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In service sector, measuring quality of services is generally acknowledged to be difficult as it involves many psychological features. Hence, identifying the determinants of service quality and linkages with customer satisfaction is a challenging research topic. In this study, the authors take up a research study to address this challenge. The purpose of this paper is to examine the importance of factors influencing customer satisfaction in the context of a Chinese buffet restaurant in the UK.

The authors use a questionnaire based on the SERVQUAL instrument for the purpose. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, the authors have found that service quality could be grouped into four main factors – service, food, ambience and price.

Using multiple-regression analysis, the authors have found that food is the most significant factor influencing customer satisfaction, followed by price, ambience and service, respectively. Using a multi-group analysis, the authors have found interesting moderating roles of age, gender and annual income on the influence of the four factors on satisfaction: ambience is considered significant by male customers while it is not significant for female customers; the influence of price on satisfaction is much higher for female customers than for male customers; food and service factors are important for younger customers while price is important for older customers; price is important for customers with lower levels of income but not important for high-income customers.

These results are useful to restaurant managers in allocating appropriate levels of resources to different factors based on their contributions to customer satisfaction in order to maximize customer satisfaction efficiently and effectively.

Analysis and findings of this research are based on the customers’ survey data of a Chinese buffet restaurant in the UK. The authors have found an interesting ranking of the importance of service factors: food followed by price, ambience and service. The results on the moderating role of customer characteristics provide newer insights in the literature on service quality. The research findings can help the hotel management to improve their service levels to attain maximum customer satisfaction.

This paper seeks to explore the performance of UK hotels, in terms of various service attributes, and whether it influences customers' intention to stay again.

Data are used from online customer ratings of 664 hotels in the UK for the purpose. The approach is based on an interesting use of statistical regression reported in the literature that attempted to classify different cues in hotels as critical, satisfier, dissatisfier, etc. In this study, six prominent attributes are considered, namely: customer service, cleanliness, room quality, value for money, quality of food, and family friendliness, rated by guests, based on their experiences of staying in hotels.

The findings reveal that “Value for money” is a critical attribute, while “Customer service”, “Room quality” and “Quality of food” are dissatisfiers. Business guests, and guests of independent hotels, exhibit similar behavior, but for leisure guests, and guests of chain hotels, “Value for money” is a dissatisfier.

“Value for money” is a critical attribute, in that good performance, in terms of this attribute, is critical for positively influencing guests' intention to stay again; however, failures in terms of this attribute cannot be compensated by improving service in terms of other attributes. There are three dissatisfier attributes (“Customer service”, “Room quality”, and “Quality of food”), implying that an inadequate performance in terms of these attributes could significantly adversely impact guests' intention to stay again.

This study would appear to be the first to use the extensive data available on the internet on guest ratings of hotels.

Successful implementation of supply chain collaboration (SCC) by Wal‐Mart has encouraged many manufacturing companies, such as Procter & Gamble, Hewlett‐Packard Co, and West Marine Products Inc., to initiate collaboration. Subsequently, collaboration between suppliers and retailers has become a common practice in many recent supply chains. However, measuring the benefits of collaboration is still a big challenge. Based on supply chain literature and practice, this paper aims to propose a conceptual framework and a standard set of metrics to evaluate the performance of SCC.

The authors discuss two case studies to validate the proposed model. The case study discussions are appropriate to understand the usage of different performance metrics in initial and advanced stages of collaboration.

From the case study it is recognized that the collaborating members in the supply chain are not able to visualise all possible benefits of collaboration. To surmount this issue, the paper proposes a framework to study the performance of companies involved in initial and advanced stages of collaboration.

The classification suggested in this paper on different stages of collaboration and related metrics can guide researchers and practitioners in manufacturing companies to evaluate the performance of SCC.

The purpose of this paper is to provide strategic recommendations to supply chain managers of Indian manufacturing industries for a robust supply chain related to risk management by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers in manufacturing industries to ensure a robust supply chain risk management (SCRM).

Importance-performance analysis (IPA) is utilized to identify and provide strategic recommendations to manufacturing industries for improving their supply chain performance by attaching due importance to risk constructs and appropriately choosing mitigation strategies.

The investigation using the strategic action grids reveals that most of the means of risks are near the point of intersection of the grand means of the risk constructs and their impact on the supply chain, indicating that all the risks have the equal likelihood of occurrence. The mean importance of risk monitoring, risk avoidance (RA) and risk sharing surpass the mean performance for both OEMs and suppliers.

The study is executed with following limitations: the study assumes that the manufacturing industries across different sectors perceive similar risk. The sectors considered are automotive, heavy engineering, general engineering and home appliances. The Southern States of India are considered because of the dominant presence of many industries, especially automotive industries. However, it should be noted that these States form the manufacturing hubs where the lead organizations are functioning along with their major suppliers.

By understanding the importance of SCRM dimensions and utilization of these dimensions, firms can mitigate the impact of risk on the supply chain. The detailed study of SCRM strategies highlights the importance attached to risk factors, mitigation strategies, and top management commitment. By the implementation of SCRM strategies, supply chain managers can improve the firm’s performance.

The study involves empirically validated data on SCRM dimensions. The IPA is performed on the SCRM dimensions to investigate the importance attached to the factors of the dimensions and their performance.

This qualitative research examines the varied reasons for relocation to old age homes (OAHs) in contemporary India. The purpose of this study investigates the acceptance of institutional living in Lucknow (a Tier II city of India) and whether migration to OAHs is a voluntary decision. This study also examines the lifeworld of the older adult in these OAHs in an attempt to find out whether OAHs are conducive to positive ageing. Derivatively, the authors study their engagement/time use pattern and social networking patterns in the OAHs. Finally, the research seeks to learn whether OAHs are slowly substituting older adult care given within the family by offering the best of the facilities and services.

This qualitative research was conducted in two private OAHs in Lucknow, India. The findings of the study are based on 28 qualitative interviews conducted with the inmates, administrative staff and caretakers. The interviews were unstructured and open-ended and were supported by observations. The observation was not only made of the social setting but also the reaction of the participants. The idea was to develop an emic view of the subject by exploring valid narratives. Pseudonyms were used to report the finding so as to maintain the confidentiality of the research subjects.

This research moves beyond the traditional wisdom that people move to OAH because of the push factors within the family. OAHs in India have evolved over the years and high-end OAHs are equipped with modern amenities to cater to the upper class in their twilight years. Residents were found to lead active lives in OAHs and their common habitus and bonding capital helped them to face the vagaries of old age more confidently. Their active life and membership in various civic organizations challenge the contention of the role theory that the aged are more prone to lose rather than gain roles.

The originality of the research lies in the fact that the authors are extending the arguments made by the role theory of social ageing. The theory proposes that aged people are more likely to lose out roles rather than gain new ones. This study finds that the elderly tend to live a very active life in OAHs and engaged various civic organizations. Although they may lose/voluntarily give up the roles like the head of the household, spouse, etc., they acquire new roles in the context of OAHs.