Mediating role of guest’s attitude toward the impact of UGC benefits on purchase intention of restaurants; Extending social action and control theories

The User-Generated Content (UGC) like videos, text, images, experience that has been uploaded by the earlier users of a product on an online platform plays an important role in sales of the restaurants. On this aspect, the current paper investigated the role of mediation in the impact of UGC benefits on Purchase Intention of Restaurants across the Kashmir division of Jammu and Kashmir, India, to determine whether a guest's attitude acts as mediation in between UGC benefits and Purchase Intention of Restaurants or not. A survey instrument was administered to 400 tourists/guests who visited hotel restaurants, out of which a total of 330 responses was judged as usable. The data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and other descriptive techniques. Also, the different theories like Social Action Theory and Social Control Theory were validated, which proved the results of this study are consistent with these theories, i.e., SAT, and SCT. This study also highlights that there is an impact on guests' attitude in the relationship of UGC benefits and Purchase Intention of restaurants.