Consumers' return intentions towards a restaurant with foodborne illness outbreaks: Differences across restaurant type and consumers' dining frequency

This study reports an investigation of the determinants of the likelihood consumers will revisit a restaurant that has had a foodbome illness outbreak, including the moderating effects of restaurant type and consumer dining frequency. A scenario-based survey was distributed via Amazon's Mechanical Turk to collect data from 1034 respondents; the tally of valid responses was 1025. Partial least squares-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) showed perceived vulnerability and perceived severity to be statistically significant; both also negatively affected customer intentions to patronize restaurants cited for serving foods that caused foodborne illness outbreaks. Results suggest that type of restaurant is a significant moderator between perceived severity and customer intentions. The type of diner, however, based on frequency, does not moderate the relationships between perceived severity and perceived vulnerability and customer intentions to patronize restaurants that served food causing a foodbome illness outbreak (FBI). Using protection motivation theory (PMT) (Rogers, 1975), this study's findings contribute to understanding determinants and moderators of customer intentions to revisit restaurants after a foodborne illness outbreak.