The dining and tipping behaviour of Black South Africans: a segmentation approach

Abstract

The literature on dining and tipping behaviour has focused mostly on the United States of America (USA), while minimal research has been conducted in African countries. While there is a negative and grounded perception surrounding black diners being poor tippers in the USA, hardly any research has focused on the dining or tipping behaviour of this dining market from a developing country perspective. The intention of this exploratory research was to fi ll the current knowledge gap by segmenting black South Africans on the basis of their motives for dining out and to determine the differences in the dining and tipping behaviour of the different segments. To target potential black diners, a visitor survey was conducted at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival. A total of 256 usable questionnaires were returned and included in the analysis. Socialisation, gastronomy enjoyment, lifestyle and escape and status were identifi ed as the four motives for dining out. Based on these motives, different black dining segments were identified and an OSI (Occasionalists, Socialisers and Indulgers) typology of diners proposed. The dining and tipping behaviour of these dining segments are furthermore infl uenced by several factors, with clear implications for both the server and restaurateurs. The results shed light on the dining and tipping behaviour of black South African diners and showed that this dining market cannot be regarded as bad tippers.

Key words: dining motives, tipping, black diners, market segmentation, South Africa