Innovation,entrepreneurship, and restaurant performance: A higher-order structural model

Drawing on theories from hospitality, innovation, and entrepreneurship, this study examines a higher-order structural model investigating business innovation, the owners' entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE), and human capital as drivers of restaurant performance. The theoretically derived model was tested on data from 198 café and restaurant owners in Australia. The PLS-SEM analysis found restaurant innovation activities and the owner's ESE to positively influence restaurant performance. Furthermore, the six ESE dimensions had varying effects on restaurant performance, with ‘Developing new product and market opportunities’ having the strongest effect. In contrast, the entrepreneur's ‘human capital’, representing their levels of business ownership experience and entrepreneurship/industry education, did not significantly affect restaurant performance. However, human capital indirectly affected performance through innovation and ESE. The findings of this study advance theories in restaurant entrepreneurship and performance and present important implications for industry authorities to develop a successful and sustainable restaurant sector.     

Rapid responding to the COVID-19 crisis: Assessing the resilience in the German restaurant and bar industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally impacted the restaurant and bar industry. Simultaneously, this industry is already undergoing structural change. Using the concept of organisational resilience, we analyse the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on owner’s assessment of resilience in the German restaurant and bar industry. Findings from an online survey with 623 owners and managers show that ex-ante business problems, and financing by loans or credit, reduce the likelihood of owners perceiving their business as resilient; while, delivery and takeaway service, ownership of property and higher age of owners, increase the likelihood of enterprise resilience. The paper contributes to understanding how restaurants and bars absorb and cope with the COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore, we make recommendation for future research on the recovery and adaptability of the business sector.     

Strategy Communication in Family-Owned Restaurants: Ad Hoc and Ad-Lib

ABSTRACT

Most New Zealand restaurants are small family-owned businesses, which could be expected to communicate their purpose, business strategy, and goals to their employees. However, this expectation may be at odds with the informal mode of a family operation. This exploratory study therefore examines the communication of strategies in family-owned restaurants to determine the likely impact of family ownership on strategy communication. Interview data from family business owners and employees indicate that communication was largely ad hoc, relating to tactics more than strategies, and that many owners lacked the skills needed to operate a profitable and successful business. The weak understanding of strategic business skills identified may explain the high rate of failures identified in the New Zealand restaurant industry.     

Entrepreneurship in the tourism industry: Issues in developing countries

The tourism industry in Malaysia is one of the most important sectors in terms of its contribution to the growth of the nation. The extensive demand on the tourism industry has stimulated the emergence of many small and medium hotels, resorts, and chalets in Malaysia. According to the literature, small and medium hotels are an extension of the entrepreneurial characteristics of the owners/managers of the hotels. In Malaysia, small and medium hotel entrepreneurs (SMHEs) have not been given much attention. Looking at this gap, this study aims to provide a significant result on entrepreneurship issues in Malaysia. The main objective of this study is to examine the characteristics of small and medium hotel owners/managers and the issues and problems they confront in relation to their survivability in the industry. The result revealed that the majority of owners/managers of small and medium hotels were male, middle-aged and older, with secondary and upper level of education, and whose prior specialisations or knowledge were not related to tourism. With strong self-confidence and independent personality characteristics, the majority started to establish their businesses after the financial crisis in 1997–1998. The result also defined small scale to mean hotels with less than 50 rooms, which had been constructed with limited personal funding and bank loans. Information technology was found to be an important tool to promote their hotels, but conventional techniques such as word of mouth and signboards were still significant. The owners/managers of small and medium hotels were in agreement over their weaknesses in terms of lack of knowledge and skills in running the business. At the same time, they also felt that the government should play a more proactive role in promoting the tourism industry.     

The Impact of Supplier Development on Financial Performance in the Restaurant Industry

ABSTRACT

Many firms have come to recognize the crucial role that cooperative relationships with suppliers play in determining high financial performance. Of main concern in many firms are supplier development activities and behaviors (SDABs) of buying firms, which are an attempt to meet current and future business needs such as high financial performance by improving supplier performance. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how buying firms' SDABs affect supplier performance (in delivery as well as product and service quality) and its impact on financial performance of the buying firms. The authors critically revisit extant knowledge on the subject, develop a conceptual framework integrating buyer and supplier relationship marketing/management practices, and test the framework in the independent restaurant industry context. Using structural equation modeling and data collected from 236 restaurant owners and/or presidents in the United States, the results of this research support the usefulness of the framework, showing that buying firms' SDABs directly affect supplier performance, which leads to high financial performance of the buying firms.     

Uncertainty risks and strategic reaction of restaurant firms amid COVID-19: Evidence from China

To contain the pandemic of coronavirus (COVID-19), social distancing, self-isolation and travel restrictions have been imposed globally. To shed light on how COVID-19 is affecting restaurant industry, this study aims to explore the factors that affect restaurant firms’ financial turnaround for their sustainability after the business shutdowns amid the COVID-19 pandemic. By utilizing a total of 86,507 small- and medium-sized restaurant firms’ sales data collected from nine cities in Mainland China, the exploratory approach of this study successfully determines positive impacts of three aspects of operational characteristics (i.e., delivery, discounts, and service type) and brand effects as uncertainty minimizing factors amid distinctive business shutdowns and restrictions. This is the first empirical study in the management realm on the impacts of COVID-19 on restaurant industry. This paper strengthens the extant literature by highlighting the impact of COVID-19 on the restaurant industry after the business restrictions are lifted.     

Sexual Harassment in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

Prudent restaurant managers and owners should be aware of new trends in their industry. One of the most recent trends or challenges that the restaurant industry is facing is that of sexual harassment lawsuits. As the cost of litigation and dollar amount of settlements increase substantially, restaurant managers and owners should take a proactive view at sexual harassment in Hong Kong from the perspective of their employees. Hong Kong today is no different than any other major city in the world with attorneys (Solicitors and Barristers) advertising on television and in newspapers, therefore managers and owners in the restaurant industry must realize the significance of a work environment free of sexual harassment. The purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions of restaurant employees in Hong Kong concerning sexual harassment.     

Human Capital,Organizational Orientations and Performance: Evidence From the Restaurant Industry

ABSTRACT

The study examines how human capital combines with and influences organizational orientations to determine performance. Specifically, this study investigates small restaurant businesses’ ability to effectively exploit intangible resources and capabilities, rather than tangible resources, in order to produce sustainable competitive advantage. A structured questionnaire was used to survey owners/managers of small independent restaurants in the United States. The results demonstrate that human capital, market orientation and entrepreneurial orientation serve as intangible resources and capabilities that can augment the competitive position of independent restaurants, and thereby improve performance. Human capital also combines with and influences the adoption of market orientation and subsequent performance.     

Effects of work status congruence and perceived management concern for employees on turnover intentions in a fast casual restaurant chain

The current study examines a proposed turnover intention model on hourly employees in a large fast casual dining restaurant chain located in the United States. High levels of turnover have been a consistent and costly issue in the restaurant industry. The study was developed to help restaurant owners and managers determine how relationships between variables influence the turnover intentions of their employees, in order to overcome the economic hardship that organizations face when their turnover rates are high. Many factors were found to influence employee turnover intentions, including work status congruence, perceived management concern for employees, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Hence, it is important for fast casual restaurant operators in the United States to develop their managers' human resource skills, in order to have satisfied and committed hourly employees, who should as a result develop lower turnover intentions. Managerial and academic implications are discussed in detail.     

Examining the Impact of Four Key Cultural Dimensions on Ethnic Restaurants in Victoria in Australia

This study examines the impact (if any) of four key cultural dimensions on ethnic restaurants in regional Victoria, Australia. Based on a modified model developed by Nguyen and King [Nguyen, T., & King, B. (2002). Migrant communities and tourism consumption – the case of the Vietnamese in Australia. In C.M. Hall (Ed.), Tourism and migration. New relationships between production and consumption (pp. 221–256). The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers], this article explores the impacts of religion, co-ethnic ties, marriage and family support on the entrepreneurial behaviour of restaurants. These four cultural dimensions have been identified as influencing factors (Nguyen & King, 2002), but to what extent? It suggests that co-ethnic ties, marriage and family support are important to the daily operations of an ethnic restaurant, and potentially, long-term financial success. This is theoretically important in understanding how ethnic minority restaurants may differ regarding entrepreneurial business decisions compared to similar Western businesses. Utilising family and co-ethnic ties, labour resources offers a competitive advantage in four ways; reduced labour cost, efficiencies in communication, predictable behaviour and restaurant promotional opportunities. Religion, the fourth key cultural dimension put forward in Nguyen and King's (2002) model did not strongly influence entrepreneurial behaviour; however, it still may have relevance outside business behaviour.     

The Place Identity - Performance relationship among tourism entrepreneurs: A structural equation modelling analysis

Drawing on the literature on tourism, entrepreneurship, environmental psychology, and corporate philanthropy, this research examines how place identity, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and support for community influence the entrepreneurial performance of small and medium tourism enterprise (SMTE) owners. Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modelling are used to analyse the responses from 301 tourism entrepreneurs operating in regional South Australia. The data supports a model suggesting that the place identity of tourism entrepreneurs has a significant, positive effect on entrepreneurial self-efficacy and support for the community. Findings also suggest that the place identity of tourism entrepreneurs has a positive, indirect effect on entrepreneurial performance: a tourism entrepreneur’s sense of identity with the place in which his/her business operates contributes toward entrepreneurial success.     

Senior citizens and their dining-out traits: Implications for restaurants

Continuing and rapid growth of the mature population in Taiwan has forced the restaurant industry to prepare for substantial social and demographic changes. This study used a telephone survey to elicit attributes important to the restaurant patronage behaviors of consumers aged 65 and older who lived independently. The variables examined include a battery of demographic and health-related variables, a series of motivation attributes, restaurant selection criteria, and measures of consumer's restaurant patronage behaviors. Two distinctive segments were identified; frequent and convenience restaurant patrons, and occasional and family restaurant patrons. The results of this study of mature consumer's restaurant patronage behavior have several implications for this increasingly important and prominent segment of the restaurant consumer marketplace.     

Characteristics of small business leadership from employees’ perspective: A qualitative study

Leadership is a much-studied topic, and yet, the topic still attracts researchers. As an essential factor in every organization, however, leadership contributes significantly to a business failure, especially in small independent restaurant businesses and this could be due to the unique operations of the industry and the lack of leadership studies on small hospitality businesses. This study aims to fill the gap by exploring the ideal characteristics for small independent restaurant leaders to become an effective leader using a qualitative approach from their employees’ perspectives. Qualitative data were collected through four focus groups and one dyadic interview. The findings of the qualitative data analysis revealed nine themes: respectful, compassionate, effective communicator, experienced, effective delegator, gives recognition, sociable, emotionally controlled, organized. The paper discussed implications of the findings for small independent restaurant businesses and the hospitality industry in general as well as implications for theory.     

生计资本视角下大都市近郊区农民旅游创业的影响因素——以北京市怀柔区莲花池村为例

十九大报告明确指出，促进农村一二三产业融合发展，支持和鼓励农民就业创业，拓宽增收渠道。乡村旅游是农民创业的热点行业，也是乡村振兴的重要举措。本研究以北京市怀柔区旅游山村莲花池村为例，利用半结构式访谈及田野调研资料，基于扎根理论分析了农民旅游创业的行动逻辑及影响因素，建立了创业者特征、创业条件以及创业环境3个主范畴下农民旅游创业的影响因素理论模型，采用二元logistic回归分析方法，从是否旅游创业、是否存续的角度，讨论了农民旅游创业因素作用的动态变化。研究发现：（1）农民旅游创业决策模型分为创业者与创业条件两个维度。其中，创业条件包括家庭人力资本、物质资本和社会资本；（2）农民旅游创业存在女性化、年轻化趋向，家庭劳动能力、道路便捷性是进行创业的先决条件，家庭社交支出、创业者周围人群以及区域大环境是创业存续的促进条件；（3）农民旅游创业主导因素由个体因素转为外部社会化因素。     

Restaurant revenue management: Do perceived capacity scarcity and price differences matter?

Revenue management (RM) has become an indispensable strategic tool in capacity-constrained service industries whose total revenue often depends on the abilities of firms to use capacity efficiently. The restaurant business is similar enough to traditional RM industries such as hotels and airlines, but restaurants also have unique characteristics that pose special challenges to restaurant operators. Among the unique characteristics of restaurants are the relative flexibility of service capacity and the flexible duration of a meal, which are important subjects to be considered in the implementation of RM practices. In addition, when a restaurant operator practices a demand-based variable pricing policy to adjust demand, the magnitude of the price differences may influence fairness perceptions of the policy. Based on the commodity theory and the equity theory, this study hypothesizes that two main effects, namely, perceived scarcity of capacity in a restaurant and price differences, influence the perceived value of a restaurant's offerings and the fairness perceptions of a restaurant's RM practices. As hypothesized, the negative effects of price difference on fairness perceptions are supported by the results. However, findings suggest that perceived scarcity of capacity influences neither the perceived value of a restaurant's expected offering nor the fairness perceptions for a restaurant's RM practices.     

Tipping Behavior of Diners in Three Upscale Chinese Restaurants in Hong Kong

This study intends to fill a gap in the literature and explores customers' tipping behaviors in the Chinese foodservice industry. The main focus of this study is to test a model that examines the influences of “food quality”, “service quality”, “conformity”, “universalism”, “reputation”, “likelihood of return” and “overall meal satisfaction” on tip size. A survey was conducted with 611 restaurant patrons in three selected Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong. The findings of this study reveal that five of these seven factors were found to be good predictors of overall satisfaction except “universalism”. However, the overall impact of these seven factors on tip amount was small. Implications of the findings were discussed and directions for future studies were included.     

Family Vs. Non-Family Business Owners’ Commitment to Their Town: A Multigroup Invariance Analysis

This study examines differences between family-owned and non-family-owned small and medium tourism enterprises (SMTEs) operating in regional tourism destinations. The research focuses on SMTE owners' commitment to stay in the town in which they are embedded. Based on samples of family (N?=?157) and non-family (N?=?141) businesses in regional South Australia, was used to test the construct validity of SMTE owners' “commitment to stay”. Multigroup invariance was used to test the factorial equivalence of scores from the commitment model across family and non-family businesses. Results support the validity of the “commitment to stay” CFA model. Multigroup invariance analysis suggests family business owners have a greater commitment to staying in their town. These results contribute to our understanding of the unique objectives and behaviours of family businesses in tourism as well as present important implications to destination managers aiming to support sustainable entrepreneurial development.     

Alcohol-service liability: Consequences of guest intoxication

The purpose of this study is to examine the legal responsibilities of owners of establishments that sell and/or serve alcoholic beverages to their patrons and other people who may be assaulted or injured by those patrons in the establishment or after leaving the establishment. Examination of 246 actual court cases revealed that the plaintiff's claims are likely to fall under either the restaurant, bar, hotel, club or other hospitality operators’ failure to exercise reasonable care to protect patrons from injury at the hands of other patrons, failure to maintain a safe and orderly establishment, or from patrons injuring bystanders in violation of a dram shop act. However, findings indicated that violations of a dram shop act are likely to have the most devastating effect on the business.     

Aggravated fragmentation: A case study of SME behaviour in two emerging heritage tourism regions

This paper investigates the behaviour of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) within the heritage tourism supply chain (HTSC), in two emerging heritage regions. SMEs are conceptualised as implementers, working within the constraints of government level tourism structures and the heritage tourism supply chain. The research employs a case study approach, focusing on two emerging regions in Northern Ireland. In-depth interviews were carried out with small business owners and community associations operating within the regions. The research identifies SME dissatisfaction with the supply chain and the processes in place for the delivery of the tourism product. To overcome the perceived inadequacies of the heritage tourism supply chain SMEs engage in entrepreneurial behaviour by attempting to deliver specific products and services to meet the need of tourists. The challenge for tourism organisations is how they can integrate the entrepreneurial, innovative activities of SMEs into the heritage tourism system.     

Entrepreneurial Characteristics,Motives, and Business Challenges: Exploratory Study of Small- and Medium-Sized Hotel Businesses

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to gather information about the determinants and characteristics of the owners/managers of small- and medium-sized hotels (SMSHs) and identify various issues in starting up and operating businesses in the United Arab Emirates. The results of this study reveal that the majority of the owners/managers of SMSHs in the United Arab Emirates are male, young and middle age, and relatively new to the tourism industry. The motivations for the business ventures of the entrepreneurs include wanting to be financially independent, become one’s own boss, involvement in family business and the opportunities of the hotel business. Among the key business challenges highlighted by the owners/managers of SMSHs are stiff competition in the hotel industry, increased operating costs, reduced demand, and lack of skilled employees. Several key strategies have been employed to face these challenges. These include offering competitive pricing, improving the marketing and channels of promotion, enhancing the quality of service and providing superior customer service.