Determinants of restaurant consumers' intention to practice COVID-19 preventive behavior: an application of the theory of planned behavior

Abstract

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of knowledge about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control on behavioral intentions to practice COVID-19 preventive behaviors using the theory of planned behavior (TPB). SUBJECTS/METHODS A total of 519 restaurant customers' responses was collected in this study through an online self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed on socio-demographic factors. One-way analysis of variance and t-test were conducted to determine differences in the constructs from the TPB according to age and sex. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). RESULTS SEM revealed the positive effect of knowledge about COVID-19 on attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in restaurants. Attitude, subjective norm, behavior intention, and knowledge positively affected COVID-19 preventive behavior intentions in restaurants. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study confirmed that the TPB is helpful in elucidating the determinants of consumers' intention to practice COVID-19 preventive behavior in restaurants. These findings can help policy makers and professionals provide material for further public health interventions and inform them about awareness-raising, guidelines, and health education programs.

The COVID-19 crisis and factors driving international tourists’ preferences for contactless dining services

“…As per our prediction, we found support in favor of H1–H3 . Our findings were consistent with previous studies in the restaurant and hospitality settings that subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and attitude were positive predictors of behavioral control (Al Amin et al , 2021; Cha, 2020; Choi et al , 2019; Hao, 2021; Jeong and Lee, 2021; Kim and Choi, 2021; Sun et al , 2021). Further, previous travel risk studies supported that the dimensions of attitude in this study, namely, perceived vulnerability, perceived severity and perceived response efficacy (Ruan et al , 2020; Wang et al , 2019) as well as subjective norms and perceived behavioral control (Bae and Chang, 2021) positively affected international tourists’ preventive behavioral intentions in the face of health threats.…”

“…TPB’s subjective norms and perceived behavioral control positively influenced the intentions of Ethiopian adults with chronic diseases to practice personal preventive measures during the health crisis (Andarge et al , 2020). Moreover, Jeong and Lee (2021) used TPB to study consumer intentions to engage in COVID-19 preventive behaviors in restaurants based on the Korean local Governments’ guidelines (i.e. “Using a personal dish in restaurants”; “Wearing a mask when staying in restaurants except at eating”; “Do not share food on a plate”; etc.).…”