Formation of customer-based brand equity via authenticity

Purpose: This study aims to examine the extent to which customers’ perceptions of restaurant authenticity facilitate the establishment’s customer-based brand equity (CBBE) – both directly and indirectly – via customer satisfaction. The study also analyzes whether restaurant type moderates the antecedent relationships of CBBE formation. Design/methodology/approach: Two restaurants of different types were selected for the study: a mid-scale and a moderate/casual restaurant. Based on a final total sample of 402 customers of both restaurant types, a moderated mediation regression model was used. Findings: It was found that the level of authenticity perceived by the restaurant visitor during the gastronomic experience is an antecedent of restaurant brand equity formation, both directly and indirectly, via customer satisfaction. Furthermore, these antecedent relationships were found to be partially moderated by restaurant type. Research limitations/implications: Only two restaurants were used for the study. This study could be replicated by comparing other types of restaurants with differentiated characteristics to test whether the results obtained for these two types can be extrapolated to the rest. Originality/value: There is no empirical evidence in the literature regarding the possible moderating effect of restaurant type on brand equity formation, so the particular note is the simultaneous application of CBBE measurement to the analysis of two different types of restaurant and the differences in their brand equity formation. On the other hand, there are few studies that use moderated mediation regression analysis as a methodological technique in the field of restaurants, so this is an interesting methodological contribution.