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The purpose of this paper is to present a review of the foodservice and restaurant literature that has been published over the past 10 years in the top hospitality and tourism journals. This information will be used to identify the key trends and topics studied over the past decade, and help to identify the gaps that appear in the research to identify opportunities for advancing future research in the area of foodservice and restaurant management.

This paper takes the form of a critical review of the extant literature that has been done in the foodservice and restaurant industries. Literature from the past 10 years will be qualitatively assessed to determine trends and gaps in the research to help guide the direction for future research.

The findings show that the past 10 years have seen an increase in the number of and the quality of foodservice and restaurant management research articles. The topics have been diverse and the findings have explored the changing and evolving segments of the foodservice industry, restaurant operations, service quality in foodservice, restaurant finance, foodservice marketing, food safety and healthfulness and the increased role of technology in the industry.

Given the number of research papers done over the past 10 years in the area of foodservice, it is possible that some research has been missed and that some specific topics within the breadth and depth of the foodservice industry could have lacked sufficient coverage in this one paper. The implications from this paper are that it can be used to inform academics and practitioners where there is room for more research, it could provide ideas for more in-depth discussion of a specific topic and it is a detailed start into assessing the research done of late.

This paper helps foodservice researchers in determining where past research has gone and gives future direction for meaningful research to be done in the foodservice area moving forward to inform academicians and practitioners in the industry.

This study aims to critically evaluate the factual triple bottom line (TBL) sustainability performance of commercial foodservices as featured in peer-reviewed academic publications.

The commercial foodservices’ sustainability performance-related articles were collected for a systematic review. An inductive thematic analysis was applied to the eligible articles.

The contribution of the commercial foodservice sector to the TBL sustainability is highlighted through eight themes: food waste management; food safety and hygiene; food allergy management; provision of healthy meals; local food use; employment of the disadvantaged; well-being of (non)managerial personnel; and noise level management.

The critical evaluation of the actual TBL sustainability measures adopted by commercial foodservice providers highlights the feasibility of the measures, thus calling for their broader industry uptake. Research gaps and issues for future investigations are accentuated for scholars to support the industry in its progress towards the goals of the TBL sustainability.

This study aimed to investigate consumers’ perception on sustainable business-and-industry (B&I) foodservice and their willingness to pay a premium for it.

An online survey was conducted. Among the 978 respondents, a total of 548 respondents who used B&I foodservice equal to or more than five times a month on an average were included for analyses.

The result revealed that consumers tended to perceive the concept of sustainability as “equivalent to (32 per cent) or beyond (28 per cent) being green or eco-friendly”. Consumers appeared to perceive the need for and the quality of sustainable B&I foodservice highly, but their awareness was comparatively low. Consumers’ awareness was significantly different across all demographic and food-related lifestyle variables. However, significant differences in the need and perceived quality were found only among food-related lifestyle variables. The result also indicated that 66 per cent of consumers were willing to pay a premium average of USD 0.72, 21 per cent of the reference meal price (USD 3.53) proposed in the survey. Consumers’ gender and eco-friendly dietary lifestyles were the significant determinants in predicting consumers’ willingness to pay a premium.

With concerns over environmental crisis, sustainable development has been a mainstream agenda across the world. However, the issue of sustainable development appears to be relatively overlooked in the field of foodservice research. This study is meaningful, in that it calls attention to the importance and potential of realizing sustainable foodservice and provides a starting point in relevant researches.

Previous research on sustainability in the foodservice industry has emphasized its environmental, social and economic dimensions predominantly studied within a Western context or in developed countries. This paper aims to question this positioning by considering the MEA (Middle East and African) context. Second, this paper examines sustainability forms according to the type of restaurant and explains how these forms compare with and contribute to the broader scholarship on sustainability in the service marketing literature and practice.

The paper follows a phenomenological perspective and a grounded theory approach. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with 40 owners of different types of restaurants (traditional, modern and fast-food) in the capital city of Lebanon, Beirut.

This paper identifies four dimensions that are expressed in different ways depending on the type of restaurant. This paper also found that sustainability in the foodservice industry in the MEA region has some differences and similarities relative to the literature where current studies mainly focus on the Western context. While the most dominant form of sustainability in the MEA context is related to the social dimension implemented by restaurants through philanthropy and community support activities, the less important aspect refers to activities about ecology and environmental protection.

The research highlights that sustainable activities in the MEA context are shaped by deep-rooted traditions of philanthropic offerings and community-based activities profoundly embedded within the Arab region. Second, the study contributes to current practices and research related to the foodservice literature by emphasizing the dynamics of the change in terms of sustainability perceptions across different kinds of restaurants and how the type of restaurant can affect the adoption and implementation of sustainable activities. The limits of this study are related to its small sample size and the exclusion of psychographic factors, such as age and gender, which can deepen the knowledge of sustainable actions implemented by female and male restaurant owners and people of different age ranges.

With its focus on the foodservice industry in the MEA underpinning restaurateurs’ lack of ecological sustainability, this research shows that nongovernmental organizations could play a vital role in terms of raising awareness about ecological issues and how restaurateurs can be involved in eco-friendly initiatives.

The paper contributes to the foodservice literature and the emerging research on sustainability in restaurants by presenting an approach based on examining sustainable restaurants in a developing country context. The paper does so by adopting a restaurant owner’s perspective and analyzing three types of restaurants, namely, traditional, modern and fast-food restaurants.

To foster environmental and sustainable practices, foodservice enterprises should exhibit a high degree of corporate social responsibility (CSR), ecological consciousness and innovation in green initiatives. This study examines the influences of CSR practices (i.e. economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic), environmental marketing activities (i.e. strategic and tactical) and innovation (i.e.technological and organizational) as drivers of market and eco-performance in the foodservice industry.

Based on an established framework of CSR, environmental marketing and innovation, an exploratory conceptual model was formulated and empirically assessed. Survey data were collected from representatives of the Korean foodservice franchise industry. Data analysis consisted of frequency analysis, reliability analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis and path analysis.

Market performance was influenced by tactical environmental marketing, as well as technological and organizational innovation. Eco-performance was affected by tactical environmental marketing and technological innovation. However, technological innovation and organizational innovation were influenced by tactical environmental marketing, but were not significantly affected by strategic environmental marketing. Additionally, strategic environmental marketing was influenced by economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic CSR. Last, tactical environmental marketing was affected by economic, ethical and philanthropic CSR.

CSR, environmental marketing activities and innovation provide numerous benefits to businesses. Such benefits include enhanced market and eco-performance, both of which create competitive advantages.

There is a paucity of research on the effects of environmental marketing and innovation on corporate performance in the foodservice industry. The findings provide greater insights into the impacts of CSR, environmental marketing and innovation on corporations’ desired outcomes.

Moral aspects of food are gaining increased attention from scholars due to growing complexity of the food system. The foodservice system is a complex arrangement of stakeholders, yet has not benefited from similar scholarly attention on the moral facets. This gap is of significance given that the foodservice system has increased in importance with the larger proportion of food consumed in foodservice environments. This paper aims to focus on the foodservice system with the goal of applying moral perspectives associated with the theoretical discussion on the principles of food ethics.

Food ethics is described within the theoretical framework of three principles, namely, autonomy, justice and well-being. These ethical principles are reviewed in context of the foodservice system comprised of food distribution (supply chains), preparation (foodservice establishments) and consumption (consumer demand). The review also includes international perspectives on foodservice system ethics to assess relativism (versus universalism) of moral issues.

As the foodservice system increases in complexity, greater discussion is needed on the ethics of this system. This study observes that ignoring ethical principles can negatively impact the ability of consumers, businesses and communities to make informed choices, and on their well-being. Alternatively, a focus on understanding the role of food ethics can provide an anchor for research, practice and policy development to strengthen the foodservice system. While these moral principles are universal truths, they will require relative introspection globally, based on local experiences.

This paper presents a moral principle-based description of food ethics that incorporates the various components of the expanding foodservice system.

The purpose of this study is to investigate foodservice industry employees’ experiences and perceptions related to substance abuse prevention measures in the workplace.

A qualitative approach was used for this foundational study, and data collection occurred by conducting in-depth interviews with 30 foodservice employees.

Participants reported that, in their perceptions, substance abuse prevention measures were virtually non-existent at their places of employment. The few participants that were aware of such policies indicated that they had never seen the policy actually enforced.

The results of this exploratory study suggest that foodservice employees may not be receiving adequate messages about workplace substance abuse prevention policies nor are they developing an adequate awareness of such policies. Further, where such policies are in place, they may not being adequately enforced, implying negligent business practices. Failure to display a presence and communication of workplace substance abuse policies and prevention efforts for this potentially high-risk population is both organizationally and socially irresponsible. Suggestions for the implementation of such harm reduction strategies are also provided, as is a call for further research conducted in a quantifiable method to offer more generalizable results.

No previous study has investigated employee awareness of substance abuse policies and prevention measures or harm reduction strategies in the foodservice workplace. This study provides a step toward understanding foodservice employee substance abuse and prevention that was previously lacking in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to propos a new measuring instrument for relationship marketing which is uniquely designed for the foodservice industry. In particular, the underlying dimensions of relationship marketing as perceived by customers are identified, and strategies for the enhancement of relationship marketing program are put forward.

The proposed 31-item instrument has been empirically tested for unidimensionality, reliability and validity using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis

A factorial analysis suggests that relationship marketing is a multidimensional construct consisting of four key dimensions namely communication, trust, empathy and commitment.

Communication emphasizes the necessity to communicate in understandable way; trust refers to the ability to inspire confidence; empathy stresses on the importance of exhibiting sympathy and reassurance; and commitment describes the desire to provide excellent service. A subsequent multiple regression analysis reveals that all the dimensions are positively correlated with customer loyalty and trust was the most important dimension.

Building strong relationships with customers to gain competitive advantage and customer loyalty is crucial for survival and success in today's business environment. As competition is becoming more intense, customers are increasingly demanding and price sensitive. Although the relationship marketing discipline is relatively well researched, the measuring instrument is limited and practically non-existent in the foodservice industry.

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to discuss the results from a UK government‐funded applied research programme on value chain analysis that examined the beef foodservice sector. The demands and dynamics of this sector differ markedly from those of the supermarket, which is the dominant channel for beef produce and which forms the focus of the existing literature. This is a challenging environment for the application of collaborative supply chain improvement principles because of its high level of regulatory control, power relationships and low profit margins. Design/methodology/approach – This is an applied research project that was case study based and employed the value chain analysis method. Empirical work was conducted over an 11‐month period and included a one‐week whole‐team study tour to Argentina. Informants encompassed UK and Argentine livestock producers, an Argentine meat processor, a UK meat import operation, a UK meat processor, a UK foodservice distribution centre and two foodservice restaurants. Findings – The paper concentrates on the key findings pertinent to the upstream members of the above chain. It highlights specific supply chain waste elimination opportunities at both producer and processor level. It also establishes valuable learning points for the UK beef industry as a whole. Originality/value – This study represents the first holistic and non‐partisan study of its type within the UK beef industry. This paper adds to the limited body of knowledge on supply chain management within the foodservice sector. It also provides the first explanation and analysis of its kind on supply chain operations within the Argentine beef industry. It quantifies the magnitude and nature of the cost advantage afforded the Argentine producer over its best practice counterpart. Finally, it presents a number of reflections upon the implications of this study for the concept of best practice and also the Lean paradigm.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between internal marketing practices, employee job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intention in the foodservice industry.

The target population was employees who were currently working at a restaurant in the USA. All respondents were recruited from different states for the generalization of the study results. A confirmatory factor analysis validated the measurement model, and subsequently, structural equation modeling tested the proposed model.

Three internal marketing practices – vision, development and rewards – were good indicators for predicting employee job satisfaction, and two internal marketing practices – development and rewards – in addition to job satisfaction were significant predictors for employee organizational commitment. Finally, the findings indicated that job satisfaction and affective commitment had a significant impact on lowering employee turnover intention.

In further research, more internal marketing practices – such as employee motivation, customer orientation, sharing information, employee empowerment – can be added to the model to increase employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

Foodservice operators should focus on internal marketing practices to have satisfied employees who, in turn, are more likely to deliver high service quality to customers.

This study has not only extended the influential scope of the internal marketing theory to organizational commitment, but has also proposed the antecedents of organizational commitment (i.e. internal marketing practices and employee job satisfaction) and clarified the relationships among them.