Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to propose a systematic approach to measuring, tracking, monitoring and continuously improving service efficiency, availability and quality in hospitality operational settings. Design/methodology/approach - The proposed measure of service operational effectiveness (SOE) consists of three indicators. They include the availability indicator, the quality indicator, and the efficiency indicator. Findings - The paper finds that the proposed operational performance approach based on the SOE is consistent with the themes of performance measures and measurement reported in the literature. Research limitations/implications - In this paper, the proposed service operational effectiveness approach represents a serious attempt at quantifying the key facets of service effectiveness in hospitality operational settings. The validation of this performance assessment and measurement approach is worthy of future research. Practical implications - The paper sees that the approach advocated by the SOE has operational and strategic relevance to decision-makers of hospitality organizations. Field interviews with hospitality operating managers in different operating base cultures confirmed this. Originality/value - This paper presents a practical, systematic approach to the problem of enhancing service operational effectiveness in hospitality organizations. Relevant implementation issues associated with the proposed approach are also addressed. Interviews with operational managers representing different types and sizes of hospitality organizations in different operational cultures were utilized to provide initial validation of the proposed approach and to shed some light on relevant practical implementation issues.

The aim of this thesis is to determine the current situation of gastronomy in the Czech Republic, in particular the use of marketing tools in the field of gastronomic services. The theoretical part deals with the characteristics of gastronomy, the definition of terms, the awareness of the formation of gastronomy and its evolution in time. Specifies marketing, gastronomic services and describes the various components of the marketing mix. It also defines the services of caterers and basic regulations for gastronomic operation. The analytical part describes the czech gastronomy development, analyzes individual marketing tool in the field of gastronomic services and the major gastro projects, events and culinary guides. The conclusion summarizes lessons learned and proposes the basic starting points to improve the current situation on the catering services market.

Due to its position as the main source of national income, the tourism and hospitality service industry in Thailand is now highlighted as an area to watch in terms of its value for continued national economic growth. Chiang Rai Rajabhat University (CRU) a university in the tourist area in the North of Thailand, plays a key role in hospitality service education and has a significant influence in the sector because it produces graduates for service in the workforce of this industry. Given the industry's competitive climate, decisions to increase the number of workers, or practitioners, need to take into account the quality of the workers. In this time of globalization, when English is used widely, particularly in the intercultural context ofhospitality service businesses, the quality of English must be seriously considered. Business English (BE) graduates, as prospective employees, need to be highly competent in English language skills. This demand for effective English users in hospitality service workplaces means that there is a need to give serious consideration to the ability of Thai graduates to become competent users of English in real workplaces, and to develop an understanding of how they may achieve the high level of competence required of them. This study investigates the English language skills Thai students used in intercultural communication in hospitality service workplaces. The aim was to determine what essential language skills were used, to explore how these skills were implemented while giving services to international tourists, and to use the results to reflect on English for Hospitality Services (EHS) study in order to provide some recommendations for teaching and learning in those courses. The project was designed as an ethnographic case study. Multiple research tools were used, but particularly participatory observations of student workplace interactions, and semi-structured interviews that included interviews with workplace staff, such as managers, heads of departments, business owners and on-site supervisors. There were additional sources of information used, including students' diaries and other documents relevant to internship. The data collected were then examined using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The participants were 15 volunteers and were fourth-year students in the Business English (BE) program at CRU. The case study involved an examination of data collected from ten workplaces in four hospitality service areas. The observation transcriptions were quantitatively scrutinized for the most essential functional language units used in the hospitality services. The significant findings indicate that the functional language of requests and responding to requests was the most frequently used unit in this hospitality services area. This result confirms previous studies that have found that the functional language of requests, including responding to requests, is the most essential functional pattern in hospitality services. Thanking, offering help/services, and refusing are counted as the second, third and fourth essential units used. However, apologizing and responding to complaints, which are generally considered important in the service area, were very much less frequently used in this study. There was no evidence that significant breakdown or major problems in communication occurred during hospitality service procedures examined; however, the findings suggest that the language proficiency of Thai students was very low in terms of language accuracy. From the results of the study, it is recommended that those responsible for EHS teaching and learning give serious consideration to increasing the level ofcommunicative competence of Thai BE students in terms of English language skills, and to improving the cultural awareness of graduates who expect to be involved in intercultural communication in the hospitality services industry.

Two studies were conducted to investigate potential factors that affect consumers' perception towards home meal kits, and potential foodborne illness risks factors of home meal kits usage. <div>In study 1, a cross-sectional data collection was performed by using an online, self-administrated questionnaire. The participants who were the adults residing in U.S. were asked to answer the survey using the Likert scales. Multiple linear regression and moderation analyses were conducted to determine the associations between variables. The differences between HMK users and non-users were assessed by an independent t-test.</div><div>In study 2, three studies were developed to investigate the risks factors, including the (1) analysis of the available food safety-related information and delivery protocol collected from the vendors’ websites, (2) examination of the actual commercial HMK shipments, and (3) examination of the temperature changes inside the insulated HMK packages held under the average summer temperatures over time. Potential risk factors retrieved from the three studies were analyzed and the suggested guidelines to control those risks were identified.</div>

As the attention of ethnic restaurants grow from consumers, researchers have questioned the proper assessment of identifying ethnic restaurant consumer demand and where ethnic restaurants should locate accordingly. For this reason, past literature has focused on demographic features to answer these questions. However, unlike non-ethnic restaurant demand, ethnic restaurant demand cannot be fully explained by demographics since the demand for ethnic restaurants consist of two major groups, which are non-ethnic and ethnic consumers. The two consumer groups differ in location, which ethnic consumers are clustered while other non-ethnic consumers are spread across the geographical plain. The two consumer groups also differ in acceptance which ethnic consumers have a pre-established notion of the ethnic restaurant theme while non-ethnic consumers require acceptance to consume. This study proposes that since ethnic restaurants have these differences ethnic restaurants show difference in clustering patterns. More specifically this study attempts to identify whether higher acceptance from non-ethnic consumers allow ethnic restaurants to expand to other non-ethnic consumer regions while ethnic restaurants are mostly clustered in ethnic communities. In addition, the study further investigates whether ethnic restaurant clustering patterns differ by its restaurant price segment. The empirical results of this study show that acceptance of ethnic food, general restaurant opinion, and country of origin plays a crucial role in ethnic restaurants to diffuse to non-ethnic consumers while ethnic restaurants agglomerate near ethnic communities. However, higher price restaurants were found cluster stronger than lower price restaurants to reduce search cost for consumers which confirms previous studies. Finally, this study found that acceptance of food and general restaurant opinion from non-ethnic consumers affects ethnic restaurants in the ethnic community to diffuse but acceptance of country of origin showed ethnic restaurants in ethnic communities to cluster which suggest that cultural aspects allow ethnic restaurants to cluster stronger in ethnic communities.

Šiuo tyrimu buvo siekiama ištirti ir patvirtinti arba paneigti sąsają tarp teatrinių metodų taikymo apmokant svetingumo paslaugų darbuotojus, bei savybių, įtakojančių svetingumo paslaugos patyrimą klientui, tobulėjimo. Išanalizavus mokslinę literatūrą, bei ekspertų apklausos ir linijinio eksperimento metu, tyrimo hipotezės pasitvirtino: paslaugų teatro modelis yra lengvai suvokiamas ir priimtinas bei gali būti naudojamas kaip įrankis paslaugos patyrimui gerinti; teatriniai mokymai gali pagerinti aukščiau minėtas, šiame darbe konkrečiai įvardytas, savybes. Labiausiai naudinga ir praktiškai pritaikoma teatrinė priemonė - „Improvizavimo rato“ modelis - priimti-papildyti-pasiūlyti principas. Kaip problemos sprendinį, autorė pateikia svetingumo paslaugų darbuotojų vaidmens tobulinimo teatriniais metodais modelį. Šio tyrimo rezultatai pristatyti šešiose mokslinėse konferencijose. / The purpose of the research was to investigate and at the same time confirm or deny the existance of the link between the theater training for the hospitality services employees and the improvement of their skills, influencing the hospitality service experience for the customer. The analysis of the research literature, the expert interviews and the preliminary experiment confirms the hypothesis of this research: the service theater model is naturally acceptable and could be used as a tool for the service experience improvement; theater training can improve the skills named above and specified in this master thesis. It appears, that the most useful and practicaly adaptable theater tool – the „Improvisation circle model“ – the accept-add-suggest principles. As the research problem solution the hospitality services employee role improvement by applying theater techniques model is provided. The research results were presented in six science conferences.

The purpose of this research was to determine the level of nutrition knowledge of students in four-year hospitality programs; their attitudes toward nutrition in general (general attitudes); and their attitudes toward its role in commercial foodservice (restaurant attitudes). Correlations between knowledge and attitudes and differences based on gender, age, college classification, and completion of a college nutrition course were also examined. Hospitality management majors in baccalaureate programs at three Texas universities completed 454 usable questionnaires. Although knowledge was not extensive, general and restaurant attitudes were positive. Knowledge was influenced by all factors except gender. General attitudes were influenced by gender, age, and classification. Only gender influenced restaurant attitudes. Knowledge was positively correlated with favorable attitudes.

<p>The dissertation explores the infusion of Self-Service-Technology (SST) into the casual dining restaurant experience. Casual, sit-in dining restaurants deliver hospitality or service through human servers, however, the introduction of Self-Service-Technology has shifted the norm and expectations of the dining experience. The purpose of these studies is to examine the effect implementation of SST has on the dynamic between restaurant consumers and hospitality employees. Three distinct studies were conducted to examine consumer adoption of, and resistance to, SST, as well as an assessment of different service delivery scenarios involving SST, and employees’ and consumers’ perspectives of SST and hospitality values. In Study 1, many restaurant consumers expressed that relative advantage and compatibility drive their adoption of SST. However, for some, functional and psychological barriers inhibit adoption. Despite customers’ enthusiasm to adopt SST, study 2 shows that they still significantly favor traditional, human service. In study 3, SST represents a paradox for both consumers and employees. Consumers state that hospitality traditions and value matter, yet their behaviors regarding SST run counter to traditional hospitality philosophy. For employees, SST represents a conflict between feeling insecure about their current role and adapting to a new role involving SST in the service delivery experience. </p>

<p>  </p> <p>With robot utilization reaching $300 million in the hospitality industry, this paper aims to examine the difference in customer response between two types of anthropomorphic features (cute vs. cool) of service robots. Four scenario-based experiments (2 [robot appearances: cute vs. cool] x 2 [customer–company relationship norms: communal vs. exchange]) were employed in two different contexts (Study 1: service successful and Study 2: failure). The results showed that cute robots elicit higher customer satisfaction, repatronage intention, and willingness to spread positive word of mouth when customers were in a communal relationship with a company. The difference was significant only in the situation in which the robots’ service failed. This study offers the industry guidelines to decide on robot design according to their relationship with the customer and develops the topic of anthropomorphism in robots in that it looked into the different traits within anthropomorphism rather than human likeness versus nonhuman likeness.</p>

This study investigated the effect of organizational culture on firm performance in the restaurant industry. Despite the importance of organizational culture in the organizational functioning, empirical evidence for the organizational culture-performance relationship remains fragmented. The inconsistency in the literature was aroused from a lack of theoretical development, a negligence of industry-specific factors, a small sampling issue, and a lack of longitudinal examination. Therefore, this study proposed to use text analysis in measuring organizational culture and examined the organizational culture-restaurant performance with a consideration of moderating effect of service orientation, franchising, and economic condition. This study found that different organizational culture influences restaurant performance differently. Specifically, the result of this study reveals that: clan culture immediately increases restaurant productivity; adhocracy culture decreases restaurant growth; and hierarchy immediately decreases restaurant productivity. In terms of moderating role of service orientation, this study found that: that tangible service orientation positively moderates both hierarchy culture-profitability and hierarchy culture-productivity relationships. This result implies that tangible service orientation works better with the hierarchy culture in improving restaurant performance than intangible service orientation. As for the moderating effect of franchising on the organizational culture-performance relationship, this study found that franchising positively moderates the clan culture-profitability relationship and the clan culture-productivity relationship. This result implies that operational and economic benefit of franchising could be passed on to create synergetic effect with the clan culture and maximize the positive clan-productivity relationship while offset the clan-profitability relationship. Last, this study found that recession positively moderates the hierarchy culture-profitability relationship and the hierarchy culture-productivity relationship. Theoretically, this study contributes to the literature by: providing logical link between the organizational culture and firm performance; providing empirical evidence that reveals the performance implication of the organizational culture; and by using alternative organizational culture measurements based on text analysis of firms’ 10K filings. Practically, this study offers insightful implications for industry professionals in understanding the effect of organizational culture on restaurant performance.