Let’s imagine you’ve been hired to manage a struggling restaurant. During your first week, you observe that the few customers present are leaving dissatisfied. Your task is to identify the root cause of this dissatisfaction and transform the restaurant into a successful establishment. To achieve this, you obtain permission from the owner to conduct a study aimed at pinpointing the exact steps needed to improve customer satisfaction. Because you have a specific problem and you want valid results from your research, you turn to existing literature to understand what others have discovered about customer satisfaction within the food service sector. In this case, the restaurant specializes in vegan cuisine, and your literature search reveals a gap in knowledge regarding strategies for enhancing customer service specifically in a vegan environment, highlighting the necessity of your research.
You discover different dimensions of satisfaction across various segments of the food service industry, with cumulative customer satisfaction being of particular interest. Based on your literature review, you define customer satisfaction as the culmination of perception, evaluation, and psychological reactions to both tangible and intangible aspects of the dining experience, ultimately shaping customer expectations. In essence, customer expectations drive customer satisfaction.
The literature review reveals numerous variables potentially influencing customer satisfaction. The following variables consistently appear, leading you to incorporate them into your conceptual framework: price, service, branding (further broken down into physical environment and promotion), and taste. You also learn that satisfaction levels can differ based on gender, prompting you to include demographic information in your survey. Based on your extensive review, you decide to include gender, age, profession, and number of children as relevant demographic variables.
It’s important to note that this example focuses on a quantitative study. All variables are included, and those being tested are considered independent variables. The goal is to determine how each independent variable impacts the dependent variable, customer satisfaction. For those interested in a qualitative approach, a similar framework can be adapted.
Remember to cite all aspects of your framework, acknowledging the sources that informed each component. This practice not only adheres to APA formatting guidelines but also enhances your credibility as a researcher. Once the narrative surrounding your framework is established, consider creating a visual representation for clarity.
Here’s an example of a visual representation of a conceptual framework:
For qualitative studies, omit arrows or notations that suggest statistical analysis. A framework may not be appropriate for grounded theory studies, which are uncommon in applied doctoral research.
Below is an example of a qualitative framework:
