Emotional congruence among solo diners

Abstract By taking into consideration Chinese cultural characteristics, this study examines how emotional congruence with other diners affects the experiential outcome of solo diners. The study additionally tests the moderating effect of ‘generation’ on the relationship between emotional congruence and solo dining experiential outcome. A total of 637 responses obtained from solo diners in Macao were analyzed using polynomial regression with response surface analysis. Results show that when solo diners are emotionally congruent, both positively and negatively, with other diners, they had better experiential outcome. Furthermore, Generation Z solo diners were found to be more affected by their own emotions than any other solo diners. This study indicates implications for foodservice providers that will enable them to cater for the growing solo dining market through greater understanding of the emotions of solo and other diners.