The Moderated Mediation Effect of Customer Commitment on the Relationship between Negative Emotion, Customer Satisfaction and Word-of-Mouth Intention in Fine Dining Korean Restaurants

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study used conditional process analysis to examine whether the negative emotion perceived by consumers in fine dining Korean restaurants have a negative effect on word-of-mouth through customer satisfaction, and to verify the moderating mediating effect of customer commitment in this relationship. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 23.0, employing various statistical techniques such as frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, and process macros to test the mediated moderation effect. The findings of this study are as follows. First, customer satisfaction was found to mediate the relationship between negative emotion and word-of-mouth intention in fine-dining Korean restaurants. Second, customer satisfaction moderated by customer commitment mediated the relationship between negative emotion and word-of-mouth intention. Third, customerr commitment did not directly moderate the relationship between negative emotion and word-of-mouth intention. These findings indicate that the moderating effect of customer commitment differs depending on the direct and indirect paths through which negative emotion influence word-of-mouth intention, suggesting that the mechanism by which customer commitment affects consumer behavior is complex and multilayered. While many previous studies have reported that customer satisfaction plays a crucial role in preventing negative word-of-mouth, the results of this study expand on this meaning by revealing that customer commitment plays a significant moderating role between customer satisfaction and negative word-of-mouth intention. This suggests that companies should strive to increase not only customer satisfaction but also Customer commitment.