An Examination of Customers’ Attitudes about Table Top Technology in Full-Service Restaurants

This paper examines the influence of customer-facing technology in full-service restaurants. As a new addition to the service experience, tabletop devices offer the customer more control over the dining experience, and also increase customer participation in the service process, which has the potential to upset the traditional exchange between service providers and customers in restaurants. To examine how customers react to the use of tabletop devices, this study examines 1,343 point-of-sales transactions from 20 units of a full-service casual dining restaurant chain and matches customer in-restaurant transactions to their reactions to tabletop devices used during their meals. Results show that over 70% of the customers who used tabletop devices reported positive affect toward the device, with approximately 79% of customers reporting that the device improved their experience, citing convenience, ease of use, and credit card security as some benefits of using the technology. Approximately 80% of the customers who used the device reported that they would return to the restaurant because of the positive affect. The results also indicate that likeability of the device and tip percentage were positively and significantly connected to customer reports of the devices having a positive effect on experience and on desire to return. In addition, when customers reported increased return intentions, likeability of the device was higher regardless of reports of the device improving restaurant experience, showing that the introduction of tabletop devices had a positive effect for most—but not all—customers.

Does Tipping Help to Attract and Retain Better Service Workers?

A survey of several hundred restaurant servers in the United States found that servers’ attitudes toward working for tips and average tip sizes were weakly related (at best) to their service-orientation, intended job-tenure, and occupational-tenure. These findings suggest that tipping does not substantially help to attract and retain more service-oriented workers. Restaurateurs can eliminate tipping at their restaurants without fear that doing so will reduce the quality of their wait-staff.

Early Bird & Night Owl Evaluation Tool (EBNOET) v2015

The early bird and night owl restaurant tool found in the accompanying Excel file provides an estimate of the effects of offering off-peak special menu prices. Unlike the classic back-of-envelope calculation, the tool includes the effect of anticipated cannibalization of full-price covers and seeks to optimize table use. The tool also considers the revenue from new customers attracted by the early bird or night owl promotions, as well as the level of increased business needed to achieve the net monetary value target for the promotion.

An Empirical Investigation of the Relationships among Climate, Capabilities, and Unit Performance

For the current study, the authors examined the relationships among two dimensions of organizational climate and several indices of individual- and unit-level effectiveness. Specifically, the article proposes that an organization ’s service and training climate would be related to employee capabilities—operationalized in terms of frontline service capabilities and managerial support capabilities—and that such capabilities would be related to unit- level measures of employee turnover and sales growth. Using survey and operational data from 201 management and frontline staff members in 22 units of a national restaurant chain, the results from correlation and regression analyses generally supported the proposed relationships. This study replicates and extends previous research and provides a foundation for future conceptual development and empirical work in this research area.

The Influence of Table Top Technology in Full-service Restaurants

The use of tabletop technology continues to grow in the restaurant industry, and this study identifies the strengths and weakness of the technology, how it influences customers, and how it can improve the bottom line for managers and business owners. Results from two studies involving a full-service casual dining chain show that dining time was significantly reduced among patrons who used the tabletop hardware to order or pay for their meals, as was the time required for servers to meet the needs of customers. Also, those who used the devices to order a meal tended to spend more than those who did not. Patrons across the industry have embraced guest-facing technology, such as online reservation systems, mobile apps, payment apps, and tablet-based systems, and may in fact look for such technology when deciding where to dine. Guests’ reactions have been overwhelmingly positive, with 70 to 80 percent of consumers citing the benefits of guest-facing technology and applications. The introduction of tabletop technology in the full-service segment has been slower than in quick-service restaurants (QSRs), and guests cite online reservation systems, online ordering, and tableside payment as preferred technologies. Restaurant operators have also cited benefits of guest-facing technology, for example, the use of electronic ordering, which led to increased sales as such systems can induce the purchase of more expensive menu items and side dishes while allowing managers to store order and payment information for future transactions. Researchers have also noted the cost of the technology and potential problems with integration into other systems as two main factors blocking adoption.

Cultura organizacional e qualidade dos serviços turísticos :um estudo no setor de restaurantes

The present study seeks to describe the features and peculiarities of the relationship between organizational culture and the quality of tourism services, specifically in the restaurant sector, attempting to contribute toward maintaining the tourism sector of the city of Natal/RN. Thus, a descriptive and correlational study, with qualitative and quantitative approaches, of thirty-seven restaurants that are located in areas that compose the tourism corridor of Natal was undertaken. To collect the quantitative dada, the Organizational Culture Evaluation instrument of Cameron and Quinn (2006) was applied and the SERVPERF instrument of Cronin and Taylor (1992) was used to measure the quality of the services. The results suggest that the Clan and Innovation Cultures are associated with better levels of quality of services than those of the Market and Hierarchy Cultures. The relationships that were identified in this study are consistent with results found in other studies and the information reported here can serve as a basis for managers of the restaurant sector to reach excellence in their services, satisfying their customers and contributing to maintaining the tourism sector

Effet de l’environnement alimentaire bâti autour des écoles sur les comportements d’achat alimentaire des jeunes du secondaire

Le nombre de jeunes avec un surplus de poids est en hausse au Canada (Roberts, Shields, de Groh, Aziz et Gilbert, 2012). Les conséquences négatives de cette condition sont multiples pour le jeune, actuellement et pour son avenir. La recherche visant à comprendre les raisons de cette augmentation cible, entre autres, les environnements alimentaires dont le paysage scolaire. Des restaurants rapides et des dépanneurs sont dénombrés dans l’environnement alimentaire bâti en milieu scolaire (Lalonde et Robitaille, 2014). La présence et la concentration de commerces alimentaires dans le voisinage des écoles favorisent l’achat d’aliments et de boissons par les jeunes (He, Tucker, Gilliland, Irwin, Larsen, et Hess, 2012a; Robitaille, Paquette, Cutumisu, Lalonde, Cazale, Traoré et Camirand, 2015; Seliske, Pickett, Rosu et Janssen, 2013; Virtanen, Kivimäki, Ervasti, Oksanen, Pentti, Kouvonen, Halonen, Kivimäki, Vahtera, 2015). Pourtant, le lien causal entre le paysage alimentaire scolaire et les achats des jeunes n’est pas soutenu par la littérature scientifique actuelle. À Sherbrooke, un changement dans l’environnement alimentaire bâti est survenu en 2012 suite à l’implantation de commerces alimentaires en périphérie d’une école secondaire. Ce projet était une occasion exceptionnelle de valider si la modification naturelle de la densité alimentaire autour d’une école avait un effet sur les comportements d’achat des jeunes dans cet environnement. L’objectif de ce travail de maîtrise était de mesurer le lien entre les comportements d’achat des jeunes du secondaire dans l’environnement alimentaire bâti en milieu scolaire et la densité de certains commerces alimentaires circonscrite autour de leur école. L’hypothèse émise était que les jeunes dont l’école était entourée d’une densité plus élevée de commerces alimentaires étaient plus nombreux à acheter des aliments et des boissons dans ces commerces que les autres adolescents. Pour ce faire, un questionnaire auto-administré a été rempli en classe par des élèves de trois écoles secondaires sherbrookoises. Les données obtenues ont permis de documenter les comportements d’achat de près de 3 000 jeunes en 2013. Ces comportements d’achat ont été comparés à ceux collectés dans le Portrait des jeunes sherbrookois de 4 à 17 ans en matière d’alimentation et d’activité physique et sportive réalisé en 2008 (n = 3 867) (Morin et al., 2009a). Parallèlement, une cartographie des environnements alimentaires autour de chaque école participante à chaque temps a permis de décrire les densités alimentaires scolaires. Au regard de l’environnement alimentaire bâti en milieu scolaire, peu de liens existent entre la prévalence d’acheteurs le midi et la densité de restaurants rapides autour des écoles, selon nos résultats. Seul l’effet défavorable d’une très forte concentration en restaurants rapides (soit plus d’une douzaine) a émergé de nos résultats. De plus, aucune tendance n’a été décelée entre l’évolution du paysage alimentaire autour des écoles entre les deux temps et les changements dans les prévalences d’acheteurs. Ainsi, les efforts fournis pour diminuer la densité alimentaire en périphérie des écoles doivent être remis en question considérant le faible effet mesuré sur les comportements d’achat des jeunes dans notre étude. En ce qui trait aux comportements d’achat des jeunes, nos résultats ont montré que seule une faible proportion de jeunes était des consommateurs dans les environnements alimentaires scolaires. En effet, moins d’un jeune sur dix a acheté un aliment ou une boisson sur l’heure du midi dans un restaurant rapide dans la semaine sondée. Cette pratique ne semblait donc pas caractériser le régime alimentaire global des jeunes et ainsi, son influence réelle sur la hausse des taux d’obésité est incertaine (Macdiarmid, Wills, Masson, Craig, Bromley et McNeill, 2015). De plus, selon nos résultats, la prévalence des acheteurs au restaurant rapide durant une semaine typique a diminué entre les deux temps. D’un autre côté, la qualité nutritive des achats dans ces commerces durant une semaine s’était améliorée entre les deux temps. Cependant, les choix moins nutritifs étaient toujours achetés par plus de jeunes que les aliments et les boissons nutritifs. Les quantités achetées à chaque visite dans un restaurant rapide étant inconnues dans notre étude, il était difficile de statuer sur l’effet réel des achats sur les prévalences d’obésité. En conclusion, il demeure essentiel d’améliorer les habitudes alimentaires des jeunes, entre autres, dans les restaurants rapides lors d’une journée scolaire (Macdiarmid et al., 2015). Par conséquent, l’offre alimentaire dans l’environnement alimentaire bâti en milieu scolaire doit être bonifiée, par exemple en collaborant avec les commerçants alimentaires déjà établis. Il faut également maintenir les efforts déployés pour améliorer l’environnement alimentaire dans l’école et élaborer des stratégies pour que les jeunes mangent à la cafétéria de l’école.

Predicting the performance of passenger ships using computer simulation

When designing a new passenger ship or naval vessel or modifying an existing design, how do we ensure that the proposed design is safe from an evacuation point of view? In the wake of major maritime disasters such as the Herald of Free Enterprise and the Estonia and in light of the growth in the numbers of high density, high-speed ferries and large capacity cruise ships, issues concerned with the evacuation of passengers and crew at sea are receiving renewed interest. In the maritime industry, ship evacuation models are now recognised by IMO through the publication of the Interim Guidelines for Evacuation Analysis of New and Existing Passenger Ships including Ro-Ro. This approach offers the promise to quickly and efficiently bring evacuation considerations into the design phase, while the ship is "on the drawing board" as well as reviewing and optimising the evacuation provision of the existing fleet. Other applications of this technology include the optimisation of operating procedures for civil and naval vessels such as determining the optimal location of a feature such as a casino, organising major passenger movement events such as boarding/disembarkation or restaurant/theatre changes, determining lean manning requirements, location and number of damage control parties, etc. This paper describes the development of the maritimeEXODUS evacuation model which is fully compliant with IMO requirements and briefly presents an example application to a large passenger ferry.

The Round House

The Round House has been a prominent landmark at Put-in-Bay for more tthan a century. The building was built as a residence in Toledo, Ohio. It was dismantled and brought to South Bass Island and rebuilt at the corner of Delaware and Lorain Avenues, where it began operations in 1873 at the Columbia Restaurant. It remains one of the most popular bars on the island. At right is the Park Hotel.

Avaliação de hábitos de consumo e adequação nutricional de refeições rápidas cuja base é o pão

As rápidas alterações sociais, económicas, culturais e ambientais determinaram mudanças significativas nos estilos de vida e contribuíram para o crescimento e generalização do consumo de alimentos e refeições fora de casa. Portugal acompanha a tendência de aumento do consumo alimentar fora de casa, assim, as refeições fora de casa, que há uns anos eram um acontecimento fortuito, são hoje uma prática habitual das famílias portuguesas, não só durante a semana de trabalho, mas também nos fins-de-semana. As, visitas aos centros comerciais que se tornaram um hábito no nosso país incluem uma paragem nas Praças de Alimentação, espaços de excelência pela diversidade alimentar onde predominam as refeições de fast-food. Porém é fundamental a escolha adequada/equilibrada dos alimentos que se vão consumir. O presente trabalho procurou avaliar os hábitos e percepção dos consumidores de refeições rápidas com base numa ementa específica cujo alimento principal é o pão. Posteriormente e de acordo com as preferências de consumo procedeu-se à avaliação nutricional das escolhas. Neste estudo participaram 150 indivíduos que frequentaram as instalações de um restaurante de comida rápida situada na praça de alimentação de um centro comercial situado em Viseu. Foi aplicado um questionário de autopreenchimento, por nós elaborado dividido em 4 partes: caracterização sociodemográfica; hábitos de consumo dos inquiridos; produtos escolhidos pelos inquiridos; grau de satisfação face aos produtos escolhidos. As análises estatísticas foram efectuadas com recurso ao Programa informático Statistical Package for the Social Sciences - SPSS® for Windows, versão 22. Realizam-se testes de Qui-quadrado com simulação de Monte Carlo, considerando o nível de significância de 0,05. Com base nas escolhas mais frequentes feitas pelos inquiridos procedeu-se à avaliação nutricional dos menus recorrendo ao programa DIAL 1.19 versão 1 e quando não se encontrou informação neste utilizou-se a tabela de composição de alimentos portugueses on line (INSA, 2010). Compararam-se os valores obtidos para o Valor Calórico Total, os macronutrientes, a fibra, o colesterol e o sódio com as Doses Diárias Recomendadas. A amostra era composta por 68,7% mulheres e 31,3% homens, com uma média de idades de 29,9 ± 3 anos e, maioritariamente empregados (64,7%). O grau de instrução da maioria dos inquiridos (54,7%) era o ensino superior. Grande parte da amostra não se considera consumidora habitual de fast-food,referindo ainda efectuar frequentemente uma alimentação equilibrada. Sendo que apenas 5 % frequenta as instalações mais de uma vez por semana. De entre os produtos disponíveis, a preferência fez-se pela sandes e batata-frita, sendo o momento de maior consumo o almoçoA avaliação nutricional das escolhas preferenciais dos inquiridos mostrou que o VCT do menu que inclui água como bebida está dentro dos limites calóricos preconizados para o almoço excepção feita ao menu que inclui sandes quente de frango em pão de orégãos e sandes fria de queijo fresco que se destacam por apresentar um valor inferior ao limite mínimo recomendado. Pelo contrário, a inclusão no menu do refrigerante faz com que haja um aumento do VCT, independentemente da sandes considerada, em 18%. Uma análise detalhada mostra que estas ementas são desequilibradas, apresentando 33,3% delas valores de proteínas superiores à DDR enquanto que os valores de HC e lípidos se encontram maioritariamente dentro dos limites havendo apenas 13,3% das ementas fora desses valores. Relativamente ao aporte de fibra e de sódio 86,7% das ementas aparecem desenquadradas com valores excessivos de sódio e valores de fibra 33% abaixo do limite mínimo recomendado. Tratando-se de um estudo de caso em que apenas se inclui um único restaurante de uma praça de alimentação, que fornece ementas à base de pão (sandes) os resultados são interpretados de forma cautelosa e sem generalização. Podemos no entanto concluir, face aos resultados obtidos a necessidade de redução do teor de sal das ementas. Para além disso parece-nos fundamental, para que o consumidor possa comparar opções alimentares e tomar decisões informadas, a disponibilização da informação nutricional das ementas propostas.

Cultura organizacional e qualidade dos serviços turísticos :um estudo no setor de restaurantes

The present study seeks to describe the features and peculiarities of the relationship between organizational culture and the quality of tourism services, specifically in the restaurant sector, attempting to contribute toward maintaining the tourism sector of the city of Natal/RN. Thus, a descriptive and correlational study, with qualitative and quantitative approaches, of thirty-seven restaurants that are located in areas that compose the tourism corridor of Natal was undertaken. To collect the quantitative dada, the Organizational Culture Evaluation instrument of Cameron and Quinn (2006) was applied and the SERVPERF instrument of Cronin and Taylor (1992) was used to measure the quality of the services. The results suggest that the Clan and Innovation Cultures are associated with better levels of quality of services than those of the Market and Hierarchy Cultures. The relationships that were identified in this study are consistent with results found in other studies and the information reported here can serve as a basis for managers of the restaurant sector to reach excellence in their services, satisfying their customers and contributing to maintaining the tourism sector

A CSR communication strategy for Ibersol: fighting hunger in Portugal

Field lab in marketing

The effects of ILFN-exposure on voice acoustic parameters of commercial cabin crewmembers

Background: Long-term exposure to infrasound and low frequency noise (ILFN <500 Hz, including infrasound) can lead to the development of vibroacoustic disease (VAD). VAD is a systemic pathology characterized by the abnormal growth of extracellular matrices in the absence of inflammatory processes, namely of collagen and elastin, both of which are abundant in the basement membrane zone of the vocal folds. ILFN-exposed workers include pilots, cabin crewmembers, restaurant workers, ship machinists and, in previous studies, even though they did not present vocal symptoms, ILFN-exposed workers had significant different voice acoustic patterns (perturbation and temporal measures) when compared with normative population. Study Aims: The present study investigates the effects of age and years of occupational ILFN-exposure on voice acoustic parameters of 37 cabin crewmembers: 12 males and 25 females. Specifically, the goals of this study are to: 1) Verify if acoustic parameters change over the age and years of ILFN-exposure and 2) Determine if there is any interaction between age and years of ILFNexposure on voice acoustic parameters of crewmembers. Materials and Methods: Spoken phonatory tasks were recorded with a C420III PP AKG head-worn microphone and a DA-P1 Tascam DAT. Acoustic analyses were performed using KayPENTAX Computer Speech Lab and Multi-Dimensional Voice Program. Acoustic parameters included speaking fundamental frequency, perturbation measures (jitter, shimmer and harmonicto- noise ratio), temporal measures (maximum phonation time and s/z ratio) and voice tremor frequency. Results: One-way ANOVA analysis revealed that as the number of ILFN-exposure years increased male cabin crewmembers presented significant different shimmer values of /i/ as well as tremor frequency of /u/. Females presented significantly different jitter % of /i, a, O/ (p <0.05). Lastly, Two-way ANOVA analysis revealed that for females, there was a significant interaction between age and occupational ILFN-exposure for voice acoustic parameters, namely for jitter’s mean for /a, O/ and shimmer’s (%) mean for /a, i/ (p <0.05). Discussion and Conclusion: These perturbation measure patterns may be indicative of histological changes within the vocal folds as a result of ILFN-exposure. The results of this study suggest that voice acoustic analysis may be an important tool for confirming ILFN-induced health effects.

Design gráfico alternativo

Dissertação de Mestrado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Design de Comunicação, apresentada na Universidade de Lisboa - Faculdade de Arquitectura

Hotel Vila Galé Lagos

Dissertação de Mestrado, Direção e Gestão Hoteleira, Escola Superior de Gestão, Hotelaria e Turismo, Universidade do Algarve, 2016