Análisis de los resultados de los ensayos

This study is not free from limitations. One key limitation relates to locals surveyed. The local diners surveyed at the restaurants in this study were self-selecting. Thus, locals who are more ambivalent towards their local cuisine may have not have been included in the current study’s sample (Bailey & Russell, 2012).

With regard to demographics, almost two-thirds of respondents in the full data collection were below the age of 45. This suggests that the baby boomer generation, which is the largest age group in the U.S. based on restaurant expenditures, may have

been somewhat under represented (Creating Results Strategic Marketing, 2009). This could have been caused by using a convenience sampling technique.

Another limitation relates to generalizing the findings of study’s model to other cuisines. This study only examined perceptions of authenticity at restaurants serving local, regional American Southern cuisine at food tourism destinations in the

Southeastern U.S. Prior research suggests that customer perceptions may differ between a region’s local cuisine, domestic cuisines originating from other regions, and international ethnic cuisine, indicating that the findings from the present study might be different if they were obtained from the same destination’s international ethnic restaurants or restaurants serving domestic cuisines from other regions (Camarena et al., 2011). Similarly, a potential limitation relates to the service settings tested in the current study. More specifically, the current study only tested the RAS and conceptual model at full- service restaurant settings; other types of service settings, such as quick-service restaurants, were excluded from the study.

The current study also collected data over multiple meal periods and over several days as a means of controlling for confounding variables. Yet, since the current study collected data at multiple live, functioning businesses, certain factors within the data- collection sites may be difficult to control for. For example, there could have been fluctuations in the availability of certain menu items or certain key ingredients, which could have potentially influenced respondents’ perceptions of the restaurants’ authentic food and beverage. Some variables relating to the restaurant environment, such as the music being played, and restaurant lighting (which varied throughout the days that data

was collected) were also difficult to control for. Moreover, respondent attributes such as mood might also have factored into their perceptions of restaurant authenticity.

One final major limitation for the current study relates to the potential for response bias, and particularly social desirability bias. Social desirability bias is the tendency of individuals to respond to questions in a way that is perceived to be

acceptable and favorable by others (King & Bruner, 2000). Social desirability bias can arise for several reasons including, participant motives for carrying out a survey or the nature of a survey site (King & Bruner, 2000).

The current study had some limitations that future studies should be consider when assessing the current study’s results. These limitations were due to the fact that the current study focused on regional American cuisine; only collected from full service restaurants; collected live data at restaurants where there may be fluctuations in the availability of certain menu items or certain key ingredients; and may have collected data from respondents who had a tendency respond to questions in a way that was perceived to be acceptable and favorable by others. Future studies could attempt to address these limitations. Thus, the following section will discuss future research in further detail. 6.7.2 FUTURE RESEARCH

There are several future studies which could be carried out to follow up on the current study. In particular, many future studies could address limitations which have been brought up in this chapter.

Firstly, since the locals that were surveyed in the current study were self-

selecting, it was be beneficial to test the current study’s conceptual model with a data set that accounts for this shortcoming. This could include collecting data via mailed surveys

or telephone surveys sent to individuals who live in the Southeastern U.S. This data could also be compared against data from the current study to determine if there are any

significant differences in the path relationships of the model.

Another key limitation to the current study was that it focused on one specific cuisine: regional American Southern cuisine. Thus, future studies could test both the RAS and the current study’s conceptual model in different locals as well as with different types of cuisine. This would be especially useful for the RAS as it could serve as a means of testing and confirming cross-cultural validity.

Similarly, as previously noted, restaurant diners are not monolithic. They can be segmented demographically, psychographically, or contextually (Harrington, et al., 2011; Ignatov & Smith, 2006; D. Y. Kim et al., 2010; Yüksel & Yüksel, 2003). Thus, it is possible that restaurant authenticity has different levels of influence on different

restaurant consumer groups. In future studies, data which focuses on other demographic, psychographic, or contextual groups could be collected. Multigroup moderation analyses could then be carried out to determine if the influence of restaurant authenticity differs significantly between them.

Another potential limitation which is noted above and is related to demographics is that baby boomers may have been underrepresented in the full data collection sample. This could have been caused by the current study’s convenience sampling techniques. Thus, future research using the RAS or the current study’s conceptual model could use a more rigorous form of probability sampling, such as stratified sampling, which ensures that each referent group relevant to a study is proportionally represented in a sample. In