An Evaluation on the Attitudes and Importance-Satisfaction on Service Quality of University Foodservice among International Students in Busan

Article information

Korean J Community Nutr. 2019;24(3):208-222

Publication date (electronic) : 2019 June 30

doi : https://doi.org/10.5720/kjcn.2019.24.3.208

Kyung Hee Hong

, Hyun Sook Lee

Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Dongseo University, Korea, Professor.

Corresponding author: Hyun Sook Lee. Division of Food Science and Nutrition, Dongseo University, 47 Jurye-ro, Sassang-gu, Busan 617-716, Korea. Tel: (051) 320-1794, Fax: (051) 320-1781, hyunlee@dongseo.ac.kr

Received 2019 April 02; Revised 2019 May 07; Accepted 2019 May 07.

Abstract

Objectives

This study examined the usage status and the degree of satisfaction of university foodservice (UF) perceived by international students in Busan.

Methods

A questionnaire survey was conducted on the utilization of UF, improvement requirements, preference type and recipe, as well as the importance and satisfaction of UF quality attributes as perceived by international students (n=604) at universities in the Busan area between April and June 2017.

Results

UF was ‘generally satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ in about 35.4% of the study population, and ‘not very satisfied’ or ‘not satisfied at all’ in approximately 11.5%. Approximately 21.7% said that UF contributed to dietary life ‘very much’ or ‘quite significantly’ and 36.4% said ‘not very much’ or ‘not at all’. The largest demand for improvement of UF was ‘variety of menu’ (52.0%). The most leftover food in UF was kimchi (30.3%) and broth/stew (19.2%), and the major reason for having leftover was ‘not to one's taste’ (27.8%). After dividing the foodservice quality attributes into 5 factors - food quality and price, sanitation, convenience, physical environment, and service environment - and analyzing the importance and satisfaction of each factor, it was shown that satisfaction was generally lower than the degree of importance. Sanitation factor was high for both importance and satisfaction of UF, while convenience factor was high for the importance but low for satisfaction of UF. Four variables in the food quality and price factor (‘food taste’, ‘freshness of food’, ‘nutritive value of food’, and ‘reasonable price’) and 3 variables in the convenience factor (‘variety of menu’, ‘prompt food service’, and ‘display of the meals for the day’) had high importance but low satisfaction, showing the need for an improvement on these areas.

Conclusions

Based on the study results, it is necessary to improve the food quality, as well as the price and convenience factors, and to provide various menus to increase the satisfaction of UF in international students.

Keywords: international student; university; foodservice; importance-satisfaction analysis

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Article information Continued

The Korean Society of Community Nutrition

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Funded by : Dongseo Universityhttps://doi.org/10.13039/501100002472

Fig. 1

Importance-satisfaction analysis chart for the university foodservice selection attributes

Quadrant I: High importance/Low satisfaction labeled as “Concentrate here”.

Quadrant II: High importance/Low satisfaction labeled as “Keep up the good work”.

Quadrant III: Low importance/Low satisfaction labeled as “Low priority.”

Quadrant IV: Low importance/Low satisfaction labeled as “Possible overkill.”

Food quality and price - 1. Food taste, 2. Adequate portion size, 3. Proper food temperature, 4. Freshness of food, 5. Nutritive value of food, 6. Saltiness of food, 7. Harmony of main and side dishes, 8. Reasonable price

Sanitation - 1. Cleanliness of food, 2. Cleanliness of dining room, 3. Ventilation of dining room, 4. Cleanliness of toilet, 5. Sanitation of employee, 6. Sanitation of dishes and cutlery, 7. Cleanliness of cook's uniform, 8. Sanitation of cooking and food distribution, 9. Cleanliness of floors of kitchen and dining room

Convenience - 1. Waiting time for meal, 2. Short walking distance, 3. Variety or menu, 4. Prompt food service, 5. Display of the meals for the day

Physical environment - 1. Interior of dining area, 2. Background music 3. Food appearance, 4. Foodservice event, 5. Location of cafeteria

Service environment - 1. Comfortable seats, 2. Functionality as resting place, 3. Pleasant dining environment, 4. Presence of drinking water facilities, serviettes and mirrors, 5. Kindness of employee

Table 1

General characteristics of subjects

1) Mean ± SD

Table 2

The usage status of university foodservice of subjects

^*: p<0.05

Table 3

Leftover foods and their reasons and demand for improvement in university foodservice of subjects

^**: p<0.01

Table 4

Preference of materials in food group of subjects

^**: p<0.01, ^***: p<0.001

Table 5

Preference of cooking method in food group of subjects

^**: p<0.01, ^***: p<0.001

Table 6

The importance and satisfaction levels of the university foodservice by gender

1) Mean ± SD. The importance scores were based on the mean scores measured on a Likert-type scale from 1 to 7 (1: not at all important~4: neither~7: very important).

2) Mean ± SD. The satisfaction scores were based on the mean scores measured on a Likert-type scale from 1 to 7 (1: not at all satisfied~4: neither~7: very satisfied).

^*: p<0.05, ^**: p<0.01, ^***: p<0.001