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An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.
1. Introduction
A restaurant is a place where people can satisfy their hunger and receive appropriate services. In other words, the general purpose of dining at a restaurant is eating food with services. In this respect, food and service can be considered the most critical components for customers to determine satisfaction and future behaviors toward a restaurant. However, the purpose of dining out is not just to satisfy hunger. People sometimes go to restaurants to celebrate special occasions with close friends or family or to refresh and relax from their ordinary life through memorable dining experiences. These purposes are largely associated with a diner's emotions. In relation to an individual's emotions, the environment is also an important dining component. Dining environments create mood and affect customer's emotion, so atmospherics can be a substantial part of dining experiences ([29] Jang and Namkung, 2009; [34] Liu and Jang, 2009a).
Previous research described the relationships among atmospherics, human emotions, and behaviors as "the direct impact of physical stimuli on human emotions and the effect of physical stimuli on approach or avoidance behavior" ([38] Mehrabian and Russell, 1974). Based on this conceptual paradigm, empirical studies have identified the ways in which environments influence consumer behaviors through their emotional states. These studies found that atmospherics play an important role in future behaviors, such as spreading positive things or repurchase intention, in which atmospherics was considered as an independent variable to explain purchase behaviors (e.g. [9] Bitner, 1992; [22] Donovan et al. , 1994; [18] Countryman and Jang, 2006; [29] Jang and Namkung, 2009).
On the other hand, other studies have suggested that customers use the physical environment in judging the quality of products or services. Studies about intrinsic and extrinsic factors indicated that extrinsic cues can be a more important indicator of quality for customers when intrinsic cues are not available ([43] Olson, 1977; [27] Hartline and Jones, 1996; [60] Zeithaml, 1988). Intrinsic cues are attributes that are part of the product or service itself, whereas extrinsic cues are attributes related to the product or service but not a part of the product or service itself ([43] Olson, 1977; [60] Zeithaml, 1988). In...