Journal of Consumer Marketing

A mixed method approach to understanding the role of emotions and sensual delight in dining experience
Raj Arora
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Raj Arora, (2012),"A mixed method approach to understanding the role of emotions and sensual delight in dining experience",
Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 29 Iss 5 pp. 333 - 343
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perception", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 26 Iss 3 pp. 204-215 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/08876041211224004

Jaksa Kivela, Robert Inbakaran, John Reece, (1999),"Consumer research in the restaurant environment, Part 1: A conceptual
model of dining satisfaction and return patronage", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 11 Iss 5
pp. 205-222 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09596119910272739
Clark Kincaid, Seyhmus Baloglu, Zhenxing Mao, James Busser, (2010),"What really brings them back?: The impact of
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 A mixed method approach to understanding
the role of emotions and sensual delight in
dining experience
Raj Arora
School of Management, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, USA

Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to use a mixed method approach to understand the role of emotions and sensual delight in influencing satisfaction and
intention. The setting for the study is restaurants. Three types of restaurants form the basis of investigation: fine dining, family dining and fast food
restaurants. Using three categories of restaurants affords the opportunity to understand the differential impact of sensual delight and emotions in these
settings. Furthermore the mixed method approach helps to validate the quantitative findings and also to offer additional insight in consumption
emotions.
Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on a concurrent, two-studies design where quantitative and qualitative data are both collected
(concurrently or sequentially) and analyzed separately. Four independent investigations are reported in this paper. The first three investigations (fine
dining, family dining and fast food dining) are based on quantitative modeling using LISREL. The last investigation provides a richer narrative using
phenomenological approach.
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Findings – The quantitative findings show a strong influence of sensual delight and emotions in affecting satisfaction and intentions. The qualitative
findings show how managers may enhance the dining experience and customer satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications – Caution is advised in extrapolating the results beyond the issues investigated in the study.
Practical implications – The findings provide a framework for managers in creating a delightful dining experience.
Originality/value – There are several important contributions from this study. First the role of emotions in various dining aspects is new in this study. It
has not been investigated in dining situations. Next, while the role of sensual delight in hedonic situations is understandable, it has not been
systematically investigated using causal models. Third, this study uses a mixed method approach. The quantitative study is followed by a qualitative
study to add further insights that will help understand drivers of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Thus it is a very comprehensive study on sensual delight
in the restaurant industry.

Keywords Fine dining, Restaurant, Sensual delight, Consumption emotions, Food products, Sensory perception, Customer satisfaction

Paper type Research paper

An executive summary for managers and executive
readers can be found at the end of this article.
Introduction
In one of the interviews with Charlie Rose (PBS July 8),
Anthony Bordain, a chef and writer, stressed that people go to
a restaurant “to have pleasure.” Wisconsin’s educational
program entitled, “Eating for Health and Pleasure”
emphasizes that health and pleasure are not exclusive
constructs (http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/B3538.
PDF). Pleasure is a sensual and emotional delight. Yet,
although it is a common practice in restaurant industry to ask
the customers “how was everything?” Rarely do we hear “did
you have a pleasant dining experience?” Marketing theory and
practice stresses the importance of customer satisfaction and
thus, these questions should be focused on the end result of
the dining experience. Current practice is to ask customers
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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Journal of Consumer Marketing
29/5 (2012) 333– 343
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0736-3761]
[DOI 10.1108/07363761211247451]
questions like “how was everything”, “how was the meal?”
etc. While these questions provide important feedback, they
do not assist the restaurant management in understanding
and exploiting the power of emotions and sensual delight in
gaining competitive advantage.
According to Frida (1993), emotions are “intentional”
phenomenon, in that they involve a subject-object
relationship. Like attitudes, emotional behavior is also
directed toward or away from an object or individual. While
the role of emotions in Marketing is well known (Westbrook,
1987), its applications in restaurant industry (or hospitality) is
limited at best. Barsky and Nash (2002), investigate the
magnitude and impact of emotions in hotel industry. Their
findings reveal that emotions play a varied role depending on
the type of hotel: luxury, extended scale, mid-price or
economy. Typically, prior research focuses on tangible
operational aspects such as food, ambiance, perceived value
and service (Kivela et al. 2000; Oh, 2000). Oh’s model of
restaurant patronage focuses on the linkages between pre-
purchase intention, overall perceived quality, overall perceived
value, overall satisfaction, and post-purchase intention. What
is lacking in this model is the role of antecedents to these key
constructs. What are the indicators of perceived value and
perceived quality? What about the role of food quality and
service level in creating a sensually delightful experience?
What is the contribution of the actual dining experience or the

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 Understanding the role of emotions in dining experience
Raj Arora
feelings and emotions generated during the consumption
experience? This paper goes a step further in that we show the
dining experience as a process and show the linkages and
contribution of key constructs on satisfaction and intention to
return. Specifically we incorporate the role of emotions and
the role of senses in arousing these emotions and their
subsequent impact on satisfaction and intention to return.
Several researchers have stressed the importance of
consumption emotions in marketing strategy (Holbrook and
Hirschman, 1982; Westbrook, 1980, 1987). Consumption
emotions refer to the set of emotional responses (for example,
joy, anger, interest, etc.) elicited specifically during product
usage. For some products, emotional benefits are a superior
choice criterion than instrumental performance (economic
view of consumption). For example, a person buys an
automobile for utilitarian reasons such as price, miles per
gallon, safety, etc. In addition, a person may also buy a
specific make of a car for hedonic reasons – those related to
conspicuous consumption such as status. Similarly, one may
choose to patronize a particular restaurant for cognitive
reasons such as the quality of food, quality of service, or
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location or one may choose to dine at a restaurant for
emotional experiences such as the excitement and enjoyment
while dining. In most consumption situations, both hedonic
and utilitarian factors play a role in satisfaction and attitude
toward the product. In some situations one factor may play a
more dominant role than another factor. This paper explores
the relationship between the role of senses and emotional
experiences in influencing attitudes, satisfaction, and
intentions in the context of various dining experiences. In
order to provide a richer and comprehensive view of different
categories of dining experiences, we examine three different
categories of restaurants: fine dining, family dining and fast
food dining. The major variables in these three settings are
emotions, senses, satisfaction, and attitudes and intentions. A
background on these variables is described next.
Literature review
Emotions
The study of emotions is important in marketing. Emotions
are “intentional” phenomenon, in that they involve a subject-
object relationship. Emotions have the property of “felt state
of action readiness” which refers to state of readiness and
action tendencies (Frida, 1993). The state of readiness
reflects an individual’s motives to cope with the emotional
state or emotional environment. Thus, they are powerful
forces that can influence a patron’s desire to engage in word-
of-mouth (favorable or unfavorable) and or revisit the
establishment.
Emotions also constitute a primary source of human
motivation and also influence memory and information
processing (Kuhl, 1986). Cohen and Areni (1991) in their
review of affective processing mechanisms, indicate that
consumption emotions leave strong affective traces or
“markers” in episodic memory. These memory elements are
highly accessible to cognitive operations. That is, these
experiences can be readily retrieved and integrated into
current evaluative judgments. Thus, it is imperative for
marketing professionals to understand the influence of
consumption emotions and satisfaction on attitude change
and how these factors influence repeat purchase. Since
services are intangible, the role of experience may be very
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Journal of Consumer Marketing
Volume 29 · Number 5 · 2012 · 333 –343
prominent in attitude development. A brief distinction
between emotions and attitudes may be helpful.
Emotions result from exposure to specific stimuli. Surprise,
for example, may be caused from an exposure to unexpected
attributes of a product or situation such as unusually high or
unusually low quality. One may experience a feeling of being
relaxed in a restaurant with appropriate ambiance and music.
Attitudes, in contrast to emotions, are also directed toward
specific objects. However, they are more enduring and may be
based on knowledge and/or consumption experience
(including cognitive as well as emotional judgments).
Furthermore, attitudes can be developed without
consumption of a product or service and may be modified
after further information or trial of the product or service.
Attitudes, in this sense, may precede as well as follow
consumption experience.
Examination of marketing practices reveals emotional
motives/appeals used in marketing. For example, consider
the Pontiac slogan, “we build excitement” or Starbucks’
proclamation that it does not just sell coffee but provides the
ambiance to savor the coffee. Phillips and Baumgartner
(2002) tested the influence of emotional experiences on
satisfaction. They hypothesized that positive consumption
emotions will exert a positive impact on satisfaction and
negative consumption emotions will exert a negative impact
on satisfaction. Their interest was in determining the
incremental effects of emotions on satisfaction when other
variables, such as expectations and performance, were
included in the model. The findings supported the influence
of positive and negative emotions on satisfaction.
Westbrook (1987) used Izard’s (1977) DES II scale (10
emotions) to study the role of emotions in automobiles and
cable TV. The findings revealed that positive and negative
emotions were significantly correlated with satisfaction. The
positive affect emotions included joy and interest, while the
negative emotions were anger, contempt, surprise, and
disgust. In a later study, Westbrook and Oliver (1991)
showed that satisfaction was related to pleasant surprise and
interest. Mano and Oliver (1993) further investigated the
impact of emotions on satisfaction. Their findings showed
that satisfaction was positively correlated with pleasure and
negatively correlated with displeasure.
Sensual delight
A cursory overview of the past research reveals the complexity
of variables that influence dining experience. For example,
Pine and Gilmore (1999), provide compelling examples
indicating that product is not just a product, in that a coffee in
a five star restaurant is different than coffee elsewhere. The
former embodies a heightened sense of theater (presentation
and service), enticing a customer to willingly pay $2 or more
for the coffee.
Although other constructs in this study such as emotions
and attitudes have been examined by other researchers, the
role of senses in influencing emotions and attitudes is virtually
absent. Broadly speaking the role of senses explored in this
paper focuses on the five senses, which are vision, hearing,
smelling, taste and touch. Sensory marketing relies on
stimulating these senses.
One should be careful not to interpret this as lack of
significance of the role of sense. The applied literature
emphasizes the role of senses. For example, one may just look
at various products and the importance of senses becomes
 Understanding the role of emotions in dining experience
Raj Arora
quite evident. Consider the appeal of the following products:
IPhone (visual appeal), Disney World visual excitement,
Starbucks coffee (sense of smell), Tide (various fresh scents),
food (aromas), etc. Bernd Schmitt (1999) has a book entitled,
Experiential Marketing: How to Get Customers to Sense, Feel,
Think, Act, Relate to your Company and Brands. Schmitt
(1999) makes the same argument presented earlier that
marketers limit their effectiveness by focusing on features and
benefits alone. Consistent with the title of the book, Schmitt’s
(1999) model starts with sense and progresses to feelings,
cognition and behavior. It is the first step that has been
ignored and is investigated in this paper.
Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction has generated considerable interest and
research in marketing. It has become a central concept in
marketing as reflected by the frequent reference to the J.D.
Power Survey of customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction
is considered to be the core of marketing strategy. Customer
satisfaction refers to the ability of a business to serve its
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customers according to their expectations and to maintain a
long-term relationship with each customer. Satisfaction is
believed to be an important variable in explaining complaints
and repeat purchase behavior (Howard, 1989). “Satisfaction”
is usually referred to as a post-consumption evaluation based
on a judgment continuum that may range from dissatisfaction
to satisfaction. Moreover, customers evaluate service
encounters based on prior expectations of service. That is,
the actual performance during a service encounter depends
not only on actual performance but, also, on prior
expectations before receiving and experiencing the service.
Customer satisfaction, or dissatisfaction, results from
experiencing a service encounter (Oliver, 1980).
Dube et al. (1994) focused on the elements of customer
satisfaction that may explain return visits to a restaurant. The
elements included food quality, menu variety, restaurant
environment, waiting time, etc. The findings revealed that all
variables were significant; however, the relative importance of
these variables varied depending on whether the purpose of
the visit was business, leisure, or a special occasion.
Oh (2000) urges restaurant managers to use caution in
interpreting satisfaction scores. Oh investigated the role of
pre-purchase and post-purchase (after the meal consumption)
satisfaction on intention. The findings revealed that the
influence of satisfaction was stronger in the post-purchase
survey. Satisfaction is important shortly after consumption
while customers are feeling the afterglow of their dining
experience. Thus, we anticipate that variables that influence
customer satisfaction are customers’ confirmation
(disconfirmation) of expectations compared to actual
performance or service level encountered. We also
hypothesize that satisfaction will have a significant influence
on intention to return.
Oliver (1993) developed a model relating satisfaction to
cognitions, emotions, and product’s attributes. The model
posited that satisfaction depends on positive as well as
negative emotions, satisfaction on various attributes
(performance dimensions), and disconfirmation
(expectations). The estimated model revealed that the
largest coefficients were for the emotion of enjoyment and
disconfirmation.
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Volume 29 · Number 5 · 2012 · 333 –343
Intention to visit
Kivela et al. (2000) tested several propositions related to
dining satisfaction and return patronage. The specific areas
investigated were: influence of satisfaction on return visit,
variation in satisfaction by demographic characteristics, and
difference in intention to return to that restaurant based on
prior frequency of visit. Several significant findings emerged
from their study. The variables having significant impact on
intentions were: first and last impressions (composite factor),
service excellence, food excellence, ambiance excellence,
reservation, and parking, followed by occupation and dining
frequency. The composite factor first and last impression was
measured by dining privacy, restaurant’s appearance,
temperature, and consistent standard. While it may be
argued that a restaurant’s appearance would probably be a
better indicator of ambiance, the factor analysis results
indicated that ambiance was measured by level of comfort,
noise in the restaurant, and view from the restaurant.
This paper uses a mixed method approach to
understanding the role of emotions and sensual delight in
dining experience (Arora and Stoner, 2009). The first part of
the paper focuses on the quantitative measures, analyses and
findings. The second part focuses on the findings based on
qualitative inquiry. The importance of the mixed method
approach is described next.
The significance of qualitative and mixed
methods research approaches
It is well known that qualitative and quantitative research
methods have different assumptions and goals of inquiry. For
example, one of the goals of qualitative research is to capture
subjective realities from the perspectives of participants
(phenomenology). As such, researchers attempt to select
“information rich” respondents. Quantitative researchers
believe in quantifiable realities, measured (collapsed) from a
large sample of respondents.
There seems to be little doubt that qualitative data offers
different perspectives and helps provide a richer and more
complex picture of the situation at hand (Creswell, 2002).
Although qualitative research has been used extensively in
certain fields (for example, education and nursing), social
scientists generally prefer to rely on statistically rigorous
quantitative methods (Srnka and Koeszegi, 2007). To some
degree, the use of mixed methodologies (qualitative and
quantitative) helps mitigate purists’ concerns and provides the
needed depth of understanding.
Despite the benefits of qualitative research methods, the use
of mixed methods research in marketing is still very limited.
Bezborodova and Bennett (2004) investigated the reasons for
the limited use of qualitative methods, especially emphasizing
the reluctance of available software to analyze the transcripts.
One of the major reasons provided for the limited use was the
“long and steep” learning curve to achieve a high level of
familiarization with the software. Another reason provided
was the time pressures of commercial research practice,
leading to a financial concern over the resulting expense such
approaches would encounter.
There are a variety of different methods available to the
qualitative researcher. Among the more commonly used
methods are phenomenology, grounded theory, narrative
psychology, and focus groups (Smith, 2008). Each of these
methods provides an approach to data collection that is
 Understanding the role of emotions in dining experience
Raj Arora
appropriate given the specific purposes of the research
investigation. For example, the goal of phenomenology is to
study the phenomenon from the perspective the experiences
and meanings ascribed by the individual. Thus, one selects
individuals who have actually experienced the phenomenon
and can describe the details of the experience and the context
within which the experience takes place. Since the focus of the
study is on dining experience, phenomenology approach
offers distinct advantages of understanding the experience
from the perspective of diners (Strauss and Corbin, 1998).
Methodology
Quantitative measures
Respondents were selected from a large Midwestern
metropolitan area. The metropolitan area has a significant
number of fast food, fine dining, and casual dining
establishments. Judgmental sampling was used in selecting
respondents for the study. This method was helpful in
selecting individuals who had visited a dining establishment
within the last month. Respondents were approximately
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equally distributed in terms of gender, with a slightly higher
percentage of female respondents (53 percent).
Approximately 7 percent of the respondents had only a high
school education; 35 percent were college graduates and 17
percent had postgraduate education.
For the purpose of this study fine dining restaurants were
described to respondents as restaurants that may have these
characteristics: where one “goes out” for dining, a destination
restaurant, recommends reservations, table cloth, generally
above median price range, and the staff is attentive to the
customer’s dining experience. Casual dining restaurants were
described as those that may have one the following
characteristics: do not recommend or take reservations, focus
on quick order and service, and no tablecloths, less expensive
than fine dining. Examples of casual dining restaurants noted
were: Chili’s, Red Lobster, most Chinese restaurants, Pizza
places, Olive Gardens among others. Fast food dining
restaurants were described as those that focus on good food,
reasonable prices, self-service and quick turnaround. Examples
of fast food dining restaurants noted were: Pizza Hut, Taco
Bell, McDonald’s, Long John Silver, Wendy’s, etc. The
aggregate sample for all three studies is based on 831
residents who agreed to participate in the survey. Within this
757 we had independent samples of respondents who had been
to a fine dining restaurant (292), a casual/family dining place
(194), and a fast food restaurant (271).
Marketing literature reveals various measures of emotions.
A widely used scale to measure emotions is Izard’s Differential
Emotion Scale (DES-II, Izard, 1977, Oliver, 1993). Other
scales that have been used in the past include: PAD (Pleasure,
Arousal and Dominance) by Mehrabian and Russell (1974),
and PANAS and CIRCUMPLEX (Mano and Oliver, 1993).
Based on prior literature in measuring emotions in hospitality
industry 16 items (angry, inspired, contented, invigorated,
delighted, rushed, entertained, special, excited, joyful, happy,
disgusted, important, friendly, surprised) were selected for
measuring emotions.
The instructions to respondents were, “During your dining
experience, you may be experiencing several different feelings/
emotions. Please write the number (from 1 to 10) next to each
question that best describes how you felt during your dining
experience.”
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Journal of Consumer Marketing
Volume 29 · Number 5 · 2012 · 333 –343
The influence of various stimuli (food, ambiance, service,
etc.) on the senses was measured by asking respondents the
following question: Please take a moment to reflect on how
the food, service, ambiance, etc. at the restaurant delighted
your five senses: touch, smell, hearing, taste and vision. For
example, how delighted were you with the presentation of
food items, the interaction with the server, the background
music, the noise level, the setting of the table, etc.? This
question was followed by a five item scale to measure sensual
delight. Each of the five items: touch, smell, hearing, taste and
vision was measured on a seven-point scale with end points as
very delighted and very unhappy.
Other major constructs investigated in this paper include
two measures of attitude: a prior attitude (attitude toward
dining at the restaurant before they visited the restaurant) and
a post-visit attitude (after experiencing the recent visit). These
attitudes were measured using a three item, nine point scale
with end points as good (poor) idea, worthwhile (worthless),
and pleasant (unpleasant). Respondents were also asked to
indicate their satisfaction with the following attributes of the
restaurant – choice of items in the menu, atmosphere/
ambiance, service, and food quality. In addition, overall
satisfaction with the dining experience and the intention
(interest) to revisit the restaurant again were measured using a
nine point Semantic Differential scale. The end points of
satisfaction item were very satisfied and very dissatisfied. The
end points for interest were very interested and very
uninterested.
Qualitative measures
A mixed methodology, based on a concurrent, two-studies
design was utilized (Srnka and Koeszegi, 2007). In two-
studies design the qualitative and quantitative data are both
collected and analyzed separately (concurrently or
sequentially). The qualitative design was based on
phenomenology. A variety of data collection methods can be
used in phenomenology including interviews, focused
conversations and observations. In this research we use in-
depth interviews focusing on personal experience during their
recent visit to a restaurant. The goal is to understand the
diners’ subjective experience, to gain insights into their
motivations, their likes and dislikes, factors that influence
their attitudes and satisfaction. An interviewers’ guide was
developed to capture the highlights (from the respondent’s
perspective) of the dining experience. The interview started
from an overview of the restaurant focusing on their feeling
and emotions and the specific stimuli, interactions or other
aspects of the dining experience that aroused these feelings/
emotions. A total of 35 subjects were asked to describe in
detail one visit that they considered to be an enjoyable
experience and one visit describing an unsatisfactory dining
experience. The questions were developed based on
theoretical and applied work in personality. The interviews
followed a semi-structured, open-ended questionnaire format.
Semi-structured interviews allow for a focused and in-depth
conversation. The respondents can express their responses in
any level of detail and the interviewer can choose to go to the
next question or probe for further elaboration or clarification.
In order to capture a full-range of impressions, participants
were encouraged to provide detailed examples and stories of
their experiences or perceptions with the brands in question.
These interviews were recorded and transcribed for analysis.
 Understanding the role of emotions in dining experience
Raj Arora
Coding transcribed interviews
Consistent with the procedures of phenomenological
research, the questions were developed to capture the
subjective realities and experiences of the respondents.
However, the coding and the resulting framework that
emerged were based on the transcribed interviews and not
created a-priori. Rather, they emerged from the meaning
contained in the responses.
Computer aided analysis of qualitative data
In recent years, there has been considerable interest in
computer assisted qualitative data analysis (CAQDAS)[1]. In
choosing a software package one must consider the goals of
the study and the compatibility of the software with that goal.
The central tenet common to all of these software packages is
the coding of the qualitative responses.
This study used QDA Miner (Provalis Research) software.
QDA Miner provides tools for statistical analysis, as well as the
graphical display of these results. QDA Minor provides
clustering results in the form of a dendrogram. In addition to
standard coding of text and text retrieval, QDA Miner can
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investigate co-occurrence of codes within a paragraph or within
the entire interview. These code co-occurrences can be further
investigated in the form of similarity among cases to plot the
results in the form of a cluster diagram, or a multidimensional
scaling plot or proximity to any selected code.
Results
Quantitative findings
Before proceeding with the testing of various models, it is
necessary to assess the reliabilities of the major constructs
used in the study. The major constructs, their measures, their
mean values, and their reliabilities are shown in Table I. The
reliabilities of all items are satisfactory. It is also evident that
the respondents experienced significantly greater levels of
positive emotions during their dining experience.
The scores for positive emotions are more than twice as
much as negative emotions. It is worth noting that these
mean values represent settings across all types of restaurants.
The differences in mean scores for both positive and negative
emotions were significantly different across restaurants.
These differences are explained in the discussion section.
The mean scores for prior attitude and post attitude were
very similar.
Figure 1 shows the conceptual model of dining experience.
According to Figure 1, prior attitude toward the dining place
influences the sensual delight, the arousal of various emotions
and enjoyment. This in turn influences satisfaction and
intention to return which are ultimately incorporated into the
post dining attitude.
Table I Descriptive statistics for measures
Construct Measures
Prior attitude Poor (good) idea, worthless (worthwhile), unpleasant (pleasant)
Post attitude Poor (good) idea, worthless (worthwhile), unpleasant (pleasant)
Positive emotions Contented, delighted, entertained, excited, friendly, happy, important, inspired, invigorated, joyful, pampered,
special
Negative emotions Angry, disgusted, rushed
Sensual arousal Delight of senses: sound, smell, taste, touch, vision
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Journal of Consumer Marketing
Volume 29 · Number 5 · 2012 · 333 –343
The conceptual model is tested for three different dining
restaurant categories: fine dining, fast food and casual dining.
The first of the three settings tested is for fine dining. The
initial estimates result in a chi-square value of 235.18 with 16
df and a p value of 0.000. The goodness of fit index is 0.83.
These values indicate that the conceptual model does not fit
the data. This model is revised by eliminating paths that are
statistically not significant. The final parsimonious model is
shown in Figure 2. This model has a chi-square value of 4.55
with 4 degree of freedom, a p-value of 0.34 and root mean
square residual of 0.02. The goodness of fit index is 0.99.
The path coefficients show a strong effect of senses (sensual
arousal) on enjoyment and positive emotions with path
coefficient values of 0.44 and 0.24 respectively. Positive
emotions have a strong influence on enjoyment (0.43) and
satisfaction (0.85). Satisfaction in turn has a strong impact
(0.72) on intention to visit the restaurant in future.
Next we estimate the model for casual dining. The initial
model for casual dining results in a chi-squared value of 72.75
with 16 d. f. and a p value of 0.00 and goodness of fit index
value of 0.83. The initial conceptualization is not supported
by the data. The revised model for casual dining results in a
chi-squared value of 23.34 with 16 df and a p value of 0.11.
The Goodness of fit index is 0.94.
The path coefficients are shown in Figure 3. The
coefficients reveal the significant impact of prior attitudes on
sensual arousal. Sensual arousal has a dual impact in positive
and negative emotions. It has a favorable impact on positive
emotions and a negative impact on negative emotions. Senses
contribute to generating positive emotions and suppressing
negative emotions. The negative emotions have a strong and
negative (2 0.59) impact on enjoyment. Finally enjoyment
has a strong impact on satisfaction (0.87) and intention
(0.79). The coefficient of satisfaction leading to post attitude
is large (0.76) and significant.
The final model estimated is for fast food dining
situations. The initial model results in a chi-squared value
of 199.75 with 16 and a p value of 0.00 with the goodness
of fit index of 0.84 indicating an unsatisfactory fit. After the
revisions, the final estimated model is shown in Figure 4.
The resulting chi-squared value is 1.55 with 3df and a p
value of 0.67. Sensual arousal has a significant impact on
enjoyment (0.26) and positive emotions (0.36). Enjoyment
has a negative impact of 0.41 on negative emotions
indicating the role of enjoyment in suppressing negative
emotions. Negative emotions have a small (0.19) but
significant impact on future intention. Enjoyment on the
other hand has a strong and direct impact on satisfaction
(0.97) and intention (0.25).
Mean Reliability
7.6 0.92
7.5 0.94
5.43 0.92
2.1 0.82
5.5 0.84
 Understanding the role of emotions in dining experience
Raj Arora
Figure 1 Conceptual model of dining experience
Figure 2 Estimated model for fine dining
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Figure 3 Estimated model for casual dining
Qualitative findings from in-depth interviews
The QDA Miner provides several options for analyzing the
coded text. The option used in this study is clustering various
sentiments (codes). Clustering results are displayed in the form
of a proximity graph (Figure 5). The figure shows three groups
(clusters) of sentiments. The left cluster shows that interior
décor is very close in proximity to romantic atmosphere. These
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Journal of Consumer Marketing
Volume 29 · Number 5 · 2012 · 333 –343
aspects make a person feel like they are important and on
vacation. The second cluster on the right shows that music and
excellent food are associated with feelings of a high end
restaurant and create a relaxed dining atmosphere.
Figure 6 shows these sentiments in a dendrogram. The
figure reveals that music is closest to creating a relaxed dining
atmosphere. The view from the restaurant is associated with
feelings of delight, excellence in food is associated with a high
 Understanding the role of emotions in dining experience
Raj Arora
Figure 4 Estimated model for fast food dining
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Figure 5 Clustering of positive aspects of dining experience
end restaurant and the host is associated with creating a
feeling of being important.
Reasons for positive emotions
The interviewer’s guide focused on the emotions during
dining experience as well as the reasons associated with such
feelings. Some of the sentiments are shown below:
The music, view and the way people dressed made me feel good. I felt lifted
in the moment, “wow”. The food wasn’t, but the atmosphere was great, the
view/sunset gave an “awe” feeling. Service and attention to our needs were
good and timely. It was a really classy looking restaurant.
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Journal of Consumer Marketing
Volume 29 · Number 5 · 2012 · 333 –343
The food quality just made me happy.
I liked the overall combination of high quality food, great service while not
having them be pushy. Environment was great, relaxing, beautifully
decorated. This created a positive experience. Great pictures on the walls,
European look. I’ve been to Europe and got that impression here. It was like
a dream, reliving those moments when I was in Europe.
We were seated in a separate, private room that was spacious, decorated very
nicely and cozy that made me feel important. We had plenty of room to move
but felt special because we got our own room. The excellent service made it
feel like I was an elite customer who deserved pampering and the meal was
worth every penny because of this.
The relaxed atmosphere made me feel very comfortable.
 Understanding the role of emotions in dining experience Journal of Consumer Marketing
Raj Arora Volume 29 · Number 5 · 2012 · 333 –343

Figure 6 Dendrogram of positive aspects of dining experience

I expect to get fair service for the money. The food and service, as well as the overpriced. Some of the reasons for negative emotions are
atmosphere have to be phenomenal for me to really enjoy a restaurant and
that’s why I felt very important.
shown next.

The service was great. This made it a delightful experience. We never felt
rushed and were always at ease. We felt comfortable enough to just relax and
Reasons for negative emotions
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enjoy the evening.
The atmosphere was great. There were high booths which were private.
The layout of the restaurant contributed to the positive feelings. The tables
were not too close, the décor was nice, and there were white tablecloths.
I ordered the filet because the description made it sound really good. It was
exciting because I was at this new place I had never eaten at before. Excited
to try it because I hadn’t been to a place like that before. The quality was
really good. The service was good. The waiter appeared to be well trained,
didn’t bug you but met your needs. They had experienced waiters. The price
was expensive but worth it for a special occasion.
The above sentiments reveal the importance of ambiance and
service as key factors in arousing an enjoyable experience.
Next, we focus on the unsatisfactory experiences of the
respondents. Figure 7 shows the cluster of key negative
factors. There are two primary clusters. The left side shows
that ignoring a guest makes them feel unimportant and poor
seating can result in arousing angry emotions. The sentiment
over-priced is associated with OK on food quality, indicating
that guests may be willing to pay if the food quality is good,
but a marginal or moderate food quality is perceived as
Management failed to properly train the servers. They looked like they were
trying their best, but with no direction.
They didn’t care that I was unhappy, just said “Sorry you feel that way”. No
initiative to make it right or make the customer happy.
Prices have stayed more or less the same for years and their quality has
definitely declined.
We don’t feel like it is worth the price to go there.
It was all about the lack of quality service. My wife called the manager soon
after the experience and he didn’t seem too consoling about the problem.
They did send us gift cards but the gift cards expired in 90 days and we were
definitely not ready to go back in 90 days.
We waited so long that we expected the food will be wonderful and it wasn’t.
The atmosphere wasn’t really that great either. It was only an okay place.
The pricing was not reasonable. Everything was a la carte which made it
more expensive. It just wasn’t worth it.
Discussion and managerial implications
The purpose of this paper was to show that our understanding
of emotions and sensual delight can add to increasing
customer satisfaction and intentions in dining out. The dining

Figure 7 Clustering of negative aspects of dining experience

340
 Understanding the role of emotions in dining experience
Raj Arora
experience can be seen as a process leading from pre-
consumption to consumptions and finally to post
consumption. In this model the role of the sensual delight
and the arousal of emotions are important linkages to
satisfaction and post-attitude towards the establishment.
Since the purpose and other contextual factors differ
between different restaurant categories (fast food, family
dining and fine dining), it is essential to test these models
separately. The first model for fine dining supported previous
relationship of satisfaction and intention. However, the
antecedents of satisfaction are new and provide new insights
for management.
Our findings show that emotions have a very strong impact
on satisfaction. In fact, the impact of positive emotions on
satisfaction is slightly stronger than the impact of satisfaction
on intentions. In marketing literature, customer satisfaction is
considered to be a construct of paramount importance. Based
on these findings, the role of emotions is no less important than
that of satisfaction. In view of these findings the clichés that we
must go beyond satisfaction in delighting the customer takes on
a new meaning. It is possible to delight the customers,
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however, delight is through arousing positive emotions. And
positive emotions are aroused by sensual arousal. Thus, various
service, ambiance, and food related factors all play an
important role in arousing sensual stimulation which has a
direct impact on emotions and satisfaction.
The role of enjoyment deserves a comment. Casual
observation suggests that restaurant managers often ask
their customers during or after the meal, how was everything?
Thus we thought it important to ask a separate question,
“How enjoyable was your overall dining experience?”
Although sensual arousal adds to an enjoyable experience,
but the impact of enjoyment on satisfaction is far less in
magnitude than the impact of positive emotions. Overall, the
direct impact of positive emotions is very large.
Next we discuss the implications for casual dining restaurant
management. The findings show that prior attitude is the
antecedent for the sensual arousal and emotions. In addition,
satisfaction and intention both have a direct impact on post
attitude. Thus the process starts with prior attitude and makes
a circular loop to attitudes. Attitudes being the enduring
affective and cognitive states, the results stress the importance
of long-run satisfaction and attitude. The results also support
the importance of sensual delight and emotions in leading
towards influencing satisfaction. In comparison with the fine
dining results discussed earlier, the casual dining results also
reveal the strong impact of negative emotions. One possible
explanation may lie in the difference in the levels of negative
emotions generated at these restaurants. For example the mean
negative emotions at fine dining are 1.6 versus 2.03 at family
dining. This difference in mean scores is significant at
p , 0:01. These negative emotions diminish the enjoyment
and thus the subsequent impact on satisfaction and intention.
It also is reasonable to expect that customers are more likely to
experience positive emotions at fine dining and mixed
emotions, both positive and negative at family dining. Both
the fine dining as well as the family dining suggest the
importance of sensual delight and creation of a positive joyous
atmosphere in creating a high satisfaction level.
The last model examined the role of sensual delight and
emotions in fast food restaurant settings. Although fast food
restaurants are by definition “in and out” places, but one may
not assume fast as unwelcome or unpleasant experience.
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Journal of Consumer Marketing
Volume 29 · Number 5 · 2012 · 333 –343
Horowitz (2011), reports that fast food chains such a Sonic,
Pizza Hut and Burger King are now offering beer and wine in
select areas. Starbucks has been selling beer and wine in
selected stores in Seattle. This is evidence towards creating a
pleasant and enjoyable dining experience. The results of this
study show that sensual arousal has a significant influence on
positive emotions. Positive emotions have an indirect
influence on satisfaction (0:41* 0:97 ¼ 0:40) which is
significant from a statistical as well as managerial
perspective. The negative emotions have a strong inhibiting
effect on enjoyment. Thus, the influence of sensual delight
and emotions is noteworthy in fast food settings as well.
Collectively the findings show that sensual delight and the
role of emotions is large and important enough that it
warrants the attention of managers in all restaurant categories.
Lastly we focus on the qualitative comments from the
customers in order to further understand the factors that
aroused positive emotions. It should not come as a surprise that
good food (product) has limited impact. It is the delivery and
service that takes the product (food) to the next level of
satisfaction. As the first bullet stressed, it was not the food but
the ambiance that created the feeling of “awe.” This comments
should not be used to infer that food is (quality, preparation)
are unimportant, rather they are necessary (see second bullet),
but not sufficient. These sentiments that emerged repeatedly
from other patrons are consistent and noted in other bullets.
Just as good service is influential in creating positive emotions,
lack of good service or poor service is also instrumental in
creating negative emotions. The comments seem to stress the
absence of good food and service.
One of the indicators of excellent service is “personalized
service” or making the person feel important. Figure 6
revealed that the interaction with the host is associated with
the feeling of being an important person. The host is often the
first contact with the customer and rather than asking “do you
have a reservation?” which is not uncommon, a personalized
greeting of trying to accommodate the guest is advisable.
Note
1 There is a web site devoted to CAQDAS that has
important links to articles and conferences on the subject.
Several software packages are available; most of these are
available commercially. For a good review article on
various software packages and their corresponding
features, see the article by Lewins and Silver (http://ca
qdas.soc.surrey.ac.uk/ChoosingLewins&SilverV3Nov05.
pdf). Software developers keep updating their software as
new digital technologies become available, but this article
covers major names in CAQDAS.
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About the author
Raj Arora (PhD Claremont University) is Schutte Professor of
Marketing at University of Missouri-Kansas City. His
research and publications are in the areas of consumer
behavior (consumption emotions, involvement, framing, and
credibility) and services marketing (service quality levels,
consumer choice in health care). Raj Arora can be contacted
at: Profarora@gmail.com
Executive summary and implications for
managers and executives
This summary has been provided to allow managers and executives
a rapid appreciation of the content of this article. Those with a
particular interest in the topic covered may then read the article in
toto to take advantage of the more comprehensive description of the
research undertaken and its results to get the full benefits of the
material present.
In one of the interviews with Charlie Rose (PBS July 8),
Anthony Bordain, a chef and writer, stressed that people go to
a restaurant “to have pleasure.” Wisconsin’s educational
program entitled, “Eating for Health and Pleasure”
emphasizes that health and pleasure are not exclusive
 Understanding the role of emotions in dining experience
Raj Arora
constructs (http://learningstore.uwex.edu/assets/pdfs/B3538.
PDF). Pleasure is a sensual and emotional delight. This
investigation reports the findings related to emotions and
sensual delight in influencing satisfaction in the context of
dining experience.
Are emotions important in influencing dining
satisfaction? How important is sensual delight in dining
experience?
Three separate investigations are undertaken to study the
influence of emotions and sensual delight in the context of
dining experience. The three settings are: fine dining, family
dining and fast food dining. A causal model is formulated to
show the dining experience as a process that starts with pre-
dining expectations, during dining experience and post dining
satisfaction and attitude change. This model is tested in three
categories of restaurants. In all three settings, the influence of
sensual delight as well as emotions is statistically significant
and managerially important. The implications of these are
noteworthy in restaurant industry. This is a very
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comprehensive study on the role of sensual delight in
different categories of restaurants.
What can qualitative research add to understanding
dining satisfaction?
An independent sample of patrons provided feedback on
their dining experiences. The phenomenological approach
To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: reprints@emeraldinsight.com
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343
Journal of Consumer Marketing
Volume 29 · Number 5 · 2012 · 333 –343
was used to capture the experiences of the diners. The
interviews were transcribed and analyzed using QDA miner
software. The findings reveal the groupings of positive as
well as negative emotions and the factors associated with
these emotions. The results indicate that interior décor is
very close in proximity to romantic atmosphere. These
aspects make a person feel like they are important and on
vacation. In addition, music and excellent food are
associated with feelings of a high end restaurant and
create a relaxed dining atmosphere. The analysis also
revealed that music is closest to creating a relaxed dining
atmosphere. The view from the restaurant is associated with
feelings of delight, excellence in food is associated with a
high end restaurant and the host is associated with creating
a feeling of being important.
Turning our attention to negative emotions, we find that
ignoring a guest makes them feel unimportant and poor
seating can result in arousing angry emotions. The findings
also show the close linkage of price with expectations of high
quality food and service. The sentiment over-priced is
associated with OK on food quality, indicating that guests
may be willing to pay if the food quality is good, but a
marginal or moderate food quality is perceived as overpriced.
(A précis of the article “A mixed method approach to
understanding the role of emotions and sensual delight in dining
experience”.)
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