Dining with dogs: investigating the impact of parenting styles on shared human-dog experiences

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the impact of different dog-directed parenting styles on consumers’ experience of dining out with dogs. Specifically, it explores authoritative and authoritarian dog-directed parenting styles as predictors of consumers’ hedonic pleasure and intentions to dine out with their dogs. In addition, this work tests the effects of providing a menu with items specific to dogs on increasing intentions to dine out. Design/methodology/approach Two studies consisting of a quantitative survey (n = 630) and an experimental study (n = 200) targeting dog-owners explore the effect of dog-directed parenting styles on intentions to dine out with dogs. Findings Authoritative dog-directed parenting styles predict expectations of hedonic pleasure and intentions to dine out with dogs. Both authoritative intrinsic and authoritative training dog-directed parenting styles positively predict dining out intentions. Conversely, an authoritarian corrective dog-directed parenting style does not lead to greater hedonic pleasure or intentions to dine out with dogs. Furthermore, this research finds that providing specific menu items for dogs can increase consumer intentions to dine, word-of-mouth and increase overall spending. Originality/value This work contributes to the growing research involving pets in hospitality experiences and provides managerial insights to promote dog-friendly dining. It contributes to the work on dog-directed parenting styles and extends it to a shared consumption context where the human-dog relationship is not the focus. From a managerial perspective, this research helps to better understand how to include pets in consumption experiences and which consumers are most responsive to such initiatives.