"Makanan etnis adalah salah satu bentuk representasi budaya, dan bisnis restoran bertema etnis menunjukkan perkembangan pesat di seluruh dunia. Di Praha, sebuah tujuan utama turis di Eropa Tengah, sembilan restoran Thai beroperasi di pusat kota, dan hanya ada satu restoran Indonesia. Telah banyak studi yang mempelajari efek kualitas servis terhadap loyalitas pengunjung restoran, namun pentingnya serta efek keautentikan di restoran etnis belum sepenuhnya dimengerti. Studi-studi mutakhir atas restoran-restoran etnis di Amerika Serikat menunjukkan bahwa persepsi keautentikan makanan dan atmosfer mempengaruhi loyalitas pelanggan melalui beberapa variabel mediasi. Tesis ini mempelajari pentingnya dan efek keautentikan di antara pelanggan restoran Indonesia di Praha, dibandingkan dengan restoran Thai yang beroperasi di wilayah yang sama. Sampel sebesar 45 responden dari masing-masing restoran memungkinkan riset ini untuk mensurvei opini pelanggan segera setelah pengalaman bersantap. Data dianalisis dengan SPSS untuk menguji pentingnya keautentikan, dan Smart PLS untuk menguji model struktural. Delapan hipotesis diuji, dan empat di antaranya diterima. Pentingnya keautentikan makanan dan atmosfer ditemukan lebih tinggi di antara pelanggan restoran Indonesia, dibandingkan restoran Thai. Efek persepsi keautentikan juga berbeda di antara kedua restoran. Di restoran Indonesia, keautentikan makanan secara positif berpengaruh terhadap behavioral intention melalui positive emotion, sedangkan keautentikan atmosferik berpengaruh positif melalui perceived value. Di restoran Thai, hanya keautentikan atmosferik yang berpengaruh positif melalui positive emotion. Perbedaan hasil tersebut bisa dijelaskan oleh perbedaan tahap eksistensi kedua jenis restoran tersebut di Praha, mulai dari exotic-narrow hingga expanding-mainstream. Dengan demikian, operator restoran etnis di fase exotic-narrow seperti Indonesia perlu lebih fokus pada keautentikan makanan (penampilan, rasa, bahan pembuatan) dan atmosferik (penampilan eksterior, dekorasi, desain interior, kontribusi musik) dibandingkan restoran yang sudah lebih expanding-mainstream seperti Thai. Berbeda dengan studi-studi sebelumnya yang hanya meneliti satu jenis restoran etnis, riset ini telah berhasil membandingkan dua jenis restoran etnis di Praha.
Ethnic foods are cultural representations, and the business of ethnic-theme restaurants shows a rapid development worldwide. In Prague, a main tourist destination in Central Europe, nine Thai restaurants are operating in the city center, while only one Indonesian restaurant is in business. Many studies have been done to examine the effects of service quality to the loyalty among restaurant goers, but the importance and effects of authenticity in ethnic restaurants are not completely understood. Recent studies on ethnic restaurants in the U.S. revealed that the perceived authenticity of food and atmospherics affected customer loyalty through different mediating variables. This thesis studied the importance and effects of perceived authenticity among the customers of the Indonesian restaurant in Prague, compared to those of a Thai restaurant in the same region. Conveniently sampled 45 respondents from each restaurant allowed the research to survey the customer?s opinion immediately after the dining experience. The data was analyzed using SPSS for examining the importance of authenticity, and Smart PLS for evaluating the structural model. Eight hypotheses were verified, four of which were accepted. The importance of both food and atmospheric authenticities in the Indonesian restaurant customers was found to be higher than that of Thai restaurant. The effects of authenticity also differ between the two restaurants. In the Indonesian restaurant, food authenticity positively affects behavioral intentions through positive emotion, while atmospheric authenticity does through perceived value. In the Thai restaurant on the other hand, only atmospheric authenticity affects positive emotion. The differences can be explained by the difference stages of existence between the two restaurants, ranging from exotic-narrow to expanding-mainstream. Therefore, the operator of a more exotic-narrow restaurant such as Indonesian should be more focused on authenticity of food (appearance, taste, ingredient materials) and atmospherics (exterior appearance, décor, interior design, music contribution), compared to more expanding-mainstream one such as Thai. Different from previous studies that only researched a single type of ethnic restaurants, this study has managed to compare two types of ethnic restaurants in Prague."
Depok: Fakultas Ekonomi dan Bisnis Universitas Indonesia, 2014
