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This study aims to assess Brazilian adult consumers’ behavior, aged 18–70, when purchasing ready-to-eat food during the first months of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Participants answered an online questionnaire about behaviors related to the purchase of ready-to-eat food from food services: changes in usage frequency during the pandemic, reasons for altering purchase habits, types of food and beverages bought before and during the pandemic and the frequency of on-site (consumption in food services) and off-site (delivery, take-away and drive-through) service utilization at lunch and dinner.

Out of 970 individuals who participated in the study, during the pandemic, 38% of participants reduced their food service usage, whereas 18% stopped using it. The main reasons given by participants who reduced and stopped food service usage were cooking at home (52% and 59%, respectively) and feeling afraid of contracting COVID-19 (26% and 22%, respectively). The reduction was more frequent among divorced/widowed/single individuals (p = 0.001) and in total social distancing, that is, all day long (p = 0.03). A significant reduction in on-site consumption frequency occurred for lunch and dinner (p < 0.001), whereas an increase in the off-site consumption frequency service for lunch (p = 0.016) and a reduction for dinner (p = 0.01) occurred compared to pre-COVID-19. However, 48% of participants used these services at least once a week in both periods. Most consumed foods and drinks before and during the pandemic were pasta/pizza (74% and 64%, respectively), snack/burgers (66% and 59%, respectively), soft drinks (41% and 37%, respectively) and alcoholic beverages (37% and 25%, respectively).

Knowledge about food choices away from home during the pandemic is scarce. High consumption of food away from home has been associated with a greater risk of developing chronic non-communicable diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and others. Eating behavior is influenced by the cultural, social, economic and personal characteristics of each individual. Understanding the main changes related to the consumption of ready-to-eat food and what the affected consumers profile in a time of unprecedented crisis, it is important to provide scientific knowledge that allows one to anticipate the implications for the future of individuals’ health and food systems and, consequently, to develop public policy or awareness and promotion actions of public health that encourage adopting healthier and balanced eating habits.

The hospitality industry is on the cusp of a culinary revolution, propelled by the integration of smart cooking technologies and artificial intelligence (AI). This article delves into how these innovations are transforming hotel and restaurant kitchens, emphasizing food quality, operational efficiency and sustainability. Through AI, the culinary domain promises not just refined dining experiences but also a fundamental reshaping of kitchen operations.

The study includes a document review prepared by examining the academic literature regarding the chosen concepts in a wide range of contexts.

Smart cooking provides much convenience in working life with the help of technology, and this technology will be given more space in the future.

This article presents a review of the relevant literature on smart cooking systems, one of the developing digital gastronomy tools.

Purpose: This study examines the effect of uncertainties on the hospitality industry from different perspectives across the globe. The hospitality industry faces several contemporary issues and challenges that have the potential to impact its growth and development. This study aims to analyse the current problems and uncertainties in the hospitality sector.

Need for the Study: The hospitality industry plays a significant role in the global economy with various services, including accommodation, food and beverage, events, and tourism. However, the sector faces several contemporary issues and challenges that have the potential to impact its growth and development. This study provides an overview of the most significant problems and challenges facing the hospitality industry today.

Methodology: A systematic literature review was conducted to identify and synthesise relevant studies on the effect of uncertainties issues on the hospitality industry. A systematic search of the Web of Science and Scopus databases was conducted to determine relevant studies published between 2010 and 2021. Studies were screened and selected based on pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. A thematic analysis was performed to categorise the uncertainties and issues in the hospitality industry.

Findings: The study identified several uncertainties and issues facing the hospitality industry, including the pandemic uncertainties, financial crisis, whether positive and negative impacts, terrorism attacks on hotels and tourist places, uncertainties in government policies, situational risks like uncertainties, ambiguity, cultural differences, changes in tourist preferences and changing habits of the tourist.

The present study examines the effect of supervisor incivility on service employee creativity and the mediating mechanism of negative affect state on the said relationship with the aid of Affective Events Theory (AET) and Social Power Theory. Additionally, the study explores the mitigating role of core self-evaluation in the dual stage of the moderated mediation model.

Survey data were collected from 420 frontline employees working in four-star and five-star hotels across India and PROCESS macro in SPSS 23.0 was employed to test the hypotheses proposed in the study.

The study findings observe that frontline employees experiencing supervisor incivility face a negative affect state and it further diminishes service employee creativity. Also, the indirect effect gets attenuated at dual stages when frontline employees are equipped with a high level of core self-evaluation.

The study findings provide various insights to the managers to understand the deleterious effect of supervisor incivility at work and to develop interventions to manage supervisor incivility and the negative affect state among frontline hotel employees.

The present study is the first and unique attempt to investigate the role of supervisor incivility experienced by frontline hotel employees in India with reference to their creativity towards customers and mediating mechanism of negative affect state. The study adds value to the literature by establishing the role of core self-evaluation in the moderated mediation model. Further, the study also provides a unique contribution to the management of frontline hospitality employees.

Informal migrant workers and street vendors have long been recognized as vulnerable groups in urban areas of Global South countries. However, limited studies exist on the economic challenges faced by migrant street vendors during crises. We aim to address this gap by shedding light on their livelihood and welfare losses during a public health crisis.

This research uses descriptive and qualitative analyzes to triangulate the results. Data are derived from surveys and in-depth interviews with migrant street vendors in the two biggest cities in Vietnam during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The street vendors experienced significant business loss and consumption reduction during social distancing as well as encountered difficulties in recovering their businesses in the “new normal.” These adverse consequences were also found to disproportionately affect women vendors. Additionally, despite adopting various strategies and mitigation mechanisms to sustain their businesses and consumption, these efforts proved insufficient.

This research underscores the importance of short-term and long-term urban policies aimed at supporting and promoting the social inclusion of street vendors, particularly migrant and women vendors.

This research represents one of the early attempts to explore the adverse effects of a public health crisis on migrant street vendors and to examine whether the crisis disproportionately affected vendors from different genders and educational backgrounds. It also examines their business recovery in the “new normal.”

Food waste, a global conundrum with adverse socioeconomic and environmental implications, occurs when more money is spent on food during occasions akin to Ramadan. This study examines the moderating role of antecedents (festive experience, nostalgic food memory, perceived scarcity, and religiosity) to understand the impacts of excessive food buying on Ramadan food waste.

A cross-sectional survey was performed with a self-administered questionnaire using Google Forms to gather data on social media. Notably, 349 valid responses were analysed via Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4 for model development and hypothesis testing.

Festive experience, nostalgic memory, and perceived food scarcity could explain excessive buying behaviour. In this vein, excessive food buying contributed to Ramadan food waste. Meanwhile, religiosity was found to moderate excessive food-buying behaviour.

The empirical findings offered useful insights for practitioners and policymakers to implement optimal marketing strategies and interventions that improve responsible consumption and minimise food waste.

This study provided a sound understanding of consumer buying behaviour during Ramadan regarding food waste and overconsumption. The current work delineated the role of descriptive, injunctive norms and cognitive dissonance in shaping buying behaviour during Ramadan.

The growth of the internet has transformed digital infrastructure in Thailand over the past two decades, with the widespread use of e-commerce, digital money and online services becoming a daily norm for all ages. The COVID-19 restrictions, which limited in-person business operations, boosted demand for takeout and delivery services and fueled the expected steady growth of the online food delivery market in Thailand. The pandemic also resulted in a shift towards online ordering and delivery, reflecting changes in customer behavior. This study focuses on exploring the factors that have driven Bangkokians to use online food delivery services after the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in June 2022.

Data were collected from 398 participants who had ordered food delivery services after the announcement.

The findings showed that perceived usefulness, time saving benefit and price saving benefit have a significant impact on the intention of customers to use online food delivery services, while food safety risk perception had no effect.

Bangkokians favor online food delivery services due to convenience and time-saving, indicating high demand post-pandemic. Businesses should invest in improving their platforms to meet evolving consumer behavior.

The result of this study offers valuable insights into the attitudes and behaviors of Bangkokians towards online food delivery services and could be beneficial for businesses in the industry to improve their services, enhance customer satisfaction as well as increase their competitiveness.

One of the most marginalized communities in India is the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community which commonly experiences discrimination. Many studies have countered that the LGBT community faces high discrimination in the banking and financing industry. As a result, this study concentrates on this marginalized community and its acceptance and continuation habit regarding mobile wallets. Consequently, this study has considered continuance intentions as a response to confirm the progress of the mobile-wallet industry. Also, this study tried to study the relationship between behavioral intention (BI) and continuous intention (CI) which is seriously lacks in the library of literature. The research operationalized the stimulus–organism–response (SOR) framework for the conceptual model and surveyed 100 self-proclaimed members of the LGBT community in India. The analysis has been done using the partial least structure (PLS). The findings demonstrate that variables like perceived trust (PT) directly influence the BI. On the other hand, variables like perceived ease of use (PEoU), social influence (SI), and satisfaction (S) doesn’t influence BI of the LGBT Community. The main outcome was a favorable association between BI and CI. It will help the stakeholders to understand how important this new market avenue is and how it can be explored. To ensure safe and secure transactions, a group think tank composed of important parties (financial institutions, mobile-wallet providers, the government, security specialists, etc.) should make recommendations. Mobile-wallet providers will attain benefit from this study’s understanding of user categories and ability to tailor their service offers as per the community.

While today's customer steadily adapts to various modes of shopping, their beliefs around fluency through each shopping channel, and personal factors such as income level, can impact their intention to patronage or purchase from omnichannel department stores. Hence, this study analysed the customers of omnichannel fashion department stores, using perceived fluency and income as indirect factors that help understand customers' patronage intention and purchase intention.

The overarching framework for this research is the theory of reasoned action, in which patronage and purchase intentions represent the specific likelihood-of-performance behaviours. A Seemingly Unrelated Regression model was empirically used to analyse the relationships between generational cohorts, income, and perceived channel fluency and the behaviours that lead to patronage intention and purchase intention. Researchers conducted a survey among 552 omnichannel fashion department store consumers to examine today's retail environment.

The results of this study suggest that (1) consumers between the ages of 50 and 69 years, including older Generation X and younger Baby Boomers, who earn between $60,000 and $79,999 in annual salary show a significantly positive relationship with both patronage and purchase intentions through perceived fluency and (2) consumers between the ages of 38 and 49 years, including older Millennials and younger Generation X, who earn between $80,000 and $99,999 in annual salary show a significantly positive relationship with purchase intention through perceived fluency

This study analyses correlations between a generational cohort, perceived fluency as moderated by income and the relationship between these variables and customers' patronage and purchase intentions, which has not been studied before.