Fine Dining and Masstige Consumption: Examining the Role of Brand Experience, Trust, and Happiness Using PLS-SEM and ANN Analysis

Abstract The growing trend of premium fine dining restaurants in India, accompanied by rising incomes and shifting lifestyles, presents a compelling opportunity for marketers to tap into the growing markets. Therefore, the current study intends to explore the behavioral antecedents of consumer attitude and masstige intention towards fine dining restaurants; accordingly, we have employed the robust approach of PLS-SEM and Neural network to validate the model. The sample consisted of N = 450 participants, with 60.9 % males and 39.1 % females. The research outcome indicates that attitude (ATT), word of mouth (WOM), and brand happiness (BH) have a significant positive relation with masstige behavioral intention (MBI). In contrast, brand experience, trust, consumer involvement, and subjective norm directly relate to attitude towards masstige consumption. Moreover, in ANN-sensitivity analysis, brand happiness is the foremost determinant for behavioral intention, followed by WOM recommendation and attitude. Subject norms emerge as the most influential factor among the significant determinants of attitude.