An investigation into the impacts of Word-of-Mouth communication on purchasing decisions in U.K restaurants

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My thanks go out to all who have helped me complete this study and with whom this project may have not been possible. In particular, my gratitude goes out to friends, facilitator and family for extensive and helpful comments on early drafts. I am also deeply indebted to the authors who have shared my interest and preceded me. Their works provided me with a host of information to learn from and build upon, also served as examples to emulate.

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DECLARATION

I, (Your name), would like to declare that all contents included in this thesis/dissertation stand for my individual work without any aid, & this thesis/dissertation has not been submitted for any examination at academic as well as professional level previously. It is also representing my very own views & not essentially which are associated with university.

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ABSTRACT

This study investigated the restaurant word of mouth communication structure in U.K. The main constructions of the process of word of mouth in the purchasing decisions were identified and their relationships were examined in a restaurant. Consequently, a restaurant with the word of mouth model was proposed. The main interests of study are the following: first, identify the main factors Restaurant word of mouth communication, secondly, to discover that the word of mouth which directly affect consumers in restaurants, product / service purchase decision, and third, to ascertain the extent to which the word of mouth the factors that determine the use of word-of-mouth, the efforts of searching for a restaurant in U.K. The study also examined the effect of mediation efforts to search by word of mouth in the purchase decision. Finally, the proposed word of mouth model was compared with overall service of the word of mouth model to determine the model that best explains the restaurant word of mouth communication structure.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSII

DECLARATIONIII

ABSTRACTIV

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Background1

Introduction to U.K1

Rationale2

Theoretical framework3

Significance of the study3

Aims and objective of the study4

Research questions4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW5

The Restaurant Industry of UK5

Definitions of Word-of- Mouth6

Word Of Mouth Motivation7

Word Of Mouth as a Decision8

Theoretical Models of Word-of-Mouth9

Shannon-Weaver Communication Model10

Theory of Reasoned Action and Theory of Planned Behavior11

Oliver's Word-of-Mouth Model14

Word-of-Mouth Studies in Various Areas15

New Approaches in Word-of-Mouth Studies18

Word-of-Mouth Studies in the Hospitality Discipline20

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY23

Research Design23

Research Model24

Survey Instrument Development24

The Survey Questionnaire25

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS28

Consumer Personality and Store Image Congruence as Related to Expectations28

Survey Analysis29

Chi-Square test32

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION33

Academic Contributions and Managerial Implications Academic Contributions35

Managerial Implications35

Limitations38

Recommendations for Future Study39

REFERENCES41

APPENDICES49

Chi-square tables49

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background

There has never been a shortage of marketing methods, but the word of mouth (WOM) has been considered one of the most effective. Many studies have demonstrated the potential and effectiveness. That word of mouth to demonstrate how important it is an interesting phenomenon, especially when considering the large number of sophisticated marketing techniques and modernized its roots in consumer science. This shows that consumers prefer informal information / personal information / official public economic decisions (Oh 2007, 65).

For a consumer, finding good information from the vast ocean of what ...