隨著經濟的高速成長發展、以及社會的變遷，使得家庭主婦不得不投入就業行列，再加上出門在外的就業、經商、及求學的人口快速增加，促使人們的飲食習慣從家裡的「內食」方式，演變成在外用餐的「外食」方式。為因應這股龐大的需求，台灣的餐飲產業也慢慢改變，從大家熟悉的各種中華料理，添加了不少異國風味，使台灣的大街小巷幾乎都看的到異國餐廳的存在，無論是日本料理、泰國料理、韓國料理、或義大利料理 等等。
然而口碑訊息在消費者的心目中，尤其購買決策及行為上，一直以來都扮演非常重要的角色。本研究就以泰國餐廳為例，來探討四個變數，包括訊息強度、傳播者親身經驗、傳播者專業及關係強度對消費者選擇泰國餐廳的影響。以曾在台北市地區的泰國餐廳消費之消費者為研究對象，採用便利抽樣的方式進行樣本取樣，爲使抽樣分配近似常態分配，問卷所發放的對象盡可能涵蓋各層次的消費者。本研究是採電子郵件與傳統問卷的方式進行資料蒐集，共回收411份問卷，有效問卷為381份，無效問卷為30份，並使用SPSS 14.0統計套裝軟體，進行資料分析以及研究假設的驗證。
研究結果發現，1.資訊傳播者的口碑訊息越強烈，口碑訊息對消費者選擇泰國餐廳的影響越大。2.資訊傳播者的親身經驗越高，口碑訊息對消費者選擇泰國餐廳的影響越大。3.資訊傳播者專業越高，口碑訊息對消費者選擇泰國餐廳的影響越大。4.資訊傳播者與資訊接收者的關係強度越強，口碑訊息對消費者選擇泰國餐廳的影響越大。這些結果可提供給泰國餐廳業者，在策劃行銷策略、以及管理模式時，作為參考。同時本人也相信，其他異國餐廳業者，也一樣可以參考本研究的結果。

The dramatic change of social lifestyle and the fast growing of out-living population influence our eating behavior from cooking at home to buying from or going outside for meals, especially in an urban area where more and more housewives have to obtain the employment in order to maintain their social status. To respond to these huge demand, Taiwan restaurants have adjusted and improved their service styles and serving choices, not only Chinese but also Japanese, Korean, Italian or even Thai food.
With variety of selections, it is interesting to understand how most of the customers make their decisions in choosing places when dining out, it is widely accepted that the word of mouth or verbal communication is one of the most effective way to influence the customers’ purchasing decisions. Thus, this research takes the Thai-restaurant as a basis to discuss about four relative variables that influenced customers in choosing decision as of; the information strength; the sender’s authentic experience; the sender’s expertise in the industry and the tie strength between sender and receiver. The targets of the research are customers who have had their meals at Thai restaurants in Taipei city area. Using the convenience sampling method distribute the questionnaire to many types of customers via emails and traditional paper-works. The 411 questionnaires had been responded, of which 381 are effective samples and 30 are non-effective samples. The SPSS 14.0 statistic software is used to test and verify the hypothesis.
The research result found as follows; 1. The greater of sender’s information strength, the more influence on receiver’s behavior in choosing Thai restaurant; 2. World of mouth with sender’s authentic experience has more influence on choosing Thai restaurant; 3. The greater of sender’s expertise in industry, the more influence on receiver’s behavior in choosing Thai restaurant; 4. The greater tie strength between sender and receiver, the more influence on receiver’s behavior in choosing Thai restaurant. These results can be provided to the Thai restaurants for their referral in planning the marketing strategy or for managerial purpose. At the same time, we believe that the results could also be adapted to other exotic restaurant.

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