Foodservice Consumer Choice and Service Strategies

2011 International Conference on Innovation, Management and Service IPEDR vol.14(2011) © (2011) IACSIT Press, Singapore

Identifying the Dimensions of Customer Preference in the Foodservice Industry
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Firdaus Abdullah1, Abg Zainoren Abg Abdurahman², Prof. Dr. Jamil Hamali³
¹²³Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia

Abstract. Foodservice industry management must place a high priority on understanding the growing markets. This fast growing industry has a huge influence on the global economy, however it is greatly affected by customers’ ever-changing preferences. It is essential for managers to gain and sustain strategic advantage in the highly competitive industry, however to become and remain competitive in this industry requires a local customer preference assessment. This paper presents the dimensions of customer preference in the food service industry, empirically tested for unidimensionality, reliability and validity using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. A 30-item questionnaire was designed and distributed to 1000 foodservice customers, yielding a response rate of 64.2%. Factorial analysis confirmed five dimensions of customer preference, and using multiple regression, their order of importance are Halal (Allowable in Islam), Price, Quality of Service, Branding and Tangibles.

Keywords: customer preference, foodservice industry, dimensions

1. Introduction
In the ever changing market environment, today’s foodservice operators must place a high priority on understanding the market in order to retain and sustain strategic advantage in the highly competitive foodservice industry [1]. This industry is considered to be the fastest growth industry in the global market (Gu and Kim, 2002), and it is described by players of the industry as being in the middle of a perfect storm (Haas, 2008). It is important to note that the foodservice industry is influenced by fast-changing customer preferences (See Kara et al., 1995; Blum, 1996; Sun and

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