Customer’s Responses to Crowded Restaurant Environment: Cross Cultural Differences between American and Chinese

1 ABSTRACT The study aims at demonstrating cultural differences between American and Chinese in terms of customer's perceptions and satisfaction of crowded environment within the context of restaurant setting. It has been noted that culture has a substantial impact on customer's affection and judgment, and crowding in service environments is a critical antecedent of customer's satisfaction. Considering the two main theme, this study examined how the cultural difference plays a role in predicting customer's satisfaction within the crowded restaurant setting. With the use of customers from the two different cultures in an experimental study, participant's responses to similarly crowded environment in a restaurant were compared. It is revealed that customer's perception of crowdedness negatively influences their satisfaction, but the relationships vary depending on customer's cultural background. Cultural difference in predicting customer's satisfaction also appears to be substantial. .