Barbara Almanza

Motivational factors of gender, income and age on selecting a bottle of wine

Purpose – To explore the attributes of wine packaging that are enticing to consumers and the influence of age, gender and income on the wine‐buying decision.Design/methodology/approach – To evaluate how wine packaging interplays with age, gender and income to influence consumers’ decision to purchase. A self‐administered questionnaire with closed‐ended and five‐point Likert‐type scale questions was conducted in the State of Connecticut at two retail shops and five wineries. The questionnaire was pilot‐tested at a local retail wine store in Connecticut to ensure reliability and clarity of the questions.Findings – Results showed that label design and bottle closures were important to respondents and that self‐confidence was a significant factor for age and gender, with females and respondents between 31 and 40 years of age more concerned about making a wine‐buying decision.Research limitations/implications – The selection of the state of Connecticut and the testing sites may not represent the general US win...

Use of the Service Attribute Matrix To Measure Consumer Satisfaction

Albrecht and Bradfords service attribute matrix was used to determine at tributes leading to customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction in a college university foodservice. Customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction was measured from a self-admin istered questionnaire. Two hundred and twelve questionnaires were returned for a response rate of 66.7%. In general, the most important attributes to the customers in the university cafeteria were quality of food, convenient location, cleanliness, and reasonable price. Attributes for each meal were sorted into the matrix according to their level of importance and the satisfaction score. Competitive strengths were found for all meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) in quality of food, cleanliness, convenient location, and nutritious food categories, whereas a competitive vulner ability in the category of the price charged was found for two of the meals (lunch and dinner). The Albrecht and Bradford model appears to be useful in analyzing customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction.

Obstacles to nutrition labeling in restaurants.

OBJECTIVE This study determined the major obstacles that foodservices face regarding nutrition labeling. DESIGN Survey questionnaire was conducted in May 1994. In addition to demographic questions, the directors were asked questions addressing willingness, current practices, and perceived obstacles related to nutrition labeling. SUBJECTS/SETTING Sixty-eight research and development directors of the largest foodservice corporations as shown in Restaurants & Institutions magazines list of the top 400 largest foodservices (July 1993). STATISTICAL ANALYSES PERFORMED P tests were used to determine significance within a group for the number of foodservices that were currently using nutrition labeling, perceived impact of nutrition labeling on sales, and perceived responsibility to add nutrition labels. Regression analysis was used to determine the importance of factors on willingness to label. RESULTS Response rate was 45.3%. Most companies were neutral about their willingness to use nutrition labeling. Two thirds of the respondents were not currently using nutrition labels. Only one third thought that it was the foodservices responsibility to provide such information. Several companies perceived that nutrition labeling would have a potentially negative effect on annual sales volume. Major obstacles were identified as menu or personnel related, rather than cost related. Menu-related obstacles included too many menu variations, limited space on the menu for labeling, and loss of flexibility in changing the menu. Personnel-related obstacles included difficulty in training employees to implement nutrition labeling, and not enough time for foodservice personnel to implement nutrition labeling. APPLICATIONS Numerous opportunities will be created for dietetics professionals in helping foodservices overcome these menu- or personnel-related obstacles.

Like It! Learn It! Use It? A Field Study of Hotel Training

This field study examines factors influencing hotel employees’ ability to transfer the concepts that they learned in job training when they return to work. The study was conducted during a major hotel company’s training program. The training objective was to ready front-desk associates to operate a new property management system (PMS). Past business research suggests that trainee characteristics, training design, and work environment factors can positively impact an employee’s transfer of training. Role-play exercises and surveys were used to explore the validity of this research in a hospitality setting. This study’s findings suggest that proper management of these impact factors can foster enhanced transfer of training in hotels. Strategies are offered to help hospitality human resource professionals improve training transfer in hotels.

Identifying the underlying structure of perceived service fairness in restaurants

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the applicability of fairness concepts as a lens for evaluating services in restaurants addressing service fairness issues within, as well as outside of, the service failure context.Design/methodology/approach – Data are collected from two casual dining restaurants in the USA. In order to identify the underlying structure of perceived service fairness in restaurants, this study proposes and tests the fitness of two competing models – a traditional three‐factor model and an alternative four‐factor model.Findings – A confirmatory factor analysis supports that a four‐factor structure of service fairness, which has integrated a customer benefits and sacrifice perspective with the original fairness theory, would be better for evaluating restaurant services instead of the three‐factor model that has frequently been applied in service failure and recovery contexts.Research limitations/implications – The data are collected from only casual dining restaurants. Therefore, genera...

Transfer of Training Efficacy in U.S. Food Safety Accreditation

Abstract The unprecedented growth of the number of people served by the foodservice industry raises the need for greater sanitary awareness for todays culinary professionals. Addressing this, a U.S. national study was conducted to measure the impact of food safety accreditation on health inspection scores. Although a positive connection was established between certified managers in charge and their enhanced knowledge of food safety, surprisingly, no statistically significant correlation was found between accreditation and improved health inspection scores. This indicates that training may not be transferring into improved sanitary practice in foodservice operations. Causes for this lack of transfer of training as well as strategies to improve future accreditation training efforts are suggested.

Assessment of Food Safety Risk: A Case Study in Marion County, Indiana

Abstract Food service operations vary in their exposure to food safety risks. The Marion County, Indiana Health Department employs a system of risk assessment in determining the frequency of annual restaurant inspections to obtain an optimal balance between public safety and a maximization of departmental resources. Risk assessment classification criteria currently stem from the Food and Drug Administration Food Code without consideration of restaurant type. The utility of the current system of risk assessment was examined to see if restaurant type should be considered in the process. The analysis revealed significant differences in the number of health inspection violations among restaurant types, supporting the studys proposal. Of note, full-service chain restaurants had more violations than full-service independent operations and cafeterias had a greater number of violations than all other restaurant types combined.

Motives for reading and articulating user-generated restaurant reviews on Yelp.com

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to examine why and when restaurant consumers use and contribute user-generated reviews. This research is needed to determine the relevance of user-generated restaurant reviews in the current marketplace. Design/methodology/approach – The research methodology is based on a quantitative approach, and focused on current Yelp.com users as its population. Questions focused on the amount of usage, motives for usage, level of trust, users’ tendencies to seek novelty in restaurants and motives for contribution. Findings – Users tend to trust the reviews on Yelp.com and engage in the community aspects of the platform. Yelp.com users also are altruistic in their motivation for contributing reviews to Yelp.com. Yelp.com users who access it tend to act on the information found within the reviews. Originality/value – Research articles have focused on user-generated reviews in the past; however, few have examined motivations of using and posting restaurant reviews. The value of...

The impact of food safety events on the value of food-related firms: an event study approach.

Abstract Food safety events threaten not only consumers’ health, but also the value of associated firms. While previous studies examined the impact of food safety events on consumer demand for products, little attention has been paid to the impact on the market value of firms. Using the event study method (ESM), this study investigated abnormal returns (ARs) and cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) of firms associated with 40 food safety events over the past 25 years in the U.S. The results of this study demonstrated the magnitude and duration of the impact of food safety events on firm value. Moreover, firm-specific factors (past history and firm size) and situational factor (media attention) were found to influence the magnitude of the impact. This study contributes to the hospitality literature by extending the knowledge of the impact of food safety events and its practical implications for effective crisis management strategies for food-related firms.

The negative spillover effect of food crises on restaurant firms: did Jack in the Box really recover from an E. coli scare?

Abstract Despite the enormous impact of food crises on restaurants, limited understanding of their long-term impacts and associated factors has undermined crisis managers’ ability to handle crisis situations effectively. This article investigated the long-term impact of food crises on the financial performance of restaurant firms and identified the factors that influenced this impact. This explanatory study examined the case of Jack in the Box, whose 1993 Escherichia coli scare was the first and largest restaurant-associated food crisis in modern times. An event study method was used to uncover stock price movements of Jack in the Box, in conjunction with 73 unrelated food crises that occurred from 1994 to 2010. Stock prices of Jack in the Box exhibited significantly negative responses to other firms’ food crises, moreover, the negative spillover effect was stronger if the crisis occurred closer in time, was similar in nature, and was accompanied with no recall execution. These findings shed light on the long-term financial impact of food crises and offer insights for crisis managers to develop more effective crisis management strategies.