Marion Garaus, Christian Weismayer and Elisabeth Steiner
This study investigates the impact of sensory food descriptors on restaurant menus on the intention to visit a restaurant and to spread positive word-of-mouth.
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the impact of sensory food descriptors on restaurant menus on the intention to visit a restaurant and to spread positive word-of-mouth.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the signalling theory and the assimilation-contrast theory, two online experiments and one field experiment test the assumption that food descriptors prompt food-quality inferences before and after consumption, and that in both stages, food-quality inferences prompt favourable behavioural intentions.
Findings
Sensory food descriptors impact positively on behavioural intentions through quality inferences, although not all aspects of food quality mediate this effect.
Research limitations/implications
Not all four factors (deliciousness, visual attractiveness, variety and nutritiousness) prompt behavioural intentions to the same extent. While the signalling theory explains the positive impact of food-quality inferences on behavioural intentions before consumption, the assimilation-contrast theory explains the positive effect food-quality inferences have on the intention to revisit and word of mouth after consumption.
Practical implications
Managers should use either oral somatosensory descriptors alone, or in combination with flavour descriptors to prompt quality inferences and behavioural intentions.
Originality/value
The findings challenge the prevailing assumption that food descriptors addressing multiple senses have a superior effect on food-quality inferences compared to food descriptors stimulating only one sense. Instead, food descriptors referring to the texture, viscosity or mouthfeel of a dish, (i.e. oral somatosensory descriptors), impact on food-quality inferences, while adding flavour attributes did not have favourable effects.
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Hanne Riese, Gunn Elisabeth Søreide and Line T. Hilt
This introductory chapter introduces standards and standardisation as concepts of outmost relevance to current educational practice and policy across the world, and frames them…
Abstract
This introductory chapter introduces standards and standardisation as concepts of outmost relevance to current educational practice and policy across the world, and frames them historically, empirically, as well as theoretically. Furthermore, it gives an overview of how the book is structured and how it can be seen to contribute to the wider field of research in education. The chapter starts by introducing the concepts before it provides the reader with a background description of the broad discursive landscape of policy developments, as painted by educational policy research. Subsequently it describes how standards and standardisation have been theorised within educational research, and concludes with a presentation of the different contributions.
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Elisabeth Zsoka Palvölgyi and Jürgen Moormann
Insights about customers' processes of value creation are highly beneficial for companies striving to provide customers with added value in their processes. Customer processes…
Abstract
Purpose
Insights about customers' processes of value creation are highly beneficial for companies striving to provide customers with added value in their processes. Customer processes (CPs) of a complex nature, like buying real estate, are highly heterogenous and comprise numerous activities. Existing data-gathering methods either overlook the variability of these processes or do not record their contents thoroughly. Drawing conclusions from analyzing such poor-quality data can result in the design of supposedly customer-centric offerings that fail to provide customers with value in their processes. This paper aims to introduce a method for gathering complex CP data of superior quality: the interactive questionnaire.
Design/methodology/approach
The design of the novel method is guided by requirements derived from the literature. In a field study, the method's performance is compared with that of existing methods.
Findings
The interactive questionnaire produces data quality gains by combining data gathering in large sample sizes with features enabling survey participants to interact with each other. A field study confirms that it outperforms all hitherto existing methods in terms of the quality of the obtained data.
Originality/value
This study contributes to CP management literature by introducing a method capable of gathering complex CPs in sample sizes sufficiently large to accurately reflect their variability and in broad scope including activities beyond the company's perception. Having such CP data available is the precondition for a joint optimization of CPs and aligned business processes.
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Luis Henrique Souza, Elisabeth Kastenholz, Maria de Lourdes Azevedo Barbosa and Mariana Sousa e Silva Cabral Carvalho
The emergence of peer-to-peer accommodation (P2PA) introduces new values and meanings to the hospitality experience. Focusing on the diverse dimensions of the tourist experience…
Abstract
Purpose
The emergence of peer-to-peer accommodation (P2PA) introduces new values and meanings to the hospitality experience. Focusing on the diverse dimensions of the tourist experience, the purpose of this paper is to identify and assess the relative importance of the main dimensions of guests’ P2PA experience and its relationships with perception of authenticity, place attachment and loyalty to both the visited destination and the P2PA.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative netnographic approach with content analysis permitted the analysis of 250 reviews taken from the Airbnb platform, specifically focusing on P2PAs where guests stay with hosts in the same space.
Findings
The results of the study suggest that guests’ P2PA experiences are particularly influenced by the experience dimensions “aesthetic/sense”, “relate/social interaction”, “escape”, “act” and “feel”. P2PA experiences also result in loyalty intentions, to both the visited destination and the particular P2PA. The dimensions “aesthetic/sense”, “relate/social interaction” and “escape” stand out as most influential in determining perceived authenticity. In turn, place attachment is most influenced by the dimensions “feel” and “relate/social interaction”.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations of this research need to be acknowledged: the P2PA guest experience is explored from the restricted perspective of online reviews using passive netnography. Therefore, some criteria of data collection, for instance, gathering only reviews written in English and with more than 80 words, may be limitative in a more comprehensive assessment of the P2PA experience. Another point is, although P2PA platforms such as Airbnb encourage their guests to review the experience, some people are not inclined to do so; therefore, the published reviews may not reflect all possible experiences at these accommodations inclined to do so; therefore, the published reviews may not reflect all possible experiences at these accommodations.
Originality/value
This study suggests a comprehensive analytical framework for assessing the “holistic multidimensional tourist experience”, integrating Pine and Gilmore’s (1999) and Schmitt’s (1999) approaches, thus deepening the conceptual and methodological debate on the tourist experience. It further contributes to a better understanding of the dimensionality of the tourist experience in the context of shared accommodation. The dimensions under analysis and their association with perceived authenticity, loyalty and place attachment are both of theoretical and practical interest, suggesting approaches to improve the P2PA experience as well as the image and success of the destinations where these units are located.
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Rikke Brinkoe and Susanne Balslev Nielsen
Shared space is a design and engineering concept that gains attention in the context of both regeneration of, for example, former production sites and in the context of designing…
Abstract
Purpose
Shared space is a design and engineering concept that gains attention in the context of both regeneration of, for example, former production sites and in the context of designing new building complex(es) with a multifunction strategy. But the practicalities of realising shared space are generally overlooked, despite its importance for the user experience and the degree of success with shared space initiatives. The purpose of this study is to increase the knowledge of shared space and the complex processes involved in realising multiple use of space.
Design/methodology/approach
To achieve the purpose stated, the paper presents a study of current literature and four cases of shared space, including a commercial building, a public sport facility, a public health centre and an educational building. The study draws on theory from the fields of property management, space management, urban design and architecture, as well as from the social sciences and geography, to provide an as complete picture as possible of the challenges related to shared spaces in practice.
Findings
The result of the study presented is increased knowledge of the processes involved in sharing space in a facilities management context, supported by specific recommendations regarding attention to issues of territoriality, involvement and practicalities.
Originality/value
Not much scientific work has been conducted on the topic of shared space in a facilities management context, and this study adds to the so far limited knowledge within the area.
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The global emphasis on performance-based assessment marginalises teachers' professional work with assessment and affects what is valued and devaluated in education. Thus, it…
Abstract
The global emphasis on performance-based assessment marginalises teachers' professional work with assessment and affects what is valued and devaluated in education. Thus, it affects students, teachers and schools, how the education system is governed, external experts, educational industry and societies. The programme Assessment for learning (AfL), which developed in the wake of the comprehensive high stakes test regime in England in the 1980s, was initially meant to counteract the democratic deficit caused by the increasing focus on metrics and large-scale assessments. As a backdrop, this chapter discusses performance standards in assessment and their consequences and then asks: What potential do professional standards in assessment have compared to current performance standards, and what do professional standards in assessment look like? The following argument is elaborated: In the endeavour to make education meaningful and relevant for students and societies, there is a need to shift from a focus on (global) standards for assessing students' performance to a focus on professional standards for teachers' work in assessment.
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Standards are normative specifications for the steering of education policy and practice. They aim to clarify educational objectives, means and practice, by giving a shape to the…
Abstract
Standards are normative specifications for the steering of education policy and practice. They aim to clarify educational objectives, means and practice, by giving a shape to the worlds of education. They raise criticisms of oversimplification often splitting the discussion in unnecessary oppositions between pro and con standardisation. To escape from a fruitless antagonism, this chapter proposes the concept of waves of standardisation. Standards are essential characteristics of any organisation, including schools. Historically, standardisation of education increases with the emergence of modernity, and in particular with the unfolding and consolidation of mass schooling. Since then, however, waves of standardisation develop into diverse political scenarios and are oriented by different rationales. More than a standard world of education, a world of standards sustained by several circuits of expertise where competing logics of justifications are embedded in various political rationalities is illustrated.
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This chapter unpacks the ontological conjectures underlying economy-oriented standardisation of educational institutions, practices and processes and reflects on alternative – and…
Abstract
This chapter unpacks the ontological conjectures underlying economy-oriented standardisation of educational institutions, practices and processes and reflects on alternative – and arguably more desirable – rationales for standardisation in education. Drawing from the works of Maxine Greene and John Dewey, as well as Critical Theory, this chapter contrasts the future-oriented educational concepts at the foundation of economy-directed standardisation – which are oriented on the attainment of certain future ‘outcomes’ – with standardisation rationales based on present-oriented educational theories that derive the purpose of education from educational experience and interaction.
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Carmen Jaca, Marta Ormazabal, Elisabeth Viles and Javier Santos
The purpose of this paper is to develop a methodology that is based on the concept of environmental comfort and can serve as a tool that can help companies and employees to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a methodology that is based on the concept of environmental comfort and can serve as a tool that can help companies and employees to implement Kaizen projects. This methodology focuses on the worker’s participation in analyzing and developing improvements related to their workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is focused on the development of a methodology that encourages worker participation in improvement activities, through the analysis of their working conditions. For this purpose, the proposed methodology was developed in accordance with the dimensions of workplace comfort proposed by Vischer. The employees start working on the analysis of problems and their solutions through the logical framework approach, as it is a tool that encourages worker participation and consensus. The developed methodology was applied in a company, with three different groups of people, which enabled the authors to test its utility.
Findings
The findings reveal that the proposed methodology is effective in initiating workers in the path of Kaizen. The employees who applied this methodology were able to propose improvement actions that addressed the problems and opportunities that they had previously detected. Moreover, the questionnaire that was used to validate the methodology and was administered to employees shows that the methodology is useful in preparing them for adopting continuous improvement (CI) programs.
Research limitations/implications
The methodology presented in this paper has been applied and evaluated by a small number of employees. These limitations suggest future research recommendations.
Practical implications
This participatory methodology could be used by different types of companies to initiate employees on the path of CI, even if they are not familiar with improvement programs or methodologies. In addition, its use could improve the capabilities of employees in areas such as participatory analysis, problem identification and proposal of objectives. These capabilities are necessary in any Kaizen project. As a result of the application of this methodology, the companies could obtain a list of areas of improvement related to their work and propose actions to work on.
Originality/value
The paper presents the use of environmental comfort in the workplace as the first step in accomplishing a Kaizen project, with a focus on the employee involvement and consensus.
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Ingunn Johanne Ness and Gunn Elisabeth Søreide
– The aim of this article is to investigate the creative knowledge processes which are often invisible in innovation work.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this article is to investigate the creative knowledge processes which are often invisible in innovation work.
Design/methodology/approach
An ethnographic field study was conducted following three multidisciplinary groups; two groups in an Oil and Gas Company, Statoil and one group in a Research Institute. Data collection included observations, field conversations and formal interviews.
Findings
Creative knowledge processes develop over time in six different phases of initial innovation work. The article discusses the characteristics of communication and knowledge work in these phases. It was concluded that the creative processes peak in the three middle phases, and these phases can be seen as a separate “Room of Opportunity”.
Research limitations/implications
This study is limited to three groups, but the pattern of phases is consistent across all groups studied.
Practical implications
This study shows that knowledge diversity in groups does not automatically lead to creativity and underscore that group members’ ability to learn from each other is crucial for the quality of new ideas. To develop innovative ideas, groups must ensure a knowledge platform and challenge present knowledge by balancing alterity and intersubjectivity in a circular movement.
Originality/value
The findings presented in a model “Room of Opportunity” show that creative knowledge processes develop in phases and peak in a separate room. This is a new way to understand early innovation work, and the model is a contribution to how such invisible processes can be visualized and facilitated.