Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Hospitality Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhm The moderating effect of restaurant type on hedonic versus utilitarian review evaluations Sunyoung Hlee a , Jimin Lee b , Sung-Byung Yang c , Chulmo Koo a, ⁎ a College of Hotel and Tourism, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyunghee-daero, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 02447, Republic of Korea b Havichi Hotel and Resort, 537, Minsokhaean-ro, Pyoseon-myeon, Seogwipo-si, Jeju-do, Seoul, Republic of Korea c School of Management, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyunghee-daero, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 02447, Republic of Korea ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Online reviews Restaurant type Utilitarian and hedonic evaluations Content richness Source credibility ABSTRACT Online reviews from consumers are critically important to the restaurant business. This study identified a heuristic processing of content richness and source credibility and applied both for utilitarian and hedonic evaluations. Furthermore, we analyzed the moderating effect of restaurant type (casual, luxury fine dining restaurant). A total of 2629 online reviews were used, with 1323 reviews for three casual restaurants and 1306 reviews for three luxury restaurants. To collect the data, web harvesting and web content mining were con- ducted to extract useful information by employing an R program. which automatically extract online data. The results reveal that the effect of content richness and source credibility on utilitarian evaluations are greater for a casual restaurant than for a luxury restaurant, whereas only the number of content-rich images had a higher effect on hedonic evaluations of a casual restaurant. The implications of the findings can contribute to the development of marketing strategies. 1. Introduction According to “Yelp’s Small Business Pulse Survey 2017b”, 82% of U.S. restaurants and food services collect feedback from online review sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor (Yelp.com, 2017b). Because of the proliferation of online review sites, the number of business owners who use social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter as a digital marketing tool has decreased rapidly compared with the last few years. Because online restaurant reviews (ORRs) impact customers’ decision-making in the restaurant industry, ORRs have been considered an essential source of information at the point of purchase. However, as the number of reviews available online increases, restaurant consumers may find it difficult to choose credible information to help their decision processes depending on their dining motivations. In addition, the options for restaurant food, prices, and facilities, ranging from casual to luxury restaurants (i.e., Michelin 3-star), have become complex and diverse. ORRs have been regarded as a critical tool to identify price, quality, distance, preference, visitor type and atmosphere among restaurants when travelers are in a specific city. Thus, the hospitality industry and the tourism industry are closely intertwined. In line with the work of Buhalis (2000), visitors must consider whether the restaurant is ac- cessible and whether the quality of accommodations and facilities and services are well equipped for their tourist activities. Therefore, separating the viewpoints of the hospitality industry and the tourism industry is not feasible. Services such as Yelp business can assist con- sumers’ choices. New travelers can find local restaurants by relying on the ORRs of these platforms. Different types of travelers prefer different types of food according to their interests and preferences. For example, a luxury traveler would prefer a proper restaurant with super sensory dining experience (e.g., elegant waiting staff, fancy cutlery, aroma of excellent wine, and extra-ordinary meals), which can give travelers a sense of importance. Business owners and marketing managers should carefully approach the paradoxical perspectives of each traveler. Several studies have explored the key information sources that im- pact restaurant selection and consumer evaluations. Harrington et al. (2013) investigated the importance of information sources for the Mi- chelin restaurant selection decision. They found that word-of-mouth informational sources (i.e., recommendations from friends) and ex- ternal ratings were very important in choosing luxury restaurant con- sumption. However, given the recognition of the importance of con- sumer reviews, several scholars have focused on the characteristics of review factors, such as star rating and review length (e.g., Park and Nicolau, 2015; Xie et al., 2011), and of source factors, such as reviewer identity disclosure, expertise, and reputation (e.g., Liu and Park, 2015; Racherla and Friske, 2012; Sparks and Browning, 2011), in influencing peer evaluations of ORRs. This study argues that restaurant consumers' https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2018.06.030 Received 15 January 2018; Received in revised form 28 June 2018; Accepted 30 June 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author at: College of Hotel and Tourism, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyunghee-daero, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 02447, Republic of Korea. E-mail addresses: onoonee@gmail.com (S. Hlee), smatmin@naver.com (J. Lee), sbyang@khu.ac.kr (S.-B. Yang), helmetgu@khu.ac.kr (C. Koo). International Journal of Hospitality Management 77 (2019) 195–206 Available online 12 July 2018 0278-4319/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T