EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS ON PILOT DATA

As previously noted, data was collected from diners at three full-service restaurants serving Southern cuisine at a food tourism destination in the Southeastern U.S. Overall, 384 individuals were approached and 317 samples were obtained for a response rate of 82.5%. This sample size was deemed appropriate by Tabachnick and Fidell (2013) who suggest that a sample size of 300 is required to conduct an exploratory factor analysis.

The respondents included 127 males (40.1%) and 190 females (59.9%). It also contained 230 tourists (72.6%) and 87 residents (27.4%). A majority of respondents were under the age of 45 (64.7%) and the gross annual income for the majority of subjects was below US$100,000 (54.7%). With regard to dining expenses, diners spent, on average, more than $25 for their meal. Lastly, on a daily basis, tourist respondents were spending approximately $89 in travel expenses for their trips.

4.6.2 PILOT STUDY DATA ANALYSIS

A principal axis factoring (PAF) factor analysis with promax oblique rotation was run on the retained item pool items using The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) v. 24. A promax rotation was used as it is an oblique rotation, which assumes that there will be some level of correlation between factors. For the current study factors were expected to be correlated to some extent (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2013). Inspection of the correlation matrix showed that all variables had at least one correlation coefficient greater than 0.71, the threshold which is defined as “excellent” by Tabachnick and Fidell (2013) with regard to convergent validity. An initial PAF test demonstrated that 23 items had

PAF test. The removal of these items serves as an effective way to bolster the internal consistency of the final scale (Comrey, 1988). It should also be noted that this level of reduction is consistent with many other scale development processes (Morgado, Meireles, Neves, Amaral, & Ferreira, 2018). For the final PAF test, the overall Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure was greater than 0.9 and individual KMO measures were all greater than 0.7, sufficient according to Kaiser (1974). Bartlett's Test of Sphericity was also

statistically significant (P<.0005) (Bartlett, 1950).

The PAF, using Promax oblique rotation to aid in interpretability, revealed four components that had eigenvalues greater than one and which explained 57.10% for food and beverage, 9.32% for restaurant heritage, 6.83% for restaurant environment, and 6.52% for restaurant diners. The four-component solution explained 79.79% of the total variance of overall restaurant authenticity. Discriminant validity for the four constructs was confirmed via a review of the pattern matrix. Since each item in the final EFA test loaded only on to one factor, discriminant validity was confirmed (Farrell, 2010).

The results of the PAF determined that perceptions of authenticity for regional American-style restaurants are comprised of four overarching factors:

1. Factor number 1: food and beverage: Perceived authenticity of the ingredients, menu items, and beverages served by the restaurant.

2. Factor number 2: restaurant heritage: Perceived heritage and adherence to tradition by the restaurant.

3. Factor number 3: restaurant environment: Perceived authenticity of the restaurant exterior, interior, and décor.

4. Factor number 4: restaurant diners: Perception that the diners in the restaurant are associated with the region with which the restaurant is located.

Component loadings and communalities of the rotated solution are presented in Table 4.3. After the pilot data was assessed, the full data collection process was carried out. Results from the full data collection process are presented next.

Table 4.3. Exploratory Factor Analysis in Pilot Data

Items Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4

Food and beverage

The recipes at this restaurant are authentic to this region 0.915 The food and beverage really represented this region's cuisine 0.874 This restaurant serves this region's famous dishes 0.873 This restaurant’s menu consists of more dishes that are

traditional to this region, than non-traditional 0.872 This restaurant’s dishes have flavors traditional to this region 0.866 The food and beverages produced are authentic to this region 0.850 This restaurant serves several dishes which have a deep history

in this region 0.822

This restaurant serves meals which are traditional to this region 0.813 The food and beverages are presented in ways which are

authentic to this region 0.809

The food and beverage ingredients are authentic to this region 0.797 This dishes at this restaurant use cooking techniques unique to

this region 0.795

Restaurant heritage

This restaurant is true to this region's history 0.905

This restaurant is representative of the way of life of this region 0.892 This restaurant has a strong connection to the history of this

region 0.876

This restaurant seems to embody the essence of this region 0.872 This restaurant is representative of a restaurant from this region 0.847 This restaurant represents the values of this region 0.841 This restaurant appears to connect with what I know about this

region 0.833

This is an authentic restaurant for this region 0.831

This restaurant sticks to the principles of this region 0.752

Restaurant environment

This restaurant's environment is representative of the history of

this region 0.912

This restaurant has interior décor authentic to this region 0.859 The imagery in this restaurant is authentic to this region 0.849 This restaurant's interior has a layout authentic to this region 0.798

Restaurant diners

The diners at this restaurant live in this region 0.983

Most of the diners at this restaurant appear to be native to this

The personality of the diners at this restaurant is representative

of this region 0.817

Eigenvalues 15.41 2.51 1.84 1.76

Percent of Variance Explained 57.10 9.32 6.83 6.52

Cronbach’s Alpha .96 .96 .92 .91