earticle

영어

This study investigated the relationships among service encounter, customer satisfaction, lack of alternatives, and revisit intention. Mediation analysis, moderation analysis and moderated mediation analysis were performed to examine these relationships. Of the 400 questionnaires distributed to restaurant customers, 185 complete responses were received. Results showed that service encounter significantly influenced customer satisfaction, and customer satisfaction completely mediated the effect of service encounter on revisit intention. And switching barrier(lack of alternatives) moderated the relation between customer satisfaction and revisit intention, indicating that the customer satisfaction-revisit intention relationship was stronger in low lack of alternatives group than in high lack of alternatives group. In particular, lack of alternatives has a moderating effect on the mediation relationship between service encounter and revisit intention via customer satisfaction. That means that the mediating effect of service encounter was stronger and significant in the low lack of alternatives group but were not significant in the high lack of alternatives group. Given the significance of lack of alternatives in forming revisit intention, the use of lack of alternatives will be helpful in retaining restaurant customers. Theoretical and practical implications are identified and discussed.