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This paper investigates the role of Michelin-starred chefs as change-makers and advocates of tourism activities in both rural and urban areas. We conducted a longitudinal ethnographic study in 35 French Michelin-starred restaurants (1, 2, and 3 Michelin stars) in France from 2014 to 2018. Our results show that there are four significant forms of activities implemented by luxury restaurants to enhance destination attractiveness: (a) designing unique luxury gastronomic experience offerings, (b) promoting terroir products and rural food tourism, (c) gastronomization of rural destinations, and (d) augmenting the media capital of the destination.

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to examine response strategies and the change in Michelin-starred chefs' practices to adapt to the global pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis that has strongly affected the foodservice sector.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted an exploratory qualitative research that used mixed-method, combining online interviews with 12 French Michelin-starred chefs and archival data. A manual thematic analysis method was used to analyze the data and identify relevant themes following an iterative coding process.FindingsThe findings show that Michelin-starred restaurants implement multilevel response strategies by developing dynamic capabilities while playing a social role through the development of new forms of business practices. The results show that Michelin-starred chefs adopt social bricolage entrepreneurial thinking to deal with the extreme situation and use diverse resources and response strategies to tackle social issues and improve the collective and individual well-being. The authors identified three major response strategies implemented by luxury restaurants: philanthropic activities targeting the well-being of the community, socially responsible business practices to support the foodservice actors and initiatives centered on consumer's food well-being.Research limitations/implicationsThe limits of this study are related to the small sample size and the elimination of psychographic criteria such as age and gender, which can extend our understanding of response strategies implemented by female and male owners or by age range during crises in the foodservice sector. Also, given that France is the country of Haute gastronomy, the conclusions of this study may not be generalizable to other countries where the gastronomic culture might be different.Practical implicationsRestaurants with high-end or luxury positioning must use multilevel – i.e. individual, sector and societal – response strategies to play a social role while sustaining their businesses during times of crisis. These insights seek to provide a roadmap which can be applied to other sectors to assess response strategies driven by various motives, resources and capabilities.Social implicationsThis research contributes to transformative service research literature by providing insights regarding how service providers can rethink their activities during the crises to play an active social role. Also, the findings point to several ways in which service actors can help customers and the community to improve their well-being.Originality/valueTo our knowledge, no prior research examined both the type of response strategies deployed by companies to survive and the importance of playing a social role and developing socially responsible business practices during times of crisis.

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In order to develop a better understanding of teenage consumers, who represent the most highly sought after market segment for researchers and marketing practitioners in France, it is important to explore their competencies as consumers. This ethnographic research explores the consumption skills of teenage consumers using the new technologies. By examining how teenagers particularly in the age group of 11–15 year olds define a competent consumer and how they perceive themselves as competent consumers, we should be able to understand the better consumption behaviours they exhibit, the purchase decision they make and the limitations they feel they must overcome to become fully competent consumers. This study begins by exploring teenage social activities and how they engage with and use digital products as part of their subculture. Broad concepts of competence are then discussed from a psychosociological perspective and a marketing perspective. Next, teenage perceptions of what it means to be a competent consumer are explored and what are the behaviours associated with a competent consumer. Findings of this study showed that teenagers are not mere followers of marketing strategies. They develop consumption skills in relation to their experiences, their peers and media, which are more often linked to their consumption learning. The study importantly suggests that nowadays teenagers are active participants and producers of their cultural consumption processes.