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Saving a company from bankruptcy may require the help of crisis consultants who have experience stabilizing organizations. Companies have a better chance of survival if they seek outside guidance at the first sign of financial difficulty. While a cash flow crisis may be the most obvious sign of trouble, it is usually not the cause but the effect of earlier difficulties such as pricing issues, lack of market penetration or lack of direction from management. Based on a case study of MicroNet, a high‐technology company, this article shows how turnaround experts can save a company that is on the brink of bankruptcy by applying creativity and problem‐solving skills. In the case of MicroNet, the crisis consultants’ actions included: stabilizing cash flow; reestablishing credibility with the lender; stabilizing product sales; refocusing on product development to affect the immediate operating horizon; organizing unsecured creditors; creating trust between vendors and MicroNet; and locating a strategic buyer. Turnaround requires immediate, aggressive and often painful actions in three areas: turnaround business, value creation and merchant banking. The principles outlined apply to companies of any size and in any industry.

This paper aims to explore the nature of the celebrity chef phenomenon and its impact on the contemporary hospitality industry, to both enrich current knowledge on the topic, as well as inform future research endeavors.

The study was based on a narrative literature review of secondary data sources, namely, academic literature and industry-related articles, and video data collected from popular video-hosting websites.

Despite the vast popularity of celebrity chefs, the phenomenon remains underexplored, with limited coverage given to it by hospitality-related literature. Prior investigations primarily focused on celebrity chefs’ commercial influence and power of advocacy, with little reference to their impact on the next generation of culinary professionals and on the sustainability of the profession.

This commentary has numerous theoretical and practical implications for industry stakeholders who wish to explore this phenomenon beyond the limited confinements of its commercial impact. In particular, the study explores the nature of the phenomenon, where television, social media and the celebrity status of chefs influence both the values and norms surrounding the profession, and individuals’ vocational choices. That said, findings suggest that additional research is required on this topic.

The exploration of celebrity chefs as a topic has so far been limited and has leaned toward one dimension in hospitality literature, despite its interesting scope. This critical overview provides conceptual clarity on issues such as the phenomenon’s commercial and vocational impact and highlights areas of concern and opportunity. Moreover, the study sets a clear pathway for further research.

Purpose – Anthropomorphism abounds in contemporary consumer culture. This chapter evaluates the recent anthropomorphic uptick and shows how it can be utilized for pedagogic purposes – namely, a brand animal novel called The Penguin's Progress.

Methods/approach – The chapter adopts a case study approach (though “exemplar” is perhaps a better word). It employs an alternative mode of knowledge representation, fictionalized nonfiction.

Findings – The exemplar reveals that student engagement is enhanced when unorthodox modes of representation are embraced by educators, though such pedagogic tactics are not without their shortcomings.

Research implications – If student reaction to The Penguin's Progress is any indication, then this chapter has enormous implications for the way consumer researchers communicate their ideas. A root and branch rethink is required.

Practical implications – The Penguin's Progress provides an alternative pedagogic option, an off-beat route to knowledge acquisition. Whether it's widely adopted, remains to be seen.

Originality – The chapter reveals that marketing and consumer research does not have to be written in a dry-as-dust manner.

The abolishment of the wine tax in Hong Kong has led to increased wine consumption and increased demand for wine-related professionals, such as sommeliers. Yet the importance of sommeliers’ value-adding performance in the context of upscale Chinese restaurants has not been examined. To address this gap, the SERVQUAL framework is adopted to examine the influence of sommeliers’ service quality (SQ) on customer satisfaction (CS) and loyalty in the context of upscale Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong.

The survey method is used to collect data from 302 units of the population of interest, partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is used to test the links between constructs.

Four of the seven dimensions of sommeliers’ service quality, namely, empathy, tangibles, credibility and assurance, have a significant positive impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, whereas the impact of perceived value and responsiveness on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty is positive but only marginally significant. Reliability has a weak and non-significant impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.

Examining a small number of upscale Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong limits generalisation of the findings to other contexts. Replication of the research in different contexts will enhance generalizability. In terms of implications, the discussion highlights the importance of sommeliers’ service performance on customers’ SQ perceptions SQ, CS and loyalty, all of which are important variables for restaurateurs.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of the influence of the quality of sommelier’s SQ on CS and loyalty in upscale Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong. Given the lack of attention to this service role in the literature, the study contributes theory from which further understanding can develop.

The main objective of this research is to unravel and analyze emergent technologies that are altering and improving the event industry. The study seeks to recognize the most vital technological advancement, uses and effects on event preparation, management and participant experience.

In this study, a narrative literature review method was used to examine emerging technologies in event management.

The research reveals that the emerging technologies examined in the articles affect and transform the event industry differently. Many of these technologies are currently being used in the event industry and are likely to be utilized in the coming years.

Numerous studies in the literature are related to the research field. However, as technology evolves rapidly, it is necessary to repeat studies at regular intervals. This article contributes to the literature by tracking new technological developments in the event industry.

The Internet has introduced new ways of conducting business. Online auction of nonperishable experience goods (NPEG) items, which are generally rare, expensive and durable and need to be experienced to be valued, is one area that is undergoing significant change. Online auction platforms are encouraging participants to interact publicly in a social media type comment format. This paper investigates how such public interactions impact the auction outcomes of NPEG.

Auction records of vintage automobiles sold between 2015 and 2023 on one of the biggest online auction platforms in the USA were collected. The dataset contains multiple variables per record such as winning bid price, number of comments by sellers and browsers and various details of the automobile, for example brand, vintage and mileage. Ordinary least squares was utilized to analyze close to 42,000 records in the dataset.

The paper found that comments in general are positively correlated with the winning bid; it also found that online buyers value browser comments higher than seller comments. Furthermore, the relationship between vintage and origin country and winning bid is enhanced by browser comments.

This research furthers theory on two fronts. Firstly, we analyze how auction outcomes are impacted when buyers, casual observers and sellers interact with each other publicly when the auction is ongoing. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is one of the first studies that delve into participant interactions in online ongoing auctions. Secondly, we investigate how potential buyers utilize participant interaction information to guide their decisions about the value of NPEG.

The purpose of this paper is to present a history of social and environmental accounting (SEA) in France.

The choice is made to select and analyze three important breakthroughs in the development of SEA in France, at different periods. Three case studies are presented, based on secondary sources for two of them and on the author’s own research for the third one. The author choses the concept of organizational field, defined through its actors, how they interact, what they do, what tools and practices are being developed and what regulations are being enacted.

If each case is different in terms of context and outcome, all three present common characteristics which characterize the underlying forces which shaped SEA in France: mainly the role played by elites both in government and industry, an ability for industry to present its interests as the interests of France with an impact on the international standardization of some tools and regulatory issues such as product labeling. The French scene is dominated by engineers, characterized by quantitative tools which “measure” environmental performance, in line with the culture of the French elite for which mathematics are a tool for action and problem-solving. In a certain way this “depoliticized” environmental questions and made them a question of optimization more than a question of politics.

Because of the specific context in which some tools emerge, they may not be transferable to other countries without important changes.

The focus on problem solving through quantitative tools to make the most rational decision, and the claim by the engineering profession to be in the best position to do so, is not a focus on accountability. This may be part of the reason why the accounting profession is not as involved as in other countries.

This paper also shows how France has been both a local field of SEA production, when it comes to developing quantitative tools, with occasional global reach, and an importer of global standards and SEA concepts which originated from the Anglo-Saxon word, when it comes to reporting. More generally, it is also a good illustration of how the development of a “local” organizational field is congruent with the characteristic of its national environment.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and examine discrepancies of food aesthetics portrayed on social media across different types of restaurants using a large-scale data set of food images.

A neural food aesthetic assessment model using computer vision and deep learning techniques is proposed, applied and evaluated on the food images data set. In addition, a set of photographic attributes drawn from food services and cognitive science research, including color, composition and figure–ground relationship attributes is implemented and compared with aesthetic scores for each food image.

This study finds that restaurants with different rating levels, cuisine types and chain status have different aesthetic scores. Moreover, the authors study the difference in the aesthetic scores between two groups of image posters: customers and restaurant owners, showing that the latter group tends to post more aesthetically appealing food images about the restaurant on social media than the former.

Restaurant owners may consider performing more proactive social media marketing strategies by posting high-quality food images. Likewise, social media platforms should incentivize their users to share high-quality food images.

The main contribution of this paper is to provide a novel methodological framework to assess the aesthetics of food images. Instead of relying on a multitude of standard attributes stemming from food photography, this method yields a unique one-take-all score, which is more straightforward to understand and more accessible to correlate with other target variables.

In many countries (Nigeria inclusive), major components of job creation and economic growth, are driven by small and medium-sized businesses that are mostly family-owned. However, over 50% of such businesses fail after intrafamily leadership transition. This chapter seeks to understand and explain the strategies that owners of medium-sized family-owned businesses explore in ensuring the sustainability of their business after a leadership transition from the founder. The focus is on three business leaders who sustained their family-owned businesses after a leadership transition from their founders. The conceptual framework is based on the transformational leadership theory. Data collection was from artefacts, company documents and semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. Analysis of data was supported by follow-up questions and member-checking to enhance the trustworthiness and credibility of the interpretations. Four themes that emerged were the founder's desire and support for transition, the preparation of successors or level of preparedness, trust and credibility of successors, and clarity of vision of both the founders and successors. Findings from this study may contribute to positive social change by providing leaders of African family-owned businesses with strategies for managing leadership transitions and ensuring the survival of the business after these transitions. Sustainability of family businesses might lead to job retention and creation, as well as enhance wellbeing and incomes of communities, family members and the African economy.

The purpose of this article is to summarise the evolution of pub food in the UK.

This research uses secondary data.

The provision of food has increased enormously in recent years and has become a vital element to the economics of many outlets.

The article does not have the data to consider how many pubs really benefit from their food provision.

The article provides general information about the nature of the food provision and a generalization about the economic benefits.

This article offers some knowledge and understanding in relation to the provision of pub food.