Influence of Family Type on Family Dining Decision Maker: Casual Dining Restaurant versus Fast Food Restaurant

Single-parent family types make up a growing percentage of the population, which could influence family dining out decision making. The purpose of this study was to identify the family dining decision maker in various family types and to measure what affects the family dining decision maker in choosing between casual restaurants and fast food restaurants. To determine which family member actually chooses a restaurant for dining out, multinomial logistic regression analyses were used for both casual dining restaurants and fast food restaurants with family type as an independent variable and relevant socio-demographic variables as covariances. Family type appeared to be a significant predictor, but child’s age affects the model more than family type. Child gender was the discriminating variable for fast food restaurants but not for casual dining restaurants while household income was the significant variable for casual dining restaurants but not for fast food restaurants. This study offers restaurant marketers’ perspective on who decide for family dining out. The results provide a basis for establishing target by family type, children’s age, and restaurant type. Compared with previous family decision making studies, this study considered family dining out in casual dining restaurant versus in fast food restaurant. Also, this study contributes to the consumer behavior literature by measuring the influence of family type on family dining decision makers.