How Customer Satisfaction Drivers in Online Reviews of Food Trucks and Quick Service Restaurants Differ: Proposing the Concept of Anticipation

Although food trucks have attracted significant attention among the dining public, little is known in the academic literature about what drives consumer satisfaction with them. Employing a grounded theory methodology, we analyzed a large set of Yelp reviews to determine whether the antecedents of satisfaction with food trucks differ from those associated with quick-service restaurants. We found that for most attributes, positive experiences at food trucks have smaller upward effects on satisfaction than they do for quick service restaurants, whereas negative experiences have larger downward effects. We further found that comments about anticipation appear far more frequently in food truck reviews, suggesting that the downward effect of negative experiences may be attributable to expectations. This has implications for theory in that it suggests some modifications to conventional instruments for measuring satisfaction. It also has implications for management practice, in that it suggests best practices with regard to managing expectations of food trucks.