Developing a cause and effect model of factors influencing fast food restaurants' service quality using DEMATEL

The rapid emergence of the service industry, the awakening of consumer consciousness, and fierce market competition all mean that customer satisfaction has become the primary indicator that is used to assess corporate operations. In this context, many service businesses have noticed that increasing service quality, and thus raising customer satisfaction, can create competitive advantages. This study applies the decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) approach to examine the issue of service quality in fast food restaurants. The casual relation charts produced in this work shows that there are a number of correlations among the seven focal criteria. Among these, 'fresh meal' has few significant effects on the other six criteria. Moreover, none of the other criteria, except for 'employee attitude', have any significant influences on each other. Therefore, managers should invest more resources in improving 'employee attitude', as this can enhance the service quality in fast food restaurants.