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This study examined the relationship between postsecondary students' emotional-social intelligence and attitudes toward computer-based instructional materials. Research indicated that emotions and emotional intelligence directly impact motivation, while instructional design has been shown to impact student attitudes and subsequent engagement with content. Computer-based technology is widely used in teaching; however, inappropriate application of this technology is likely to result in less than acceptable outcome. In this study, the emotional intelligence of 92 students was assessed using Bar-On's EQ-i:S. Subsequently, students were directed to specific computer-based instructional methods; then their attitudes toward their respective method were assessed using Keller's Instructional Material Motivation Survey (IMMS). In general, students expressed a preference towards the interactive, non-linear, unstructured form of computer-based instruction; however, attitudes associated negatively with emotional-social intelligence for students identified as possessing low-average emotional-social intelligence. The findings and implications are discussed and recommendations for future practice and research are offered. (Contains 2 tables and 3 figures.)

Previous research regarding menu writing focused on the customers' perspective, rather than the current practices approach of this study. With the purpose of quantifying and categorizing the word choices most commonly used by restaurant operators, this research used text-mining techniques to develop a database of words used in menu descriptions from a broad cross-section of American casual dining restaurants. The words were categorized and sorted by frequency in order to determine the most common words and categories used. Results showed that categorically, culinary words were used the most in menus while sensory and adjective words were used the least. Within the categories of ingredients, vegetables were most frequently observed while fruits appeared the least in menus. Empirically, the major menu word categories identified in this study can help to update restaurateurs with the current menu word classification. In addition, the words within each category reflect current industry practices, which may be useful to operators in describing menu dishes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Travelers' engagement with local food at a foreign destination could be overwhelming and affect their overall travel experience. This study investigates the role travelers' psychological comfort with local food plays in influencing the development of their place attachment to a destination. The study utilized survey data sampled from Korean and American travelers who had visited China and found that travelers' place attachment is positively and significantly influenced by their psychological comfort with food, interaction with service providers, and atmospherics. The findings also reveal that Korean and American travelers differ in the degree to which comfort affects their place attachment. These and other findings of the study bring attention to the comfort factor of travelers' food experience, thus complementing previous research that tended to emphasize the novelty value of local cuisines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers sometimes travel to a destination for the main purpose of enjoying the food and services a restaurant can offer. These restaurants are termed destination Restaurants. This study explores what constitutes such an experience at destination restaurants and how such experience influences visitors' sense of place development for the destination they travel to and their revisit intention for the place. Data was gathered using a self-administered questionnaire distributed to tourists dining in destination restaurants in Hwayang-Dong in Chungbuk province, South Korea. Based on a convenience sample of 244 participants, the results suggest that a destination restaurant experience compromises seven components including 'Food quality', 'Locale image', 'Restaurant atmosphere', 'Price Fairness', 'Ingroup socialization', 'Ease of conversation', and 'Immersion'. The research showed that locale image, atmosphere, ease of conversation, and immersion significantly affect overall restaurant experience satisfaction. The findings also demonstrated that the destination restaurant experience positively affects tourist place attachment and destination revisit intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With consumers becoming increasingly health conscious, the demand for reduced calorie food has significantly increased over the years. However, the definition of low-calorie food remains unclear. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate consumers' perception of reduced calorie meals, from the perspective of the maximum calorie level that consumers would consider as "low-calorie." Survey data were collected using MTurk. In addition to respondents' perception of the calorie count of low-calorie food when eating out and eating at home, respondents' attitude toward low-calorie food, behaviors about consuming low-calorie food and exercise frequency, and demographic information were also assessed in the survey. The results demonstrate that consumers' calorie perception of low-calorie food served in restaurants is consistent among different types of restaurants. Moreover, consumers believe that a low-calorie meal served in restaurants should be under 367 calories for breakfast, 500 calories for lunch, and 677 calories for dinner. Lastly, consumers perceive home-cooked meals to be lower in calories than restaurant food. This study is the first attempt to explore consumers' definition of a low-calorie meal served in restaurants. The findings will provide guidance to restaurant operators in designing menus, and help policymakers better understand the ongoing need to develop a sound and comprehensive definition for the term "low-calorie." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of basil, bacon, and hickory-smoked beef aromas on customers’ emotions, perceptions of food quality, and the restaurant environment, as well as entrée selection was investigated. Following an experiment, a survey with 196 responses showed that food aromas had a positive influence on some emotions (pleasure, but not arousal), as well as customers’ impressions of the general food quality and restaurant environment; however, the hypotheses that food aromas influenced congruent entrée choices (e.g., the basil aroma increased purchase of basil containing entrees) were not supported. The findings have direct applications for the restaurant industry and offer suggestions for research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media communication has become a crucial part of crisis communications due to the rapid dissemination of information along with its immense impact on consumers and other stakeholders. Based on a structured content analysis of electronic media reports on restaurant-associated food safety crises from 1993 to 2015, this study examined media reporting patterns focusing on three elements: instructing information, crisis response strategies, and stakeholders. This study also identified the effect of situational factors (severity of risk and crisis type) on the media reporting patterns using Chi-square tests. The results indicated that restaurant firms were more likely to use proactive than passive response strategies, and identified primary stakeholders during a food safety crisis such as regulatory agencies, victims, and customers. Finally, two situational factors were found to influence the pattern of media reporting. The media reporting patterns were found to vary by risk severity and crisis type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the content of professional, semi-professional, and user-generated reviews. By comparing these three review types, this study was able to identify characteristics and factors unique to each type of review. Although, the amount of discourse in a particular factor varied, food is clearly the most important review factor regardless of review type. Semi-professional reviews emphasize atmosphere and décor more than both newspaper and user-generated reviews, while price factors were more prevalent in semi-professional reviews and user-generated reviews than in newspaper reviews. Understanding the varied structures of review types provides guidance for both restaurateurs and review users. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reusable water bottles are growing in popularity, but consumers regularly refill bottles without a corresponding effort at cleaning them. If the difficulties associated with various bottle designs and materials are added in, it is clear that improperly cleaned water bottles may present a potential contamination risk and thus be a risk for foodborne illness. The purpose of this study was to measure contamination levels of water bottles that are in use and to investigate bottle usage and cleaning behaviors by collecting survey data from the bottle owners. Total organic materials on the exterior surface and coliform and heterotrophic bacteria on the interior surface were enumerated, using ATP bioluminescence and the agar plate count method, respectively. The HPC and coliform results revealed a marked microbial contamination level among reusable water bottles that are in use, and the ATP levels suggest that the exterior bottle surfaces may serve as fomites that facilitate the transmission of infectious organisms. The contamination level can be affected by factors such as bottle material, refill frequency, beverage type, and cleaning behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A survey (n = 151) explored consumers’ experiences with wine-on-tap, a current trend in the U.S. foodservice industry. Wine consumers’ innovativeness (R2 = .49) was explained by wine involvement, opinion leadership, and usage of information sources. Those who recently tried wine-on-tap (n = 43) were significantly more innovative (innovators) than those who never tried it (noninnovators). Furthermore, noninnovators expected to pay significantly less for a glass of wine-on-tap when compared with wine poured from a bottle. Contrary to expectations, the driving force for noninnovative behavior is lack of availability and awareness as opposed to a lack of interest in wine-on-tap. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An online survey explored foodservice operators’ (N = 57) perceptions of wine-on-tap, a recent trend in the United States. Adopters (39.1%) considered themselves more innovative, willing to take risks, and influential on others’ opinions than nonadopters (60.9%). Foodservice operators who currently offer wine-on-tap utilized interpersonal information sources (e.g., distributors) more frequently than nonadopters. Additionally, adopters perceived wine-on-tap’s characteristics more positively than nonadopters, indicating wine-on-tap was significantly easier to use than bottled wine. Among other implications, networking stood out as an important driver of innovative behavior in the foodservice industry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigated restaurants’ response to the aging population’s preferences. Gaps between previously identified preferences and current restaurant design were examined. The observational survey assessed: parking and outside accessibility, comfort and inside accessibility, menu readability, and restrooms. Occasional gaps were found even though restaurants were generally well-designed. Casual dining restaurants were more likely to meet consumer preferences as to the exterior, seating, and service. Limited-service restaurants better met preferences for the bathrooms, lighting, and sound. This information may be helpful when building or remodeling restaurants and may help restaurants to attract older customers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Improperly cleaned and sanitized chef knives present a potential contamination risk and a source for foodborne illness. This study compared the efficacies of two cleaning methods (three-compartment manual dishwashing and sanitizer wiping) at removing food soils from contaminated chef knives. Knife-washing procedures were standardized after observing knife-cleaning behavior in a kitchen. Adenosine triphosphate bioluminescence was used to measure levels of organic soils. Results indicated that the three-compartment manual dishwashing was more effective at removing food soils from knife surfaces than the sanitizer wiping (P < .0001). This study also assessed the influence of other factors on the soil removal efficacies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigates children’s influence over parents with regards to the selection of family dining-out options. To further understand the connection between children’s influence on family dining and practical behaviors, this study examined children’s roles in relation to family communication patterns. Additionally, children’s demographic characteristics were examined as predictors influencing family dining-out choices. The context of this study was casual dining restaurants, a popular destination for family dining, vis-a-vis Taiwanese family consumers. The results show that mothers play a dominant role in the family dining-out decision-making process, and that children’s influence is similar to that of fathers in deciding on the type of restaurants, the specific restaurant, and the order of food items while at a restaurant. Additionally, teenage children have more influence than fathers. This study offers practical implications for foodservice operators in the development of family-friendly services, and in the development of future marketing strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmers' markets have experienced tremendous growth in recent decades. Traditionally, they sold raw fruits and vegetables; however, today's farmers' markets also sell prepared, packaged, readyto- eat (RTE), and temperature controlled for safety (TCS) foods. Because of their role in monitoring the safety of food, state health department directors were surveyed with regard to types of food sold, regulations pertaining to farmers' market vendors, types of products inspected, vendor infrastructure requirements, and their perceptions of food safety risks associated with farmers' markets. Additionally, directors' feedback regarding common inspection practices and state resource allocation was solicited. Results indicated that state inspection funds are, in general, declining and that state health department directors' concerns related to vendors included unapproved product sources, poor food-handling behaviors, and inadequate employee hygiene. Directors also expressed concerns related to declining inspection resources and market deregulation at the state level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer-generated feedback is hard to ignore these days. Word-of-mouth has expanded beyond a customer’s immediate friends and family; with the help of technology it reaches thousands of current and prospective guests. In light of this, scholars and practitioners are exploring the subject of consumer-generated feedback. Today, most of the research regarding this subject focuses on the use of consumer-generated feedback to make purchase decisions. In contrast, the present study explores the use of such information for the purposes of improving hotel operations. This article examines the amount of value placed on consumer-generated feedback, the relative importance placed on positive and negative feedback, and its effects on perceived quality. Furthermore, this study inquires as to the specific uses given to consumer-generated feedback in the hotel industry. It is the researchers’ contention that valuing feedback has positive effects on perceived quality. The findings conclude that hotels can use consumer-generated feedback to take actions such as modifying training programs and operating procedures, as well as identifying patterns of complaint and praise. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The increasing popularity of social media has prompted the need to examine the effects of social media comments on consumers’ responses to food safety information. By adopting and extending a dual-process model, this study assessed the effect of source credibility, the content of comments, and relationship quality on consumer responses to social media comments using a scenario-based survey. The results showed a significant interaction effect between source credibility and content of comments; while negative comments induced negative responses regardless of source credibility, positive, or mixed comments led to less negative responses when the source was highly credible than when the source was less credible. The insignificant effect of relationship quality signified a stronger influence of the information itself compared to the influence of the relationship quality with the person delivering information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a thematic analysis of Yelp.com users’ motivations to read and articulate user-generated reviews. This study’s purpose was to identify factors of usage, trust, influence, and contribution of restaurant reviews on Yelp.com. This study found that information search reduction and community membership were the greatest factors encouraging Yelp.com use. Respondents reported trusting Yelp.com due to the community aspects of the website and felt they were able to sort out biased reviews easily. Lastly, the primary reasons for contributing reviews to Yelp.com were altruistic in nature, for example, helping other users make good purchase decisions and rewarding good businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In response to increasing U.S. obesity rates, legislators have begun mandating that chain restaurants make nutrition information available. While other studies have addressed various aspects of nutrition information labeling in restaurants, there has been little research into the efficacy of the various forms of delivery of restaurant nutrition information. The results of this study indicate that menu nutrition formatting has little impact on customer behavior. This study also found that when nutrition information was influential in the decision making process, consumers chose food items averaging 30% less calories. Consumers who did not change their food selection based on nutrition information still indicated they found the information valuable and appreciated its availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the danger of food-borne illnesses associated with temporary foodservice establishments coupled with the increasing popularity of farmers’ markets, there is a growing need for an authentic examination of employees’ food safety practices. This study adopted a technology-based observational tool to assess whether farmers’ market foodservice employees performed proper hand-washing behaviors. Using smartphones, a total of 73 farmers’ market employees were observed, with their hand-washing behaviors compared to the Indiana State Health Code and County Health Inspector’s requirements. Results indicated that the frequency of hand washing varies depending on employee’s role, market location, and market size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluated three menu nutrition labeling formats: calorie only information, a healthy symbol, and a nutrient list. Daily sales data for a table-service restaurant located on a university campus were recorded during a four-week period from January to February 2013 to examine changes in average nutritional content of the entrees purchased by customers when different nutrition labels were provided. A survey was conducted to assess the customers' use of nutrition labels, their preferences among the three labeling formats, their entrée selections, their cognitive beliefs with regard to healthy eating, and their demographic characteristics. A total of 173 questionnaires were returned and included in data analysis. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and regression analyses were performed using SAS. The results showed that favorable attitudes toward healthy eating and the use of nutrition labels were both significantly associated with healthier entrée selections. Age and diet status had some effects on the respondent's use of nutrition labels. The calorie only information format was the most effective in reducing calories contained in the entrees sold, and the nutrient list was most effective in reducing fat and saturated fat content of the entrees sold. The healthy symbol was the least effective format, but interestingly enough, was most preferred by respondents. The findings provide support for future research and offer implications for policy makers, public health professionals, and foodservice operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that emotions and emotional intelligence are related to student motivation. Additionally, instructional design is known to influence student attitudes and subsequent content engagement; therefore, this study examined the relationship between students' attitudes towards Elearning and their emotional intelligence. The emotional intelligence of 33 postsecondary hospitality students was assessed using Bar-On's EQ-i:S. Students were then directed to a computer-based lesson. Upon completion, student attitudes towards the computer-based delivery were assessed using Keller's Instructional Material Motivation Survey. Pre- and post-tests were performed to assess knowledge gain. In general, as students' ESI increased, their attitude towards the computer-based instruction also increased. Students with average-high ESI expressed significantly more positive attitudes towards the instruction than those with low-average ESI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effectiveness of two educational delivery techniques via menu training. The techniques were lecturing and computer-based. Internet delivered, self-directed learning. The sample consisted of undergraduate students from a major mid-western university (n = 77). Participants were randomly divided, given a pre-test followed by the designated treatment and a post-test. Data were analyzed using paired t-tests, and ANOVA. The survey instrument was checked for reliability using Cronbach's Alpha. Results indicate that there were no significant differences between the post-test scores. This suggests that in this narrow application, either method would be effective in attaining the desired level of proficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]