Abstract

Purpose - Recently, global management in Korea franchise industry is becoming an important keyword. As an important branch market, Chinese market plays a major role not only by making experience of the competitiveness among global brands which offers a foothold to become a top global brand, but also by actualizing an economies of scale in production, sales, etc. Therefore, it is necessary to identify key successful factor influencing customer evaluation and responses of Korean franchise restaurant targeting Chinese consumers in China context. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects for Korean franchise restaurant selection attributes on perceived value, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in Chinese context with SmartPLS 3 and Artifical Neural Network(ANN). Research design, data, and methodology - For these purposes, the authors developed several hypotheses. A questionnaire survey was conducted on the panel of online survey companies for Chinese consumers who have visited Korean franchise restaurants. A total of 404 data were analyzed using structural equation modeling(SEM) and artifical neural network(ANN) with SPSS 22.0 and SmartPLS 3.0. Result - The findings of this study are as follows: First, the alternative model findings show that facilities & atmosphere, employee service, and menu influenced on utilitarian value, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty directly. Second, employee service influenced on customer satisfaction. Third, menu influenced on hedonic value. Fourth, brand reputation influenced on utilitarian value. Fifth, hedonic value increase customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Sixth, hedonic value increase customer loyalty. Seventh, customer increase customer loyalty. And, the ANN analysis shows that utilitarian value is the first most important factor influencing customer satisfaction, followed by hedonic value, facilities & atmosphere, menu and employee service. However, the ANN analysis shows that customer satisfaction is the first most important factor influencing customer loyalty, followed by utilitarian value, hedonic value, brand reputation, menu, and employee service. Conclusions - This study provides practical implications for enhancing customer satisfaction and customer loyalty by applying the ANN technique that complements the limitations of the linear structural relationship analysis using the proposed model and the alternative model. In other words, the SEM-ANN model provides guidelines on how Korean franchise restaurants should formulate facilities & atmosphere, employee service, and menu mix strategies in China. In addition, ANN 's analysis shows that restaurant brand reputation plays a pivotal role in increasing customer loyalty. The fact suggests that Korean franchise companies should establish their domestic brand reputation prior to their entry into overseas markets such as China.