Extending the tendency involvement experience model in street food experience

Street food constitutes a culturally embedded and economically significant component of tourism destinations, yet the process linking consumption intention to experiential outcomes remains theoretically underexplored. This study extends the Tendency–Involvement–Experience (TIE) model by integrating it with the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to explain tourists’ street food experiences. Data were collected from 310 tourists in Türkiye using a structured questionnaire and analyzed through Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Attitudes and subjective norms significantly and positively influenced intention to consume street food, whereas perceived behavioral control did not exert a significant effect. Intention significantly predicted both food involvement and food experience. Moreover, food involvement mediated the relationship between intention and experience, confirming the sequential mechanism proposed in the extended model. The findings demonstrate that experiential outcomes in street food consumption are primarily driven by attitudinal and normative evaluations rather than control perceptions. By empirically validating the indirect pathway from intention to experience through involvement, the study proposes an Extended Tendency–Involvement–Experience Model and refines the application of TPB in experiential consumption contexts.