A QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH TO DETERMINE FACTORS AFFECTING PERCEIVED QUALITY: A RESTAURANT CHAIN EXAMPLE

Abstract

The aim of this research is to reveal the factors affecting perceived quality, which is a very
important concept in shaping consumer behavior, in a national restaurant chain. Many definitions of
perceived quality have been made to date. Quality is painting what is difficult to understand and
distinguish.Quality is often misattributed with words such as “beauty, luxury, brilliance, dazzling”. Quality and
its requirements cannot be easily expressed by consumers. Explanation of quality and how to
measure it is one of today's problems for researchers. The importance and difference of this
research is that it includes qualitative and quantitative analyzes in order to better understand the
perceived quality and that the researched restaurant is located in seven cities of Turkey. For this
reason, it is thought that it will shed light on the food and beverage sector in order to direct
consumer behaviors. In the analyses, focus group interviews were made from the qualitative
researches that have an important place in marketing research and quantitative analysis was started
with the results obtained from these. A face-to-face survey study was conducted and the quality
perceptions of consumers were measured. In this sense, the Servqual scale was used. According to
the results of the analysis, it has been determined that three dimensions that affect the perceived
quality specifically for this restaurant chain are very important. Reliability tests (Cronbach's Alpha)
applied to these three dimensions were found to be valid. The study was completed by giving
conclusions and recommendations.