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Omnichannel sales have provided new impetus for the development of catering merchants. The authors thus focus on how catering merchants should manage capacities at the ordering, production and delivery stages to meet customers’ needs in different channels under third-party platform delivery and merchant self-delivery. This is of great significance for the development of the omnichannel catering industry.

This paper formulates the capacity decisions of omnichannel catering merchants under the third-party platform delivery and merchant self-delivery mode. The authors mainly use queuing theory to analyze the queuing behavior of online and offline customers, and the impact of waiting time on customer shopping behavior. In addition, the authors also characterize the merchant’s capacity by the rate in queuing model.

The authors find that capacities at ordering stage and food production stage are composed of base capacities and safety capacities, but the delivery capacities only have the latter. And in the self-delivery mode, merchants can develop higher safety capacities by charging delivery fees. The authors prove that regardless of the delivery mode, omnichannel sales can bring higher profits to merchants by integrating demand.

The authors focus on analyzing the capacity management of omnichannel catering merchants at the ordering, production and delivery stages. And the authors also add the delivery process into the omnichannel for analysis, so as to solve the problem of capacity decision-making under different delivery modes. The management of delivery capacity and its impact on other stages’ capacities are not covered in other literature studies, which is one of the main innovations of this paper.

Since smartphones became ubiquitous, online grocery and food purchases through take-away delivery platforms have steadily increased in China. Nevertheless, whether the development of take-away delivery can ameliorate urban–rural wage inequality still requires further analysis. The purpose of this paper is to clarify whether this positive effect exists.

This paper makes estimations based on city and individual levels combining the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) 2008, CHIP 2013, CHIP2018 survey data and the take-away delivery site data. At the city level, the Oaxaca-Blinder (O-B) decomposition method is employed to construct wage inequality index of urban and rural labors. At the individual level, this paper analyzes urban–rural wage differentials with high or low formal education level.

The rapid establishment of take-away delivery sites has resulted in an increase of 52.425 yuan on average in the annual wage of rural labors with low formal education level. When the cumulative number of sites increases by 1 unit, the annual wage inequality index decreases by 0.007 on average. Labors with the characteristics of rural household registration and low education can enjoy more dividends. Through inter-/within-industry decomposition, this paper elaborates formal education, age and cross-industry transfer as the main factors for the improvement of urban–rural wage inequality. Narrowing effect of wage differences between different groups in multiple sample slices also contributes to the mechanism analyses.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first to analyze the impact of take-away delivery development on the urban–rural wage inequality from the perspective of the establishment of take-away delivery sites. This empirical study will enrich the existing theoretical perspectives on urban–rural divide under the emergence of new forms of employment. The results indicate that new forms of employment represented by take-away delivery can not only promote economic growth, but also eliminate urban–rural inequality.

Internal knowledge transfer is crucial for firms to improve their employees’ abilities and improve their work performance. However, there is still a gap in the knowledge management field regarding whether internal knowledge transfer can leverage employee personality traits and service performance in service-oriented organizations. To address this gap, this study aims to validate a multilevel model of the mediating (i.e. internal knowledge transfer as a mediator) and moderating (i.e. task interdependence as a moderator) mechanisms underlying personality traits and employee service performance.

Multilevel structural equation modeling was applied for model validation using an original data set from 45 team leaders and 333 employees working in Chinese hotels.

Internal knowledge transfer mediated the link between extraversion and employee service performance and the link between openness to experience and employee service performance. Task interdependence played a moderating role that strengthened both the impacts of extraversion and openness to experience on internal knowledge transfer.

Through the use of an original data set, this study advances the knowledge management discipline by investigating the mediating impact of internal knowledge transfer between personality traits and employee service performance and revealing the moderating impact of task interdependence that underlies the links between personality traits and internal knowledge transfer.

This study investigates the roles of technological development, artificial intelligence (AI), and robots in the catering business and their effects on the labor force and staff shortages.

The impact of AI, robots, and technological advancements on the labor force is outlined. Secondary sources and the results of interviews with two highly experienced experts were used to identify the transformation or metamorphosis that affects the staff situation during catering operations. This is an opinion paper that explains why it contains many of the authors’ observations and experiences.

Technological equipment and AI have been used frequently in catering operations, and robots are not grooved. In the near future, these tools could be part of a solution for the staff shortage because, with their help, less-skilled workers could be doing some of the job in the catering business.

The study is written from a limited perspective because of its qualitative nature and the fact that it is shaped by expert opinions and the author's views. It is expected that conducting the same study with a larger number of experts operating in various fields on similar topics in the future will lead to more effective results.

This research character is an opinion paper and qualitative. This research aims to explain the use of artificial intelligence, technological advancements, and robots and to explore their impacts on the labor force based on the opinions of experts and the author. The data obtained are expected to be useful for future labor force planning in catering businesses.

This study provides an exploratory framework regarding staff shortages in catering businesses and the integration of technology, AI and robots.

Based on a literature review, only a limited number of studies have been conducted on the use of technology, artificial intelligence, and robots in kitchens. None of these studies investigated their impact on the labor force. Therefore, this study is both original and valuable.

This study explores whether media coverage of Chinese food safety guide consumer behaviour and determines its impact.

Using data from the China Family Panel Studies, this study implements unsupervised machine learning methods to quantitatively identify themes in news media coverage of food safety across various provinces and regions. Based on these findings, this study examines the impact of coverage of food safety on consumer behaviour related to FAFH.

We find that media coverage of food safety in the restaurant sector significantly decreases household expenditure on FAFH relative to total expenditure. While negative coverage substantially decreases expenditure on FAFH, non-negative coverage significantly increases it. Reports of food safety incidents outside consumers’ province are negatively correlated with expenditure on FAFH, whereas reports within province significantly increases such spending. Further, the negative impact of media coverage on FAFH spending is less pronounced among higher-income families, households headed by individuals with high educational levels and those with low sensitivity to newspaper information. A robust government information infrastructure also mitigates this negative impact.

The findings have important policy reference value for promoting the healthy development of catering and other life services by improving news reporting and the regulatory system.

This article employs machine learning methods to identify news reports related to food safety in the catering industry quantitatively and incorporates them into the study of household consumption in China. Consequently, this not only fills a gap in the existing literature but also provides a new perspective for interdisciplinary research in economics, sociology and computer science.

This study aims to explore the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of the Muslim-friendly homestay business in Malaysia to help identify and recommend practical strategies to capitalize on the strengths and potentials while overcoming the current shortcomings and threats.

The Muslim-friendly business owner and operators in Sabah, Malaysia, were the subject of a series of focus groups and expert opinion interviews. The data was transcribed, and then the variables were categorized into the four SWOT categories using content and thematic analysis. Meanwhile, threats, opportunities, weaknesses and strengths (TOWS) analysis is used to identify the best strategy alternatives.

The SWOT analysis identifies several strengths (e.g. diverse and unique Islamic culture and heritage [S1], iconic Islamic landmarks [S2], rich natural beauty [S3], well-established halal tourism industry [S4]); weaknesses (e.g. limited awareness [W1], limited infrastructure and facilities [W2], limited human resources and trained personnel [W3], lack of Islamic tourism products and experiences [W4]); opportunities (e.g. growing demand for Islamic tourism [O1], increasing disposable income [O2], potential for collaborations [O3], potential for partnerships [O4], potential for expanding Sabah’s halal tourism offerings [O5]); and threats (e.g. competition [T1], political instability [T2], economic downturns [T3] and environmental and social challenges [T4]).

This paper could serve as a guideline and supplementary information for stakeholders in the homestay industry to grasp their business environment better.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its type to blend SWOT and TOWS analysis with the sector of Muslim-friendly homestays. Hence, the findings might expand understanding of the Muslim-friendly homestays industry and aid businesses in penetrating this growing market.

Of the studies covering culinary tourism and traditional culture, Generation Z remains an underexplored group despite being the primary consumers of future tourism. Research into young consumers’ motivations is hoped to clarify, protect, and sustain Hong Kong Tong sui among this generation. As such, this study focuses on Generation Z to understand the types of novel experiences Tong sui can create for them, and it is worth exploring in depth the diet that young people are interested in from the perspective of traditional food.

Based on Creswell’s guidelines for quantitative research, we investigated the relationships among multiple elements of Hong Kong Tong sui and Generation Z tourists. A corresponding questionnaire was designed to gather information for statistical analysis and contains five sections. The first part solicited basic respondent information. Sections 2–5 presented several key terms (nostalgic emotion, food authenticity, FCV, and purchase intention) to frame the questionnaire in terms of our hypotheses. Items were scored on 7-point Likert-type scales for ease of processing in SPSS 26.0.

All hypotheses were supported, with nostalgia having the most significant influence on Generation Z’s purchase intentions. Besides, young generations are willing to buy traditional food when exposed to the restaurants or enterprises have nostalgic elements and inspire nostalgia in consumer. Generation Z’s thoughts about food authenticity notably played a more significant role than FCV in terms of the nostalgia of traditional food. In addition, food authenticity and FCV were found to indirectly mediate the relationship between nostalgic emotion and purchase intention.

Examining these types of campaigns geared toward Generation Z tourists to advertise traditional food has enriched this tactic’s applicability. The approach also constructs a foundation to scrutinize the appeal of traditional dishes among young consumer groups to potentially strengthen such food’s influence.

This study highlights the importance of leveraging nostalgia and understanding the emotional connection that Generation Z has with traditional cuisine. It suggests that enterprises can develop new products or revive traditional recipes that cater to the nostalgic preferences of Generation Z. Marketing innovations, such as using social media influencers, can also be employed to create awareness and generate interest in traditional food. Traditional food can contribute to tourist destinations' promotion and differentiate them from competitors, boosting the tourism and catering industries and creating employment opportunities.

The promotion and preservation of traditional food can contribute to the preservation of cultural identity and heritage. By engaging local communities in culinary initiatives and fostering community pride, traditional food tourism can strengthen the connection to cultural heritage and encourage the preservation of traditional culinary practices. This engagement can lead to sustainable development by promoting local traditions and ensuring the participation of the local community in tourism activities.

This study offers novel theoretical insights into traditional food consumption and food marketing, thus narrowing gaps in research on young consumers and traditional food. Results enrich the understanding of Generation Z’s intentions to purchase traditional food by highlighting tourists’ preferences. Guidelines are also provided for the operators on creating nostalgic campaigns that appeal to young generations.

In recent decades, with China's “Go Global” and “Belt and Road” strategies, Chinese multinational corporations (MNCs) have been provided with a new development direction. This chapter aims to identify the features of the entry of Chinese multinationals into Kazakhstan and analyze their characteristics in terms of investment attractiveness and location advantages. The basic method for evaluating the characteristics of the development of Chinese MNCs in Kazakhstan is a statistical analysis based on UNCTADstat. Based on the analysis, the authors conclude that although China has many MNCs, their rate of transnationality and competitiveness index are far behind those of European and American ones. The number of Chinese multinational companies investing in Kazakhstan (1,234 companies) ranks third in the number of foreign companies in the country. Chinese multinationals investing in Kazakhstan are mainly concentrated in Xinjiang because it borders Kazakhstan and has geographical and cultural advantages. China's direct investment in Kazakhstan covers a wide range of industries, including agriculture, animal husbandry, planting, construction, mining, transportation and communication, hotel and catering industry, trade and auto repair industry, etc. However, most registered enterprises are engaged in developing and utilizing energy fields in Kazakhstan.

The huge Muslim population has increased the demand for halal tourism products and destination factors in this niche tourism segment. Despite the growing body of research conducted regarding ChatGPT’s revolutionary impact on the tourism industry, the use of such an artificial intelligence (AI) tool in halal tourism needs more attention. This study aims to provide a comprehensive an overview of using ChatGPT in the tourism industry, specifically in halal tourism, and offer an agenda for further essential research questions exploration.

Through the intensive examination of the tourism literature dealing with AI and halal tourism, this review identifies the implications related to the use of ChatGPT for Muslim travelers and future trends in halal tourism.

This paper identified the possible utilization of ChatGPT in assisting Muslim travelers across various stages of their journey, encompassing pre-trip, staying and post-trip phases. Subsequently, this paper identified the opportunities and challenges associated with implementing ChatGPT in the context of halal tourism. Finally, the paper delves into potential avenues for future research.

The findings serve as crucial implications, contributing to the theory of halal tourism development and the applications of ChatGPT in halal tourism.

This paper provides essential foundational knowledge for upcoming research on halal tourism theory, ChatGPT and the development of halal tourism sector.

A lot of research and studies have focused on how tourism might help a country's economy growth in recent years. Year after year, governments throughout the world pump a ton of money into tourist infrastructure because everyone knows it boosts economies. These days, tourism is a major force in the growth and prosperity of nations. According to data from the World Travel and Tourism Council and the World Tourism Organization, the tourism sector supported 320 million jobs, or 10% of all employment, and generated 10.4% of the world's GDP (gross domestic product) in 2018–2019. This sector is vital to the growth and economy of approximately 191 countries and 25 regions. The leisure industry received a disproportionate share of total expenditure (79% vs 22% for businesses), and it was responsible for 7% of all exports worldwide and 27.5% of all service exports. Domestic tourism accounted for 71.2% of all tourist expenditure in 2018–2019, with emerging nations witnessing the fastest rise. By fostering a sense of national pride and disseminating development and regional economic benefits, domestic tourism promotes possibilities. Without a doubt, novel advancements are possible atop these preexisting elements. As a means of economic progress, cultural exchange and the cultivation of mutual love, travel is becoming increasingly important as some countries turn inward.