This article looks at the outcome of a questionnaire designed to explore factors relevant to engendering consumer loyalty in restaurant choice. The sampling frame comprises people with relatively homogeneous characteristics who dine out with some frequency. The overall objective was to question certain assumptions that have become current in academic discussions of consumer behaviour with particular relevance to consumer loyalty. Findings suggest that the quality and range or type of food are key determinants in consumer loyalty, but that the concept of “quality of food” offers a range of interpretations and thus requires more careful investigation. Additionally, the concept of the “meal experience” as a holistic abstraction in the consumer’s mind is called into question as a consequence of the analysis. Tangible rather than intangible factors are identified as being of greater importance in consumer loyalty.
Purpose -The objective of this paper is to examine the continuing debate over the nature, scope and definition of facilities management and the implications of FM practice in the field of outsourcing for the development of the field and the profession. Design/methodology/approach -The paper offers both a conceptual review of key issues in the definition of facilities management and a critique of these definitions in the context of the popular identity of facilities management as a means of generating cost savings through outsourcing. Findings -The discussion asserts that, perhaps contrary to the many published doubts expressed over the possibility of achieving consensus on the scope of facilities management, an emerging and broadly consensual model of facilities management can be discerned. This model, it is suggested, is inhibited from further development primarily because of a lack of leadership in the professional and academic communities together with a preoccupation by necessity of the FM profession with operational imperatives. Originality/value -The paper, through synthesis and critique, offers a variant perspective on the debate about the nature of facilities management.
This article looks at the outcome of a questionnaire designed to explore factors relevant to engendering consumer loyalty in restaurant choice. The sampling frame comprises people with relatively homogeneous characteristics who dine out with some frequency. The overall objective was to question certain assumptions that have become current in academic discussions of consumer behaviour with particular relevance to consumer loyalty. Findings suggest that the quality and range or type of food are key determinants in consumer loyalty, but that the concept of “quality of food” offers a range of interpretations and thus requires more careful investigation. Additionally, the concept of the “meal experience” as a holistic abstraction in the consumer’s mind is called into question as a consequence of the analysis. Tangible rather than intangible factors are identified as being of greater importance in consumer loyalty.
Given the principal characteristics of hotel and catering industry
employment – low pay, low job security, high labour turnover,
often arbitrary management – it is a matter of some interest that
the industry is unionized to only a limited extent. Offers a brief
summary of the principal reasons advanced for explaining low
unionization in the industry before proceeding to focus on the attitudes
of hotel managers towards these explanations. Reports research based on
interviews with managers in Scotland, during which individuals were
asked to respond to a range of points with a view to ascertaining the
continuing relevance or otherwise of the findings of previous research.
Principal findings are that a tension exists between a general, if
reluctant, acceptance of the need, by managers, for union representation
in the industry and a belief in their own managerial efficacy which
makes unions irrelevant to their particular circumstances.
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