-related and socio-demographic characteristics significantly influence consumers’ intentions to purchase organic food. To advance our understanding of how d...

Restaurant firms need efficient cost management strategies due to highly competitive market conditions and the weak financial structure of the restaurant industry. In this regard, the objectives of this study were to examine the operating expenses of restaurant firms and their impact on profitability enhancement by business segment and firm size. T...

Purpose This study investigated, when a service failure occurs, whether circumstantial cues could be utilized to encourage more positive customers’ responses toward restaurants through the mediation of causal attribution. Design/methodology/approach A 2 (cause of service failure: easily observable vs. difficult-to-observe) × 2 (kitchen design: o...

Since Myers (1984) and Myers and Majluf (1984) suggested the pecking order theory, it has frequently been examined by researchers. Recently Frank and Goyal (2003) have questioned its validity. Following De Jong et al.’s (2010) proposition about financing behaviors under financing deficit and surplus situations, this study examined restaurants to ve...

Numerous studies have used agency theory (Jensen and Meckling, 1976) and capital scarcity theory (Oxenfeldt and Kelly, 1969) to explain franchising motivations. Although both theories may in part account for why firms choose to franchise, past studies have not seriously considered the potential relationship between franchising and capital structure...

Purpose This study examined the effects of self-image congruities (i.e., the match between the image of a product or brand and a customer’s image of themselves) as an affective psychological process in the context of a restaurant setting. The study proposed that a customer’s perception of congruity between his or her self-image and a restaurant co...

With the rapid emergence of social networking sites, the marketing landscape has changed dramatically. Consumers’ sharing behaviors on social networking sites (SNSs) can be guided by both self and social related motives. This study suggested that narcissism is an important psychological factor that impacts sharing behavioral intentions. To provide...

Travelers encounter sold-out situations when purchasing a vacation package during peak season. However, the influence of sold-out information has drawn little attention in tourism research. This study aims to understand the influences of sold-out products on travelers’ purchase intentions and final choices. To fulfill the research objective, 526 sa...

Purpose The aim of this study was to extend the understanding of restaurant firms’ overall debt and equity financing practices by considering what drives equity financing. More importantly, this study attempted to identify whether or not an optimal financial leverage point exists in the relationship between debt financing and equity financing for...

The people in modern societies have found to be more lonely due to longer life span, rising single-person household, and disconnected interpersonal networks. Recently has research begun to shed light on how this phenomenon influences consumers’ compensatory consumption to cope with negative moods caused by loneliness. The hospitality and tourism in...

The number of people facing daily stress is on the rise in the United States. Further, there is increasing evidence of stress induced obesity and other food-related health risks. This study tested the effects of self-reported stress on choosing indulgent and healthy food options in the context of menu promotions at restaurants. The study proposed t...

Purpose This study investigated how restaurant customers’ heuristic judgment, originating from their perceived level of congruity between restaurant brand image regarding healthfulness and healthy menu products, can affect their information processing in terms of their perceived nutritional information credibility and, furthermore, how these effec...

Mobile travel sales for leisure and unmanaged business travel grew from $26.14 billion in 2014 to $52.08 billion in 2015. With this rapid growth, mobile distribution channels have become an important component of hospitality and tourism suppliers' strategy in moving sales to direct channels. But the impact to shareholders is still to be determined....

Since Oxenfeldt and Kelly's 1969 study, the resource scarcity hypothesis has been considered a representative theory to explain franchising motivations. Whether franchising capital is a substitute for or a complement to debt has been discussed in the franchise literature but the relationship remains unclear. Using Frank and Goyal's (2003) financial...

Current trends in the tourism industry indicate that most potential travelers purchase tourism products from online travel agents that provide price promotions. Even though the range of price promotions often varies, the tourism literature does not address potential travelers’ perceptions after purchasing products at various discount rates. This st...

Purpose This study aims to address a lack of studies on the attributes of ethnic restaurants that influence customers’ perceptions of authenticity. Particularly, this study extended Gilmore and Pine’s authenticity framework (is the offering true to itself and is the offering what it says it is) by incorporating a servicescape factor (i.e. employee...

Purpose Given the increasing importance of relationship management in service recovery encounters, this study aims to investigate the role of consumer–organization relationship norms (communal versus exchange) in connection with the service recovery process. Design/methodology/approach Based on a thorough review of the previous literature, the m...

Purpose This study aims to identify the influences that lead to better memorability of a service by focusing on type of service failure, recovery condition and frequency of occurring. Design/methodology/approach This study used a quasi-experimental design in which customers answered questions about a restaurant they had recently patronized and the...

This research note delineates the effect of restaurant customers’ perceived self-image congruity (i.e., the match between the image of a product or brand and customers’ image of themselves) on the relationship between the strength of a restaurant advertisement and customers’ intention to revisit that restaurant. This study posits that customers’ pr...

This study investigates the importance of consumer–restaurant relationship norms (service communality) in connection with consumer–companion social presence types (business versus private) in producing consumers’ feelings of betrayal and face-loss in service failures. The results suggest that consumers felt more betrayed and face-loss in service fa...

Sanitation is one of the most important factors for consumers when they consider where to eat. Little research has been conducted on the emotional responses that consumers have to sanitation conditions. This study determined that five sanitation dimensions (food handling, dining room experience, exterior, restrooms, and employees) and five positive...

Purpose Despite prior studies, little has been done to understand the advertising carry-over effect. The purpose of this study is to investigate the heterogeneous attributes of the carry-over effect by focusing on the differences between franchise and non-franchise firms. Design/methodology/approach The data were retrieved from the Compustat dat...

This study examined the effect of mental simulation on customers’ attitudes in the context of healthy restaurant menu promotions. This is a widely used tactic to promote products or brands by encouraging customers to imagine themselves using the advertised products or services. To identify effective ways to promote healthy menu items in restaurants...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of the effects of advertising based on economic cycles. To comprehend advertising effects in the restaurant industry from an economic cycle perspective, this study investigated both short- and long-run advertising effects under periods of economic contraction and expansion and compa...

Destination advertising is important as a communication resource for both travelers and destination managers. This study attempted to identify effective advertising language for destinations through a 2 × 2 experimental design with affective and cognitive language by hedonic and utilitarian destination types. The results suggest that advertising la...

Airline companies often spontaneously provide unexpected upgrades to please their customers. However, this practice may have negative outcomes for customers nearby who do not receive an upgrade. This study was designed to understand the impact of unexpected upgrades on potential travelers in terms of envy and perceptions of unfairness by focusing o...

Tourist attractions actively promote membership subscriptions and renewals. Although discount promotions are commonly utilized in practice, the literature review suggested that bonus promotions, such as an “extra three months,” could be more effective. Two experiments were conducted to identify effective promotions for membership subscriptions and...

To date, studies on hotel energy use have examined the implications in terms of direct cost savings, environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility. However, as the profitability of lodging firms is subject to changes in energy prices, their value may depend on exposure to energy price volatility. This paper examines the exposure...

This study aimed to identify possible moderators in the relationship between boredom and novelty seeking. More specifically, this study confirmed the significant influence of boredom on novelty-seeking intention based on optimal stimulation level theory, and also examined the effect of boredom with restaurant attributes on novelty seeking. Further,...

Recognizing the increasing importance of healthiness in food-related businesses, this study attempted to investigate the role of consumers' affective responses in a healthy food consumption context. To achieve its objectives, this study incorporated anticipated emotional constructs in a decision-making model and investigated the relationships among...

Efficient working capital management is becoming important for restaurant firms coping with weak financial conditions and increased economic uncertainty. This study investigates the impact of restaurant firms' working capital on their profitability. We further examine the effects of firms' cash levels on the relationship between working capital and...

This study examined whether innate food-related personality traits (food neophobia), as well as food external factors such as cultural familiarity and menu framing, influence U.S. customers' reluctance to try ethnic foods. In order to achieve this aim, this study first investigated whether familiarity with cultural contents (e.g., music or movies)...

The purpose of this study was to identify how customers’ cultural experiences influence their emotions regarding the authenticity of ethnic restaurants, which in turn affects perceived dining value and future behavioral intentions. The results of the study showed that customer’s experiences with a particular culture are a significant factor for eli...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine hidden drivers of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) by modeling attributes of self-relevant and quality-relevant values. This is a meaningful extension of previous consumer behavior research regarding the association of eWOM and self-constructs. Design/methodology/approach – An on-site survey was c...

This study intended to identify a persuasive communication strategy in the context of healthy menu promotions in restaurants by adopting construal level theory (CLT) and considering temporal distance. The study proposed that customers' psychological states, in terms of hedonic versus utilitarian dining values, can qualitatively evoke different type...

A ‘healthy menu’ has become a key concept for the survival and prosperity of restaurant businesses. Despites active practices in promoting healthier options in quick service restaurants, limited efforts have been made in the academic field to understand consumers’ perceptions of healthiness regarding healthy menu promotions. This study attempted to...

As global competition intensifies, destinations increasingly aim to deliver memorable tourism experiences (MTEs). To ensure that tourists remember past tourism experiences, destination managers and researchers must understand the factors that aid memory recall. Therefore, this research examined the influence of both internal and external factors on...

Information search is one of important antecedents of destination image formation. However, few studies have worked from an information processing perspective. Thus, to fill the research gap this study scrutinized the information content in the context of destination websites to investigate the mental process leading from information input to image...

Due to the substantial growth of tourism, various studies have employed different forms of gravity models. However, previous models had limitations in terms of generalizing their results. This is primarily due to their focus on specific regions or variables for special events or components of tourism. Thus, the primary objective of this study was t...

Do restaurant green practices, such as using recyclable take-out containers, really affect customers’ perceptions of the restaurants’ green image and their attitudes toward the restaurant? If so, does it matter whether these customers are ecologically conscious or not? The present study attempted to examine the relationships among three constructs—...

Scenario-based experiments are an important method in service marketing, especially in the field of service failures and service recoveries. Field studies on these topical areas are rare because of the expense and ethical issues in a real setting. However, this raises a question: Can the results obtained from experiments accurately predict real-wor...