2.5 ­‐ T AXONOMÍA DE LAS TÉCNICAS DE M INERÍA DE D ATOS

choice factors based on their demographic characteristics and dinning occasion.

The results from ANOVA between the dining occasion and the upscale ethnic restaurant choice factors do not show any statistical significance, indicating that consumers did not perceive restaurant choice factors differently. Therefore, Hypothesis 10 is rejected. The rejection of Hypothesis 10 does not support the findings of June and Smith (1987) and Sweeny et al. (1992).

The results from ANOVA and T-tests (see Table 5.24 to Table 5.30, pages 117-122) demonstrate that consumers perceive a difference on restaurant choice factors based on their demographic characteristics: including gender, ethnicity, age, qualification, occupation, household composition, and household income, which supports

Hypothesis 11. These results are in accordance with the findings of Josiam and Monteiro (2004), Kivela (1997), and Mohsin (2005).

The results indicate that Female consumers perceive Marketing Communications as a more important choice factor than Male consumers. This finding suggests that Female diners rely on marketing communications including word-of-mouth, advertising, sales promotion, and publicity more than Male diners when considering an upscale ethnic restaurant. This may be attributed to the general role of female in the food preparation in the household. It may be that females are more selective and want to be better informed when making a decision to purchase food when compared to males, so it is natural for females to seek information about a restaurant from marketing

communications and/or word-of-mouth before making a decision on a restaurant. The results further reveal that Dining Experience, Religious Food, and Restaurant Décor are perceived as more important choice factors by diners from the Others Ethnic Group than the New Zealand European Group. This result suggests that diners from the Others Ethnic Group are more demanding than diners from the New Zealand European Group in terms of dining experience, religious food, and restaurant décor.

Diners with other ethnic origins may have certain expectations about ethnic

restaurants that they have visited in their home countries. When dining at an ethnic restaurant of their own or similar ethnicity, they are therefore likely to be more critical of the dining experience and restaurant décor.

The results regarding age group indicate that the Young-age Group view Marketing Communications and Restaurant Décor as more important, when compared to the Middle-age and the Old-age Groups, and also view Religious Food as more important, when compared to the Middle-age Group. It may be that young consumers cannot afford to dine at an upscale ethnic restaurant as frequently as older groups of consumers, and thus make more effort to gather information about the restaurant. Young-age consumers are also generally more exposed to marketing communications via media such as TV, internet and magazines and place greater emphasis on trends and fashion (Story, Neumark-Sztainer, & French, 2002). Therefore, it is likely that young diners are deeply influenced by the way something (e.g. the décor of the restaurant) appeals to their sense of fashion.

Diners from the Medium-level Qualification Group consider Dining Experience as a more important choice factor than diners from the Low-level Qualification Group, and consider Social Status as a more important choice factor than those diners from the High-level Qualification Group. It can be argued that the highly educated diners are likely to earn more than the medium educated diners and thus can express their status in alternative ways such as expensive cars, luxurious outfit and accessories, in

addition to dining out at an upscale restaurant.

The results suggest that the White-collar and the Others Occupation Groups perceive Service Quality, Food Quality, Dining Experience, and Marketing Communications as more important than the Retired Group. In addition, consumers in the Others

Occupation Group perceive Restaurant Décor as more important than consumers in the White-collar Group, and the Others Occupation Group perceive Religious Food as more important than the Retired Group. These results imply that the White-collar and the Others Occupation Groups are more demanding consumers than the Retired Group.

Furthermore, the results show that restaurant patrons who are in the ‘Couple with Child(ren) at Home’ and the ‘Others’ Household Groups consider Marketing Communications as more important than the ‘Couple without Child(ren) at Home’ Group. This may be attributed to the fact that diners who do not have living-at-home children generally have more disposable income to spend on dining out, compared to the other two household groups. For this reason, diners who do not have children at home do not have the need to use friends’ recommendations, advertising, or sales promotion as a means to search for a good deal or bargain as much as the other two household groups.

Lastly, the results regarding Household Income reveal that Service Quality and Food Quality are perceived as more important choice factors by consumers in the Middle Income and the High Income Groups than consumers in the Low Income Group. This may be because the more affluent consumers demand a higher level of service quality and food quality and can afford to pay for them, compared to consumers with low incomes.