Yes / With a long history and strong culinary heritage, time-honored restaurants are often associated with the phenomenon of nostalgia. However, research on nostalgia and nostalgic experiences in time-honored restaurants is largely absent. This study built a framework for nostalgic experiences to understand nostalgia triggers as antecedents and consumers’ revisit intention as the outcome. A survey of 366 residents in Beijing and Shanghai, China, revealed that nostalgia triggered by food and service staff significantly evoked consumers’ memories, and the food and restaurant environment stimulated the communitas component of nostalgic experiences. Memory had a positive effect on both communitas and positive emotions, while communitas had a positive effect on positive emotions. Finally, positive emotions resulted in significantly increased revisit intention.

Understanding what drives a tourist's satisfaction is one of the most relevant areas of marketing research. In the tourism industry, satisfied tourists tend to repeat their visit because of their positive experience. The level of satisfaction of a visitor is the result of different factors. Thus, this study intends what factors explain the quality of the experience and its relations with the satisfaction and intention of return of the Beto Carrero World park visitors. In order to understand this process, the quality dimensions of the experience were identified as well as its interrelations between experiential quality, experiential value, experiential satisfaction, image of the theme park and intention to revisit perceived by the participants of the theme park. To do so, the research is considered descriptive and quantitative approach, through a survey adapted from the studies of Wu, Li and Li (2014) applied to students of higher, middle and technical education in the municipality of Santa Maria-RS and region. The data collection was performed in the period of August 2016, with 429 students of higher education, technical and average distributed among private colleges of Santa Maria and Cruz Alta, Polytechnic College of Santa Maria and University of Santa Maria-UFSM as well as UFSM-Palmeira das Missões. Data analysis included univariate, bivariate and multivariate techniques. In the initial model, of the ten existing dimensions, eight maintained all variables, however, the variable EQ1, FV1 and FV2 were excluded because they presented factorial loads less than 0.5. As a result, the present research presented 10 dimensions and 24 variables. Regarding the evaluation of the park's visitors, the dimensions of the research model were: EQ3- "visiting this theme park is a pleasant experience" with an average of 4.36 and TP2- "this theme park has a good reputation" With an average of 4.29. It was noticed that the age of the visitors is the factor that most influences the variables of the research model, in all ten variables were impacted. By means of the hypothesis test, the results highlight that the dimensions of experience, functional value and emotional value influence the satisfaction of the experience of the visitors of theme parks, as well as through the statistical results it was verified that the image perception Of the park and the satisfaction of the experience impact the intention of return of the visitors of the theme parks. Still, it is noted that the emotional value (R = 0.719) and the image perception of the park (R = 0.631) were the dimensions that most positively influenced the quality of the experience. However, it has been proven that the quality of the interaction does not positively impact the quality of the experience. / Entender o que impulsiona a satisfação de um turista é uma das áreas mais relevantes das pesquisas em marketing. Na indústria do turismo, turistas satisfeitos tendem repetir a sua visita devido a sua experiência positiva. O nível de satisfação de um visitante é o resultado de diferentes fatores. Neste contexto, este estudo propõe-se a identificar quais fatores explicam a qualidade da experiência e suas relações com a satisfação e intenção de retorno dos frequentadores do parque Beto Carrero World. Visando compreender esse processo, foram identificadas as dimensões de qualidade da experiência bem como foi investigado as interrelações entre qualidade da experiência, valor da experieêcia, satisfação da experiência, imagem do parque temático e intenção de revisitar percebidos pelos frequentadores do parque temático. Para tanto, a pesquisa é considerada descritiva e com abordagem quantitativa, por meio de uma survey adaptada dos estudos de Wu, Li e Li (2014) aplicada a estudantes do ensino superior, técnico e médio do município de Santa Maria-RS e região. A coleta de dados foi realizada no período de agosto de 2016, com 429 estudantes do ensino superior, técnico e médio distribuídos entre colégios particulares de Santa Maria e Cruz Alta, Colégio Politécnico de Santa Maria e a Universidade de Santa Maria-UFSM bem como na UFSM-Palmeira das Missões. A análise de dados compreendeu as técnicas univariadas, bivariadas e multivariadas. No modelo inicial, das dez dimensões existentes, oito mantiveram todas as variáveis. Como resultado, a presente pesquisa apresentou 10 dimensões e 24 variáveis. Em relação à avaliação dos frequentadores do parque as dimensões do modelo de pesquisa, destacaram-se as variáveis EQ3- “visitar esse parque temático é uma experiência agradável” com média de 4,36 e TP2- “esse parque temático tem uma boa reputação” com média de 4,29. Notou-se que a e idade dos visitantes é o fator que mais influencia as variáveis do modelo de pesquisa, ao todo dez variáveis foram impactadas. Por meio do teste de hipóteses, destacam-se como resultados que as dimensões qualidade da experiência, valor funcional e valor emocional influenciam a satisfação da experiência dos visitantes de parques temáticos, como também por meio dos resultados estatísticos comprovou-se que a percepção de imagem do parque e a satisfação da experiência impactam a intenção de retorno dos visitantes de parques temáticos. Ainda, nota-se que o valor emocional (R = 0,719) e a percepção de imagem do parque (R = 0,631) foram às dimensões que mais influenciaram positivamente a qualidade da experiência. Contudo, comprovou-se que a qualidade da interação não impacta positivamente a qualidade da experiência.

Understanding what drives a tourist's satisfaction is one of the most relevant areas of marketing research. In the tourism industry, satisfied tourists tend to repeat their visit because of their positive experience. The level of satisfaction of a visitor is the result of different factors. Thus, this study intends what factors explain the quality of the experience and its relations with the satisfaction and intention of return of the Beto Carrero World park visitors. In order to understand this process, the quality dimensions of the experience were identified as well as its interrelations between experiential quality, experiential value, experiential satisfaction, image of the theme park and intention to revisit perceived by the participants of the theme park. To do so, the research is considered descriptive and quantitative approach, through a survey adapted from the studies of Wu, Li and Li (2014) applied to students of higher, middle and technical education in the municipality of Santa Maria-RS and region. The data collection was performed in the period of August 2016, with 429 students of higher education, technical and average distributed among private colleges of Santa Maria and Cruz Alta, Polytechnic College of Santa Maria and University of Santa Maria-UFSM as well as UFSM-Palmeira das Missões. Data analysis included univariate, bivariate and multivariate techniques. In the initial model, of the ten existing dimensions, eight maintained all variables, however, the variable EQ1, FV1 and FV2 were excluded because they presented factorial loads less than 0.5. As a result, the present research presented 10 dimensions and 24 variables. Regarding the evaluation of the park's visitors, the dimensions of the research model were: EQ3- "visiting this theme park is a pleasant experience" with an average of 4.36 and TP2- "this theme park has a good reputation" With an average of 4.29. It was noticed that the age of the visitors is the factor that most influences the variables of the research model, in all ten variables were impacted. By means of the hypothesis test, the results highlight that the dimensions of experience, functional value and emotional value influence the satisfaction of the experience of the visitors of theme parks, as well as through the statistical results it was verified that the image perception Of the park and the satisfaction of the experience impact the intention of return of the visitors of the theme parks. Still, it is noted that the emotional value (R = 0.719) and the image perception of the park (R = 0.631) were the dimensions that most positively influenced the quality of the experience. However, it has been proven that the quality of the interaction does not positively impact the quality of the experience. / Entender o que impulsiona a satisfação de um turista é uma das áreas mais relevantes das pesquisas em marketing. Na indústria do turismo, turistas satisfeitos tendem repetir a sua visita devido a sua experiência positiva. O nível de satisfação de um visitante é o resultado de diferentes fatores. Neste contexto, este estudo propõe-se a identificar quais fatores explicam a qualidade da experiência e suas relações com a satisfação e intenção de retorno dos frequentadores do parque Beto Carrero World. Visando compreender esse processo, foram identificadas as dimensões de qualidade da experiência bem como foi investigado as interrelações entre qualidade da experiência, valor da experieêcia, satisfação da experiência, imagem do parque temático e intenção de revisitar percebidos pelos frequentadores do parque temático. Para tanto, a pesquisa é considerada descritiva e com abordagem quantitativa, por meio de uma survey adaptada dos estudos de Wu, Li e Li (2014) aplicada a estudantes do ensino superior, técnico e médio do município de Santa Maria-RS e região. A coleta de dados foi realizada no período de agosto de 2016, com 429 estudantes do ensino superior, técnico e médio distribuídos entre colégios particulares de Santa Maria e Cruz Alta, Colégio Politécnico de Santa Maria e a Universidade de Santa Maria-UFSM bem como na UFSM-Palmeira das Missões. A análise de dados compreendeu as técnicas univariadas, bivariadas e multivariadas. No modelo inicial, das dez dimensões existentes, oito mantiveram todas as variáveis. Como resultado, a presente pesquisa apresentou 10 dimensões e 24 variáveis. Em relação à avaliação dos frequentadores do parque as dimensões do modelo de pesquisa, destacaram-se as variáveis EQ3- “visitar esse parque temático é uma experiência agradável” com média de 4,36 e TP2- “esse parque temático tem uma boa reputação” com média de 4,29. Notou-se que a e idade dos visitantes é o fator que mais influencia as variáveis do modelo de pesquisa, ao todo dez variáveis foram impactadas. Por meio do teste de hipóteses, destacam-se como resultados que as dimensões qualidade da experiência, valor funcional e valor emocional influenciam a satisfação da experiência dos visitantes de parques temáticos, como também por meio dos resultados estatísticos comprovou-se que a percepção de imagem do parque e a satisfação da experiência impactam a intenção de retorno dos visitantes de parques temáticos. Ainda, nota-se que o valor emocional (R = 0,719) e a percepção de imagem do parque (R = 0,631) foram às dimensões que mais influenciaram positivamente a qualidade da experiência. Contudo, comprovou-se que a qualidade da interação não impacta positivamente a qualidade da experiência.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hotel, Restaurant, Institution Management and Dietetics / Ki-Joon Back / Elizabeth B. Barrett / This study attempted to develop a multi-item scale that measures restaurant customers' emotional experiences and has desirable reliability and validity, and to examine the relationships among consumption emotions, customer satisfaction, switching barriers, and revisit intention in the full-service restaurant industry. In the process of developing a consumption emotion measurement scale, this study followed Churchill's (1979) paradigm during the early stage and confirmatory factor analytic approach suggested by Gerbing and Anderson (1988) and Anderson and Gerbing's (1988) in the later stage. The scale development process began with a specification of domain of construct, generation of 40 items, and data collection. The collected data were subjected to item refinement (i.e., outlier detection, descriptive and reliability analysis, and exploratory factor analysis). Four underlying dimensions of consumption emotions with 32 refined items were identified from the data. A new sample of data was collected for additional testing (i.e., reliability and validity). A confirmatory factor analysis using the new data indicated that the finalized measure using categorical dimension approach was unidimensional, reliable, and valid. The results of structural equation modeling supported the criterion validity indicating that the finalized measure behaves as expected in relation to additional construct. In study two, a theoretical framework for understanding the relationships among consumption emotions, customer satisfaction, switching barriers, and revisit intention was proposed and tested. A series of modeling comparisons provided a best fit model. A measurement model estimated on the basis of Anderson and Gerbing's (1988) approach tested validity of measures. The results of structural equation modeling using the data from a web-based survey addressed the effect of consumption emotions on satisfaction and revisit intention. The partial/full mediating impact of satisfaction was verified following Baron and Kenny’s (1986) suggested process. The switching barriers, two positive (i.e., preference and relational investment) and two negative (i.e., switching costs and lack of alternatives), that restaurant customers are likely to perceive were identified through the qualitative approach, using the guidelines suggested by Maxwell (2005). The quantitative approach validated the scale applicability. The moderating role of switching barriers in forming revisit intention was verified by testing for metric invariances. Grouping was done by using K-means cluster analysis. Measurement invariance tests supported full metric/partial metric invariances. Structural invariance tests and invariance tests for a hypothesized path provided the evidence of moderating effect of switching barriers. Finally, theoretical and managerial implications of the findings were discussed.

No description available.

The basic purpose of this study was to examine the influence of service quality on customer satisfaction, perceived customer value and behavioral intentions, in three, four and five star hotels in Ethiopia. Additionally, an attempt was made to assess the differences pertaining to these constructs across customer profile (e.g., gender, nationality etc.) and hotel characteristics (e.g., star ratings etc.). A quantitative survey approach was used to obtain primary data from the respondents (hotels’ guests/customers) by administering the structured questionnaire. The original SERVPERF dimensions and related items were modified to best fit with hotel sector, by using desk review and preliminary interviews with manager, consultants and corporate clients of the hotels. A pilot study was carried out with 35 hotel customers to test the initial reliability and validity of the instrument. The final questionnaire was distributed to 440 respondents from 44 hotels (under three, four and five star categories), by using stratified (proportionate) random sampling. Of the distributed questionnaires, 435 were collected back (over 98% return rate), as completely filled, and used for the purpose of analysis. Descriptive statistics (mean score and standard deviation) were used to examine the customers’ perceptions of service quality, customer value, satisfaction and behavioral intentions. To identify the key service quality dimensions in the Ethiopian hotel sector, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was employed. The results revealed six underlying factors, namely: Assurance, Reliability, Responsiveness, Empathy, Room Tangibles and Food & Beverage Tangibles. Regression analysis was carried out to examine the relationship between the study constructs, whereby perceived service quality was found to be maintaining significantly (p<0.05) positive influence on customer value, satisfaction and behavioral intentions (measured as customer revisits and word-of-mouth recommendations) in the Ethiopian hotel sector. Moreover, both customer value and satisfaction were observed to be partially mediating the influence of service quality on behavioral intentions, with higher contribution from satisfaction than perceived value. Finally, the respondents’ nationality, gender, visit purpose, length of stay, hotel location and star category were found to be determining their perceptions of overall service quality. However, further research is needed before generalizing these relationships to other sectors/contexts. / Business Management / D.B.L.

La presente investigación busca comprender el comportamiento de revisita de los compradores de Lima Metropolitana en las cafeterías o tiendas de café por concepto. Por ello, se han analizado variables como imagen de marca, satisfacción y lealtad de marca en relación a la intención de revisita de los usuarios en estos establecimientos. Las investigaciones presentadas por los autores como base bibliográfica han sido desarrolladas en mercados globales pero no en el contexto peruano. Por tanto, el estudio pretende llenar el vacío mediante la realización de un estudio cuantitativo en los coffee shops de Lima Metropolitana, siendo esta la ciudad del Perú más comercial. / This research seeks to understand the return visit behavior of Metropolitan Lima buyers in cafeterias or coffee shops. For this reason, variables such as brand image, satisfaction and brand loyalty have been analyzed in relation to the intention of the users to revisit in these establishments.. The research presented by the authors as a bibliographic base has been developed in global markets but not in the Peruvian context. Therefore, the study aims to fill the gap by conducting a quantitative study in the coffee shops of Metropolitan Lima, which is the most commercial city in Peru. / Trabajo de investigación

Atmospheric theming is the use of the sensory experience in connection to a theme. The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of atmospherics with theming and their effects on customer behavior in food and beverage operations of a theme park. The official research questions developed for this study include: Does the impact of the authenticity of atmospheric theming influence an effect on revisit intention? Does the type of theme (land's theme or venue's theme) influence the effect of visitor revisit intention? These questions guided the current research in previously non-evaluated fields of study. This study used the Mehrabian–Russel (M-R) model to create a new research model. In the current study, atmospheric theming was the stimuli, emotional value was the emotional response, and visitor revisit intentions was the behavioral intention. Restaurant image was added to the model to obtain a cognitive reason.The results from the multiple regression indicated that all hypotheses were accepted. Restaurant image had a positive influence on both authenticity variables, and both authenticity variables had a positive influence on emotional value. Finally, emotional value was found to have a positive influence on revisit intention. These results indicated that atmospheric theming influenced revisit intention through emotional value. Furthermore, the results indicated that when it comes to the different types of themes within a venue, as indicated in the second research question, the venue's theme has a stronger influence on the emotional value than the land's theme.

Events such as forest fires or floods are a danger to our Earth’s environment and the people living in it. The sooner they can be detected, the less damage they can cause. An idea arises: use satellites to monitor the Earth and relay information to prevention and rescue organizations in a very short time, regardless of accessibility from ground. PandionAI is a Swedish start-up that aims to create a constellation of satellites that will carry built-in machine learning models that analyze the Earth images and detect early on such environmental catastrophes. The aim of this thesis is to design a constellation for such purpose. In parallel, a target list that includes potential places of interest for such events will be developed and the constellation performance will be evaluated with it by defining Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The target list has a dynamic nature as weather changes and climate evolves, so events of interest will be at different places in the globe as time passes. Because of this, four different target lists were developed, one per season. The events covered by the target lists are the environmental hazards: fires, floods, deforestation and CO2 footprint from factories. Constellation design is a highly complex problem due to its infinite possible solutions for a given purpose. Nevertheless, one can optimize for specific design parameters and assumptions. This thesis proposes a model in which for a given number of total satellites, multiple constellations are compared, and the search for the optimal design is performed given the defined KPIs. Constellations in the optimization process are designed applying the 2-D Lattice Flower Constellation method and adding the twin satellite concept. / Händelser som skogsbränder eller översvämningar är en fara för vår jords miljö och människorna som lever i den. Ju tidigare de kan upptäckas, desto mindre skada kan de orsaka. En idé uppstår: att använda satelliter för att övervaka jorden och vidarebefordra information till förebyggande och räddningsorganisationer på mycket kort tid, oavsett tillgänglighet från marken. PandionAI är en svensk start-up som vars mål är att skapa en konstellation av satelliter som ska bära inbyggda maskininlärningsmodeller som analyserar analyserar satelliters bilder bilder och tidigt upptäcker sådana miljökatastrofer. Syftet med denna uppsats är att utforma en konstellation för detta ändamål. Parallellt kommer en mållista som inkluderar potentiella platser av intresse för sådana händelser att utvecklas och konstellationens prestanda kommer att utvärderas med den genom att definiera Key Performance Indicator-parametrar (KPI). Mållistan har en dynamisk karaktär, eftersom väder och klimat varierar över året säsonger och händelser, så händelser av intresse kommer att finnas på olika platser i världen med tiden. På grund av detta utvecklades fyra olika mållistor, en per säsong. De händelser som omfattas av mållistorna är miljöriskerna: bränder, översvämningar, avskogning och CO2 fotavtryck från fabriker. Konstellationsdesign är ett mycket komplext problem på grund av dess oändliga många möjliga lösningar för ett givet syfte. Ändå kan man optimera för specifika designparametrar och antaganden. Denna studie syftar till att förslå en modell för ett totalt givet antal satelliter, där flera konstellationer jämförs och finna den optimala designen givet KPIerna. Konstellationer i optimeringsprocessen är designade med tillämpning av 2D Lattice Flower Constellation-metoden och användning av tvilling-satellit-konceptet till tvillingsatellitkonceptet.