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In the competitive environment in which hospitality businesses exist, the quality of service is a vital mechanism used to achieve a competitive advantage. Quality is a difficult construct to quantify however the ability to measure quality is key to assessing whether or not the industry provides the service consumers desire. Consumers hold the key to business survival and success. The aim of this study was to investigate how closely consumer expectations of service, and manager and staff perceptions of consumer expectations matched. The SERVQUAL model was used to identify those dimensions of service deemed to be important in assessing service quality. The results show that there is a gap between managers’ perceptions of consumers’ expectations and actual consumers’ expectations. The main implication for the hospitality industry is for managers to develop strategies which will meet consumers’ expectations of service quality.

Packed lunches are a popular form of midday meal for children at school. This study of 11‐12‐year‐old children in Northern Ireland found sandwiches, crisps, chocolate and carbonated drinks to be popular items included in a packed lunch. Dairy produce and fruit were poorly represented. The nutritional quality varied with the type of lunch. The contribution of fat and saturated fatty acids to total energy intake were in all cases far in excess of recommended dietary guidelines. Such high intakes of fat militate against the reduction in the incidence of coronary heart disease in Northern Ireland. The intake of dietary fibre and several micronutrients were inadequate. Knowledge of healthier foods was not translated into food consumption. If major diseases in the longer term are to be minimised a challenge exists for those responsible for food preparation ± parents, food processors and suppliers in the hospitality industry to produce foods which are healthier while not adversely affecting their acceptability to children.

Given free choice in a school cafeteria 12‐year‐olds were found to prefer foods which were high in fat and sugar. Their knowledge regarding differences between healthy and less healthy foods was better than their knowledge of specific nutrient‐rich foods. However, while this knowledge is a prerequisite to understanding the role of diet to health, knowledge alone has been insufficient to bring about healthier dietary choice. In the long term if positive dietary change is to be achieved, the role of factors such as social and economic background in modifying food choice must be considered.

The purpose of the paper is to identify and describe the themes underlying four concepts: client orientation, client involvement, provider empowerment, and client empowerment, which have been reported in the literature as influencing service participant interaction in the formation of a service. The meaning that service participants assign to each of those themes is also to be examined.

Triadic studies were undertaken in two separate locations with three discrete community‐based service networks, purposively recruited from the same aged healthcare organisation. Using a phenomological approach, 29 individual semi‐structured in‐depth interviews with managers, providers, and clients were conducted. Inductive and deductive analysis was used to identify the emerging themes and their meaning for each participant category.

Key themes were identified for each concept, but the meaning ascribed to each theme was found to differ between the participant categories. It is suggested that these results reflect participant role differences in the service co‐creation process.

The findings are limited by the small sample and its relative homogeneity.

The findings offer service managers insights into how to engage clients in the service creation process, which in turn will affect the ultimate quality of the service that is created. They also provide information that will assist with service design, staff selection, training, and assessment.

This is the first study that investigates the four concepts, client orientation, client involvement, provider empowerment, and client empowerment, in the context of service co‐creation. It identifies associated abstract themes and the applied meaning differences of the service participants.

Our paper is centred on exploring the experiences of opening up closed doors to strangers in the context of home exchange.

This paper is based on a year-long research project which has drawn on multiple qualitative methods of data collection. A bricolage approach was adopted to enable the authors to gather data which is sensitive to multivocality and conscious of difference within the consumer experience.

Our findings demonstrate that home exchangers treat their home as an asset to be capitalised, to allow them to travel to places and communities otherwise unreachable. Home exchangers simultaneously engage in the symbolic creation of home in a temporary environment and utilise the kinship and community networks of their home exchange partner.

Our paper adds depth and an insight to the increasing media coverage of the home exchange phenomenon.

As a consumption practice that is witnessing widespread appeal, home exchange uncovers evidence of trust amongst strangers. While it is common practice to open the home in order to build friendship, it is less common for this invitation to be extended to strangers.

We extend the extensive theorisation of the home as a symbolic environment and reveal that the home can also be used in an enterprising fashion.

Several studies have related diagnostic information and adversity in childhood to criminal careers and risk of recidivism. Notably, ADHD and conduct disorder in childhood, schizophrenia, sexual abuse and physical abuse have been associated with offences in adulthood. This study investigates these variables in relation to large cohorts of offenders with learning disabilities. A case note review was undertaken for 126 individuals referred but not accepted into forensic learning disability services and 197 individuals accepted for such services. Results are reported on diagnostic information and experience of adversity in childhood. ADHD/conduct disorder featured prominently in both groups. Autistic spectrum disorders were not particularly over‐represented. For adversity in childhood, general socioeconomic deprivation featured prominently in both groups. This also increased significantly for those accepted into services. Sexual abuse and non‐accidental injury were featured at around 13‐20% for both groups. These results are broadly consistent with the mainstream literature on offending, ADHD/conduct disorder and general deprivation featuring significantly in all groups and rising for those accepted into offender services. It is important to deal with these aspects during assessment and to provide appropriate psychotherapeutic services for these individuals.

User poll picks ‘best’ business databases In an effort to determine which of more than fifty business‐oriented online databases yielded the ‘best’ information, Washington Researchers Ltd., polled hundreds of participants in its Researching Company Information Seminars held throughout the country over the past year.