The Relationship Between Food Values and Behavioral Loyalty in Flagship Restaurants

This research examines how food values are associated with behavioral loyalty, depending on the level of such loyalty, considering both loyalty to the food and loyalty to the restaurant. To achieve this, a series of hypotheses were proposed and tested using a database of 468 questionnaires from customers of flagship restaurants in Peru. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with Varimax rotation, analysis of variance (ANOVA), parametric linear regression, K-means cluster analyses, and multinomial logistic regression. The findings indicate that at the highest level of behavioral loyalty, the positive and significant relation of the factor encompassing naturalness and safety has a greater effect on loyalty to the food, while the relation of the factor covering environmental impact, animal welfare, fairness, origin, and novelty has a stronger effect on loyalty to the restaurant. The association between food values and the outcome becomes stronger as the level of behavioral loyalty increases, reaching its maximum among consumers with high behavioral loyalty. Therefore, it is essential to focus strategies on food values that transcend traditional utilitarian or hedonic aspects.