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This study (1) assessed restaurant consumers' perceived importance of better food quality versus larger portion sizes, (2) classified restaurant consumers into different segments based on their perceived importance of seven food quality attributes (taste, texture, aroma, appearance and the use of natural, local and organic ingredients) relative to portion size and (3) compared the identified market segments.

An online survey assessed 613 USA adult participants' perceived importance of seven food quality attributes relative to portion size. A K-means cluster analysis classified participants into different segments based on their perceptions.

Five restaurant consumer segments were identified: sensory-oriented consumers, taste-oriented organic food consumers, local and natural food consumers, quantity-oriented consumers and quality-oriented consumers. In general, quality-oriented consumers were the least likely to visit fast-food restaurants, had the highest average per-meal spending and were the least likely to eat out alone. Local and natural food consumers and taste-oriented organic food consumers had higher total restaurant spending than other groups. Quantity-oriented and sensory-oriented consumers visited fast-food restaurants more often and had lower total restaurant spending and per-meal spending than other groups. Age, sex and income were significantly associated with the segmentation outcomes.

Findings suggest promising opportunities for restaurants to enhance consumer perceptions of value by prioritizing the factors that hold the greatest significance to their target customers.

This study is the first attempt to segment restaurant consumers based on their perceived importance of food quality attributes relative to portion size, effectively identifying five distinct consumer segments.

This study aims to examine consumers’ preferences among four calorie-reducing approaches – resizing, reformulation, substitution and elimination – and to understand what motivates consumers to order low-calorie food using the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a model.

A conceptual model was developed based on the TPB with an additional construct of food choice motives. A total of 467 responses were collected. Descriptive statistics, multiple regression and ANOVA were used in the data analysis.

Consumers have a clear preference for substitution and elimination. The pattern that ingredients with higher calories were modified at a higher priority indicated that consumers might improve food decisions based on calorie information.

Restaurants should allow substitution or elimination of certain ingredients from menu items. Including more low-calorie sides will cost restaurants less than changing the main dish. A menu item on an entrée form is more amenable to modification for decreased calorie content as consumers have high taste expectations for popular traditional foods (e.g. burgers and pizza).

This is the first study to investigate consumers’ preferences among the four popular calorie-reducing approaches. A novel “Build Your Own Meal” approach was used in the questionnaire to allow the participants to choose from more than 150 ingredients, which compensated for personal preferences, thus mitigating possible limitations associated with studies of this kind, and was a good indicator of the participants’ actual ordering behavior.

The purpose of this study is to explore the dimensions of restaurant customers’ engagement or disengagement with healthy eating in terms of individual and environmental factors to develop a scale. The results identified the underlying constructs of customers’ individual motives for and perceived barriers to healthy eating, as well as environmental elements of restaurants that encourage or discourage healthy eating.

To develop an appropriate set of measures to assess factors influencing customers’ healthy eating behaviors at restaurants, the current study undertook the five steps of scale development suggested by Churchill (1979): specifying the domain of constructs, generating a pool of initial measurement items, assessing content adequacy, administering questionnaires (an online survey method) and purifying and finalizing the measurement (via exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using 410 samples and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using 423 samples).

The results revealed ten individual factors (health, body image, weight control, feeling better, unappealing food, cost perception, lack of knowledge, state of mind (stress), lack of self-control and negative influences) and five environmental factors (healthy indications, social impact, availability of healthy menu, price policy and unhealthy indications) influencing customers’ healthy eating behaviors at restaurants.

This study developed an appropriate set of measures to assess individual and environmental factors influencing restaurant customers’ healthy eating behaviors, along with identifying underlying sub-constructs. The reliability and validity of the scale and the factor structure are presented and potential applications and theoretical contributions of the scale are provided as well.

The purpose of this research is to examine why and when restaurant consumers use and contribute user-generated reviews. This research is needed to determine the relevance of user-generated restaurant reviews in the current marketplace.

The research methodology is based on a quantitative approach, and focused on current Yelp.com users as its population. Questions focused on the amount of usage, motives for usage, level of trust, users’ tendencies to seek novelty in restaurants and motives for contribution.

Users tend to trust the reviews on Yelp.com and engage in the community aspects of the platform. Yelp.com users also are altruistic in their motivation for contributing reviews to Yelp.com. Yelp.com users who access it tend to act on the information found within the reviews.

Research articles have focused on user-generated reviews in the past; however, few have examined motivations of using and posting restaurant reviews. The value of conducting research comes from being able to understand the importance of user-generated restaurant reviews for customers in a comprehensive manner.

The present study aimed to understand the relationships between the various kinds of feedback received by hospitality operators. Information from guests, experts, and internal sources are often received, valued, and processed in various ways. The researchers sought to further explore the usage of such feedback and implications for theory and practice.

A survey was sent to hotel general managers of four‐ and five‐diamond properties around the USA using the listing of the American Automobile Association (AAA). A total of 140 responses were received. The researchers utilized correlations and canonical correlation analysis to help understand the relationships among the variables.

The results of the study revealed moderate to strong correlations between improvement in consumer‐generated feedback and customer satisfaction; between improvement in AAA ratings and customer satisfaction and mystery shopping scores. There were also moderate to high correlations among value placed in consumer‐generated and that placed on other electronic forms of electronic feedback such as social networking, blogs, and online travel agency feedback. Canonical correlation was also performed among the variables in the various correlation matrices. Two statistically significant dimensions emerged. The most influential variables in the first dimension were value placed on TripAdvisor and value placed on meeting planner feedback. The second dimension featured three influential variables: value placed on reviews in TripAdvisor, value placed on social networking, and perceived improvement in consumer‐generated ratings.

The present research revealed two distinct sets of general managers: those who have a strong preference towards online feedback and those who place greater value in traditional sources of feedback such as letters from customers. Additionally, the researchers discovered some similarities between improvement in scores of experts and consumers. This in turn, points out to the existence of some universal aspects of service that appeal to both stakeholder groups. The different levels of value placed on various kinds of feedback points out to the need for tourism and hospitality operators to adopt a more comprehensive strategy to collect, analyze, and take appropriate actions based on such information.

The researchers contribute to the nascent literature on consumer‐generated feedback by exploring its relationship to other variables. Furthermore, the study of various sources of feedback (i.e. guests, experts, and operators) is often studied separately in the tourism literature. It was the aim of this study to explore all of these together in order to better understand their relationships, value, and uses.

This study aims to address how the social structure of the hospitality management field has evolved from 1960 to 2016.

The informal social structure of the hospitality management literature was analyzed by collecting authorship data from seven hospitality management journals. Co-authorship analyses via network analysis were conducted.

According to the findings, throughout the history of hospitality management, international collaboration levels are relatively low. Based on social network analysis, the research community is only loosely connected, and the network of the community does not fit with the small-world network theory. Additional findings indicate that researchers in the hospitality management literature are ranked via degree centrality, closeness centrality and betweenness centrality. Cliques, which contain at least five researchers, and core researchers are identified.

This study helps both scholars and practitioners improve the informal structure of the field. Scholars must generate strong ties to strengthen cross-fertilization in the field; hence, they collaborate with authors who have strong positions in the field. Specifically, this provides a useful performance analysis. To the extent that institutions and individuals are rewarded for publications, this study demonstrates the performance and connectivity of several key researchers in the field. This finding could be interesting to (post)graduate students. Hospitality managers looking for advisors and consultants could benefit from the findings. Additionally, these are beneficial for journal editors, junior researchers and agencies/institutions.

As one of the first study in the field, this research examines the informal social structure of hospitality management literature in seven journals.

In this chapter, we present the findings of the National Assistive Technology Research Institute (NATRI). The institute was funded in October 2000 as a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs to take a comprehensive look at the factors related to the planning, development, implementation, and evaluation of assistive technology (AT) services in schools. We present the data from seven research areas: (1) the status of AT use in schools, (2) policies and procedures in the development and delivery of AT services, (3) AT decision-making by IEP teams, (4) integration of AT use in learning environments (facilitate instruction, access to curriculum), (5) effects of AT use on academic, social, functional performance of students, (6) training and technical support needed by persons implementing AT, and (7) the extent to which institutions of higher education (IHEs) were developing AT knowledge and skills. In each area we summarize the lessons learned as a result of the research to assist policy-makers, researchers, and practitioners in improving AT services and delivery systems.