John L. Stanton, Martin S. Meloche and Peter Charette
This paper aims to provide a base line of the types of menu items that are sold in American chain restaurants that have bars. The term “bar food” is defined for these types of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a base line of the types of menu items that are sold in American chain restaurants that have bars. The term “bar food” is defined for these types of foods.
Design/methodology/approach
The research method used the internet to collect all data listed in the appetizer section of the menu. Restaurants were also anecdotally coded as to type of restaurant.
Findings
There were 66 restaurants with a total of 67 unique bar menu items. The conclusion was that among all restaurants there were very few bar items that appeared on “most” menus. Only four items were statistically greater than 50 percent of all menu items. When restaurants were coded by ethnic type or style the number of common menu items increased.
Practical implications
This paper defines bar food and for restaurant managers points out the possibility of using bar food offerings as a differentiating factor relative to competitors.
Originality/value
This paper defines bar food and its use in food service.
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Martin S. Meloche and John L. Stanton
The purpose of this paper is to show academics and practitioners the practical uses of syndicated data. Toward this end, an analysis of the distilled spirits industry in the USA…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show academics and practitioners the practical uses of syndicated data. Toward this end, an analysis of the distilled spirits industry in the USA and the UK is undertaken.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach adopted draws on secondary data analysis using syndicated data to draw some preliminary conclusions and uses further analysis to support these conclusions.
Findings
The paper supports the usefulness of syndicated data when used creatively across different studies. It also points out the changing direction of distilled spirit consumption within the USA and the UK.
Practical implications
This use of syndicated data helps the academic develop a fuller understanding of the key research questions and gives the practitioner a higher degree of confidence in the direction they take and in the future they anticipate.
Originality/value
This paper emphasises the usefulness of syndicated data.
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Ensuring high water quality is crucial for safeguarding public health, as contaminated water can pose significant risks to consumers’ well-being. This study aims to evaluate the…
Abstract
Purpose
Ensuring high water quality is crucial for safeguarding public health, as contaminated water can pose significant risks to consumers’ well-being. This study aims to evaluate the microbiological and chemical quality of bottled water brands commonly consumed in Dodoma, Tanzania.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 36 samples from 12 brands were collected between January and March 2023 and analyzed for microbiological and general water quality parameters.
Findings
Microbial analysis found that 42% of brands tested positive for coliform bacteria, while opportunistic pathogens Aeromonas hydrophila and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were detected in 25% and 17% of samples, respectively. For chemical composition, 42% of brands exceeded the World Health Organization guideline value of 1.5 mg/L for fluoride. However, no other parameters exceeded national drinking water standards. Statistical analysis revealed significantly higher measured fluoride levels compared to values declared on product labels (paired t-test, p = 0.003). A moderate positive correlation between fluoride and conductivity (r = 0.52, p = 0.045) indicated possible geological influences on water chemistry.
Research limitations/implications
To enhance the study’s comprehensiveness, exploring temporal and spatial variations among water brands, including samples from typically clean environments such as supermarkets, could have been beneficial in identifying underlying factors. Additionally, investigating the entire manufacturing process, from production to end-user, could have provided insights into unforeseen deviations in quality. Furthermore, the use of pour plating techniques at 37°C for microbial analysis, while suitable for resource-limited settings, may not have fully captured coliform diversity compared to membrane filtration and differential temperature incubation as per standard methods. This could partly explain the detection of heterotrophs without higher coliform counts in some samples.
Practical implications
This study provides baseline data on the bacteriological and inorganic chemical quality of bottled water in Dodoma. Detectable microbial contaminants and significant exceedances of fluoride guidelines in some products raise public health concerns.
Originality/value
While existing studies focus on bottled water quality at production facilities, this research highlights the overlooked risks at retail points, where consumers are directly affected.
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Provides a comprehensive review of various modelling approachesrelated to Just‐in‐Time (JIT) manufacturing. JIT is essentially aphilosophy for reducing lead time as well as…
Abstract
Provides a comprehensive review of various modelling approaches related to Just‐in‐Time (JIT) manufacturing. JIT is essentially a philosophy for reducing lead time as well as excessive work‐in‐progress inventories. Based on this concept a number of techniques have been developed for the design, planning, scheduling and control of JIT manufacturing systems. Reports on a comparative study of these approaches for JIT manufacturing along with the conventional manufacturing approaches and alternative systems for JIT manufacture. Explores future research areas.
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Olabanji Olukayode Ewetan, Romanus Osabohien, Oluwatoyin Augustina Matthew, Abiola Ayopo Babajide and Ese Urhie
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between fiscal federalism and accountability in Nigeria. Corruption is a global plague and is endemic in nature. Several…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between fiscal federalism and accountability in Nigeria. Corruption is a global plague and is endemic in nature. Several policies have been adopted by the Nigerian Government to institutionalize accountability and combat the scourge of corruption that have hindered socio-economic progress but to no avail.
Design/methodology/approach
Thus, this study examined fiscal federalism and accountability issues in Nigeria using secondary data and used the auto-regressive distributed lag econometric technique to analyse the data.
Findings
The results from this study reveal that fiscal federalism fails to mitigate corruption in the long run in Nigeria because of poor bureaucratic quality (BQ) and ineffective law and order (LOR).
Social implications
Fiscal decentralization must be accompanied by legislations that will strengthen BQ of fiscal institutions at subnational levels and promote effective LOR.
Originality/value
This study recommends that for fiscal federalism to mitigate corruption in the long run, government must adopt appropriate policies to improve BQ and further strengthen LOR in Nigeria. The finding also suggests that to promote public sector accountability in Nigeria, government should ensure the simultaneous decentralization of expenditure and revenue to lower tiers of government. This study provides detailed empirical evidence that fiscal decentralization without accountability will accentuate public sector corruption, and in the long run, weaken local economic development initiative to boost growth and development.
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Scholars and practitioners alike view knowledge as a crucial organisational asset. Over the past decade, several knowledge management (KM) technologies have emerged, such as…
Abstract
Purpose
Scholars and practitioners alike view knowledge as a crucial organisational asset. Over the past decade, several knowledge management (KM) technologies have emerged, such as wikis. A wiki is a web-based hypertext application that supports a collaborative and conversational approach to KM. While wikis are generally simple to use, their adoption for managing organisational knowledge sometimes meets resistance from employees. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors affecting the user acceptance of organisational wikis as a means of knowledge creation and diffusion.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on the existing research on KM and information technology adoption, this study identified the following factors: the relevance of top management support for and complexity of enterprise wikis as well as technical support and knowledge-sharing self-efficacy. A cross-sectional survey was employed to examine the influence of these factors on employees’ acceptance of corporate wikis. Overall, 102 employees participated in the online survey, and the data collected were analysed using the partial least squares method.
Findings
The research model developed demonstrates that top management support, technical support and knowledge-sharing self-efficacy have a positive significant effect on employees’ willingness to use wikis for knowledge-creation purposes within organisations.
Originality/value
The findings of this study contribute to the existing literature on the implementation of wikis as a KM technology by developing a theoretical model explaining employees’ acceptance of this technology. Organisations could use this model to guide and facilitate wiki initiatives.
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The authors test the effect of expenditure decentralization and fiscal equalization on short- and long-run economic growth and estimate two-step generalized method of moment (GMM…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors test the effect of expenditure decentralization and fiscal equalization on short- and long-run economic growth and estimate two-step generalized method of moment (GMM) simultaneous equations models, using panel data for China and India for the period 1985 to 2005. The authors estimate two simultaneous equations: a growth equation and equalization equation and find that expenditure decentralization has a negative and statistically significant effect at conventional levels on short-run economic growth for both China and India. However, the authors also find that this result is sensitive to the set of included explanatory variables. This leads the authors to conclude that expenditure decentralization has no effect on short-run economic growth for either country. The authors also find that expenditure decentralization has a positive and statistically significant effect on fiscal equalization for both countries but find no evidence that fiscal equalization affects short-run economic growth for either China or India. In contrast, the authors find that expenditure decentralization has a positive effect on long-run economic growth in the case of India, but not in the case of China. Finally, the authors report evidence that fiscal equalization has no effect on long-run economic growth in the case of China; however, the authors find that equalization has a positive and statistically significant at conventional levels effect on long-run economic growth in India.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors estimate two-step GMM simultaneous equations models, using panel data for China and India for the period 1985 to 2005. To examine the effect of fiscal decentralization (FD) policies on economic growth in China and India, the authors estimate two equations: a growth equation and an equalization equation. For the growth equation, the authors adopt a production-function-based model that is widely used in the empirical literature on growth; however, the authors do make some compromises with this specification due to the unavailability of certain data. For the equalization equation, the authors include variables that economic theory and empirical evidence suggest influence fiscal disparities among subnational governments which in turn influence the demand for horizontal fiscal equalization (HFE). To the extent possible, the authors employ the same econometric specification, variable constructions and sample periods for both China and India. The authors believe this strategy provides a more rigorous test of the FD hypothesis.
Findings
The authors find that expenditure decentralization has a negative and statistically significant effect at conventional levels on short-run economic growth for both China and India. However, the authors also find that this result is sensitive to the set of included explanatory variables. This leads to conclude that expenditure decentralization has no effect on short-run economic growth for either country. The authors also find that expenditure decentralization has a positive and statistically significant effect on fiscal equalization for both countries but find no evidence that fiscal equalization affects short-run economic growth for either China or India. In contrast, the authors find that expenditure decentralization has a positive effect on long-run economic growth in the case of India, but not in the case of China. Finally, the authors report evidence that fiscal equalization has no effect on long-run economic growth in the case of China; however, the authors find that equalization has a positive and statistically significant at conventional levels effect on long-run economic growth in India.
Research limitations/implications
Due to the importance of FD policies, especially to many developing countries that are currently pursuing decentralization reforms, future research should examine the effect of FD on economic growth for other countries. Furthermore, although it would be difficult to do so, future research should examine whether FD promotes political stability on ethnically diverse countries.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no one has examined the effect of FD policies on India's growth experience. What is more is that this is also the first of its kind to have a comprehensive empirical investigation into these two major developing countries with very interesting similarities and differences in FD policies. It is thus of great importance to examine the effect of expenditure decentralization and HFE on economic growth in China and India.
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The purpose of this paper is to profile consumers who expressed an intention to pay more for environmentally friendly wine packaging and to elaborate marketing strategies that…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to profile consumers who expressed an intention to pay more for environmentally friendly wine packaging and to elaborate marketing strategies that arise from this consumer profiling.
Design/methodology/approach
The population under study was the general adult population of the USA. The sample was randomly selected from a consumer database and provided a link to an anonymous on‐line survey. Reliability and factor analyses were performed to identify whether the measurement items reflected the constructs of attitudes, behavior, values, and intention to pay more. To determine significant differences, t‐tests on each construct were performed, along with stepwise discriminant analysis.
Findings
The results indicate that importance of being environmentally friendly, considering environmental issues when making a purchase, and collectivism were all very good predictors of consumers' intention to pay more for green wine packaging.
Research limitations/implications
The intention to purchase does not always translate into actual purchase behavior when consumers are confronted with a purchase situation.
Practical implications
This paper contributes to the understanding of environmental wine purchase intention by investigating relationships of consumer characteristics to environmental behavior. By segmenting consumers in this manner, it is possible to better understand the importance of environmentally friendly wine packaging, thus aiding wine producers, retailers, and packaging companies in directing their marketing and advertising efforts.
Originality/value
This paper examines the significance of personality variables in detail using measurement scales that consider customers' perceptions and intention to purchase.