Exploring the Relationships among Brand Experience, Perceived Product Quality, Hedonic Value, Utilitarian Value, and Brand Loyalty in Unmanned Coffee Shops during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study aims to find the antecedents that enhance consumer value and brand loyalty to unmanned coffee shops (UCS) that provide unmanned services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis developed and tested a series of hypotheses based on data collected from 463 customers who had visited UCS in South Korea. The influence of brand experience and perceived product quality on customers’ hedonic and utilitarian values were examined, and the utilitarian values were found to have a significant effect on brand loyalty. This result signifies the importance of brand experience and perceived product quality in inducing consumers’ perceptions of value and brand loyalty in the context of unmanned services. The study’s design and results differ from those of previous brand experience studies on manned stores in the food service industry. Therefore, this study contributes to hospitality literature by applying brand experience theory, which has been applied to research on human and unmanned services. In addition, it makes an important contribution by presenting practical implications for the sustainable management of the food service industry during the COVID-19 era.