Effect of food-related lifestyle, and SNS use and recommended information utilization on dining out; [혼밥 및 외식소비 관련 식생활라이프스타일과 SNS 이용 및 추천정보활용의 영향]

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to examine social networking service (SNS) use and recommended information utilization (SURU) according to the food-related lifestyles (FRLs) of consumers and analyze how the interaction between the FRL and SURU affects the practice of eating alone and visiting restaurants. Methods: Data on 4,624 adults in their 20s to 50s were collected from the 2021 Consumer Behavior Survey for Food. Statistical methods included factor analysis, K-means cluster analysis, the complex samples general linear model, the complex samples Rao-Scott χ2 test, and the general linear model. Results: The following three factors were extracted from the FRL data: Convenience pursuit, rational consumption pursuit, and gastronomy pursuit, and the subjects were classified into three groups, namely the rational consumption, convenient gastronomy, and smart gourmet groups. An examination of the difference in SURU according to the FRL showed that the smart gourmet group had the highest score. The result of analyzing the effects of the FRL and SURU on eating alone revealed that both the main effect and the interaction effect were significant (p < 0.01, p < 0.001). The higher the SURU, the higher the frequency of eating alone in the convenience pursuit, and gastronomy pursuit groups. The main and interaction effects of the FRL and SURU on the frequency of eating out were also significant (p < 0.01, p < 0.001). In all the FRL groups, the higher the SURU level, the higher the frequency of visiting restaurants. Specifically, the two groups with convenience and gastronomic tendencies showed a steeper increase. Conclusion: This study provides important basic data for research on consumer behavior related to food SNS, market segmentation of restaurant consumers, and development of marketing strategies using SNS in the future. © 2023 The Korean Nutrition Society This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.