Restaurant Physical Environment and Diners’ Loyalty: A Multigroup Structural Equation Model of Occasional and Frequent Customers in Northern Peru

Diner loyalty is a critical asset for the restaurant industry, and servicescape models typically assume that all customers weigh the physical environment, perceived price, and satisfaction equally. This study submits that assumption to a formal test in full-service restaurants of northern Peru, across five cities: Chiclayo, Trujillo, Piura, Cajamarca, and Tumbes. A cross-sectional survey of 705 diners was analyzed with covariance-based structural equation modeling in Mplus 8.3 (robust maximum likelihood; 10,000 bootstrap draws with bias-corrected confidence intervals), complemented by measurement invariance testing, a multigroup comparison of occasional (n = 304) and frequent (n = 401) customers, and an importance-performance analysis computed in RStudio. Thirteen of the sixteen direct and mediation hypotheses were supported: decor and ambient conditions shaped price perception and satisfaction, satisfaction was the near-exclusive antecedent of loyalty (β = .940; R² = .883), and the serial chain servicescape → price → satisfaction → loyalty held for decor and ambient conditions but not for spatial layout. None of the four between-segment differences reached significance (Wald χ²(2) = 3.56, p = .169), although the decor–satisfaction path was significant only among frequent customers. The evaluation chain proves structurally robust across segments: managers can anchor strategy on satisfaction while directing decor investment toward the repeat clientele.