Eating-out Motivations of Indian Consumers

Abstract

As eating out has become an essential part of people’s lives, the Indian food service industry has rapidly evolved and become intensely competitive in the past decade. It is essential for restaurateurs to understand their consumers and be strategically competitive to survive and be profitable. Hence, this study intends to explore the various motives of people consuming food outside their home. The objective of the study is to develop a measurement scale representing the wide array of eating out motivations of Indian consumers. The study employed qualitative research using in-depth interviews to thoroughly investigate the eating-out motivations of people and to generate the initial scale items. A structured questionnaire comprising these items was designed for the quantitative study. The data collected (n = 280) through convenience sampling technique were subjected to exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses which yielded a 20-item eating-out motivations scale consisting of six dimensions: hedonic motive, exploration motive, social motive, value-seeking motive, convenience motive and status-seeking motive.