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The food service sector was among the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to examine consumers’ attitudes towards and transparency perceptions of COVID-19-related safety measures and to identify determinants of consumers’ intentions and behaviour regarding visiting restaurants and bars once reopened. By also surveying food service businesses, this study allows for comparison between both target groups. A total of 1697 consumers and 780 businesses participated in this study, conducted in Belgium both during and in between waves of infections. The findings demonstrate that consumers evaluated safety measures as important when revisiting restaurants and bars, against business owners’ expectations. Both consumers’ revisit intentions and behaviours are influenced by the perceived importance of hygiene measures (negatively) and past visit frequency (positively). This study highlights the importance of good compliance with safety measures as a strategy to attract customers during the reopening period. Further, our findings emphasize the importance of transparent communication by food service businesses and the government.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential uptake and inhibitors of 3D-printed food applications in the food service market to provide market salient evidence to inform business investments. An online survey was designed and distributed to an adult Irish population and was completed by 1,045 participants. The collected data was analysed using Structural Equation Modelling to test a hypothesised model of willingness to try 3D-printed food applications. Results showed that perceived personal relevance of the technology is a strong positive determinant of willingness to try (Standardised β = 0.614***). Novel Food Technology Neophobia (NFTN) represents a barrier to willingness to try 3D-printed food applications as evident from its significant negative direct effect (Standardised β = -0.167***). NFTN is also found to have a depressing indirect effect when mediated through perceived personal relevance (Standardised β = -0.202***), while the importance consumers attach to naturalness is yet another barrier (Standardised β = 0.053*). Overall, considering its total effect, NFTN (Standardised β = -0.369***) presents the greatest barrier to willingness to try 3D printed foods. The role of trust in science by directly diminishing the effects of NFTN (Standardised β = -0.445***) and the importance of naturalness also emerges (Standardised –β = 0.137***). Consequently, this work has identified some of the major obstacles facing the technology in the forms of NFTN and the importance of naturalness but has pointed to possible resolutions in building continued support and trust in science, and a focus on designing and delivering both customisable consumer-focused food products and accompanying marketing strategies that communicate and emphasise the personal benefits that this novel food technology affords.

Nowadays having a good online corporate reputation is a valuable resource for organizations, especially in the food and beverage service sector. Potential diners frequently rely on people’s opinions shared online in choosing a new restaurant. In so doing, online communities are gaining increasing importance in influencing the customer journey. This research aims to better understand the prosumers’ use of social media (i.e. people that are both consumers and social media users and that contribute to create digital contents) in choosing a restaurant and reviewing it online. In particular, we want to investigate if prosumers’ characteristics or habits, can influence their use and perception of social media, such as looking for information, writing feedbacks, and trust online reviews. In this paper we will focus on two main prosumers’ characteristics or habits: the frequency of going to a restaurant and the willingness to try new restaurants. Our main findings suggest that prosumers that frequently go to a restaurant have a different approach to social media being more inclined to used them both for gathering information and for reviewing their experience. Similarly, we find that prosumers that have an “explorative” behavior (i.e. enjoy to frequently try new restaurants), use social media differently from prosumers that have a “loyal” behavior, i.e. that choose the same and familiar restaurant. In this explorative study we adopted a quantitative methodology by using a survey on 315 Millennials prosumers. Theoretical and managerial implications are also developed.

In December 2009, hunting was banned for a few days in Greece following the decision of the Council of State. The decision was issued when an animal rights organization claimed to the Court that there was no updated evidence about the impact of hunting on wild populations. This case prompted the present study, which focused on examining the hypothetical scenario of the possible impact of a long–term hunting ban on local businesses in rural areas in Greece. We carried out face–to–face interviews with entrepreneurs from the accommodation and food service sectors. Our results showed that most business owners interviewed considered the impact would be significant for their annual earnings. This finding should be taken into account by environmental decision makers because rural and mountainous areas in Greece are sparsely populated, and the few small businesses that still operate would not withstand drastic changes in rural tourism., Estimación del impacto económico de una veda de caza a largo plazo sobre los negocios locales en las zonas rurales de Grecia: una situación hipotética.— En diciembre del 2009, en Grecia se prohibió la caza durante unos pocos días, siguiendo la decisión del Consejo de Estado. Esta se tomó cuando una organización defensora de los derechos de los animales recurrió a la Corte argumentando que no existían pruebas actualizadas sobre el impacto de la caza sobre las poblaciones de animales salvajes. Estas circunstancias promovieron el presente estudio, que se enfocó hacia el examen de unas hipotéticas circunstancias del posible impacto de la veda de caza a largo plazo sobre los negocios locales de las zonas rurales de Grecia. Llevamos a cabo entrevistas cara a cara con los empresarios de los servicios de alojamiento y gastronomía. Nuestros resultados mostraron que la mayoría de propietarios de negocios entrevistados consideraban que el impacto sería significativo para sus ingresos anuales. Los gestores del medio ambiente deberían tener en cuenta este resultado, dado que las áreas rurales montañosas de Grecia están escasamente pobladas, y los pocos negocios que aún funcionan en ellas no podrían soportar cambios drásticos en el turismo rural.