OUR MISSION
The Authenticity Effect is dedicated to advancing research on how cultural authenticity influences consumer behavior. Through independent, data-driven studies, we aim to better understand how authentic cultural experiences create value for both consumers and businesses. Our mission is to bridge academic research with practical applications, providing evidence that helps restaurants, researchers, and communities better appreciate the economic and cultural impact of authenticity.
Our Research Focuses
Cultural Authenticity in Hospitality
We analyzed how specific cues in ethnic dining impacted our hypothesized model
Consumer Behavior
We noted how consumers behaved through normalized spending models
Perceived Value
We researched the extent to which percieved value translates to spending
Experience Economy Research
Our survey of existing research and authenticity model examine the experience economy
Restaurant experience design
By examining how authenticity affects experience quality and worth-price ratings, we provide managerial considerations
Benchmarking
Through statisical variations across restaurants, we investigate a series of benchmarks
From Noticing Culture to Valuing it: The Authenticity-to-Value Pathway in Ethnic Dining
Our first research paper explores a hypothesized consumer behavior model where cultural cues-- music, language, service, decoration, etc.--influence different consumer-based evaluations of cultural noticeability, authenitcity, experiential impact, and normalized spending across 8 different ethnic restaurants.
Our Key Findings (so far)
We analyzed 2000+ data points to find correlation between noticeability, authenticity, experiential impact, and normalized self-reported spending along our hypothesized Authenticity-to-Value Pathway (AVP).
Authenticity
When authenticity actually changes your experience, we found diners are more likely to rate their experiences higher, and even spent more
Familiarity
Found that familiarity with a cuisine (ranging from first-time to regular) actually has no significant effect on spending in our tested settings
Existing Academia
We found that our analysis was not only well situated with existing research, but was able to provide a strong preliminary analysis of authenticity's association with normalized self-reported spending