The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of food neophobia on restaurant image, customer satisfaction, and loyalty in ethnic restaurants. A self-administered survey for data collection 581 customers who visited an ethnic restaurant in August, 2015. Statistical analyses included descriptive analysis, t-test, ANOVA and regression analysis for SPSS 21.0. The finding of the study indicated that the differences of food neophobia score in demographic characteristics showed significant differences by age, occupation, dining-out frequency, and source of dining-out information, not by gender. The mean value of food neophilic group was significantly higher than food neophobic group in all items of restaurant image, overall satisfaction and customer loyalty. The regression analysis showed that tangible aspect, price aspect, and food aspect of restaurant image had positive effects on overall satisfaction and customer loyalty however employee service showed different result by groups. The finding of the study offer marketing strategies for ethnic restaurants to induce customer revisit.

• 김영신(연세대학교 식품영양학과) | Young-Shin Kim
• 백승희(신구대학교 식품영양과 외식서비스경영전공) | Seung-Hee Baek Corresponding author