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Given unprecedented shifts in the U.S. demography marked by rapid growth in Hispanic, Asian and other ethnic market segments, marketing scholars and practitioners are confronting ways to cultivate ethnic consumers' brand preference formation, retail patronage and their ensuring consumption choices. Food is cited as a common signifier for consumers’ ethnic/cultural identity because food itself is a cultural symbol. However, little research has examined the influences of ethnic identities on consumers’ patronage behaviors of ethnic-themed restaurants. Thus, this dissertation critically explores the impact of ethnic identity and motivational factors to better understand consumers' choices of ethnic-themed restaurants with a mix-method approach. The present research investigates how ethnic identity and consumers’ need for uniqueness interplay with perceived authenticity in consumers’ patronage intention of ethnic-themed restaurants. The findings advocate the interplay among ethnic identity, consumers’ need for uniqueness, and perceived authenticity of general consumers in decision making choices of patronizing ethnic-themed restaurants. The findings have important implications for market segmentation guiding the owners of ethnic-themed restaurant the choice of environmental cues to encourage patronage intentions among general consumers. Furthermore, this study provides additional insights about motivating factors affecting decision making of patronizing ethnic-themed restaurants and contributes to the stream of research by enhancing understanding of marketing ethnic-themed restaurant in a multi-cultural society.

The failure rate among small businesses is high. More than half of all small businesses fail within the first 7 years of operation. The purpose of this multi-case study was to explore the strategies that successful small ethnic restaurant owners employed to remain operable beyond 7 years. Three successful ethnic restaurant owners who have been operating their restaurant for at least 7 years in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada were selected. Data were gathered from participant interviews and from an examination of available physical artifacts such as the locations, premises, websites, and social media pages. The resource-based view by Edith Penrose was the underlying conceptual framework for this research. Within-method triangulation was used to ensure the rigorousness of the study. In the study, 5 themes were identified: hard work, interest or passion, family support, location, and food and service quality. These findings underscore the importance of hard work, business interest, family support, prime location, and quality food for successful small businesses. Current and future small ethnic restaurant business owners may apply these findings to improve their business performance and survival rate.

Globally, there is a growing demand for food away from home as a result of higher incomes, changes in consumption patterns, changes in household composition, and the time pressures created by dual-working families. The foodservice industry has become highly competitive as the number of foodservice outlets has increased to meet the demand. In order to succeed in such a competitive industry, restaurant operators need to understand the factors (and their relative importance) that influence restaurant patrons’ decision when selecting a restaurant. The demand for ethnic foods has also increased, in New Zealand and worldwide, due to the influences of ethnic diversity, overseas food and cultural experiences, and media exposure. Despite the importance of restaurant choice criteria and a growth in popularity of ethnic foods, published research on consumers’ restaurant selection behaviour that focuses on the ethnic segment is relatively limited. Furthermore, there are no published empirical studies on ethnic restaurant choice behaviour in New Zealand. This research aims to fill these gaps in the literature by empirically identifying the factors that influence a decision to dine at an upscale ethnic restaurant, their relative importance, as well as their relationships with dining occasion and consumer characteristics. Focus group discussions and the literature review helped identify a set of restaurant choice factors. A mail survey was used to collect the data. Factor analysis was used to refine the restaurant choice factors, and logistic regression analysis identified the five significant factors that influence consumers’ decision. These are: Dining Experience, Social Status, Service Quality, Food Quality, and Value for Money, listed in order of their importance. The results of t-tests and ANOVA suggested that consumers perceived the restaurant choice factors differently based on their demographic characteristics. The results of this study contribute to the marketing theory by providing an empirical framework of consumer selection behaviour in New Zealand upscale ethnic dining establishments. The study will also assist marketing practitioners and operators of ethnic restaurants to develop their strategies and offer the attributes that attract and retain customers.