IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v92y2018icp36-47.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

So private, yet so public: The impact of spatial distance, other diners, and power on solo dining experiences

Author

Listed:
  • Hwang, YooHee
  • Shin, Joongwon
  • Mattila, Anna S.

Abstract

Solo consumption contributes 1.9 trillion dollars to the US economy annually. However, there is scant research understanding solo consumption experiences. To fill this gap, we investigate the joint effect of spatial distance and other diners on enjoyment in solo dining. Results from Study 1 show that, when the spatial distance between the dining tables is small and nearby diners are solo diners (vs. social diners), individuals form a more favorable attitude towards their fellow customers. Such in-group bias has a positive impact on enjoyment. Study 2 investigates the moderating effect of power in influencing the impact of others on solo dining. Results show that powerless individuals evaluate solo dining experiences more (vs. less) favorably when the spatial distance between tables is large (vs. small). Conversely, powerful individuals' ratings of solo dining experiences are uniformly favorable regardless of spatial distance. Implications for service providers catering to solo consumers will be discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Hwang, YooHee & Shin, Joongwon & Mattila, Anna S., 2018. "So private, yet so public: The impact of spatial distance, other diners, and power on solo dining experiences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 36-47.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:92:y:2018:i:c:p:36-47
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.07.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296318303163
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.07.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jennifer J. Argo & Darren W. Dahl & Rajesh V. Manchanda, 2005. "The Influence of a Mere Social Presence in a Retail Context," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(2), pages 207-212, September.
    2. Brent McFerran & Jennifer J. Argo, 2014. "The Entourage Effect," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 40(5), pages 871-884.
    3. Eroglu, Sevgin A. & Machleit, Karen & Barr, Terri Feldman, 2005. "Perceived retail crowding and shopping satisfaction: the role of shopping values," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(8), pages 1146-1153, August.
    4. Rebecca K. Ratner & Rebecca W. Hamilton, 2015. "Inhibited from Bowling Alone," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 42(2), pages 266-283.
    5. Weiner, Bernard, 2000. "Attributional Thoughts about Consumer Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 27(3), pages 382-387, December.
    6. David Dubois & Ena Inesi & Simona Botti & Derek D. Rucker & Adam D. Galinsky, 2011. "Power and Choice: Their Dynamic Interplay in Quenching the Thirst for Personal Control," Post-Print hal-00696608, HAL.
    7. Mourali, Mehdi & Nagpal, Anish, 2013. "The powerful select, the powerless reject: Power's influence in decision strategies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(7), pages 874-880.
    8. Liad Weiss & Gita V. Johar, 2013. "Egocentric Categorization and Product Judgment: Seeing Your Traits in What You Own (and Their Opposite in What You Don't)," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 40(1), pages 185-201.
    9. David Dubois & Derek D. Rucker & Adam D. Galinsky, 2016. "Dynamics of Communicator and Audience Power: The Persuasiveness of Competence versus Warmth," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 43(1), pages 68-85.
    10. Dahl, Darren W & Manchanda, Rajesh V & Argo, Jennifer J, 2001. "Embarrassment in Consumer Purchase: The Roles of Social Presence and Purchase Familiarity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 28(3), pages 473-481, December.
    11. David Dubois & Derek D. Rucker & Adam D. Galinsky, 2011. "Generous Paupers and Stingy Princes: Power Drives Consumer Spending on Self versus Others," Post-Print hal-00621230, HAL.
    12. Derek D. Rucker & David Dubois & Adam D. Galinsky, 2011. "Generous Paupers and Stingy Princes: Power Drives Consumer Spending on Self versus Others," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(6), pages 1015-1029.
    13. Derek D. Rucker & Miao Hu & Adam D. Galinsky, 2014. "The Experience versus the Expectations of Power: A Recipe for Altering the Effects of Power on Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(2), pages 381-396.
    14. Derek D. Rucker & Adam D. Galinsky & David Dubois, 2012. "Power and consumer behavior: How power shapes who and what consumers value," Post-Print hal-00724231, HAL.
    15. Derek D. Rucker & Adam D. Galinsky, 2008. "Desire to Acquire: Powerlessness and Compensatory Consumption," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(2), pages 257-267, April.
    16. Thomas Clayton O’Guinn & Robin J. Tanner & Ahreum Maeng, 2015. "Turning to Space: Social Density, Social Class, and the Value of Things in Stores," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 42(2), pages 196-213.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Handayani, Bintang, 2021. "Foodstragramming of Solo Dining Experiencescape: The Fear of Missing Out," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 12(01), January.
    2. Liu, Stephanie Q. & Choi, Sungwoo & Mattila, Anna S., 2019. "Love is in the menu: Leveraging healthy restaurant brands with handwritten typeface," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 289-298.
    3. Cozzio, Claudia & Volgger, Michael & Taplin, Ross & Woodside, Arch G., 2020. "Nurturing tourists’ ethical food consumption: Testing the persuasive strengths of alternative messages in a natural hotel setting," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 268-279.
    4. Huang, Huiling & Liu, Stephanie Q. & Kandampully, Jay & Bujisic, Milos, 2020. "Consumer Responses to Scarcity Appeals in Online Booking," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    5. Liu, Stephanie Q. & Wu, Laurie Luorong & Yu, Xi & Huang, Huiling, 2022. "Marketing online food images via color saturation: A sensory imagery perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 366-378.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Veronica L. Thomas & Kendra Fowler & Christina Saenger, 2020. "Celebrity influence on word of mouth: the interplay of power states and power expectations," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 105-120, March.
    2. Sheng Bi & Jun Pang & Huan Chen & Andrew Perkins, 2024. "When feeling powerless, we crave nostalgia: The impact of powerlessness on the preference for nostalgic products," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 52(4), pages 998-1017, July.
    3. Danielle J Brick & Gràinne M Fitzsimons & Tanya L Chartrand & Gavan J Fitzsimons & Gita JoharEditor & Sharon ShavittAssociate Editor, 2018. "Coke vs. Pepsi: Brand Compatibility, Relationship Power, and Life Satisfaction," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(5), pages 991-1014.
    4. Wong, Jimmy & Newton, Joshua D. & Newton, Fiona J., 2014. "Effects of power and individual-level cultural orientation on preferences for volunteer tourism," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 132-140.
    5. Li Yan & Hean Tat Keh & Xiaoyu Wang, 2021. "Powering Sustainable Consumption: The Roles of Green Consumption Values and Power Distance Belief," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 499-516, March.
    6. Wang, Wangshuai & Raghunathan, Rajagopal & Gauri, Dinesh K., 2022. "Powerlessness, variety-seeking, and the mediating role of need for autonomy," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 98(4), pages 706-723.
    7. Yong Zhang & Jiayu Ao & Jiayue Deng, 2019. "The Influence of High–Low Power on Green Consumption: The Moderating Effect of Impression Management Motivation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-16, August.
    8. Khalil, Mary & Khan, Saira & Septianto, Felix, 2020. "Effects of power and implicit theories on donation," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 98-107.
    9. Choi, Woo Jin & Park, JaeHong & Yoon, Ho-Jung, 2018. "Your gift choice for your boss versus your subordinate would not be the same: The interplay of power and giver-receiver role on consumers' gift preferences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 1-7.
    10. Sunyee Yoon & Hyeongmin Christian Kim & Vicki MorwitzEditor & Simona BottiAssociate Editor, 2018. "Feeling Economically Stuck: The Effect of Perceived Economic Mobility and Socioeconomic Status on Variety Seeking," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(5), pages 1141-1156.
    11. Wei, Chuang & Liu, Maggie Wenjing & Keh, Hean Tat, 2020. "The road to consumer forgiveness is paved with money or apology? The roles of empathy and power in service recovery," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 321-334.
    12. Yufei Zhang & Thomas E. DeCarlo & Andrew S. Manikas & Abhi Bhattacharya, 2023. "To exploit or explore? The impact of crowdfunding project descriptions and backers’ power states on funding decisions," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(2), pages 444-462, March.
    13. Zhang, Mingyue & Chen, Haipeng (Allan), 2024. "Risk-taking to restore negative self-view: The effect of autonomy and subjective business on financial risk-taking," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    14. S. Venus Jin & Ehri Ryu, 2022. "“The greedy I that gives”—The paradox of egocentrism and altruism: Terror management and system justification perspectives on the interrelationship between mortality salience and charitable donations ," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 414-448, March.
    15. Carol L. Esmark & Stephanie M. Noble, 2018. "Retail space invaders: when employees’ invasion of customer space increases purchase intentions," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 477-496, May.
    16. Mourali, Mehdi & Yang, Zhiyong & Pons, Frank & Hassay, Derek, 2018. "Consumer power and choice deferral: The role of anticipated regret," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 81-99.
    17. Xia, Lan & Roggeveen, Anne L., 2020. "When it’s too good to be true: Consumers’ reactions and firms’ responses to unintended price mistakes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 16-29.
    18. Gurzki, Hannes & Woisetschläger, David M., 2017. "Mapping the luxury research landscape: A bibliometric citation analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 147-166.
    19. Zheng, Xiaoying & Xu, Jing & Shen, Hao, 2022. "To be respected or liked: The influence of social comparisons on consumer preference for competence- versus warmth-oriented products," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 170-189.
    20. Yu, Andrew & Hays, Nicholas A. & Zhao, Emma Y., 2019. "Development of a bipartite measure of social hierarchy: The perceived power and perceived status scales," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 84-104.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:92:y:2018:i:c:p:36-47. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.