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Mergers and acquisitions are frequent occurrences in the world of business. While a merged firm may convert an acquired asset to other brands, the restaurant industry tends to acquire the same brand name and does not change the name of the acquired assets. Acquisitions can prove to be a risky proposition in any industry. This study attempts to determine if a product-diversified acquisition in the restaurant industry is a value-creating decision. By comparing focused and diversified acquisitions, we try to find if focused acquisitions create value and that diversified acquisitions do not. Our initial expectation was that focused acquisitions create more shareholder value. We find that both focused and diversified acquisitions make significant positive abnormal returns for acquirers.

Operations management involves utilizing given resources as efficiently as possible to deliver services to customers and meet business goals. Developing efficient business operations requires a hospitality organization to design efficient service environments, as part of its mission. This chapter articulates the key design and planning strategies for the development of a successful hospitality organization. The first section covers the process of location selection, as the most important factor leading to the success of a hospitality organization. The second section discusses strategies for estimating the number of users (service employees and customers) during peak and idle times to justify a costly financial investment. The third section concerns the readers with the topic of layout planning, with the goal of service optimization for a targeted number of customers. The fourth section deliberates workflow conditions, and finally, the last section addresses the ambience and design of the physical hospitality environment, which is crucial for customer evaluation of a hospitality organization as it creates a first impression.

Halal food despite its undeniable importance for Muslims is largely absent in the tourism development and planning literature. Given the fact that today Muslims represent more than 20% of world population and the number of Muslim tourists has grown significantly over recent years, there is a dire need to investigate the halal food's potential for both the tourism industry and world trade. Furthermore, it is important to investigate at both Muslim and non-Muslim tourism sites how availability of halal food has influenced the selection of a particular destination for vacation by Muslims.

Previous research has concluded that there is consumer desire for nutrition information to be provided on restaurant menu items and restaurant customers presented with this information will make healthier menu choices (Mills & Thomas, 2008). Limited research has been performed in a restaurant setting measuring real rather than intended behavior. The purpose of this research experiment is to measure consumer response, in a full-service restaurant setting, to nutrition information on menu items and subsequently determine if consumers will use this information in their menu item choice. An experiment was conducted with 264 restaurant customers at a full-service a la carte restaurant. Customers chose from menu items labeled with or without a Healthy Choice® label. A logistic regression model was used to predict whether people would choose Healthy Choice menu items. Fifty-four percent of restaurant customers chose the healthy choice menu item. The logistic regression confirms that those people who desire nutrition information also use this information in their menu choice. The study concludes with recommendations for the industry on directing consumer menu choice toward healthier items.

We examine the extent to which food prices and restaurant outlet density are associated with adolescent fruit and vegetable consumption, body mass index (BMI), and the probability of overweight. We use repeated cross-sections of individual-level data on adolescents from the Monitoring the Future Surveys from 1997 to 2003 combined with fast food and fruit and vegetable prices obtained from the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association and fast food and full-service restaurant outlet density measures obtained from Dun & Bradstreet. The results suggest that the price of a fast food meal is an important determinant of adolescents’ body weight and eating habits: a 10% increase in the price of a fast food meal leads to a 3.0% increase in the probability of frequent fruit and vegetable consumption, a 0.4% decrease in BMI, and a 5.9% decrease in probability of overweight. The price of fruits and vegetables and restaurant outlet density are less important determinants, although these variables typically have the expected sign and are often statistically associated with our outcome measures. Despite these findings, changes in all observed economic and socio-demographic characteristics together only explain roughly one-quarter of the change in mean BMI and one-fifth of the change in overweight over the 1997–2003 sampling period.

A vegan purchased some vegetarian dishes at a restaurant to take home. When the family started eating the food, the daughter discovered clams in the soup. She called the restaurant but was treated rudely. When she went back to the restaurant, she received no apology from the staff at the restaurant. Because she complained, she was suspected of trying to cheat by adding clams in order to get a discount. Eventually, she was offered a discount by the manager, but she refused it.

In the last few decades, the obesity rate has increased along with the increasing of away-from-home food consumption at restaurants (Wei & Miao, 2013), especially the food consumption at quick-service restaurants (QSRs). Previous research stated that the main factors that influence the customers’ food selection are found. Price and quality of food are the most significant things that mostly concerned customers when they are in decision-making process. There is a controversial argument between several studies that identified calorie labelling on menu influences consumers on food choice, while others said vice versa. However, several studies argued that calorie information does not have as much impact on customers’ food purchasing as other factors such as food’s quality, ranges of food, price of food, restaurant’s atmosphere, and speed of food service (Carey & Genevive, 1995). The aim of this chapter is to examine the importance of representing calorie information on menu and its effects on customer decision-making especially at QSRs. Therefore, the following questions have been addressed in this chapter:

What are the factors that influence consumer choice at QSRs?

Does calorie labelling on menus impact customer purchasing at QSRs?

This chapter starts with the introduction of the topic and reviewing previous research on menu labelling and calorie information at QSRs. This chapter aims to provide a better understanding of customer decision-making when ordering a food with regard to calorie information on the menu and the customer preference.

Purpose: This chapter considers talent management in ‘situ’, at a time of unprecedented disruption, and identifies implications for practice and study.

Methodology/approach: We compare normative advice from the talent management literature with publicly available accounts of talent management strategies employed during the Covid-19 pandemic. We also include perceptions of employees from publicly available reviews (Glassdoor, 2020a), and a brief personal account.

Findings: Hospitality and tourism organisations are encountering unprecedented pressures for change, primarily due to Covid-19 as well as the sustainability and social justice movements. We identify three organisational responses to the pandemic – closing/contracting operations, consolidating around areas of strength, and creatively pivoting in new directions. Innovations in talent management were found to vary accordingly, including: humane downsizing and pay cuts; training and development (for managers and front-line employees, including in emotional intelligence, resilience, and delivering service excellence online); new talent acquisition, through new programmes, structures, roles, and partnerships; an enhanced employee value proposition, including safe and fun work environments, as well as improved pay and benefits; commitments to social equity and sustainability; courageous, creative, and resilient leadership; and effective communication. Despite these innovations, employee reviews suggest that top performing organisations continue to fall short on work–life balance, un-social working hours, inadequate compensation, and poor-quality managers.

Practical implications: Ever increasing business complexity requires skilled senior managers in multiple domains, and empowered, decentralised unit-level managerial and owner competence (with skills in emotional intelligence, collaboration, and negotiation). Front-line employees, capable of delivering excellence in customer service (despite disrupted circumstances), are more essential than ever. Successful enterprises, both now and in the future, will undoubtedly be those that prioritise talent, throughout all levels of organisation.

Research limitations/implications: Future research should undertake a more comprehensive investigation of talent management strategies employed (including from small business owners), as well as employee perceptions of their effectiveness (considering socio-economic differences as well as gender and race). Research is also needed with respect to the perceived value of organisational commitments to sustainability and social justice initiatives.

Originality/value: This chapter uniquely considers talent management at a time of crisis. Methodologically, it uses publicly available data of employee perceptions of their employers.

This research compares youth tourists’ trip preferences and their perceptions of accommodation in Switzerland among visitors staying at three different types of properties (e.g., hard budget, budget, and mid-sector). Attractive price was found to be the most critical reason for the selection of accommodation for those staying at hard budget properties. Proximity to points of interest represents the main reason for choosing budget and mid-sector accommodations. When examining the differences in preferences for eating outlets, the respondents from the mid-sector lodging facilities prefer full-service restaurants while the other groups of visitors prefer to use self-service eateries. The study further finds that the youth guests of hard budget properties express reluctance in joining evening activities that are fee-paying. Managerial implications along with suggestions for future study are provided in the conclusion.

Hospitality services are among the most robust experiences enjoyed by consumers. To deliver them successfully, careful attention to detail is first needed for the design and development of those experiences. This chapter begins by exploring the array of elements that holistically construct an experience, from process to people to physical environments. Then, the customer experience management framework is used to outline a recommended technique for approaching experience design. Finally, a brief survey of visualization techniques shows how experiences can be modeled for assessment and improvement.