Examining the Influence Mechanism of Customer Perceived Food Authenticity and Loyalty in the Ethnic Restaurant: Cultural Identity as a Moderation

The paper examines the structural relationships of customers’ authenticity perception on satisfaction and loyalty in the ethnic restaurant, cultural identity as moderation. A survey was conducted and the structural equation modeling analysis method was adopted. The research displays the following results: the perception of authenticity has significant direct impact on satisfaction and loyalty. The perception of authenticity has indirect impact on loyalty through satisfaction as well. And the directly effect on destination is more significant than indirect effect. Cultural identity has moderation between perceived authenticity and satisfaction. In order to realize the sustainable development of the ethnic restaurants, this paper put forward some suggestions: grasp the dimension of customers’ perception of authenticity and improve the satisfaction and loyalty of ethnic restaurants; maintain the authenticity, realize the cross - local operation of ethnic restaurants; highlight the sense of cultural identity and strengthen the “taste of hometown” in ethnic restaurants