Configurational path to customer satisfaction and stickiness for a restaurant chain using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis

Customer stickiness and satisfaction are both essential for a restaurant to occupy market share and earn profits in the face of fierce competition. This study applied fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine how environmental characteristics regarding restaurant location and individual characteristics of customers influenced customers' emotional responses to service attitudes, and how these emotions, in turn, influenced customer satisfaction and stickiness. A sample of 182 customers from a fusion café chain restaurant was collected and investigated. The results show that store characteristics and customer individual characteristics had a pronounced effect on customer emotional responses to the service attitudes of the restaurant, and that these emotional experiences served as critical antecedents to customer satisfaction and stickiness. The managerial implications of the findings are discussed for the restaurant chain to understand its weaknesses and to develop proper operational strategies and marketing polices for improving customer satisfaction and stickiness.