Determinants of diners' variety seeking intentions

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to identify diners' fundamental reasons for seeking variety in their choice of a restaurant and to understand their variety-seeking intentions from the perspective of personality characteristics. Design/methodology/approach - An online survey was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire and 309 usable responses were collected. To test the hypothesized relationships, structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed. A multiple group analysis was also conducted to test the moderating effects of personality characteristics. Findings - The results suggested that diners' desired values are more critical than prior dining experiences in determining variety seeking intentions. Further, satisfaction and desired hedonic/utilitarian values differently affect variety seeking intentions across high and low allocentric personality groups. Practical implications - Regarding personality types, satisfaction and desired values were found to have a significant impact on variety seeking intentions in the high allocentric group, but not the low allocentric group. This suggests that the restaurant industry could develop effective marketing strategies by considering their target customers' personality characteristics. Originality/value - This study is unique in that it identified customers' fundamental reasons for seeking variety in consumption situations, particularly in terms of restaurant choice. This study also considered individuals' personality characteristics associated with optimal stimulation level in order to understand why consumers seek variety.