Literature Review 1 Green Brand Positioning

119 Krystallis, 2005, while both personal internal and external values affect behavior Coogan et al., 2007. Studies have shown that personal values affect willingness to engage in environmental conservation Winter et al., 2007. Consumers have a high regard for restaurants that show active concern for the environment and believe that restaurants, which implement green practices, are beneficial to their health and the environment Schubert et al., 2010. Therefore, including personal values in the decision-making model can more accurately predict environmental attitudes and behaviors of consumers Bodur Sarogöllü, 2005. 2.3 Means-End Chain The Means-End Chain MEC is a final state model that shows how individuals use a choice of product or service to achieve a desired goal. MEC provides a theoretical basis for a potential relationship between the consumer decision-making process and cognitive structure. MEC involves analyzing personal values, which reveal the multiple levels of the cognitive choice structure of decision makers Pitts et al., 1991. “Method” refers to the subjective perception of product attributes held by decision makers, while “objective” refers to the values held by individuals. The main purpose of this theory is to understand consumer decision making and connect the two nodes of methods and objectives to explain consumer behavior Olson Reynolds, 1983. Consumers believe that a choice of specific attributes can help individuals realize desired values. That is, in the minds of consumers, there is a three-way relationship between “attributes,” “consequences,” and “values” Tillmann, 2007. MEC has had good results in marketing strategies such as product formulation and advertising Reynolds Whitlark, 1995. As consumers in recent years have increasingly focused on leisure and entertainment consumption decisions, some scholars have begun to use MEC in the field of leisure consumption in order to research consumer decision-making behavior López-Mosquera Sánchez, 2011. 3. Research Methods 3.1 Data Collection As this is an exploratory study, we use soft laddering as the primary method for data connection and analysis Hofstede et al., 1998. The interview process is divided into two steps. Step 1: Elicit which attributes consumers of restaurants consider green. The question items are as follows: “Why do you like to eat in this restaurant? What are the ideal qualities you hope to find in a green restaurant?” Step 2: Carry out in-depth interviews, exploring the relationship between restaurant attributes, consequences attained following consumption, and personal values. First, we assess whether the answers provided in the first step refer to restaurant attributes. Using these attributes as a starting point, we carry out one-on-one in-depth interviews, asking the following questions: “Why do you think that these characteristics are important to you? What benefits can these characteristics bring you? From these benefits, what values can you realize in your own life?” The LOV Scale can be used for prompts Kalhe, 1985. Interviewers 120 systematically guide respondents from restaurant attributes to consequences, and then from consequences to personal values until the respondents are unable to continuing answering questions.

3.2 Research Subjects and Sampling Design

Interviews were carried out between August and October 2013. Each interview lasted between approximately forty and sixty minutes. Interviews took place in chain restaurants with a good corporate image and a focus on environmental protection, including fast food, hot pot, and casual dining restaurants such as McDonald’s, Karuisawa, and Tokiya. The interviewee is then guided into the research topics, identifying reasons for choosing restaurants to identify linkages between restaurant attributes, result benefits, and desired values. The number of valid samples was twenty, including nine males 48 and eleven females 52. In terms of age, most respondents 70 were over thirty, which accounted for fourteen respondents. Retirees and homemakers accounted for six respondents 30, respondents with tertiary education made up the largest group, with sixteen respondents 40, thirteen 65 respondents lived in the central region, while the greatest number of respondents ate in restaurants between four and six times a week 45.

3.3 Data Analysis

We carried out content analysis on the gathered data. Analysis was carried out in three steps. First, we used interview transcripts to categorize similar statements. Following discussions with three experts familiar with MEC theory and restaurant research, we excluded unsuitable statements and named each of the factors, producing twenty-six factors. The next step was coding. The twenty-six factors were classified through MEC into attributes, consequences, and values ACV, determining the operational differences between the three. Finally, we carried out reliability analysis, using the Kappa index, to calculate the inter-judge agreement between pairs of codes as a measurement index Budd et al., 1967. Kassarjian 1997 believes that reliability greater than 0.85 is satisfactory. In this study, content analysis produced eleven attributes A, eight consequences C and six values V see Table 1. Intercoder agreement was 0.91, 0.89, and 0.94, and reliability was 0.98, meeting the satisfactory level recommended by experts.