Abstract for Electronic-Tablet-Based Menu in a Full Service Restaurant and

Customer Satisfaction -- A Structural Equation Model

With the advancement of technology, the hospitality industry is also upgrading itself. The use of
technology in restaurants has not only eased the service provider but also for the customers. In this
paper, the writers, Liwei Hsu and Pinying Wu, have studied the relationship between customers
satisfaction and usage of electronics tablet based menu. A questionnaire has been made and survey is
done with 219 customers. Quantitative method is used for research and findings have been made.

Wang and Qualls (2007) proposed a modified Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) model to describe
the technology adoption process of hospitality organization which basically describes that a hospitality
organization must be capable to analyse the strategic value of technology. Various studies and theories
have shown that the restaurants which are keen to use technology for analysis as well as for decision-
making are more successful.

Restaurant food menu is a mass effective way of advertisement with affects marketing and sales
directly. Hence, innovation on menu can be used to attract customers attention. Piccoli, Spalding, and
Ives (2001) pointed out that proper evaluation of customers, competitors, internal and external factors
combined with technology can help to explore strategies for customers satisfaction. The electronic
virtual menu at tableside is of great interest to the customers although only 27% of the participants had
used it before. The information on the menu must give clear information to the customers about the
dishes they order. The study suggested that restaurateurs would receive significant benefits by carefully
designing menu descriptions that emphasize food preparation and presentation. In this study,
questionnaire would be the major research instrument for data collection to test the conceptual model
and research hypotheses. Aiming at presenting the public awareness toward particular issue through a
model-testing fashion, the quantitative methodology was used because quantitative research is a
means for testing objective theories by examining the relationship among variables and these variables
can be measured, typically in instrument, so that numbered data can be analysed using statistical
procedure. A questionnaire survey was administered which comprised of 28 questions on four aspects
of customers perception toward iPad menu, i.e., general attitudes toward the use of electronic tablet-
based menu, waiting staff with iPad menu, information provided on iPad menu and satisfaction toward
the ordering experience in respect of using electronic tablet-based menu. The survey was done at a
Chinese restaurant in Hamilton, New Zealand and 219 participants agreed to participate and filled out
the questionnaire in the June of 2012. Of the 219 valid questionnaires being collected 51% of them were
completed by male customers and 81% of the respondents had visited the restaurant at least once
before. The largest group of respondents was between the ages of 21 and 30 years (50%). In the respect
of ethnic backgrounds of the respondents, 51.6 % of the respondents was non-Chinese, local New
Zealanders (28.8%) and customers from countries such as India, United States (22.8%).According to
results, when restaurant operators are designing a new menu, instead of trying to include too much
information, presenting the information in a systematic way is considered as a better strategy.Further
investigation is in need to explore the feasibility of exploiting electronic-tabled-based menu as an
ordering device at a full scale.