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Wine consumption has increased worldwide by 5.6% since 1994. All the major wine consuming regions have reported increases in consumption: Asia (China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan), Northern Europe (Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway) and North America (USA and Canada) have experienced the largest increases of 68%, 29.9% and 23.6% respectively. This study investigates the wine drinking patterns of people in Hong Kong. The findings indicate that nearly half of all local adults have drunk wine over the past year. There was an almost equal distribution between male and female wine‐drinking respondents. Wine‐drinkers in general were found to have higher education levels, better jobs and to earn more money. Half of the wine consumption was found to occur in both Western and Chinese restaurants and surprisingly 40% of the wine was consumed at home. Half of the wine was purchased in local supermarkets. Red wine was much more popular than both white and sparkling wine and the preferred country of origin was France. Hong Kong wine drinkers were, however, found to be infrequent consumers of the product.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how sommeliers influence wine sales in US restaurants and to understand how US restaurant sommeliers sell wine to customers, select for the wine list, and keep current on wines.

Data from 250 telephone interviews among people at fine restaurants who were in charge of the selection and recommendation of wines for customers was reviewed. Fine restaurants were selected from wine spectator's “Gold Medal Winners” list and supplemented by Zagat's top 2,000 restaurants. The interviews averaged 29 minutes in length.

On an average, customers ask a sommelier to provide wine recommendations 38 per cent of the time and sommeliers volunteer wine recommendations 42 per cent of the time. While wine is becoming increasingly popular and consumers are more knowledgeable, sommeliers play an important role in identifying best products available to meet restaurant customers' expectations.

Sommeliers play an important role in influencing the sale of wine in restaurants, in particular, in smaller restaurants and in fine dining restaurants. Focusing on value for money, winery reputation, type of variety and tracking customer preference are all critical factors that respondents considered when selecting wines and when recommending wines to customers.

This paper addresses the advantage of employing a sommelier in fine dining restaurants, given that when there is a designated sommelier more parties order wine (an average 76 per cent vs an average 70 per cent), the average check is higher ($62 vs $55) and the wine list is updated more frequently. Fine dining restaurant managers, owners and sommeliers will find value in this paper.

Data from a recent study on unemployed women are compared with data on unemployed men. Differences in men's and women's work and family roles, and in their labour opportunities affect their commitments to family work and paid work. Such differences affect responses to the involuntary loss of jobs. This article first compares the meaning of work in the lives of men and women factory workers, then it focuses on differences in the labour market behaviour of men and women after displacement. Finally it explores re‐employment outcomes and earning losses

Muscadines (Vitis Rotundifolia Michx.), a vine native to the southern USA, is processed into different products, including wines. Today, many wineries in the southern USA offer an experience that combines muscadine wine tastings, tours, education, and in some cases food. However, apart from offering on‐site sales and a tourist experience related to the hospitality industry, to what extent are wineries engaged in relationships with local or state restaurants? Also, what, if any, challenges do wine operators face in the process of seeking to market their wines to hospitality operations? The present study aims to explore these areas from a winery operator's perspective.

Data were collected from 31 winery owners located in different southern states, including Alabama, Florida and North Carolina, predominantly via telephone interviews.

Almost half of the respondents (15, 48.4 per cent) acknowledge synergies between their wineries and hospitality businesses; however, the other 16 (51.6 per cent) are not involved in such relationships. Such absence of networks and relationships is to a great extent due to concerns of surrendering control of their wines to wholesalers and distributors (in many cases winery operators are not allowed to sell directly to restaurateurs), and the apparent lack of appreciation of muscadine wines by many hospitality businesses.

While the findings of this study may provide useful information to the muscadine wine industry, particularly as a foundation for future research, the low number of participating wineries presents a limitation.

Muscadine wines have the potential to enhance not only winery visitors' experience when travelling to areas where muscadine grapes are grown, but also their restaurant/dining experience. However, support in the form of promotion, education and legislation, allowing more direct winery‐hospitality industry relationship, is critical for the long‐term sustainability of the muscadine‐wine industry.

The present study examines an area that, despite its clear links to hospitality and tourism, to date has been overlooked in contemporary research.

Wine as a research topic continues to address a plethora of diverse contexts. In consideration of this scope and abundance of wine literature, this study aims to provide guidance for future meaningful contributions to this existing body of wine knowledge through a comprehensive scholarly review.

A total of 22 wine business, hospitality and tourism journals were selected and used to identify 739 refereed articles addressing wine-related topics over a 26-year period from 1990 to 2015. This was segmented using five wine research time frames, which were then separately investigated using content analysis and keyword network analysis.

Results support the importance for continued refinement of certain research areas to add understanding to wine research. In particular, the topics of marketing and tourism pertaining to wine research have fragmented into much more specialized sub-segments over this 26-year period.

Limitations include generalizability of findings because of the study’s use of 22 journals, along with the selected 26-year period. Future research should examine other time periods using other publications in peripheral and in non-related areas to seek topics potentially and inadvertently overlooked by this process. Significant topics and trends regarding wine research were identified and classified according to time periods. Information has been provided for future directions and new research agendas.

Based upon an examination of time periods segmented by half-decades, keyword network analysis was used to explore wine research trends. Using keyword network analytics, this method for identifying networks between key words produced findings that have brought the literature regarding wine research to a current status allowing academics to gain insights into potential direction for future research needs.

The paper analyses the influence of the decision-makers' overconfidence on the intuitive practices' adoption, as well as on the international performance during international strategic decision-making processes (SDMPs) of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Moreover, the study investigates the possible mediating effect of intuition on the relationship between overconfidence and international performance.

A semi-structured questionnaire based on a sample of 160 SMEs and a regression analysis have been employed.

Results show a negative relationship between intuition and international performance and a positive one between overconfidence and international performance. Furthermore, a negative relation between overconfidence and intuition has been identified. Findings also highlight the mediating role of intuition in the relationship between overconfidence and international performance.

The paper provides valuable implications related to the analysis of overconfidence as a critical decision-maker's character and intuition as a feature of the decision-making methodology. Moreover, the study offers indications for SMEs facing complex strategic decisions.

The paper adopts an original perspective by combining the SDMP analysis with that of international strategy within the SMEs context. Additionally, the study enriches the existing literature by (1) investigating overconfidence in the decision-making; (2) enhancing the examination of overconfidence and intuitive practices in the international SDMP; (3) deepening the research field focused on the identification of the intuitive processes' predictors that is still in its infancy.

The aims of this study were to investigate the influencing factors of wine tourism development in China, assess the marketing efforts made by the wine-tourism stakeholders, and provide constructive suggestions for the development of China's wine tourism.

A qualitative approach was adopted for the purposes of this research. The study site is the Bohai Bay wine region in Shandong Province, the birthplace of China's modern wine industry and the largest wine-producing area in China. Chateau Changyu-Castel and Chateau Junding were visited in June 2010. Qualitative data were collected in the forms of observations of the wineries, interviews with wine tourists, focus groups with tourism practitioners, and analyses of travel blogs, document excerpts, and official web sites. Content analysis produced a thematic framework on people, promotion, and place.

A number of facilitating and detrimental factors were revealed pertaining to China's wine tourism development on the three themes: people, promotion, and place.

The number of wine tourists being interviewed is relatively small, and the wineries chosen are relatively large ones. Results may not be generalized to other wine tourists and wineries in China.

The paper includes implications for the development of wine tourism in China, such as food and wine pairing that combines wine with local (Chinese) cuisine at the wineries, positioning, and genuine government support.

Research on wine tourism and wine tourists in China is scant. The current research fills a research gap by examining China's wine tourism phenomena from multiple perspectives, including those of tourists, tourism practitioners, and wine tourism destinations.

The purpose of this paper is to design and develop a new robotic device for the rehabilitation of the upper limbs. The authors are focusing on a new symmetrical robot which can be used to rehabilitate the right upper limb and the left upper limb. The robotic arm can be automatically extended or reduced depending on the measurements of the patient's arm. The main idea is to integrate electrical stimulation into motor rehabilitation by robot. The goal is to provide automatic electrical stimulation based on muscle status during the rehabilitation process.

The developed robotic arm can be automatically extended or reduced depending on the measurements of the patient's arm. The system merges two rehabilitation strategies: motor rehabilitation and electrical stimulation. The goal is to take the advantages of both approaches. Electrical stimulation is often used for building muscle through endurance, resistance and strength exercises. However, in the proposed approach the electrical stimulation is used for recovery, relaxation and pain relief. In addition, the device includes an electromyography (EMG) muscle sensor that records muscle activity in real time. The control architecture provides the ability to automatically activate the appropriate stimulation mode based on the acquired EMG signal. The system software provides two modes for stimulation activation: the manual preset mode and the EMG driven mode. The program ensures traceability and provides the ability to issue a patient status monitoring report.

The developed robotic device is symmetrical and reconfigurable. The presented rehabilitation system includes a muscle stimulator associated with the robot to improve the quality of the rehabilitation process. The integration of neuromuscular electrical stimulation into the physical rehabilitation process offers effective rehabilitation sessions for neuromuscular recovery of the upper limb. A laboratory-made stimulator is developed to generate three modes of stimulation: pain relief, massage and relaxation. Through the control software interface, the physiotherapist can set the exercise movement parameters, define the stimulation mode and record the patient training in real time.

There are certain constraints when applying the proposed method, such as the sensitivity of the acquired EMG signals. This involves the use of professional equipment and mainly the implementation of sophisticated algorithms for signal extraction.

Functional electrical stimulation and robot-based motor rehabilitation are the most important technologies applied in post-stroke rehabilitation. The main objective of integrating robots into the rehabilitation process is to compensate for the functions lost in people with physical disabilities. The stimulation technique can be used for recovery, relaxation and drainage and pain relief. In this context, the idea is to integrate electrical stimulation into motor rehabilitation based on a robot to obtain the advantages of the two approaches to further improve the rehabilitation process. The introduction of this type of robot also makes it possible to develop new exciting assistance devices.

The proposed design is symmetrical, reconfigurable and light, covering all the joints of the upper limbs and their movements. In addition, the developed platform is inexpensive and a portable solution based on open source hardware platforms which opens the way to more extensions and developments. Electrical stimulation is often used to improve motor function and restore loss of function. However, the main objective behind the proposed stimulation in this paper is to recover after effort. The novelty of the proposed solution is to integrate the electrical stimulation powered by EMG in robotic rehabilitation.

Social enterprises (SEs) offer a unique context as they have the challenge of finding solutions that not only improve their economic performance but also their social performance, simultaneously. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether learning orientation and new product development capability can support SEs to enhance both their economic and social performances.

A quantitative research design has been employed and data have been collected from a sample of 164 SEs in the UK.

The findings of this study illustrate that if SEs want to enhance their economic performance, they should ensure that learning orientation leads to new product development capability. Otherwise, learning orientation cannot improve their economic performance. However, surprisingly, learning orientation can impact SEs' performance not only by developing new product development capability but also by having a direct impact on their social performance.

This article contributes to the social entrepreneurship literature by illustrating the role of learning orientation and new product development capability in enhancing the economic as well as the social performance of SEs.

Drawing from representative bureaucracy theory, hiring minority police officers has been a perpetual reform recommendation for improving tense police-community relationships with minority communities since the 1960s. The expectation is that minority officers will provide active/symbolic representation, but little is known about minority officers' experiences during racially tense situations. This paper examines whether black officers experienced double marginality in the context of prolonged protests against police in Ferguson, MO in 2014 and compares black vs. nonblack officers' self-assessments about their preparedness to handle the crisis, procedural justice during the crisis and mental and emotional effects on officers following protest policing.

In-depth interviews with 45 police personnel who policed the Ferguson protests provide a rich description of the context and experiences through the lens of police officers. Surveys of 218 officers who conducted protest policing in Ferguson are used to compare the impact on black vs. non-black officers.

The results provide a detailed portrayal of the double marginality experienced by black officers while policing the Ferguson protests, but also demonstrate that black officers were resilient to the effects of that experience, showing significantly more favorable outcomes than their nonblack peers.

This is the only study to utilize a mixed methods approach with police officers who conducted protest policing to understand officers' experiences in the midst of a racially inflamed context. The findings provide support for policymakers interested in advocating and supporting hiring more minorities in policing.