Groundedness as a driver of revisit intention and restaurant brand evangelism in nostalgia-themed restaurants: evidence from Indian Gen-Z

Purpose In recent years, nostalgia-themed restaurants have gained increasing prominence within the hospitality industry, offering consumers immersive experiences that evoke memories of the past. Despite this growing popularity, scholarly understanding of how nostalgia-evoking cues influence customer behaviour remains limited. Based on the stimulus-organism-response theory, this study aims to investigate the role of groundedness as the underlying psychological mechanism linking nostalgia-evoking cues to revisit intention and restaurant brand evangelism among Indian Gen-Z consumers. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a quantitative research design by conducting a survey. The data collected from 501 respondents were analysed using covariance-based structural equation modelling to test the hypotheses. Findings Food and staff significantly foster groundedness, whereas design and atmosphere and tableware and furniture do not. Groundedness strongly enhances revisit intention and restaurant brand evangelism. Place attachment moderates the association between groundedness and revisit intention, whereas nostalgia proneness exhibits no moderating effect. Research limitations/implications In the nostalgia-themed restaurant context, this study extends the stimulus-organism-response framework by identifying groundedness as a psychological mechanism linking nostalgia-evoking cues with revisit intention and restaurant brand evangelism. This is the first study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to extend the concept of groundedness to hospitality literature. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to extend the concept of groundedness to the hospitality context and addresses the limited research on restaurant brand evangelism by explaining how nostalgia-evoking cues influence Gen-Z’s behavioural responses.