The impact of restaurant patrons’ flow experience on SNS satisfaction and offline purchase intentions

Purpose: It is important for restaurants’ social networking sites (SNSs) to provide a flow experience because it encourages positive brand responses and attracts consumers. However, there is a paucity of research on SNS flow experience in the restaurant industry, and more importantly, most of the research is focused only on online behavior. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how SNS flow antecedents (skill, challenge, telepresence and time distortion) influence overall flow, SNS satisfaction and offline restaurant purchase intentions. In addition, this study examined the mediating role of SNS satisfaction between flow and offline purchase intentions. Design/methodology/approach: An online survey was carried out to examine the patron’s flow experiences. 517 valid responses were analyzed to test hypotheses using structural equation model. Findings: The results indicated that four antecedents of SNS flow positively influenced overall flow. Specifically, time distortion was the most influential antecedent. Overall flow positively influenced SNS satisfaction and offline purchase intentions. Furthermore, SNS satisfaction acted as a mediator between overall flow and offline purchase intentions. Practical implications: The findings provide not only new insights for restaurant managers to implement SNS marketing but also several strategies to encourage consumer’s flow on restaurant SNS. Originality/value: This study investigated the theoretical framework of flow experience more in depth than previous research as dealing with four dimensions of SNS flow antecedents: skill, challenge, telepresence and time distortion.