The effects of facility, food value, and service quality on perceived value and satisfaction of university cafeteria

University cafeteria’s food, facilities, and services influence the well-being and healthy life of students while they are at the university. The rising competition from the restaurants and cafeterias near the university vicinity also affects the university cafeteria and they consistently need to improve its standards in all spheres. The aim of this research is to understand students’ opinions about different attributes of the university’s cafeteria and to understand the overall satisfaction of students using the university cafeteria. This study proposes a conceptual model to investigate the relationship between cafeteria attributes (measured by facility, food value and service quality), perceived value and satisfaction. The model was empirically tested using data from 247 questionnaire surveys collected from university students. Two-step approach was followed, first by conducting confirmatory factor analysis to assess the uni-dimensionality of scale variables. Structural equation modeling, with the maximum likelihood procedure was used to examine the latent variables within the casual structures. The empirical results show that facility is the dominant attribute showing a positive and significant relationship with perceived value. The results also reveal that service quality is the second attribute followed by food value that influences perceived value. On the other hand, perceived value is also positively associated with satisfaction. Conclusion and implications are made on the basis of the outcomes of the study.