Trust Based Online Food Review toward Customers’ Restaurant Selection Intention in Food and Beverage Service

Abstract

Information technology had brought many advantages to daily consumption activities, especially when social networks were born. Social networking sites have become a new and modern tool for diners to choose restaurants and food services in Food and Beverage Service (F&B). This study aimed to find the relationship between the online food review communities' characteristics with trust and customers’ restaurant selection intention. Mix-method research was done to archive the research objective. The research results pointed out that four characteristics of online food review communities, including, Expertness, Trustworthiness, Objectivity, Homophily, positively impacted customer trust, which has positively led to the restaurant selection intention in F&B. Some managerial implications were proposed to the managers in the F&B to improve customer trust and restaurant selection intention.