Chapter 1- INTRODUCTION

A restaurant or an eatery is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to
customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many
restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly
in appearance and offerings, including a wide variety of cuisines and service
models ranging from inexpensive fast food restaurants and cafeterias, to mid-
priced family restaurants, to high-priced luxury establishments. In Western
countries, most mid- to high-range restaurants serve alcoholic beverages such as
beer and wine. Some restaurants serve all the major meals, such as breakfast,
lunch, and dinner (e.g., major fast food chains, diners, hotel restaurants, and airport
restaurants). Other restaurants may serve only a single meal (for example, a
pancake house may only serve breakfast) or they may serve two meals (e.g., lunch
and dinner).

Indian restaurant industry is highly fragmented with more than 1.5 million outlets
of which only around 3000 of them are from the organized segment. Organized
segment includes Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs), Casual Dining, Cafes, Fine
Dining and Pubs, Bars, Clubs and Lounges.

The Indian restaurant industry is worth Rs.75, 000 cores and is growing at an
annual rate of 7%. The industry is highly fragmented with 1.5 million eating
outlets, of which a little more than 3,000 outlets form the organized segment.
However, the organized segment is rapidly growing at an annual rate of 16%.
Quick service segment is the clear winner in the eating out market with a growth
rate of 21%.

Food is a big part of the Indian culture. Whether it’s an everyday meal prepared
lovingly for the family or special celebratory culinary treats made during festivals
– food has always been something that Indians have bonded over. If there’s one
thing to know about the food culture of India, it’s the fact that it is an elaborate,
expansive fare. Even a regular meal at home consists of various staples like rice,
chapati, daal, and curry along with accompaniments such as pickles, chutneys,
papads, salad, and raita in a large number of households. Not only does a typical
Indian meal take long to prepare, but it is also savored over an extended period of
time.

Indians have traditionally prided themselves for eating home-cooked meals

prepared by maharajsor cooks in affluent families and women in middle and lower-
class ones, so the restaurant culture took a while to find a place in the country. One
of the most interesting things about Indian food is that it is as varied as the
country’s culture, geography, and demography. The cooking style varies a great
deal as you travel from the North to South or the East to West.

While most restaurants box Indian cuisine into region-specific categories like
Gujarati, South Indian, Punjabi, Bengali, etc., it’s worth noting that each Indian
state has its own local specialty.

If there was one year that changed the restaurant landscape of India it was 1996
when the American fast food chain McDonalds entered the country. With its
colorful mascot, cheap burgers, and consistent looking and tasting French fries,
McDonalds soon had the middle class Indian eating out of its hand. Until then, the
fast moving foods in India were mostly restricted to udupi style dosa-idli-wada fare
or local chains like Delhi-based Nirula’s serving fast foods such as pizzas and
burgers. But McDonalds changed all that and set the stage for the entry of many
other fast food chains like Dominos, Pizza Hut, and KFC.
In fact, the last two years have seen the entry of various niche fast food chains like
Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Taco Bell, and Krispy Kreme. Even cafes like
Starbucks and Costa Coffee have set up shop in several Indian cities. The
restaurant industry in India is mainly driven by the youth aged between 15-44
years. With a population of 1.2 billion and the largest number of youth on the
planet, opportunities for the quick service restaurant industry is huge in India and
it’s this potential that foreign fast food chains have taken advantage.

According to the NRAI, the Indian fast food market is worth $13 billion, less than
one-fifth that of China – the second largest fast food consuming market after the
U.S. But while China is witnessing a decline in fast food sales, the Indian market is
expected to grow. In fact, the fast food industry in India is growing at 19 percent
annually, 4 percent faster than the Chinese fast food market, which is growing at
15 percent annually.

It’s not just that these QSR chains have set up shop in India, but they are also
tweaking their menus and making them more suitable for the Indian palate. So, you
have a McDonalds on one hand opening up 100 percent vegetarian outlets in some
parts of the country and a Pizza Hut on the other adding Indian flavors and
ingredients to their pizzas.

What has worked for the quick service restaurants and international fast food
chains in India is the shift in the eating out patterns. Because of the increase in
disposable income, dining out is no longer reserved for celebrating special
occasions. People go out to eat more and try international fast food joints as against
the older generations that were less experimental in their tastes and not very
trusting of the food quality and hygiene level maintained in restaurants.
Also, with an increasing number of young adults embracing the American style
fast food meals, India’s QSR story is still being written.

The changing lifestyle, rise of the nuclear family, more women stepping out of
their traditional roles to go out and work, rapid urbanization are some of the factors
responsible for the growth of the restaurant industry in India. Added to that is the
increased exposure to international lifestyles and cuisines. More and more Indians
are demonstrating a growing appetite for a variety of cuisines ranging from
Chinese and Italian to Mexican and Middle Eastern.

Greater awareness of global cuisines combined with a larger disposable income is

leading many Indian consumers to seek experiential eating or fine dining. Fine
dining is not just about going out and eating. Fine dining is about elevating the
dining experience of consumers through ambience, décor, presentation of the food,
quality of service, use of gourmet ingredients, etc.

High-end or fine dining is slowly coming of age in India. While restaurants are
placing a lot of emphasis on delivering high quality food and excellent dining
experience, Indian consumers known to be quite cost conscious are willing to
spend more and more on experiential eating. New cooking techniques like sous
vide are being experimented with in the Indian restaurant kitchen and many of
them are inviting foreign chefs to give the Indian consumer a taste of authentic
global cuisine.

Taking advantage of this growing trend, many celebrity chefs have set up their
own signature restaurants in the country. Sanjeev Kapoor of KhanaKhazana fame
owns the hugely popular Yellow Chilli restaurant chain. The restaurant serving
contemporary Indian food is doing extremely well in many cities across the
country. Jiggs Kalra, another well-known name in the culinary circles in India,
founded the Punjab Grill chain of restaurant offering delectable North Indian
cuisine before selling his stake in early 2012. But Kalra along with his son Zorawar
are back in the business with the high end Masala Library restaurant in Mumbai
and Delhi.

Masala Library is just one of the restaurants set up by the father-son duo as part of
their JV with Mumbai-based Mirah Hospitality called Massive Restaurants. They
have another chain of restaurants called Made in Punjab, but that’s more casual
than Masala Library. Many Indian chefs based overseas are also returning to India
to seize the opportunity. They are taking the international dining experience to a
whole new level with their global menus adapted to traditional Indian flavors. One
of them is the London-based Michelin star chef Vineet Bhatia, who has opened
two contemporary Indian restaurants called Azok and Ziya in Mumbai.

It’s not just Indian, but also international chefs who recognize the huge untapped
market and have set up high end restaurants in the country. Ian Kittichai, the
famous New York chef, opened a Thai restaurant in Mumbai called Koh in August
2010. Since he imports all his ingredients, he is able to serve his diners authentic
Thai fare with a modern twist. An interesting trend has begun and due to an
increased interest in India as an investment destination, many international fine-
dining chains are waiting in the wings to set up shop in India. The Indian consumer
has a lot to look forward to in terms of experiential cuisine in the coming years.

Another interesting development in the restaurant industry is the rise of niche

restaurants serving specific cuisines and specialties. No longer is the restaurant
business divided into North Indian and South Indian. There are many more
categories of specialty restaurants serving delicacies from Kashmir to Kerala.
Its simple people want to taste good food. They want to taste different food. The
state or cuisine specific restaurants are simply meeting the demand of the new
Indian consumer who doesn’t shy away from experimenting with food that he or
she is not entirely familiar with.

Some of the popular niche restaurants in India include Calcutta, which started out
as Only Fish, and served authentic Bengali fare; Pind Baluchi offering dishes from
the Baluchistan region spanning across Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan; Gajalee
chain of restaurants serving Malvani-style seafood; and Zambar serving Chettinad,
Kuttanad, Malabar, Coorgi, Mangalorean, and Madras curries and vegetables. Even
lesser known cuisines of Odessa and Nagaland are finding many takers with
Delhi’s Naga Kitchen and Bangalore’s Dalma doing roaring business. And it isn’t
just traditional and local Indian flavors that are finding favor with diners, but also
international cuisines. Up until a few years ago, the only international cuisine that
worked for the Indian palate was perhaps Chinese. Since then, the Indian palate has
grown to accommodate global cuisines.

The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) in its report has predicted an
exponential growth in kiosks and food courts in India. The factors responsible for
this rapid growth, according to the NRAI, include lower rentals as compared to
restaurant space, higher return on investment, brand penetration, and new location
opportunities.

While they made their debut in the West in the 1980s and have now become an
essential part of airports, shopping malls, and evening business centers and
educational institutions abroad, food courts are still evolving in India (though
growing in popularity rapidly).
The Indian food court story is mainly being driven by the growing mall culture in
the country. In fact, food courts and malls have a symbiotic relationship wherein
food courts help the mall increase footfall and revenue by drawing customers,
while depending heavily on a steady stream of shoppers that the mall attracts to its
retail outlets. Since many Indians with higher disposable incomes are looking to
combine their shopping experience with a quick bite, food courts are drawing
consumers in large numbers. All food courts usually have more or less the same
floor plan – a common dining area mainly indoors and on the top floor of a
mall/commercial center with kiosks and stalls by multiple F&B vendors
surrounding it.

It’s not hard to understand why these food courts are gaining such widespread
popularity. One, people can enjoy a vast variety of cuisines under one roof unlike a
restaurant that typically serves a specific cuisine. Two, the prices for food items are
generally lower than what you would pay at a restaurant, so people find value for
money in them. And finally, the self-service, fast-paced, and casual atmosphere of
food courts is a big draw for people who want to make a quick eating stop and
don’t want the fuss involved in going to a restaurant.

In addition to the serious shopper, food courts provide an economical hangout for
youngsters and a convenient getaway for office goers who want to escape for a
quick bite, a hot cup of coffee, or a sugary delight in the middle of the working
day.

Restaurants are classified or distinguished in many different ways. The primary

factors are usually the food itself (e.g. vegetarian, seafood, steak); the cuisine (e.g.
Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, French, Mexican, Thai) or the style of offering
(e.g. tapas bar, a sushi train, a taste restaurant, a buffet restaurant or a yum cha
restaurant). Beyond this, restaurants may differentiate themselves on factors
including speed (see fast food), formality, location, and cost, service, or novelty
themes (such as automated restaurants).

Restaurants range from inexpensive and informal lunching or dining places

catering to people working nearby, with modest food served in simple settings at
low prices, to expensive establishments serving refined food and fine wines in a
formal setting. In the former case, customers usually wear casual clothing. In the
latter case, depending on culture and local traditions, customers might wear semi-
casual, semi-formal or formal wear. Typically, at mid- to high-priced restaurants,
customers sit at tables; their orders are taken by a waiter, who brings the food
when it is ready. After eating, the customers then pay the bill. In some restaurants,
such as workplace cafeterias, there are no waiters; the customers use trays, on
which they place cold items that they select from a refrigerated container and hot
items which they request from cooks, and then they pay a cashier before they sit
down. Another restaurant approach which uses few waiters is the buffet restaurant.
Customers serve food onto their own plates and then pay at the end of the meal.
Buffet restaurants typically still have waiters to serve drinks and alcoholic
beverages. Fast food restaurants are also considered a restaurant.

The travelling public has long been catered for with ship's messes and railway
restaurant cars which are, in effect, travelling restaurants. Many railways, the
world over, also cater for the needs of travellers by providing railway refreshment
rooms, a form of restaurant, at railway stations. In the 2000s, a number of
travelling restaurants, specifically designed for tourists, have been created. These
can be found on trams, boats, buses, etc.
A restaurant's proprietor is called a restaurateur, this derives from the French verb
restaurer, meaning "to restore". Professional cooks are called chefs, with there
being various finer distinctions (e.g. sous-chef, chef de parties). Most restaurants
(other than fast food restaurants and cafeterias) will have various waiting staff to
serve food, beverages and alcoholic drinks, including busboys who remove used
dishes and cutlery. In finer restaurants, this may include a host or hostess, a maître
d'hôtel to welcome customers and to seat them, and a sommelier or wine waiter to
help patrons select wines. A new route to becoming a restaurateur, rather than
working one's way up through the stages, is to operate a food truck. Once a
sufficient following has been obtained, a permanent restaurant site can be opened.
This trend has become common in the UK and the US.

Many restaurants are small businesses, and franchise restaurants are common.
There is often a relatively large immigrant representation, reflecting both the
relatively low start-up costs of the industry (thus making restaurant ownership an
option for immigrants with relatively few resources) and the cultural importance of
food.

The restaurant industry in the United States is large and quickly growing, with 10
million workers. 1 in every 12 U.S. resident’s works in the business, and during the
2008 recession, the industry was an anomaly in that it continued to grow.
Restaurants are known for having low wages, which they claim are due to thin
profit margins of 4-5%. For comparison, however, Wal-Mart has a 1% profit
margin. As a result of these low wages, restaurant employees suffer from three
times the poverty rate as other U.S. workers, and use food stamps twice as much.

Restaurants also employ marginalized groups. They are the largest employer of
people of color. Restaurants rank as the second largest employer of immigrants.
These workers statistically are concentrated in the lowest paying positions in the
restaurant industry. In the restaurant industry, 39% of workers earn minimum wage
or lower.

Rapid urbanization, higher disposable income, and all the other factors that led to
the growing culture of eating out in India are also responsible for the emergence of
a new crop of diners – the ordering-in or take-away diner. While previously there
were many caveats to ordering-in such as minimum order value, small delivery
radius, and misunderstood and misplaced orders; the growth of food delivery
aggregators like Food Panda and Zomato has changed all that.

According to an article appearing in iamwire.com (Rise of Online Food Ordering

Startups in India: Opportunities, Challenges and Innovations), there has been an
exponential growth in food ordering startups in India over the past one year.
CHAPTER 2- REVIEW OF LITERATURE

1-The 2013 National Restaurant Industry Survey- represents the first

national employer survey of work and human resource management in the US
Restaurant Industry. It documents the range of practices adopted by employers and
how those practices affect turnover and employment stability problems that are
endemic across the industry .They examined management practices and outcomes
in four customer segments: fine upscale dining& casual fine dining& moderately
priced family restaurants and fast food quick service restaurants. High levels of
employee turnover are problematic in restaurants serving all four customer
segments - leading to higher employee costs and lower service quality and
organizational performance. In fact, the survey data demonstrates that better
human resource practices can reduce employee turnover almost by half.

They surveyed restaurants in the 33 largest metropolitan areas of the country,

where wages and the cost of living are likely to be higher than in smaller cities and
towns and where higher competition is likely to drive employers to invest more in
employees in order to compete more effectively on quality and service. Over half
of these restaurants are located in states with tipped and non-tipped minimum wage
rates that are considerably higher than the federal minimum rates. Thus, the wages,
human resource practices, and turnover reported by managers in this sample should
represent somewhat better conditions than those found in a nationally
representative study. Nonetheless, even in this sample, the proportion of
restaurants that adopt better human resource (HR) practices and invest in the
workforce is modest. Several findings are noteworthy.

According to National Survey - the first national employer survey of work and
human resource management in the US. Restaurant industry, they conducted a
telephone survey of managers in 1,150 restaurant establishments across the
country. Managers in each workplace provided information on the types of
customers served and restaurant characteristics. They reported the number and
types of employees providing front and-back of the house services. For this report,
front of house employees include servers, bartenders, hosts, bussers, runners, and
cashiers. Back, of the house employees include line cooks, prep cooks,
dishwashers and potters. Or each of these groups, managers reported on their
human resource practices-including staffing and selection, training and
development, compensation and the organization of work. Performance outcomes
such as turnover and employment tenure were also addressed.

In this report, we provide an overview of the restaurants included in our study as

well as our findings regarding the use of different management practices and their
relationship to key outcomes.

According to human Resource, management for the hospitality and tourism

industries written by Dennis Nickson there are arguments for best fit advocate a
close fit between competitive strategies and human Resource. Management, those
in favor of best practice approaches to HR. suggest that there is a universal one
best way to manage people. By adopting a best practice approach it is argued that
organizations will see enhanced commitment from employees leading to improved
organizational performance& higher levels of service quality and ultimately
increased productivity and profitability. Usually couched in terms of bundles, the
HR. Practices that are offered in support of a high commitment and performance
model are generally fairly consistent. For example, Redman and Matthews -1889.
Outline a range of HR practices which are suggested as being important to
organizational strategies aimed at securing high, quality service.
Recruitment and Selection- Recruitment and selecting staff with the correct
attitudinal and behavioral characteristic. A range of assessments in the selection
process should be utilized to evaluate the work values personality& interpersonal
skills and problem, solving abilities of potential employees to assess their service
orientation.

Retention- The need to avoid the development of a turnover culture which may
course is particularly prevalent in tourism and hospitality. For example the use of
retention bonuses to influence employees to stay.

Teamwork- The use of semi, autonomous cross, process and multi, functional
teams.

training and development- The need to equip operative level staff with team
working and interpersonal skills to develop their service orientation and managers
with a new leadership style which encourages a move to a more facilitative and
coaching style of managing.

Appraisal- moving away from traditional top down approaches to appraisal and
supporting thing such as customer evaluation peer review team based performance
and the appraisal of the managers by subordinates. Generally all of these
performance appraisal systems should focus on the quality goals of the
organization and the behaviors of the employees needed to sustain these.

Rewarding quality- A need for a much more creative system of rewards and in
particular the need for payment systems that reward employees for attaining
quality goals.

Job Security- promises of job security are as seen as an essential component of any
overall quality approach.
Employee’s involvement and employer Relations-

By seeking greater involvement from employees the emphasis is on offering

autonomy creativity cooperation and self, control in work process. The use of
educative and participative mechanisms such as team briefings and quality circles
are allied to changes in the organization of work which support an empowered
environment.

2- Tourism and hospitality industry (john Bruce Tracey, July 2014)

The tourism and hospitality industry as a major service sector in particular, is

highly labor-intensive and hence is a valuable source of employment for a major
part of population all along the continuum of jobs ranging from unskilled to highly
skilled and highly specialized. Interaction of 'management with employees', and
that of 'employees with customers' runs like a chain in this service filed. This
interaction is the key in determining the quality of delivery of services and the
quality of the tourism experience of customers.

Woods (1999) proposed that HRM in the hospitality industry is at a crossroads

where either HRM will evolve and adapt and become more important in an
organization or will disappear and be replaced by outsourcing and technology.
Woods (1999) further suggests that the type of organization and the work culture
that exists will determine which of these possibilities eventuates in each
organization. HRM may become the integral component of the organization
following the SHRM model but this requires a shift from administrative to
strategic, from a functional to business-based model. In a review of 100 papers
concerning HRM in five leading hospitality journals Lucasand Deery (2004) found
that HRM research in hospitality predominately replicated mainstream HRM
research. They suggest that HRM hospitality researchers should look at a number
of key issues including the ownership of career development and the boundary less
career, the role of HRM in managing the 24/7 work environment, the impact of
shift work on health, and managing the safety and wellbeing of employees in
dangerous environments. There is also a need to examine the conflict between the
cultural values of the owners and managers of large global companies and of the
host community.

However, while Cho et al (2006) found no relationship between HR practices and

hospitality organizational performance, they acknowledged that HR practices did
impact upon employee turnover.

In an examination of larger foreign-owned and smaller Australian-owned hotels

and resorts, skill shortages and generational attitude changes have driven more
inventive retention strategies in both groups (Cairncross and Kelly, 2008). None of
the organizations reviewed had either formal team or individual performance pay
strategies or systems. Further, Namasivayam et al (2007) found that for managers
it was very much about the quantum of reward, but that line employees looked for
a wider range of benefits in addition to wages.

Strategic HRM, and the Balanced Scorecard in hospitality-

An example of the importance of SHRM can be seen in the recent report “Tourism
and Hospitality Workforce Development Strategy, 2009” (Service Skills Australia,
2009). It highlighted specific initiatives

1. raising the status of jobs in the industry-

2. alternative models of apprenticeship-
3. managing generational change by engaging young and older workers-
4. utilizing the increasing number of grey nomads for short-term, seasonal
work-
 5. improving job matching-
6. promoting cost-effective screening and recruitment processes-
7. increasing understanding of strategies that may enhance employee retention:
 promoting work-life balance
 workplace culture
 job role and design;
 management and supervision; and
 flexible work practices and development activities.

HRM needs to be incorporating the above issues, and others, as part of

comprehensive business strategy approach to improve performance. Haynes and
Fryer(1999) investigated changes in patterns of HRM and confirmed that the hotel
industry shares many of the characteristics of the wider service sector including
higher levels of part-time or temporary employment, higher proportions of young
and female workers ,higher rates of staff turnover, and lower levels of
remuneration, skill and union density. They concluded that during the 1990s,
employers in the hotel industry had not moved quickly to adopt innovative,
commitment-based employee management strategies. They stated that HRM
practices had not changed and that securing the commitment of the workforce on a
long-term basis is a high priority.

A recent study by Murphy and Olsen (2009) identified the most important
dimensions associated with HPWP using a Delphi methodology with 32 experts in
the US casual chain restaurant industry. It should be noted that the dimensions of
job design, employment security and reduced status distinctions were excluded as
they were deemed to have less relevance to the restaurant industry. Also excluded
were grievance procedures and labor relations as they were viewed as being more
manufacturing-based. Of particular interest is the fact that employment security is
not considered an important dimension and that omission must surely provide
theorists in hospitality HRM considerable cause for reflection. The list of
dimensions was drawn from the extensive literature on the practices found in
HPWP. While there is still considerable debate upon what should and should not
be included, using industry experts provides a sound basis to discuss which
dimensions are considered appropriate. In an industry sector where predictability
of demand exists and operating systems are well developed, for example possibly
the US casual chain restaurant industry and to a larger extent manufacturing in
general, the implementation of HPWP can be seen as less complicated.

Future trends-

The future of how HRM is sustained in the hospitality industry can be viewed as a
number of continuums that will shape the level and nature of involvement and
customer contact. They will characterize how individual hospitality firms are seen
by both employees and customers.

It is likely that each hotel and hospitality company will select where they want to
be on each continuum and may also choose to combine some elements. The
decision will be driven by company philosophy, the cost, skills level and
availability of labor, and the economic, cultural, religious and environmental
circumstances of the geographic location. This will present some of the
internationally branded hotel companies with a challenge as the standards of
operations and service levels are likely to vary.
 3- Service in the restaurant industry: an American and Irish
comparison of service failures (A Palmer, R Mack, and R
McMullan)-

The literature on service failure and recovery has to date tended to focus on
American experiences or on single nation studies. As large numbers of service
firms continue to seek opportunities in foreign markets, more effort needs to be
directed at assessing cross-national similarities and differences so that appropriate
strategies can be developed. This study compares the effects of failure and
recovery strategies in the restaurant sector of two countries with very different
dining traditions—the United States and Ireland. Analysis of over 700 personal
interviews with restaurant customers shows that there is much commonality with
regard to service failures but significant differences in recovery efforts. Especially
noteworthy, however is that American customers are much more likely to expect
such measures. In both countries, overcompensation methods do not appear to
influence customer repeat patronage intentions, nor do they have significant
influence on the rating of recovery effort. This last finding suggests that restaurants
could and should use less expensive recovery methods recovery strategies.

4- restaurant menus: Specifying the managerial issues (B Ozdemir, O

Caliskan)

This conceptual study specifically aims at reviewing the critical managerial issues
of menu, and demonstrating the conceptual structure of menu management. Based
on the conceptual and empirical findings of menu literature, the major menu
management issues are menu planning, menu pricing, menu designing, menu
operating and menu development. Additionally, the paper makes a discussion on
the conceptual relations between menu and meal experience. Given the scarcity of
research that incorporates evidences and concepts of previous studies in one single
study, the conceptual structure of menu management presented in this paper allows
a comprehensive understanding of menu and forms a theoretical basis for future
research.

Menu maintains its dominant position in restaurant firms, since it is the core of
food and beverage operations. Specifically, menu is an instructor that clearly
dictates (i) what will be produced, (ii) what type of equipment and ingredients are
needed, and (iii) which qualifications employees should have. Menu also functions
as a communicating and selling tool (Kincaid and Corsun, 2003). More
specifically, it communicates not only the food and beverage offerings, but also the
image of the firm. Furthermore, menu is a base on which the customers make their
food choices and a well-designed menu can direct customers' attention to the items
the firm wants to sell more (Antun and Gustafson, 2005).

The critical qualifications attributed to menu describe its importance to restaurant

operations and customer experiences. In fact, in contemporary understandings of
menu, it has material and immaterial meanings. Materially, menu is a list or a card
which documents the food and beverage options being offered by a restaurant.
Immaterial meanings of menu highlight that it is a medium that affects customers'
perceptions of restaurant experience (Wansink et al., 2005), and it is also an
element of restaurant management that requires conducting critical managerial
activities such as planning, pricing, designing and analyzing (Jones and Mifli,
2001). It also differs from the main product of a restaurant. Prior research (Johns
and Kivela, 2001, Gustafsson, 2004, Hansen et al., 2005) claim that the primary
product of restaurants is meal experience and it is constituted by many components
such as food and beverages, atmosphere, social factors and management. What
customers receive from consumption in restaurants is their memories and overall
perceptions of meal experience, and menu is part of that experience and has
associations with customers' perceptions. Consequently, menu cannot be
considered as the overall product of a restaurant but it is an important component
complementing atmosphere, interactions with servers and other customers, and
managerial systems which are jointly available in a restaurant where a good,
memorable meal experience is the main product.

Since it is a key factor in attracting and satisfying customers and effecting

performance of restaurant firms, menu has been gaining a considerable academic
attention from researchers. The previous studies on menu constitute a substantial
body of literature and they primarily examined the issues including menu planning,
menu pricing, menu designing, and menu analysis. For instance, Kivela (2003)
investigated menu planning through employing an experimental research design
and proposed a menu item selection framework.

5- Factors influencing word of mouth behavior in the restaurant

industry (Mohammad Reza Jalilvand, Sirous Salimipour)-

Purpose- Restaurants with limited promotion budgets depend mainly on word of

mouth (WOM) among customers. WOM seems particularly important to the
marketing of services. This is because services are experiential in nature and
difficult to assess before purchase. In the restaurants context there is little research
on WOM. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that may influence
tourists’ WOM about restaurants implying on the critical role of relationship
quality.

Design/methodology/approach- A comprehensive literature review is conducted to

identify the major factors influencing WOM in the context of restaurant industry.
The study utilizes self-administered questionnaire survey and the target population
is the customers who have referred to the restaurants of Tehran, Iran. A
convenience sampling approach was utilized to collect a sample of 326 customers.
A structural equation modeling procedure is applied to the examination of the
antecedents of WOM.

Findings- The paper found that food quality, personal interaction quality, physical
environment quality, and perceived value influence WOM behavior of customer in
an indirect way through relationship quality.

Practical implications- This research conjectured that an understanding of factors

that influence the tourist to talk each other about a given restaurant are worthy of
additional research. Consequently, the study helps to understand how these factors
can provide alternative sources of marketing to attract the long-term economic
sustainability of restaurant industry in Iran.

Originality/value- To the authors’ knowledge, this research will be the first attempt
to explore influential factors on WOM in restaurant industry focusing on the
critical role of relationship quality. It is expected that researchers will find this
research a contribution to the WOM literature, particularly in restaurant industry.

6- Study of new developments in the United Kingdom restaurant

industry (Clare Kelliher, Gilly Perrett)-

In the UK, the restaurant industry has traditionally been seen as a poor employer.
Work in the commercial sectors of the hospitality industry has been characterized
by long hours, low pay and arbitrary supervision (for an overview see Lucas, 1995;
Wood, 1992). A number of studies have examined approaches to managing HR in
the hospitality industry. These studies, in the main, indicate a rather
unsophisticated approach to the management of human resources and one that does
not generally reflect established notions of "good practice" (Kelliher and Johnson,
1987, 1997; Price, 1994). The aim of this work is to examine the extent to which a
new approach to business in the restaurant industry brings about a new approach to
HRM, as implied by contingency models (Miles and Snow, 1984; Schuler, 1989).
The first section of the papa gives a brief description of these new style restaurants
second, an overview of the literature which examines HRM and the relationship
between approaches to business and to HRM is presented. Third, findings are
presented from a case study of HR practice in a group of three "designer
restaurants". Finally, these results are discussed and the implications for our
understanding of the relationship explored.

Recent years have seen some radical developments taking place

in the UK restaurant industry, signified by the emergence of the "celebrity chef and
the "designer restaurant". Gill (1996) argues that "Britain has become a
gastronomic destination" with "large new restaurants designed for the twenty first
century". A new kind of restaurant has emerged, where traditional approaches to
food, service and design have been challenged. These so-called "designer
restaurants" display innovation, defy traditional standards of service and focus on
coherent, contemporary design. They are distinct from the mid spend, chain
establishments like TGI Friday's, Dome and Hard Rock Cafe, that reproduce
identical themes at each outlet, with emphasis on fun and family (Lillie, 1996, p.
26; McDermid, 1996, p. 14). In contrast, they aim to be sophisticated, high profile,
high spend, unique restaurants. They provide an up-market, adult dining
experience, removed from the traditional formality associated with fine dining.
Instead, they combine high quality, sophisticated food, with a relaxed style of
service. Design is central to the experience. Renowned architects, designers and
artists have been commissioned to reflect contemporary design and culture For
example, Ron Arad designed the entrance at Belgo; an Allen Jones sculpture is in
the reception at Mezzo (Melhuish, 1995); Marc Newson was the interior designer
for Coast (Lyons, 1995). Lyons (1995, p. 82) has remarked that Atlantic Bar and
Grille, "received more column inches in last year's style journals than Madonna"!
Sims (1993, p. 52) suggests they create a "spell so total" where designers are more
noted in the media than the chefs.

The majority of these restaurants are privately owned, often by flamboyant

entrepreneurs. Many operate on a big scale (Mezzo, for example, can cater for 750
people at one sitting) and are located in prime sites, some being conversions of
famous venues.

To summarize, these establishments do not fit with established

categories of restaurants as identified by Lilicrap and Cousins (1993, p. 4), but
represent a new approach to the restaurant business. The relaxed service method
compares with a bistro" style, but the "sophistication of the system" (Jones, 1988)
and the prices are more in keeping with formal "haute cuisine". As such, they do
not communicate a traditional set of expectations to the customer. The approach is
not "themed" or "branded", with each restaurant designed to be unique. However,
image, style and entertainment are the distinguishing features, with food being a
secondary element of the service offer. Since these restaurants represent a new
strategic direction in the restaurant business, it can be argued that, if the theories
concerned with the relationship between business strategy and HRM hold true, it
would be expected that the approach to managing HR would also differ. The
following section examines the literature which explores the relationship between
business strategy and approaches to HRM.
Approaches to HRM and business strategy- The meaning and nature of HRM have
provoked much debate (for an overview see Legge, 1995). Sisson (1990) has
attempted clarification by identifying four characteristic features which distinguish
HRM, namely, the integration of personnel policies with business planning; a shift
of responsibility from specialists to line managers; individualism in the
management of employee relations and an emphasis on securing employee
commitment and initiative. Legge (1995, p. 66) also identified some common
elements, namely, human resources are valuable and a source of competitive
advantage; HR policies are integrated with strategic business planning and used to
reinforce an appropriate organizational culture; HR may be tapped most effectively
by mutually consistent policies that promote commitment and foster a willingness
in employees to act flexibly in the interests of the organization. Guest (1992, p. 42)
argues that HRM is designed to produce, "Strategic integration, high commitment,
high quality and flexibility" and that Strategic integration refers to the ability of the
organization to integrate HRM issues into its strategic plans, to ensure that the
various aspects of HRM cohere and for line managers to incorporate an HRM
perspective into their decision-making. The starting point is the recognition that
people are not simply one of the factors of production, along with money and
machinery, but the major source of competitive advantage How organizations
recruit, train, reward, motivate and discipline their employees is of central
importance to business success.

Hendry and Pettigrew (1986) suggest that strategic HRM is characterized by four
elements: the use of planning; a coherent approach to the design and management
of personnel systems underpinned by some philosophy; matching HRM activities
and policies to business strategy; and seeing the people of the organization as
strategic resources in the achievement of competitive strategy. Models of strategic
HRM can be divided into "best practice" and contingency models (Storey and
Sisson, 1993; Timperley and Sisson, 1994). In the "best practice' category the
Harvard Model, for example, offers 'one preferred and superior set of HR policy
choices" (Storey and Sisson, 1993, p. 53). The contingency models emphasize
choice of approach to HRM according to broadly three business conditions,
namely, stage in the business life cycle strategy-structure configuration and the
business strategy being pursued. In other words "best practice" depends upon the
situation. The case study reveals that different categories of staff were being treated
in different ways. Most significantly, the chefs were being managed in a different
way from FOH staff. Communication, participation and schemes for employee
development were well developed for this group and had, in the main, succeeded in
engendering positive responses from these employees. The value of these
employees had been recognized by the organization and some significant steps had
been taken to retain and gain commitment from them. However, this approach was
less obvious with FOH staff. For example, it was this group who expressed some
alienation and disaffection in the employment relationship.