Lu Lu’s Three Minute Thesis
Diners’ experience with sustainable menu offerings at restaurants and promotion strategies through menu renovations
Restaurants’ interest in sustainable food continues to grow while offering sustainable food has become the top menu trend over the past few years. However, academic research has yet to explore this emerging dining theme. The main objectives of this research are to 1) explore the antecedents and outcomes of diners’ perceived value of organic dining; 2) examine the role of a sustainable menu in determining consumer’s restaurant choice and subsequent perceptions (e.g., perceived food quality, attitudes towards the restaurant and willingness to select) and further discuss whether or not providing sustainable food helps restaurants gain an edge over competitors; 3) scrutinize the potential of using menu renovation strategies (e.g., visual and verbal stimuli) to further promote local food at restaurants, according to the types of diner (e.g., traveler and resident). Three independent projects are conducted using consumer surveys and two scenario-based experimental designs. Data are collected from U.S. diners who have recently patronized quick service, casual dining, and upscale restaurants. Results of this research reveal an in-depth understanding of how consumers evaluate and relate different types of value (e.g., hedonic and utilitarian) associated with organic dining to their post-consumption behaviors. Further, findings from this research will assist restaurant managers to better understand the efficacy of using a sustainable menu to allure potential patrons over competitors, while proposing menu renovation techniques to further differentiate them from competitors who also use sustainable food.
About Lu
Lu Lu is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in Business Administration with concentration in Hospitality and Tourism Business Management at Washington State University. She has taught courses at the undergraduate level in hospitality operations as well as international tourism. Prior to joining the PhD program at the Carson College of Business, Lu earned her Master’s degree in Food Science from the School of Food Science and Human Nutrition at WSU. With an interdisciplinary background, Lu is engaged in several research streams including consumer behavior in food and beverage consumption, culture and tourists’ destination experience, and consumer complaining effort. Lu’s dissertation is comprised of three projects jointly examining consumer experience with sustainable menu offerings at restaurants and promotion strategies through menu renovation.