Purpose - With the economic development in China, the lifestyle of Chinese customers has changed dramatically. Chinese customers are more likely to have coffee in a shop with the ability to make them happy than those with high quality coffee in a nice physical environment. Happiness becomes a critical driver of customers’ intention to purchase a cup of coffee in a specific coffee shop again and again. As a result, happiness becomes an important factor for managers to make strategies for attracting customers. Although managers and scholars pay more attention to emphasize the importance of happiness in customers’ consumption, little research has been conducted to investigate the relationship between happiness and coffee shop’s continuous usage intention in the Chinese coffee industry.
Research design, data, and methodology – A research model is made to explain the impact of happiness on customer’s behavior. To understand the influence of happiness better, we consider two dimensions of happiness which are subjective well-being and psychological well-being. In order to confirm the relationships of the variables in the research model, the online survey is constructed in China. Customers who have experienced the services in a coffee shop are asked to do the questionnaire. With 453 reliable questionnaires, structural equation modeling is used to analyze the causal relationships of the coffee quality, physical environment, subjective well-being, psychological well-being, and continuous usage intention.
Results - Results indicate that coffee quality and physical environment are not the direct factors that influence customers’ continuous usage intention. However, good coffee quality and physical environment are the significant predictors of Chinese customers’ happiness associated with subjective well-being and psychological well-being, which in turn affects customers’ continuous usage intention.
Conclusions - In this study, it is proposed that coffee quality and physical environment may be the key factors influencing customers’ happiness. Happiness, including subjective well-being and psychological well-being matters in decision making process. More importantly, happiness increases the continuous usage intention when the coffee shop can serve customers with higher quality coffee at a good atmospheric place. Managers should consider happiness as an important factor in making marketing strategies to compete in this industry.