COVID-19 Severity and Restaurants’ Safety Measures on Guests’ Patronage Intentions

Building on protection motivation theory that posited that individuals through affective and cognitive evaluation of health-risk events follow a course of action that protects or minimizes the negative effect of the risk, this thesis has developed a theoretical and empirical model that investigated the impact of customers’ perceptions of COVID-19 violence of restaurants in Iran on patronage intentions. Further, the research model also examined the direct impact of COVID-19 severity on perceptions of adequate implementation of restaurants safety measures and restaurant crowdedness. Finally, the indirect effect of COVID-19 severity on patronage intentions through the mediating role of the perceived restaurant safety and crowdedness were also investigated. The result emanating from empirical evaluation of the data gathered from 384 consumers of Iranian restaurants delicacies supported all proposed hypotheses. In other words, fear or perception of COVID-19 severity was found to negatively impact guests’ patronage intentions while positively impacting their perceived restaurant safety and crowdedness. In the same vein, perceived restaurant crowdedness negatively influences patronage intentions, while perceived restaurant safety fosters patronage intentions. Significant results were also observed for indirect effects, including the mediated paths. Practical recommendations and policy suggestions were provided.