Microsoft Word 2007 ichrie conference Proceedings Final-Final 06-06-07. doc

 
2007 Annual International CHRIE Conference & Exposition 
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1999; Sweeney et al.,1992) However, little is known about young adults’ determinant attributes of menu choice in 
the university campus dining area. The objectives of this study are as follows: 
For young adults—to identify which determinant attributes play a critical role at point of menu selection through a 
qualitative study, 
To examine the relative importance of these attributes in the determining choice of menu alternatives using a 
conjoint analysis.
LITERATURE REVIEW 
Adolescents’ food choice behavior 
Understanding customer choice behavior is important in the highly competitive hospitality marketplace. A 
few studies have developed and tested a model of adolescents’ food choice behavior and examined how those 
choices vary with the context of the decision.
Sztainer and Perry (1999) assessed adolescents’ perceptions about factors influencing their food choices 
and eating behavior through focus group studies. The factors perceived as influencing food choices included hunger 
and food cravings, appeal of food choice, time considerations of adolescents and parents, convenience of food, food 
availability, parental influence on eating behaviors (including the culture of and/or the religion of the family), 
benefits of foods (including health), situation-specific factors, mood, body image, habit, cost, media, and vegetarian 
beliefs. They also suggested that actions such as making healthful food taste and look better, limiting the availability 
of unhealthful options, making healthful food more available and convenient, teaching children food eating habits at 
an early age, and changing social norms to make it “cool” to eat healthfully were needed to help adolescents eat a 
more healthful diet.
Isobel, et al. (2006) investigated adolescents’ decision-making process they use to make food choices on an 
everyday basis and how they resolve their need for personal control over food choices with the values of family and 
peers. They used individual interviews for 108 adolescents asking in a simulated task to choose a lunch from a menu 
of offerings and give reasons for their choices. The primary food choice criteria were taste, familiarity/habit, health, 
dieting, and fillingness. They pointed out that the food choice process involved personal food decision-making rules 
such as trade-offs among choice criteria within a meal (e.g., taste for core items and health for secondary items), and 
between lunches with peer (taste) and family dinners (health). They suggested the food choice process for most 
adolescents seemed to involve cognitive self regulation where confliction values for food choices were integrated 
and brought into alignment with desired consequences.