Advanced search

Classifying restaurants to improve usability of restaurant research

Bonnie Farber Canziani (Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Hospitality and Tourism, UNC Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA)
Barbara Almanza (School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA)
Robert E. Frash Jr (School of Business, College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina, USA)
Merrick J. McKeig (University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA)
Caitlin Sullivan-Reid (School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA)

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

ISSN: 0959-6119

Publication date: 11 July 2016

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to review existing restaurant classifications within the literature in the restaurant management field. The authors discuss intra-industry ramifications of the limited use of recognized typologies and the need to prescriptively guide the description of restaurant context in the literature to communicate the internal and external validity of findings.

Design/methodology/approach

Restaurant categories from accepted typologies are used as keywords to collect 345 empirical studies from ten relevant journals serving the global restaurant management discipline. Content analysis of titles, abstracts and methodology sections is used to examine three propositions regarding the standardization, rationalization and efficiency of restaurant classification in imparting restaurant context in published works.

Findings

Findings show inconsistent use of existing typologies and limited use of effective restaurant descriptors to inform users about the situational context in which data were gathered or hypotheses were tested. There is a general preference for categories commonly associated with those of the National Restaurant Association.

Research limitations/implications

Researchers should standardize descriptions of restaurants in manuscript titles, abstracts and methods sections, thereby enhancing integration of international research, the ability to conduct macro-level industry studies, and communication of findings to practitioners for operational use.

Originality/value

Recommendations are offered to optimize the use of restaurant classification so that the content of empirical studies may be more effectively accessed, digested and compared, thereby enhancing the communication of advances in the restaurant management body of knowledge to practitioners and other researchers.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the College of Charleston’s Office of Tourism Analysis for its assistance in copy editing.

Citation

Canziani, B.F., Almanza, B., Frash, R.E., McKeig, M.J. and Sullivan-Reid, C. (2016), "Classifying restaurants to improve usability of restaurant research", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 28 No. 7, pp. 1467-1483. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-12-2014-0618

Download as .RIS

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

To read the full version of this content please select one of the options below

You may be able to access this content by logging in via Shibboleth, Open Athens or with your Emerald account.
To rent this content from Deepdyve, please click the button.
Rent from Deepdyve
If you think you should have access to this content, click the button to contact our support team.
Contact us
Manage cookies

We’re listening — tell us what you think

Join us on our journey