The role of perceived vulnerability in restaurant customers’ co-creation behavior and repatronage intention during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This study examines the antecedents of restaurant repatronage intention and the extent to which risk perception (i.e. perceived vulnerability) moderates the formation of that intention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Service fairness, trust, and co-creation behavior were investigated as the antecedents of restaurant diners’ repatronage intention formation process in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the data collected from people who had dined in a restaurant during the study period, a structural analysis was conducted with the Partial Least Squares method. The proposed model in the study explained a significant amount of the variance in the customers’ repatronage intention and partially supported the moderation effect of perceived vulnerability to COVID-19. The findings of the study contribute to advancing our knowledge of how the perceived vulnerability to COVID-19 leverages customers’ repatronage intention, which is affected by service fairness, trust, and co-creation behavior in the restaurant industry.