Abstract

Purpose: This study examines the structural relationship between perceived quality, relationship quality, and revisit intention in the context of coffee shop. In this model, perceived quality consists of product, service, and experience quality, and relationship quality consists of satisfaction, trust, and commitment, and performance consists of revisit intention. More specially, this study identifies whether perceived quality plays a mediating role in the relationship between perceived quality and relationship quality and the direct/indirect effects of perceive quality on intention to revisit. Research design, data and methodology: The survey was conducted from September 1 to 30, 2019. The data were collected from 320 respondents and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) with AMOS program. Results: The findings are as follows. First, quality perception of coffee specialty stores had a statistically positive effect on relationship quality, indicating supports H1. Therefore, customers can know that they are aware of the quality of coffee specialty stores, including quality of service and experience as well as products, and that they form relationship quality with coffee specialty stores. Second, relationship quality between coffee shops and customers had a significant positive effect on performance. Thus, H2 was supported. The results show that if the coffee shop does not consider relationship quality as important, customer loyalty decreases, the number of customers decreases, and the number of customers who switch to another coffee shop increases, which can lead to a threat to the coffee shop. Third, in the case of hypothesis H3, it was found that there was a partial mediating effect of satisfaction and trust between quality perception and reuse intention of coffee specialty stores, so hypothesis H3 was partially supported. As commitment appears to have no mediating effect, it can be said that customers who use coffee shops are not only difficult to maintain as regular customers of a particular coffee shop, but also have ample room to move to other coffee shops. Conclusions: Although many scholars point out the importance of service quality, few studies were conducted in the context of the Korean food service industry (including coffee shops). From this perspective, this study tested several hypotheses that the quality (product, service, experience) perceived by customers can have a positive effect on relationship quality and performance (re-visit intention), either directly or indirectly. The findings of this study demonstrate that if the manager of a coffee shop understands the characteristics of quality perceived by customers and the role of relationship quality, the effect of quality perceptions on customers can be maximized in order to maintain the relationship with customers.