A dining table without food: the floral experience at ethnic fine dining restaurants

2019 ◽  
Vol 122 (6) ◽  
pp. 1819-1832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yen-Cheng Chen ◽  
Pei-Ling Tsui ◽  
Hsin-I Chen ◽  
Hui-Ling Tseng ◽  
Ching-Sung Lee

Purpose A high-end ethnic restaurant is a tourism experience that can increase the attractiveness and brand recognition of a tourism destination. The restaurant environment is a key element that affects consumer visits. The purpose of this paper is to adopt Schmitt’s experience module to analyse tourist preferences and experiences with respect to floral styles in ethnic fine dining restaurants. The results of this study are intended to serve as a reference for operators of fine dining establishments in designing flower arrangements. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a quantitative research method. A sample was developed using tablet computers to simulate flower arrangements in restaurants. The research tools included a floral style preference scale and a tourist floral experience scale. Findings Based on the results, the test subjects preferred European floral design styles in restaurants. Restaurant environments with floral arrangements were best at relaxing the test subjects. A restaurant’s floral style was positively correlated with various aspects of the tourist experience. Gender, age, Chinese flower styles, Japanese flower styles, European flower styles and other variables enabled forecasting the degree of the tourist experience. Originality/value When a consumer exhibits higher preference for a restaurant’s floral style, the level of the tourist experience increases. This study investigates the aesthetic experience of restaurants and restaurant atmosphere as a marketing tool. Sensory stimulation within the restaurant atmosphere can be based on the five senses such that tourists may, through the design of the restaurant environment, have specific emotional reactions that improve their tourist experience and reinforce the restaurant’s brand image.

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 913-926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christin Seifert ◽  
Veena Chattaraman

Purpose This study aims to provide a holistic understanding of how visual storytelling influences the objective and subjective cognitive responses of consumers, namely objective aesthetic impression and subjective aesthetic association, and aesthetic judgments in response to differing levels of novelty in design innovations. Design/methodology/approach A mixed-factorial experimental study manipulating the novelty of chair designs (moderate/high) and visual design stories (present/absent) was conducted among 263 female US consumers to test the proposed research model. Findings With respect to the main effects of novelty and visual design stories, consumers had more positive cognitive responses and aesthetic judgments to: product designs with moderate (vs high) novelty; and products with visual design stories than without. A significant interaction effect uncovered that visual design stories particularly aided products with high (vs moderate) design novelty with respect to objective aesthetic impressions. Examination of the structural relationships between the variables revealed that subjective aesthetic associations mediate the relationship between objective aesthetic impressions and aesthetic judgments. Practical implications To mitigate risk in radical design innovations, marketers should use visual storytelling to communicate product form associations and enable consumers to successfully decode the meaning of novel designs during initial encounters. Originality/value By examining a holistic model involving both perceptual and conceptual product concepts, this study fills a critical research void to develop insightful implications on bridging the gap between novel product designs and consumer understanding.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (9) ◽  
pp. 3015-3034
Author(s):  
Kai-Sean Lee ◽  
Denise Blum ◽  
Li Miao ◽  
Stacy R. Tomas

Purpose This paper aims to demystify the creative experiences of an extraordinary group of pastry chefs – The Malaysian World Pastry Team, champions of the 2019 World Pastry Cup. The authors adopted an expressionist theoretical lens informed by two aesthetic philosophers – John Dewey and Wassily Kandinsky. Design/methodology/approach A two-year portraiture was conducted – a qualitative methodology that draws features from phenomenology and narrative inquiry, rendering artistically and empirically written “portraits” that reflect themes and patterns of participants’ experiences. In-depth interviews, observations and material artifacts were collected amid a journey alongside nine extraordinary Malaysian pastry chefs. Findings Presented in story structures, the authors offer three “portraits” of culinary creativity, each representing a core essence of the creative phenomenon: creative harmony in the form of sensorial and symbolic poetry; imaginative episodes as a hypnotic state of inspiration and incubation; and the creative duality of scientific rationalism and artistic fashion. The authors delineated the intricacies of each theme by presenting them as individual narratives. Research limitations/implications The portraits indicated that culinary creativity reflects an organic and emancipating aesthetic experience that is unbounded by formative structures or sequential processes. This provides a novel theoretical view that moves beyond conventional studies’ capitalistic frameworks, and toward the intimate viewpoints of the chef-creators. Specific contributions are discussed. Originality/value Through a unique qualitative approach and an aesthetic theoretical framework, this study provided a novel perspective on the culinary creative process. The aesthetic view captures culinary creativity through the eyes of the creator, a viewpoint less considered, yet imperative to the culinary profession.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e0250924
Author(s):  
Magdalena Szubielska ◽  
Kamil Imbir

The aim of our research was to investigate the influence of the situational context of presenting contemporary critical artworks (in an art gallery vs in a laboratory setting) and the way in which one is acquainted with contextual information, i.e. a curatorial description (reading it on one’s own vs listening to it vs a lack of curatorial information), on the reception of critical art. All experimental stimuli were exemplars of contemporary art which raise current controversial social and political issues. Non-experts in the field of art were asked to rate their emotional reactions on non-verbal scales and estimate their liking and understanding of the artworks. As predicted, the art gallery context increased both the experience of aesthetic emotions–in terms of valence, arousal, subjective significance, and dominance and aesthetic judgements–in terms of liking. Thus, for critical art (i.e. current artworks which critically address serious, up-to-date issues) the situational context of the gallery increased the aesthetic experience–which is in line with previous studies on the gallery (or museum) effect. Curatorial information increased understanding, so non-experts seem to need interpretative guidance in the reception of critical art. Subjective significance was higher in the reading of curatorial information condition than the listening to curatorial information condition or the control condition (a lack of curatorial information). It seems, therefore, that art non-experts have a better understanding of critical art after being exposed to the curatorial description, but this does not result in an increase in liking and aesthetic emotions. Probably this is because the curatorial description allows one to grasp the difficult, often unpleasant issue addressed by critical art.


Author(s):  
Bart Vandenabeele

Schopenhauer explores the paradoxical nature of the aesthetic experience of the sublime in a richer way than his predecessors did by rightfully emphasizing the prominent role of the aesthetic object and the ultimately affirmative character of the pleasurable experience it offers. Unlike Kant, Schopenhauer’s doctrine of the sublime does not appeal to the superiority of human reason over nature but affirms the ultimately “superhuman” unity of the world, of which the human being is merely a puny fragment. The author focuses on Schopenhauer’s treatment of the experience of the sublime in nature and argues that Schopenhauer makes two distinct attempts to resolve the paradox of the sublime and that Schopenhauer’s second attempt, which has been neglected in the literature, establishes the sublime as a viable aesthetic concept with profound significance.


2021 ◽  
pp. 109634802110200
Author(s):  
Yi-Ju Lee ◽  
I-Ying Tsai ◽  
Te-Yi Chang

This study investigated the relationship among tourists’ perceived sustainability, aesthetic experience, and behavioral intention toward reused heritage buildings by employing stimulus–organism–response theory. There were 354 valid questionnaires collected from the Sputnik Lab in Tainan, Taiwan. A positive correlation was found between tourists’ perception of sustainability and aesthetic experience. When tourists perceived higher aesthetic experience, they also had stronger behavioral intention. Structural equation modeling analysis verified that the aesthetic experience of tourists had mediating effects between perceived sustainability and behavioral intention in the reused heritage space. The reuse of space should be attached significantly to the aesthetic display of space and service so as to promote such scenic spots and increase tourists’ intention to revisit through word of mouth.


2021 ◽  
pp. 003329412110021
Author(s):  
Sizhe Liu ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Xianyou He ◽  
Xiaoxiang Tang ◽  
Shuxian Lai ◽  
...  

There is evidence that greater aesthetic experience can be linked to artworks when their corresponding meanings can be successfully inferred and understood. Modern cultural-expo architecture can be considered a form of artistic creation and design, and the corresponding design philosophy may be derived from representational objects or abstract social meanings. The present study investigates whether cultural-expo architecture with an easy-to-understand architectural appearance design is perceived as more beautiful and how architectural photographs and different types of descriptions of architectural appearance designs interact and produce higher aesthetic evaluations. The results showed an obvious aesthetic preference for cultural-expo architecture with an easy-to-understand architectural appearance design (Experiment 1). Moreover, we found that the aesthetic rating score of architectural photographs accompanied by an abstract description was significantly higher than that of those accompanied by a representational description only under the difficult-to-understand design condition (Experiment 2). The results indicated that people preferred cultural-expo architecture with an easy-to-understand architectural appearance design due to a greater understanding of the design, providing further evidence that abstract descriptions can provide supplementary information and explanation to enhance the sense of beauty of abstract cultural-expo architecture.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chukwuka Christian Ohueri ◽  
Wallace Imoudu Enegbuma ◽  
Ngie Hing Wong ◽  
Kuok King Kuok ◽  
Russell Kenley

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a motivation framework that will enhance labour productivity for Iskandar Malaysia (IM) construction projects. The vision of IM development corridor is to become Southern Peninsular Malaysia’s most developed region by the year 2025. IM cannot realise this foresight without effective labour productivity. Previous studies have reported that the labour productivity of IM construction projects was six times lower than the labour productivity of Singapore construction projects, due to lack of motivation among IM labourers, and a shortage of local skilled labour. Therefore, there is a need to study how to motivate IM construction labourers, so as to increase their productivity. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative research method was used to collect data from IM construction skilled labourers and construction professionals, using two sets of questionnaire. The respondents were selected using a purposive sampling technique. In total, 40 skilled labourers and 50 construction professionals responded to the questionnaire survey, and the data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science software (version 22). Findings The analysis revealed the major factors that motivate labourers participating in IM construction projects. The factors were ranked hierarchically using Relative Importance Index (RII) and the outcome of the ranking indicated that effective management, viable construction practices, financial incentives, continuous training and development, and safe working environment were the most significant motivation strategies that positively influence IM construction labourers. Originality/value The study developed and validated a framework that can be used to boost the morale of IM construction labourers, so that their productivity can be increased. Implementation of the established motivation framework will also lead to career progression of IM construction labourers, based on the training elements in the framework. This career prospect will attract local skilled labourers to participate in IM construction projects.


2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Prater ◽  
Konstantinos Kirytopoulos ◽  
Tony Ma

Purpose Despite the advent of sophisticated control methods, there are still significant issues regarding late delivery of information technology projects. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the common causes of scheduling problems specifically in the information technology projects context. Design/methodology/approach Through a quantitative research, the importance of those causes, as well as the underpinning factors driving them, is explored. The causes are ranked according to their relative important index, and exploratory factor analysis is employed to reveal underlying dimensions (factors) of these causes. Findings From the analysis, four factors were extracted, namely, “Dataless Newbie,” “Technical Newbie,” “Pragmatic Futurist” and “Optimistic Politician.” These factors explain the different latent conditions that lead to scheduling problems in information technology projects. Practical implications The key contribution of this research is that it enlightens the latent conditions underpinning scheduling problems. Also, the evidence provides that schedule development for information technology projects is impacted by the same causes that impact engineering projects, and that applying a number of mitigation techniques widely used within the engineering area, such as reference class, would, no doubt, not only improve information technology schedules but also reduce the political pressures on the project manager. Originality/value This research provides a valuable insight into understanding the underlying factors for poor project estimation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 118 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohsen Rasouli Valajoozi ◽  
Nosrat Ollah Zangi

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare and find the significance of aesthetic standards related to the packaging design of pure milk among two groups of parents and children in order to help the designers and marketers to identify these two groups of consumers well. Design/methodology/approach – The results of questionnaire were used to get the required data. The selected samples were divided into two groups of 110 parents and children aged between seven and 14 years old who responded to the questions. The subjects were compared and evaluated within the convenience stores in the cosmopolitan city of Tehran based on four independent variables as the influential factors in packaging attractiveness. Data were analyzed through the statistical analysis software using the Independent t-test analysis. Findings – The results of analysis showed that all the variables vary significantly among these two groups. Besides, the importance and priority of variables were determined for each group based on the mean score of each variable. Originality/value – According to the results of this study, it could be concluded that the selection criteria and packaging attractiveness varies among children and parents, and the aesthetic factors of packaging could be used with different priorities for these two groups. And also at the end of research some practical recommendations are presented in order of importance based on parents’ preferences.


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