Digital Commons Network^™

The Camera Eats First: What Foodstagramming Reveals About Personal Behavior, Xiaoxiao Fu

Rosen Research Review

Some chefs may try to ban it, but 'foodstagramming'—diners taking photographs of food to post on social media—is a valuable tool that can boost both restaurants' and diners' public image. That's the conclusion of new research led by UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management's Associate Professor Xiaoxiao Fu. The study takes a psychological perspective and finds that foodstagramming helps both individuals' self-efficacy—the belief that if individuals act in specific ways they can achieve certain goals—and provides opportunities for restaurants to promote their businesses in new and exciting ways.

Beyond Local Food Consumption: The Impact Of Local Food Consumption Experience On Cultural Competence, Eudaimonia And Behavioral Intention, Bingna Lin, Saerom Wang, Xiaoxiao Fu, Xiaoli Yi

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the relationships among local food consumption experience, cultural competence, eudaimonia, and behavioral intention. Building upon acculturation theory, need hierarchy theory and self-determination theory, the current study develops a conceptual model of local food consumption as international tourists' acculturation process.

Design/methodology/approach: This study collects data from 305 Chinese outbound tourists and uses partial least squares-structural equation modeling to examine the developed model.

Findings: The findings reveal a significant effect of the local food consumption experience, consisting of novel, authentic, sensory and social dimensions, on cultural competence, which subsequently evokes eudaimonia and behavioral response toward local …

Hungry For Food And Community: A Study Of Visitors To Food And Wine Festivals, Mohammed Lefrid, Edwin N. Torres

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The present study explored the effects of various food and wine festival experience elements (e.g. authenticity, entertainment, and spending time with others) on visitors' sense of community, identification, and place attachment. The authors conducted survey research with 304 former visitors to food festivals. Data were analyzed using partial least square – structural equation modeling. Results revealed that food and wine festival experience elements (e.g. authenticity, entertainment, and spending time with friends and family) positively influenced visitors' sense of community, identification with the event, and attachment to the hosting destination. Significant findings relating to the mediating effect of sense of community …

A Taste For Education And Research, Susan Vernon-Devlin, Robert Seltzer

Rosen Research Review

Pots, pans and commercial kitchen equipment are not the only things found in UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management’s kitchen labs. A component for hospitality education and research, the college’s labs teach fourth year medical students to practice culinary medicine with a grain of salt, flip the kegs on undergraduates brewing beer, and serve as taste-and-test kitchens for restaurant brands looking to spice up a menu.

Turning The Tables On Covid-19, Wei Wei

Rosen Research Review

The COVID-19 pandemic all but eviscerated the restaurant industry. Around the world, businesses shut doors. For some this would prove to be forever, and those that did reopen were stifled by strict social-distancing regulations and the challenge of how best to rearrange their servicescapes to meet regulations and still provide an enjoyable dining experience. The big question: how best to do this? Dr. Wei Wei from UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management and her collaborators examined the issues of built density and customer power to uncover a vital piece of the puzzle.

Restaurants Post Covid-19, Elizabeth Yost, Murat Kizildag, Jorge Ridderstaat

Rosen Research Review

When you’re suddenly forced to close 1,800 restaurant dining rooms without any certainty of being able to reopen them any time soon, you need to act decisively and prioritize if you plan to be around for a grand reopening. For Darden Restaurants and their market-leading US brands, those priorities during lockdown were ‘look after the people – look after the cash!’ Dr. Elizabeth Yost, Dr. Murat Kizildag and Dr. Jorge Ridderstaat of UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management investigate the company’s achievement.

The Impact Of Covid-19 On Restaurant Workers, Diego Bufquin, Jeong-Yeol Park, Robin Back

Rosen Research Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit many business sectors hard, none more so than the hospitality industry. Restaurant employees were already known to report high levels of depression and anxiety, as well as alcohol and drug use. How has the pandemic contributed to these problems? In the first study of its kind, Dr. Diego Bufquin, Dr. Jeong-Yeol Park and Dr. Robin Back from UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management, along with two collaborators, examine the relationships between restaurant employees’ work status, mental health, substance use, and career turnover intentions during the pandemic.

A New Model To Help Prevent Foodborne Disease, Sergio Alvarez

Rosen Research Review

Shellfish, such as oysters, are a well-known source of foodborne diseases. A bacterium called Vibrio vulnificus, commonly found in shellfish, can cause particularly severe illness. Unfortunately, regulations aimed at improving food safety also have the potential to damage the fragile economic status of small coastal communities that depend on oyster harvesting. Rosen College of Hospitality Management's Dr. Sergio Alvarez has led the development of a new bioeconomic model that has the potential to help improve food safety while minimizing economic harm.

Florida's Food Truck Industry: Tackling The Food Safety Challenges And Health Risks, Bendegul Okumus, Sevil Sonmez

Rosen Research Review

Street food is a popular part of daily life, with a vast variety of vendors and food trucks around the world. It is easily available and well-known foods contribute to the local economy. Despite these strengths, many cultures don't highly regard street food. In particular, it's often perceived as unhygienic compared to restaurant food. These concerns around standards are indeed upheld by research in some countries. Researchers Dr. Bendegul Okumus and UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management and Dr. Sevil Sonmez at UCF College of Business analyze the inspection challenges street food faces and review the gaps between food safety …

A Comparison Of Self-Service Technologies (Ssts) In The U.S. Restaurant Industry: An Evaluation Of Consumer Perceived Value, Satisfaction, And Behavioral Intentions, Motaz Zaitouni

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Innovation in technology has been growing rapidly in recent years. Many restaurants have been utilizing different types of self-service technologies (SSTs) to enhance their operations and customer satisfaction. Despite, the rapid spread of SSTs in the restaurant industry, very limited empirical research has been conducted to evaluate the influence of SSTs type on customer dining experience. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation was to examine the SSTs values that influence restaurant customers' satisfaction and their decision to continue to reuse SSTs. More specifically, this study utilized the Theory of Consumption Values (TCV) to examine consumers' perception of the SST values …

Inside The World Of Celebrity Chefs, Exhibit Brochure, Deb Ebster, Tanya Jo Ormseth

Rosen Library Exhibits

No abstract provided.

An Evaluation Of The Orientation And Training Programs Of A Fast Food Franchise, Cheryl M. Donahey

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Very few attempts have been made to adequately evaluate training programs. The research reported here is an attempt to evaluate the effects of the revised orientation and training programs of a fast food franchise. Subjects consisted of 676 hourly employees of a Central Florida fast food franchise who completed questionnaires soliciting measures of the following perceptions: managements' consideration and structure levels and the effectiveness of the revised orientation and training programs. Modest support was found for the prediction that the revised programs would increase the employees' perception of managements' consideration. No evidence was found to support the hypotheses that employees …