Effects of Dish Stories on Authentic Experience, Purchase Intention, and Purchase Behavior

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Ying Qian

Nr. 11451130

‘Master’s Thesis’

Graduate School of Communication Master’s programme Communication on Science

Bas van den Putte

28-01-2019

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Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to examine the effect of dish story on purchase intention and behavior, and whether this effect is mediated by authentic experience. The moderation of story element strength on the effect is also tested. The results showed that the presence of dish stories in menu increased customers’ authentic experience. Authentic experience mediated the relationship between the presence of dish stories with both purchase intention and purchase behavior. The study also partly proved that strong element dish stories stimulate customers’ authentic experience towards the corresponding dishes more than weak element dish stories. The findings suggested restaurants introduce dish stories of which they want to increase popularity and include them in the menu. In this way, customers have a higher chance of ordering the corresponding dishes.

Keywords: dish story, the strength of story elements, storytelling, menu engineering,

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Introduction

In today’s emerging experience economy, customers no longer enter a restaurant just for the basic need of food, they unquestionably desire experiences (Pine & Gilmore, 1998). The experience of dining is more valuable to customers than the service of being provided with food. To remain competitive in nowadays catering industry, restaurants are compelled to satisfy their customers by upgrading their offerings to the next stage of economic value, the experience value. More and more businesses are responding by explicitly designing and promoting them. Theme restaurants such as the Hard Rock Cafe, Dark Room Dining or Japanese Maid Cafe bring dining to a whole new level where food serves as just a prop for the whole dining experience behind.

One way to engage customers is to combine storytelling and food to stage an attractive experiencescape (Mossberg, 2008). A powerful story is built on common fundamental elements in dramaturgy and it can transport customers into imaginary worlds. It also creates context and can give extra meaning to the customer’s experience (Van Laer, de Ruyter, Visconti, & Wetzels, 2014). Storytelling strategies have been engaged in restaurant experience from decades ago because of its effect on higher purchasing intention and word-of-mouth (Park & Choalso, 2010).

The most used way of engaging storytelling strategy in the catering industry is to communicate a brand story, in our case, a story of the restaurant. One of the most successful examples is Restaurant Noma in Copenhagen, which created stories and spread the new Nordic cuisine concept. Noma’s storytelling was so successful that it resulted in many food events with the gastronomic elite from all over the world, a great number of TV shows on the

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concept and a ton of media attention (Sundbo, Sundbo, & Jacobsen, 2013).

These full experiencing restaurants are great for starting up a new business or redecorating a restaurant. However, doing a total change over is not realistic for all restaurants. Luckily, the transition from selling food and services to selling experiences does not have to be as extreme as changing into whole new themes. It can be achieved from step to step. If immersing customers with a whole experience is impossible, small affordable changes can be made to get customers more involved. For example, an Indonesian restaurant named Restaurant Seray tells a story of how the dishes are developed by the chief using his grandma’s recipe. The story is so sweet that it creates a warm family restaurant experience.

A brand story attracts more customers and generates an overall pleasant experience. In the meanwhile, a more common concern of catering industry is to increase revenue. Finding a highly efficient way to increase profitability per customer has earnestly been long for in the catering industry. To achieve this goal, menu engineering was brought into the catering industry in the 1980s. All items in a menu can be categorized into four clusters by its profitability and popularity (Baiomy, Jones, & Goode, 2017). Stars are the dishes with high profitability and high popularity; Plow-horses are those with low profitability and high popularity; Puzzles refer to those with high profitability (high profitable for restaurants) and low popularity (less desirable for customers), and Dogs refer to the dishes with low profitability and low popularity. Persuading customers to order Puzzle dishes transforms those into Stars which will raise the profitability per customer.

Many menu engineering researches have been conducted on the customers’ order behavior influenced by dollar sign (Yang, Kimes, & Sessarego, 2009), inclusion of

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ingredients description (Wansink, Painter, & Van Ittersum, 2001; Youn & Kim, 2017; Filimonau & Krivcova, 2017) or nutrition information (Fakih, Assaker, Assaf, & Hallak, 2016), but few on storytelling. Combining storytelling with menu engineering is a good way to kill two birds with one stone. It not only creates a dining experience but also increases profitability per customer.

In this study, I sought to address the question of how combining storytelling with menu engineering can help restaurants gain more profit in today’s experience economy. A field experiment in a Chinese restaurant was conducted to examine the effect of including dish stories on customers’ purchase intention as well as behavior and how this effect differed by the strength of story elements. An authentic experience could be created by the dish story telling how they were first created and developed throughout history. Story elements included character, setting, initiating event, internal response, plan, attempt and consequence. Weak story elements were general and vague while strong story elements were precise and clear.

A Chinese restaurant was chosen as the experiment setting because of the length and richness of Chinese history. Reading the dish stories wandered customers back into the ancient Chinese life thousands of years ago. The positive affective attitudes towards storytelling associated with higher purchase intention, in other words, increased the odds of the particular dish being ordered (Park & Choalso, 2010). Stories containing strong elements were more often to have better effects than those with weak elements as they were more detailed and believable.

In total, data from 180 customers were collected. Participants entered the experimenting restaurant all by their own wish to imitate the real world cases. They were exposed to one of

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three versions of the menu-- without dish story, with weak element dish stories or with strong element dish stories. Participants were surveyed after ordering and were asked questions on the intention of ordering a certain dish. Final receipts from each table were checked to see the actual purchase behavior. ANOVA and PROCESS were used to examine how the model behaved across customers who were exposed to a different version of the menu.

Through this approach, the study presented both theoretical and practical contributions. This research combined storytelling with menu engineering study which enriched the field of storytelling studies. Existing studies mainly focused on how storytelling change attitude and behavioral intentions, while this field experiment research focused on actual behavioral change which filled in the gap of storytelling theory and its implication on real-life consumption. It also serviced as a guide of menu engineering, following which restaurants can coop with the experience economy and increase the sales of “puzzle” dishes.

Theoretical framework Story and Experience

An experience was defined as the left-behind-feeling remembered by people after receiving and understanding an external stimulation (Sundbo & Sørensen, 2013). The perceived experience towards the same stimulation could differ between people. A story could be an effective stimulant that leaves behind an experience to readers (Mossberg, 2008). A powerful story could transport people into imaginary worlds. It also created context and could give meaning to the perceived experience (Van Laer, de Ruyter, Visconti, & Wetzels, 2014).

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different aspects of a story determined how the experience would be. One of the main aspects of a story was the strength of story elements. The stronger the story elements were, the more powerful the story was. In the study of Gillam and Gillam (2010), stories were constructed with seven elements -- character, setting, initiating event, internal response, plan, attempt, and consequence. The elements could be categorized into weak or strong. Strong elements were more detailed and provided more information while weak elements contained general information. Each of the elements in the study was defined as follows.

The character was defined as an agent who performs an action. The weak version of this element used non-specific labels with a determiner (like “a boy”) while the strong version used a proper name (like “Ben Smiths”). Setting referred to the information about location or time. Weak element stories contained general places or times, meanwhile strong element stories contained specific places or times. Initiating event was the event that motivates characters to take action. Strong element stories contained at least one event that motivates action while weak element stories did not. The four elements below were linked with initiating event which weak element stories did not have. Internal response referred to the feeling stated about the initiating event. The plan was thought stated by the characters related to a decision to take action. The attempt was taken by characters and was motivated by the initiating event while consequence is the end result of characters actions in relation to the initiating event. So the difference between weak and strong element stories was that strong element stories contained these elements while weak element stories did not.

With the additional details, strong story elements would make readers feel that they were more connected with characters in a story. Besides, strong elements were more likely to

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activate readers’ imagination than weak elements. When people felt connected and immersed in the imagination world, they were less likely to discount the messages and more likely to be carried away by the story (Houts, Doak, Doak, & Loscalzo, 2006; Van Laer et al., 2014). In this way, the left-behind-feeling from the story lasted longer. Thus, strong element stories were better in creating an experience.

Storytelling in menu engineering. The restaurant menu has long been viewed as a marketing tool and key to influencing customer behavior (Reynolds, Merritt, & Pinckney, 2005). Menu engineering as developed by Kasavana and Smith (1982) was a menu analysis methodology which evaluated individual menu item performance according to its sales volume and profit. The aim was to find out the restaurant’s star dishes which both sell well and yield high profits and those that do not. The menu could then be altered to enhance the performances of the puzzle dishes which are of high profit but less-desirable by the customers to gain more profit from every customers’ order. Deleting dollar sign (Yang, Kimes, & Sessarego, 2009), inclusion of ingredients description (Wansink, Painter, & Van Ittersum, 2001; Youn & Kim, 2017; Filimonau & Krivcova, 2017), changing the labels into descriptive (Wansink, Painter, & Ittersum, 2001) and including nutrition information (Fakih, Assaker, Assaf, & Hallak, 2016) have all been proven as effective ways in menu engineering. However, there was an important lacuna in research on the application of storytelling in menu engineering.

One way to apply storytelling in menu engineering is to include dish stories on the menu. The dish story covers the history of the dish being invented and how it transformed throughout history. The stories wander readers back into historical settings and connect with

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the characters. Including historical stories of the puzzle dishes in menu generate an authentic experience. The experience about the dishes can increase the odds of these dishes being favored and remembered, therefore achieve the aim of turning puzzle dishes into star dishes.

Authentic experience. One of the experience historical stories bring is an authentic experience. Authentic experience leaded customers to feel that they were consuming the same things as the people in the past (Bagnall, 1997). Handler and Saxton (1988) developed from Bagnall’s theory and argued that authenticity in living history could be expressed as the feeling of living back then.

Authenticity pervades everyday consumption in multiple ways. Visiting the museums, wandering in the old streets, reading about history, playing ancient setting computer games, all these culture or pleasure consumption leave behind an authentic experience. It could be of many kinds and meant different things to different people in different situations (Hughes, 1995).

Previous researchers have pointed out the importance of providing authentic experiences in the marketplace as it was an effective resource through which a business could attract customers and stand out from its competitors (Gilmore & Pine, 2007; Rose & Wood, 2005). Authentic experience has been largely applied in the tourism industry. Den Gamble By, an open-air historical museum in Denmark recreated a market town from the time of Hans Christian Andersen, attracts around 500,000 visitors per year. The ancient people’s daily life story writes on the door of every townhouse. Wuzhen, a historic scenic town in southern China, welcomed over 9,000,000 tourists in 2016 with its well-preserved architectures and structures from Qing dynasty. Stories about the traditional buildings are told to tourists upon

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their arrival. There are many more successful applications of authentic experience in tourism as such. Studies have proved that stories played a significant role in delivering authentic and meaningful experiences to visitors (Mossberg, 2008).

Only in recent years, the focus of authentic experience has been switching to the catering industry. Nowadays, restaurants, grocery stores, and food manufacturers were packaging their products as authentic food or exotic recipes to promote an authentic experience value (Chronis & Hampton, 2008). These phenomena were due to the nowadays experience economy. Customers who choose to dine in restaurants were expecting not only enjoyable foods but also an experience. They expected to experience the traditional foods and to connect to the culture behind (Ebster & Guist, 2005; Molz, 2004; Negra, 2002).

Prior research has shown that ethnic elements in restaurants influenced customers’ perceptions of authenticity (Jang, Ha, & Park, 2012; Wang & Mattila, 2015). Youn and Kim (2017) also found that background stories that connect dishes with historical or fictional events had a significant influence on individuals’ perceptions of authenticity. As strong element stories were better in creating an experience, strong element dish stories were expected to generate authentic experience more than the weak version. This led to the first two hypotheses of this study:

H1. Presence of dish stories in menu increases customers’ authentic experience towards the corresponding dishes compared to the absence of dish stories.

H2. Strong element dish stories stimulate customers’ authentic experience towards the corresponding dishes more than weak element dish stories.

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Authentic experience and purchase intention. Previous studies have found that cultural authenticity had a significant impact on customers’ purchase intentions in ethnic restaurant settings. A survey by Liu and Jang (2009) investigated American customers’ perceptions of Chinese restaurants in the U.S. and found out that authenticity was one of the important contributors to behavioral intentions. Food authenticity significantly affected both customer satisfaction and purchase intention in Chinese restaurants. Also, Wang and Mattila (2015) discovered that perceived authenticity significantly influenced customers’ purchase intentions. Tsai and Lu’s study (2012) attempted to verify the influence of authentic dining experiences on repurchase intention in ethnic restaurants. The results showed that authentic dining experiences effectively indicated customer repurchase intention. The above results formed the basis for the third hypothesis:

H3. Authentic experience towards the dishes mediates the relationship between the presence of dish stories and purchase intention.

Purchase intention and purchase behavior. Purchase intention could be defined as the degree to which a person has formulated conscious plans to conduct or not conduct some future purchase (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980). It was generally agreed that purchase intention was one of the variables for predicting future purchase behavior (Ouelette & Wood, 1998).

However, not all intentions turn into real-time actual behavior. In restaurant scenario, there are many other factors determine whether customers would make actual purchase behavior, for instance, the peer effect, the old purchase habit, the sudden desire for a certain dish. It is not enough to predict actual purchase behavior only by purchase intention. It is important to research on both the purchase intention and the actual behavior because

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understanding both aspects help restaurants attract customers and increase sales. Purchase intention is the basis of timely and future purchase. A purchase is unlikely to be done if the purchase intention is low. Meanwhile, customers’ actual purchase behavior is a more direct and concrete way to see the real-time effect. Only through customers’ actual purchase behavior, can restaurants make a profit. Purchase behavior was chosen to be studied independently from purchase intention because the causal relationship between them was not convincing enough, especially in restaurant real-time scenario. Thus, the fourth hypothesis was formed as such:

H4. Authentic experience towards the dishes mediates the relationship between the presence of dish stories and purchase behavior.

Current Study

This study sought to address the question of how combining storytelling with menu engineering can help restaurants gain more profit in today’s experience economy. This helped fill the lacuna in research on the application of storytelling in menu engineering. Previous studies found dish stories’ effect on purchase intention. But they missed studying the actual purchase behavior which is extremely important for restaurants. Story element strength was described in the previous study, but the influence of strength has not been studied. This study extended the storytelling theory by answering how story element strength influences the perceived experience.

Based on the previous studies discussed above, I hypothesized that including dish stories in restaurant menu enhanced customers’ authentic experience, moreover, the purchase intentions and actual purchase behaviors. Besides, the effect was moderated by the strength

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of story elements. The theoretical model was formed as in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Theoretical model

Research Method Design and Stimulus Selection

A between-participants design was used, with the dish story (not provided or provided) and story element (weak or strong) as the independent variables. When the dish story was not provided, there was no story element variable to control. So crossing the experimental factors resulted in three conditions (no story, weak element story, and strong element story), with each condition including 60 participants.

Chinese dishes that have associated stories about their origin were searched. Three different dishes were carefully selected from different food categories-- Mapo tofu, Kung Pao chicken and Beijing duck. In this way, they covered more customers’ taste thus decreased the effect of personal taste on purchase behavior. Another selecting requirement was the dish’s profitability and popularity. The selected dishes were puzzle dishes which are highly profitable but low in popularity. Each story was limited to around 100 words to make sure that they are not overwhelming to customers. Dish story was manipulated by including one printed-page of three dish stories and the dish pictures in the menu or only including one printed-page of three dish names and pictures without any story (Appendix A-E). Specifically,

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story element was manipulated by using weak element dish stories or strong element dish stories. The application of story elements in the three stories was listed in Table 1. Three different versions of the menu were developed by manipulating dish story and the story elements.

Table 1

Weak and strong elements in three dish stories

Weak story element Strong story element Mapo Tofu

Character / Lady Liu

Setting 17th_{to 20}th_{century; Sichuan}

province

The year 1800; Bridge Wanfu in the northern suburb of Chengdu city

Initiating event / To create new dishes and attract customers

Internal response / Fond of

Plan / /

Attempt / Opened; cooked

Consequence / They named the dish Mapo tofu after Liu, her name was spread all over Sichuan, and the whole of China after then. Kung Pao Chicken

Character A mayor Ding Baozhen

Setting 17th_{to 20}th_century _{The year 1885}

Initiating event / He loved the spicy flavor and eating chicken and peanuts. Internal response / Proud of, love

Plan / /

Attempt / Created

Consequence / Kung Pao Chicken is named after Ding Baozhen, many people started to do the same dish, It became a great heat at the moment.

Beijing Duck

Character Emperors Bo Yan, Qianlong, Cixi Setting 5th_{and 6}th_{century; southern}

China

Year 400; Hangzhou city

Initiating event / He got relocated to Beijing and to enrich the life in Beijing

Internal response / Like, love

Plan / /

Attempt / Brought; loved

Consequence / Roasted duck became an imperial court’s dish and remained favored in Ming and Qing dynasty. Note. “/” means that there is no such element included in the story.

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Procedures

The field experiment was conducted in China Star, a Chinese restaurant in Antwerp China Town, Belgium between November and December 2018. Experiment period was designed to cover a wide time range of both lunch and dinner, weekdays and weekends to decrease the effect of dining time on purchase behavior. Participants were the customers who entered the restaurant all by their own wishes without awareness of the experiment. Based on a random sampling method, 60 customers were exposed to the menu with weak element dish stories, 60 were exposed to the menu with strong element stories and 60 were exposed to the menu without dish story.

After the customers went through the menu and ordered, I approached each potential respondents with the fact sheet and questionnaire (Appendix F-H). After introducing the experiment, I asked whether the customers are willing to be a part of this study and left them a piece of fact sheet with my contact information. Those who agreed to participate were asked to answer the questionnaire. Every questionnaire contained three blocks for three dishes individually. For the participants in the control (no dish stories) group, they were asked to rate the perceived authentic experience towards the dishes and purchase intention towards them. In the survey for the experiment group, participants were asked to recall if they noticed and read the dish stories. Then, they were asked to score the perceived authentic experience and purchase intention towards the particular dishes. Data for the actual purchase behavior was gathered from the participants’ receipts. There was no personal information gathered from participants and the ethical approval was received before the experiment.

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Measures

Perceived authentic experience. The perceived authentic experience was measured using three items that were adapted from Robinson and Clifford (2011). The variables were measured on 7-point Likert scales, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Participants responded to statements “I think that I could learn about Chinese culture by eating this food”, "I think that I could experience Chinese culture by eating this food”, "I think that this is authentic Chinese food”. (Mapo Tofu: Cronbach’s Alpha=.88, M=4.62,

SD=2.41; Kungpao Chicken: Cronbach’s Alpha=.90, M=4.84, SD=2.18; Beijing Duck:

Cronbach’s Alpha=.88, M=5.14, SD=2.22)

Purchase intentions. Purchase intentions were measured using two items adapted from Jang and Kim (2015). Participants reacted to the statements “I am willing to eat this dish.” and “I am willing to order this dish.” on 7-point Likert scales, ranging from 1 (strongly

disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). (Mapo Tofu: Pearson’s r=.88; Kungpao Chicken: Pearson’s

r=.95; Beijing Duck: Pearson’s r=.93)

Purchase behavior. Purchase behavior was stored as 0 (no) or 1(yes) according to the actual order of the participants.

Manipulation check. The questionnaire for the experiment group which was exposed to the menu with dish stories also included manipulation check for dish story. The participants were asked to evaluate for each of the three dish stories whether they noticed and read them by answering 0 (no) or 1(yes).

Data Analyses

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experience as the dependent variable and dish stories (no dish story v.s. weak element dish stories v.s. strong element stories) as independent variables. Two mediation analyses using PROCESS (Hayes, 2013) were then conducted to test the theorized predictions that individuals’ perceived authentic experience will mediate the influence of dish story on purchase intention and behavior. Dish story served as the independent variable, the perceived authentic experience was used as the mediator, purchase intentions and behaviors were used as the dependent variables.

Result

Among the total 180 participants, 60 were not exposed to any dish story. A manipulation check was used to select the participants who read the stories from all the people who were exposed to dish stories. Weak element Mapo Tofu story was read by 32 people and 43 read the strong version; 38 people read the weak element Kungpao Chicken story while 44 read the strong element dish story; 33 people read the weak element story about Beijing Duck and 43 read the strong element story.

Table 2 showed how the participants scored the authentic experience, purchase intention and participants’ purchase behavior for three dishes after reading a different version of stories. Authentic experiences of dishes were moderate to high in no story condition. The numbers were higher in weak element story conditions and even higher in strong element story conditions. Purchase intentions of people who were not exposed to dish stories were below mid-scale for all three dishes (3.5 out of 7). Purchase intention of people who read dish stories were higher and most of the numbers exceeded mid-scale. The purchase behaviors were also higher for story groups.

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Mean or percentage of authentic experience, purchase intention and behavior for three dishes Authentic experience Purchase intention Purchase behavior* No story Weak story Strong story No story Weak story Strong story No story Weak story Strong story Mapo Tofu 3.90 5.00 5.88 2.64 3.13 3.64 7% 3% 16% Kungpao Chicken 4.17 5.34 5.83 3.18 3.84 3.89 10% 18% 23% Beijing Duck 4.78 5.53 6.12 3.46 3.61 3.97 22% 24% 47%

Note: *Purchase behavior is a nominal variable, the percentage means the percentage of the participants who actually ordered the dish.

Story and Story Element Strength Effect on Authentic Experience

The first hypothesis predicted story effect on authentic experience while the second hypothesis predicted the effect of story element strength on authentic experience. A one-way ANOVA was conducted to investigate these effects.

As shown in Table 3, strong element dish stories evoked stronger authentic experience than weak element dish stories, and weak element dish stories resulted in stronger authentic experience than no dish story. The conclusion was true for all of the three dishes.

The analysis of variance showed a significant, medium effect of Mapo Tofu story on the Table 3

ANOVA result of authentic experience towards certain dish

No story Weak story Strong story df F p ƞ^2

Mapo Tofu N 60 32 42 134 42.58 <.001 .08 M 11.70 15.00 ᵇ 17.65 SD 4.08 2.69 2.16 Kungpao Chicken N 60 38 44 141 33.52 <.001 .07 M 12.52 16.03 ᵇ 17.52 ᵇ SD 4.20 2.28 2.14 Beijing Duck N 60 33 43 135 21.15 <.001 .06 M 14.35 16.58 ᵇ 18.37 SD 3.79 2.65 2.32

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perceived authentic experience. The effect of Kungpao Chicken story on the perceived authentic experience was also significant and medium, the same result applied on Beijing Duck story as well. A post-hoc test (Bonferroni) indicated the difference found was

significant between the perceived authentic experience of people who read the dish story and those who were not exposed to dish story for all three dishes. The result was in line with H1. The difference was also significant between participants who read the weak element dish stories and those who read the strong element dish stories for Mapo Tofu and Beijing Duck. People who read the strong element dish stories perceived the authentic experience of the certain dishes stronger than people who read the weak element dish stories. However, the difference of perceived authentic experience for the participants who read the weak element Kungpao chicken stories and those who read the strong element version was not significant (Mdifference= -1.49 p=.111). Thus, H2 was partly supported.

Authentic Experience’s Mediation Effect Between Dish Story and Purchase Intention To test Hypotheses 3, a mediation analysis (Model 4) via the SPSS macro PROCESS was run (Hayes, 2017). For the mediation model PROCESS generated 5000 bootstrap samples, resulting in point estimates for the indirect effects together with bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals.

As can be seen in Figure 2, the relationship between the dish story on the authentic experience was proved to be significant. The authentic experience’s effect on purchase intention was also significant for all three dishes. Controlling for the mediator (authentic experience), dish story was not a significant predictor of purchase intention in all three dish stories condition. A measure for the indirect effect of dish story on purchase intention proved

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to be significant (95% confidence interval did not include zero). Thus, it was found that authentic experience mediated the relationship between dish story and purchase intention which supports H3. Besides, the 95% CI of weak element stories’ effect on purchase intention overlapped with the 95% CI of strong element stories. Weak and strong element stories did not differ in terms of the mediation effect on purchase intention.

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Kungpao Chicken Stories

Beijing Duck Stories

Note: *p < .05

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Authentic Experience’s Mediation Effect Between Dish Story and Purchase Behavior PROCESS was used to investigate whether the association between dish story and purchase behavior was mediated by authentic experience. It generated 5000 bootstrap samples, resulting in point estimates for the indirect effects together with bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals.

As can be seen in Figure 3, dish stories did not significantly direct effect purchase behavior, except for strong element Mapo Tofu story. Authentic experience significantly affected purchase behavior for all three dishes and the indirect effect of dish story on purchase behavior was significant for all three dishes with a 95% confidence interval did not include zero. A mediation relationship between dish story and purchase intention by authentic experience was found which is in line with H4. The overlap of 95% CI of story and purchase behavior between the weak element and strong element stories showed that story element strength did not moderate the mediation effect of dish story on purchase behavior.

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Kungpao Chicken Stories

Beijing Duck Stories

Note: *p < .05

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Conclusion and Discussion Conclusion

This study aims to find out the effect of dish story on purchase intention and behavior, and if this effect is mediated by authentic experience. A comparison is made between no dish story, weak element dish stories, and strong element dish stories.

Apart from the second hypothesis which is partly supported, all the hypotheses are in line with the experimental findings. The presence of dish stories in menu increases customers’ authentic experience. Authentic experience mediates the relationship between the presence of dish stories with both purchase intention and purchase behavior. The effect of story element strength holds value on two out of three dishes. It is partly proved that strong element dish stories stimulate customers’ authentic experience towards the corresponding dishes more than weak element dish stories.

Discussion

Strong element dish stories evoke more authentic experience than weak element dish stories. However, the difference between the two versions of Kungpao Chicken stories is not significant. It could be a coincidental result. Or it could due to the structure of the Kungpao Chicken stories. The weak Kungpao Chicken story differs from the other two weak element story as it contains an in-depth description of the cooking procedure. The cooking procedure uses tempting words (like “fresh, moist, golden brown”) which creates a vivid and tasty dish image. Meanwhile, the Kungpao Chicken story is the longest among the three. So the perceived authentic experience for people who read weak Kungpao chicken story is very high and is not significantly less than the people who read the strong element story.

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Another finding worth discussing is the effect of dish stories on purchase intention and behavior. For all the three dishes being tested, strong element stories result in higher purchase intention than weak element stories, and certainly than no dish story. The presence of a historical story (vs. no story) was therefore favorable for all three dishes. Strong element dish story increase the sales of dishes dramatically. The sales volume is more than doubled for all three dishes (increased by 9-25% as can be seen in Table 2).

Among the customers who were not exposed to dish story, Mapo Tofu is the least desired dish while Beijing Duck is the most desirable one among the three dishes. The indirect effect

b in Figure 2 shows how much the dish story can affect purchase intention, the larger number b has, the better effect the dish story has. Mapo Tofu stories work the best, following with

Kungpao Chicken stories, and lastly Beijing Duck stories. This ranking is the exact opposite order of the original purchase intention of the three dishes (without reading any dish story). The score of original purchase intention for Mapo Tofu is the lowest, but the indirect effect of a story on purchase intention is the highest. It means that the dish story works better on low original purchase intention dish than high original purchase intention dish. The same result applies to purchase behavior. The lower original purchase behavior is, the better effect the story has on this value. This suits the aim of menu engineering: increasing the sales of puzzle dishes (less desired dishes for customers). Dish stories work best on low original purchase intention or behavior dishes.

The mediation influence shows that dish story can not individually influence purchase intention and behavior. The effect is through authentic experience. It is probably because people expect or wish to eat authentic food when they enter a restaurant. If the story does not

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show the authentic character of a dish, people’s expectation would not be met, so purchase intention would not increase.

Among all the people who were exposed with the dish stories, 27-47% did not read the story. To test the story effect, these people were excluded in the study. However, all 180 participants should be tested for a real life effect. One way ANOVA and PROCESS were conducted again with original story version as independent variable (include all 60 participants in each group). All the results were in line with the previous tests except for weak element Beijing duck story. Weak Beijing duck story did not significantly increase authentic experience compared to no story condition. This could because 45% of the participants did not read the weak story, and the popularity of Beijing duck is so high that people already perceived it as authentic.

Implications

Theoretical implications. An important theoretical contribution of this study is the extension of storytelling theory. Story element strength is mainly used to measure narrative discourse skills and evaluate the quality of a story (Gillam & Gillam, 2010). There rarely are studies about the influence of story element strength. The findings of this study proved that the stronger story elements of the historical dish story are, the more authentic experience it evokes. This could because people can get more information from strong element story, and the extra information makes the story more vivid. When the story creates an imaginary world in readers’ mind, the vivid story creates a richer and more detailed one, therefore it lasts longer and clearer which means a better experience.

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industry. The application of storytelling in the catering industry only began in recent years, the use of dish story was even rarer (Youn & Kim, 2017). This could be because writing dish story is limited to dishes with history or story behind which does not apply to every dish. This experiment requirement limited the possibility of conducting such a study. Through this study, dish story is proved to be effective in a Chinese restaurant. The finding encourages future research on storytelling in the catering industry. They could investigate the topic under more controlled conditions for different variables. Future studies could look into whether dish stories are especially effective for different kinds of people (age groups, familiarity with the cuisine, etc). For example, younger people may be easier influenced by the story because they are less experienced and more willing to try out new things. The effect of dish story may be greater for the people who are not familiar with the cuisine than for the people who are familiar with it. This could due to the fact that the dish story may not give additional information or add up the authentic experience for the people who are familiar with it.

Practical implications. Combining storytelling with menu engineering is the main practical contribution of this study. Restaurant owners should strive to present their dishes authentic through menu card or other ways. It was found out that including dish story in restaurant menu can increase sales of the corresponding dish significantly, in both presents (immediate order) and future (likely to order) scenario. Dish stories encourage customers to choose the corresponding dishes. When the stories of puzzle dishes were introduced, it allows restaurants to gain more profit from every order. Besides, including dish stories in menu card is a practical and cost-efficient way compared to most of the other ways of maximizing profit. Applying this finding helps restaurants stand out from its competitors and gain more profit in

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today’s experience economy. Limitations

One limitation is that the experiment took place in a Chinese restaurant in Antwerp China Town. All the waiters and waitresses are Chinese people. The restaurant location, decoration and servicemen already give customers a sense of authentic experience. Therefore the finding only holds valid for this specific setting. This could be the reason why people believe in the historical dish story and score authentic experience high. If the restaurant setting is not authentic, customers may not believe in the story so it may not work that well. Also, the setting makes it hard to generalize the results in all countries or cities.

Besides, Chinese cuisine is very well-known for most customers because of the long history of Chinese restaurants all over the world. People are familiar with Chinese dishes and are willing to try out. The same case may not happen to less popular (Cuban) or less exotic (national or European) cuisines.

Storytelling may not work in the fast food industry because reading a story requires customers’ attention and time. Only dine in restaurants where customers usually spend a longer time in choosing what to order can make use of these findings.

Future studies can experiment in less authentic settings and less popular or exotic cuisine restaurants to fill in the gap of this study. While this study focuses on historical stories, future studies could look at different types of stories, for example, the inspiration and innovation story (what inspired the chief to create or improve the dish) or customer experience story (what other customers say about the dish).

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behavior. Including dish stories in the menu can efficiently increase authentic experience towards the dishes. Restaurants can put stories of the dishes they want to sell more in the menu to increase the chance of them being ordered.

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Do you want to know the history story behind three Chinese dishes?

It’s our pleasure to introduce them to you!

509.

Mapo Tofu

麻婆豆腐 14,50€

Mapo Tofu is a recipe from the traditional Sichuan cuisine dating back to 17th _{century. When the dish was firstly innovated, it}

combined fresh tofu together with beef, chili and pepper. The great combination of spicy, hot and fresh can be felt together in the mouth. This dish firstly gained its fame in Sichuan, then spread quickly to the whole China. One improvement throughout the history is the usage of Sichuan chili bean paste which added up more taste to the dish.

702.

Kung Pao Chicken

宫保鸡丁 14,50€ Kung Pao Chicken was created in the 17th _{century. It was named}

after a mayor of Sichuan province because of his innovation of this dish. The wok is first seasoned and then chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns are flash-fried to add fragrance to the oil. Next, making Kung Pao chicken starts off with fresh, moist, unroasted peanuts or cashew nuts. The peanuts or cashew nuts are dropped into hot oil at the bottom of the wok, then deep-fried until golden brown. Then the chicken is stir-fried and vegetables are added. It was a great hit in the 17th _{century and lasted ever since. One}

innovation is replacing peanuts with cashew nuts. Less spicy version is also popular nowadays.

R13.

Beijing Duck

北京烤鸭 22,00€

The history of roasted duck rooted back to the 5th_{and 6}th_{century. It}

was popular among ordinary families as well as the family of high position in southern China. Gradually the technique of roasting a juicy and delicious duck spread to Beijing. It became an imperial court’s dish and remained favored. Beijing Duck firstly got its name in 20th _{century because the emperors of Qing dynasty loved}

roasted duck so much. In recent hundred years, Beijing duck went from the court to the civil and remain popular till now.

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Wilt u weten wat het verhaal achter dé 3 Chinese gerechten is?

Het doet ons plezier om jullie voor te stellen！

509.

Mapo Tofu

麻婆豆腐 14,50€

Mapo Tofu is een traditioneel gerecht uit de Sichuan-keuken die dateert uit de 17e eeuw. Toen het gerecht voor het eerst werd gemaakt, combineerde het verse tofu met rundvlees, chili en peper. De geweldige combinatie van pittig, warm en fris kan samen in de mond worden gevoeld. Dit gerecht kreeg eerst zijn faam in Sichuan en verspreidde zich vervolgens snel naar heel China. Één verbetering door de geschiedenis heen is het gebruik van Sichuan chili bonenpasta die meer smaak aan het gerecht toevoegde.

702.

Kung Pao Kip

宫保鸡丁 14,50€

Kung Pao Kip wordt gemaakt sinds de 17e eeuw. Het is vernoemd naar een burgemeester van de provincie Sichuan vanwege zijn creatie van dit gerecht. De wok wordt eerst gekruid en daarna worden chilipepers en Sichuan-peperkorrels kort meegebakken om een geur aan de olie toe te voegen. Het maken van Kung Pao-kip begint daarna met verse, vochtige, ongebrande pinda's of cashewnoten. De pinda's of cashewnoten worden in hete olie op de bodem van de wok gelegd en vervolgens gefrituurd tot ze goudbruin zijn. Vervolgens wordt de kip geroerbakt en worden groenten toegevoegd. Het was in de 17e_{eeuw al heel bekend en het heeft} sindsdien voortbestaan. Een innovatie is het vervangen van pinda's door cashewnoten. Een minder pittige versie is tegenwoordig ook populair.

R13.

Beijing Eend

北京烤鸭 22,00€

De geschiedenis van de geroosterde eend stamt uit de 5e en 6e eeuw. Het was populair bij gewone gezinnen en ook bij families met hoge posities in Zuid-China. Geleidelijk aan verspreidde de techniek van het roosteren van een sappige en heerlijke eend zich naar Beijing. Het werd een gerecht van het keizerlijke hof en bleef een favoriet. Beijing Duck kreeg zijn naam in de 20ste eeuw omdat de keizers van de Qing-dynastie zoveel van de geroosterde eend hielden. In de afgelopen honderd jaar ging Peking eend van het hof naar de burgers en bleef tot nu toe populair.

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Do you want to know the history story behind three Chinese dishes?

It’s our pleasure to introduce them to you!

509.

Mapo Tofu

麻婆豆腐 14,50€

Mapo Tofu is a traditional dish from the Sichuan cuisine dating back to 1800. Mapo means lady with freckle in Chinese. By that time, Chen Chunfu opened a restaurant with his wife Liu near Bridge Wanfu in the northern suburb of Chengdu City. To create new dishes to attract customers, she cooked fresh tofu together with beef hash, chili, pepper and Sichuan chili bean paste. The great combination of spicy, hot and fresh won customers’ heart. People were so fond of this dish that they named the dish Mapo tofu after Liu because of her freckle on face. Her name was spread all over China ever since.

702.

Kung Pao Chicken

宫保鸡丁 14,50€

Kung Pao Chicken is named after Ding Baozhen, mayor of Sichuan province during Qing dynasty. Apart from being a good mayor, he was also specialized in cooking. He loved spicy flavours and eating chicken and peanuts. During his time in Sichuan, he created a dish with chicken, hot chili and peanuts. The delicious dish was firstly only cooked in the private cuisine of Ding’s home. Gradually, the secret leaked out and many people started to make the same dish. It became a great hit and lasted since then. The name Kung Pao is Ding’s honorary title given by the Qing government after he passed away in 1885. It was praised for his great achievements during his ten years serve in Sichuan. One innovation is replacing peanuts with cashew nuts. Less spicy version is also popular nowadays.

R13.

Beijing Duck

北京烤鸭 22,00€

The history of roasted duck roots back to year 400 during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It was popular among ordinary families as well as the family of high position in Hangzhou area. After Yuan empire took over Beijing, senior general Yan BO who served in Hangzhou got relocated to Beijing. He brought many craftsmen from Hangzhou to Beijing to enrich the life in Beijing, among which was a chief of roasting duck. Roasted duck became an imperial court’s dish and remained favored during hundreds of years. Emperor Qianlong and Empress Dowager Cixi loved roasted duck so much that they started naming it Beijing Duck. In recent hundred years, Beijing duck went from the court to the civil and remain popular till now.

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Het doet ons plezier om jullie voor te stellen！

509.

Mapo Tofu

麻婆豆腐 14,50€

Mapo Tofu is een traditioneel gerecht uit de Sichuan-keuken dat dateert uit 1800. Mapo betekent dame met sproet in het Chinees. Tegen die tijd opende Chen Chunfu een restaurant met zijn vrouw Liu in de buurt van Bridge Wanfu in de noordelijke buitenwijk van Chengdu City. Om nieuwe gerechten te creëren om klanten te trekken, kookte ze verse tofu, samen met rundvlees, chili, peper en Sichuan chili bonenpasta. De geweldige combinatie van pittigheid, peper en vers won de harten van het volk. Mensen waren zo dol op dit gerecht dat ze het gerecht Mapo tofu naar Liu noemden vanwege haar sproeten op het gezicht. Sindsdien is haar naam overal in China verspreid.

702.

Kung Pao Kip

宫保鸡丁 14,50€

Kung Pao Chicken is vernoemd naar Ding Baozhen, burgemeester van de provincie Sichuan tijdens de Qing-dynastie. Behalve een goede burgemeester was hij ook gespecialiseerd in koken. Hij hield van kruidige smaken en het eten van kip en pinda's. Tijdens zijn tijd in Sichuan creëerde hij een wokgerecht met kippenblokjes, chili pinda's. Het heerlijke gerecht werd in het begin alleen in de privékeuken van meneer Ding gekookt. Geleidelijk aan lekte het geheim uit en meer mensen begonnen hetzelfde gerecht te maken. Het werd heel beroemd en is sindsdien blijven bestaan. De naam Kung Pao is de eretitel van Ding die door de Qing-regering werd gegeven nadat hij in 1885 was overleden. Het werd geprezen om zijn grote prestaties tijdens zijn tienjarige dienst in Sichuan. Een innovatie is het vervangen van pinda's door cashewnoten. Een minder pittige versie is tegenwoordig ook populair.

R13.

Beijing Eend

北京烤鸭 22,00€

De geschiedenis van geroosterde eend wortelt in het het jaar 400 ten tijde van de zuidelijke en noordelijke dynastieën. Het was populair bij gewone gezinnen en ook bij families met hoge posities in Hangzhou. Nadat het Yuan-rijk Peking overnam, werd de senior-generaal Yan BO die in Hangzhou diende, overgeplaatst naar Beijing. Hij bracht veel ambachtslieden van Hangzhou naar Beijing om het leven in Beijing te verrijken, waaronder een chef van geroosterde eend. Het werd een gerecht van het keizerlijk hof en bleef honderden jaren een favoriet. Keizer Qianlong en keizerin-weduwe Cixi hielden zoveel van de geroosterde eend dat ze het Beijing Eend begonnen te noemen. In de afgelopen honderd jaar ging Pekingeend van het hof naar de burgers en bleef tot nu toe populair.

(40)

509.

Mapo Tofu

14,50€

702.

Kung Pao Chicken/ Kip

宫保鸡丁 14,50€

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1. I think that I could learn about Chinese culture by eating this food

Strongly disagree Strongly agree

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

2. I think that I could experience Chinese culture by eating this food

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

3. I think that this is authentic Chinese food

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

4. To what degree are you willing to eat this dish?

Very low Very high

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

5. To what degree are you willing to order this dish?

Very low Very high

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Block 2: Mapo Tofu

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Very low Very high

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Very low Very high

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Very low Very high

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Very low Very high

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Block 4: Beijing Duck

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Very low Very high

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Very low Very high

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2. Did you read the story about Braised Pork? Yes / No

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Very low Very high

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Very low Very high

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Block 2: Mapo Tofu

8. Did you notice the story about Braised Pork? Yes /No 9. Did you read the story about Braised Pork? Yes / No

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Very low Very high

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Very low Very high

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16. Did you read the story about Braised Pork? Yes / No

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Very low Very high

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Very low Very high

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Block 4: Beijing Duck

22. Did you notice the story about Braised Pork? Ye /No 23. Did you read the story about Braised Pork? Yes / No

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Very low Very high

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Very low Very high

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1

With this letter, I would like to invite you to participate in a research study to be conducted under the auspices of the Graduate School of Communication, a part of the University of Amsterdam.

The title of the study for which I am requesting your cooperation is ‘Effect of dish story on purchase intention and behavior’. You were randomly exposed to a different version of menu-- original menu or original menu with three dish stories. Your receipt will be collected to count if one or more of the three dishes have been ordered. In addition, several questions will be asked about your ordering. The goal of this research is to find out the effect of dish story on ordering intention and behavior.

The survey will take about 2 minutes.

As this research is being carried out under the responsibility of the Graduate School of Communication, University of Amsterdam:

Your anonymity will be safeguarded, and your personal information will not be passed on to third parties under any conditions, unless you first give your express permission for this.

You have up to 7 days after participating to withdraw your permission to allow your answers or data to be used in the research.

Participating in the research will not entail your being subjected to any appreciable risk or discomfort, the researchers will not deliberately mislead you, and you will not be exposed to any explicitly offensive material.

For more information about the research and the invitation to participate, you are welcome to contact the project leader Ying Qian at ying.qian.1995@gmail.com at any time.

Should you have any complaints or comments about the course of the research and the

procedures it involves as a consequence of your participation in this research, you can contact the designated member of the Ethics Committee at the following address: ASCoR Secretariat, Ethics Committee, University of Amsterdam, Postbus 15793, 1001 NG Amsterdam; 020‐525 3680; ascor‐secr‐fmg@uva.nl.

Any complaints or comments will be treated in the strictest confidence.

I hope that I have provided you with sufficient information. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your assistance with this research, which I greatly appreciate.

Kind regards, Ying QIAN