Awareness and perceptions of ethnic restaurant managers towards authenticity and sensory strategies – a case study of Persian ethnic restaurants in London

Introduction The presence of ethnic restaurants is closely linked with the history of people’s travel and immigration, and it is believed that the first-ever restaurant in history was an ‘ethnic restaurant’ around 1100 A.D. The story of ethnic food may have been started a long time ago, however, it was only in the recent decade that the concept of ethnic restaurants has grown in popularity and turned into a speciality in the restaurant industry (Tey et al., 2008). Some of the main reasons that individuals visit an ethnic restaurant are known to be their willingness to explore the particular ethnic culture and to expand their knowledge (Lego et al., 2002; Molz, 2004; Ebster and Guist, 2005; Sukalakamala and Boyce, 2007). Authenticity, the state of being genuine and true to the represented ethnicity and culture, is one of the most prominent qualities in ethnic restaurants which has a significant impact on customers’ overall experience and satisfaction (Sukalakamala and Boyce, 2007). Scholars identified three different perspectives of authenticity: objective, constructive and post-modern. This study focuses on the constructive perspective of authenticity believing that, there is no absolute and objective definition for authenticity (Bruner, 1994) and instead, it is constructed socially or personally (Ebster and Guist, 2005; Kim and Jang, 2016) based on individual’s experiences, perceptions or interpretation and therefore can be perceived differently from person to person (Robinson and Clifford, 2012; Youn and Kim, 2017). Elements that satisfy senses and can convey authenticity to guests in ethnic restaurants are sensory strategies – the strategies which are directly linked with human five senses of vision, audition, gustation, olfaction and touch and are designed to communicate the desired outcomes to the recipient-. The existing literature regarding authenticity within dining settings is highly dominated by the consumer’s perspective and only a few studies look at the supplier’s (service provider) perspective (Le ...