Role of the servicescape on student responses in a primary school cafeteria

Therefore, it has necessitated a review of the causes of these children’s eating behaviour and then proposes proper strategies to improve feeding habits and avert obesity. in this study, servicescape in cafeterias that expose children to dangerous eating habits will be studied. The study will employ experimentation method in the study of children’s feeding habit in the school cafeteria. In the experiment, two sets will be used. First one, an experiment of preference of specific food by their position (horizontal versus vertical) on the menu will be analysed. School cafeteria will be the experimentation setting; a total of 10 staff including managers will be involved. In the results, the study notes that the position of food on the menu determined the children’s choice.

In a horizontal display of the menu, food at the middle had more choices, in a vertical display; food at the edges met many customers. Food nudge was also realised to influence the children’s choices. Fruits placed at the front tables had more orders as compared to food at the back tables. Therefore, managers are continuously embracing the strategy in efforts to boost their sales and customer attraction. They are becoming more concern with the building plan, the painting, and design. The need for a change of a specific business plan of a business building is essential depending on the nature of the business to be done. Businesses can gain liking due to their physical environment because of certain images created at the mind of customers about the business.

Most prevalently, service industries have fallen to the mercy of their physical outlook in determining their clients’ satisfaction. Before one can move and sit in a cafeteria, point one is to have that real fascination. Additionally, a proper business physical setting can also give satisfaction to the employees who in return offer the best quality to the clients. Bitner 1990 notes that the physical attractiveness of a business is a motivating factor and increases employee’s satisfaction. To further enhance the meaning of servicescape, it can be taken to refer to the environment in which the services are processed, assembled or instead initiated, which the buyers or customers either directly or indirectly interaction takes place. In combination with the physical products or services rendered, servicescape is very crucial in determining the customer satisfaction.

If managers implement this strategy, students as their key customers will get more attraction; consequently, the business will flourish. The proposal will, therefore, address servicescape in businesses with an exclusive look at the primary school cafeteria. Objectives and paper structure In this paper, several empirical studies will be reviewed to constitute the literature review. These scholarly articles will be exclusively on the topic servicescape in business and its roles. The use of the literature review will be to give a research gap that has necessitated the need for a study on the topic. Literature review According to a report branded The Position Effect of Menu item Display, customers make their food choices depending on the position that individual dishes occupy in the menu list.

The report shows the impacts of horizontal and vertical display of food choices on the menu. The results of the horizontal display indicated that foods that appear at the middle of the menu page are preferred. In a vertical display, it was noted that food that appeared on the edges are preferred versus the horizontal arrangement. The report noted that this preference was prevalent all across the food and beverage choices (Dayan & Bar-Hillel 2011 Bar-Hillel, 2015 documented two main effects of food positioning in the menu. Various theoretical frameworks were noted to determine the customer’s choices based on the arrangement of the menu. Such theoretical framework as the psychological affection of customers and optical illusion was underscored(Law R. et al 2012). The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey was done in the US noted that obesity was a significant health concern.

The survey indicated an increase in obesity cases of adults ages 20-74 from 14%-38%. 1994 explained that the causes of obesity were greatly influenced by food choices and the accessibility of food. Among children, a decrease of potatoes and chips in the cafeteria would mean that these foodstuffs are not at the disposal of children hence a decrease in possible obesity cases. The study shows that when this feedstuff is made accessible, children are likely to prefer them over better food in the cafeteria (Meiselman et al 1994) Thaler & Sunstein 2008 explains the importance of unnoticeable environmental changes in feeding for children. The study refers to these changes as nudges; they encourage less consumption of calorie-rich food and not a necessarily changing the food choice.

The study brands this food nudges as ‘nudge to obesity. The food included chicken, eggs, tuna, salmon, carrots, mushrooms, and cucumber. The level of consumption was noted. It was observed that the consumption diminished substantially when the ingredients were placed at the middle row as opposed to the situation when they were displayed at the edges. Conclusively, this study tested his influence of a change in food accessibility versus the intake by students. It was determined that the middle tables and buffets be less selected by the students. This study shows that the four factors interact to bring about eating behavior. For instance, one’s consumption of vegetables will be influenced by individual factors, that is whether or not they like vegetable.

, social factors, are whether other family members ear vegetable, physical factors; the availability of vegetable in their locality and macro-level; on the policy regarding sales and distribution and cost of vegetable. Ecological factors are noted to affect the food chain in any setup whether in the school cafeteria or back at the student's homes. In this study, it is realized that the most significant factor that influences food consumption in all ages; children, adults, and adolescents are an individual factor. K et al 2009) The University of Minnesota has compiled a detailed report on the guidelines on food service in schools, meetings, and seminars. The report shows the amount of food to be consumed, the nutritional value of the foodstuff and time for the meals to be administered.

The policy offers a clear guideline of what comprises healthy food making reference to Dietary Guidelines for America. The guidelines, for instance, discourage uptake of food in the mid-morning or mid-afternoon. It requires food to be served at the right time, lunch hour or breakfast. It is higher revenue and 24 times larger than the revenue from the film industry, and $ 9 billion more than telecom sector. Therefore, much emphasis is put on the catering industry because it is an equal GPD earner. Of the measures proposed by the report is a redirection of servicescape. The study has explained servicescape by use of such words as the physical environment. The atmosphere, retail interactive theatre, service environment, social scape, e-scape and many more. The question is whether or not customers are feeling pleased and enjoying luxuries at the restaurant (Ryu & Jang 2008) Many consumer behavioral studies have underscored the importance of the physical environment in business.

Wakefield 1994 notes that making the atmosphere conducive for customers comes with a huge motivation to them. When the atmosphere is pleasant and conducive, it is noted that business success is unstoppable. In the restaurant business, it is noted that creativity and innovativeness in both tangible and intangible services lead to the flourishing of the business. The physical environment is noted to play a central role in influencing the behavior of customers hence the success of the business. Consumption of food was more influenced by the availability rather than price. It was further noted that fast foods are related to obesity. Availability of food in the cafeteria determined the children’s’ consumption in the cafeteria. According to the social, economic statistics done in the US in 2015, obesity is more prevalent to people of low income.

It is due to the poor diets consumed by these groups. It explains why obesity is likely to be inevitable to children when such causative foodstuff is availed to them. An experiment to show nudge theory was putting a bowl with fruits on the canteen window to encourage children to buy them in supermarkets, a nudge is seen where sweets are placed at checkout points, the essence being for children to pester the parents to buy for them. In simple, the position of food in the menu, either at the middle, edges or bottom affects the purchases. In encouraging healthy eating habits, healthy food nudge is encouraged. It involves placing the recommended foodstuff in the right places for customers to develop order (Leonard, T.

Preference or the two groups to obesity will be noted. Experiments will also be done; some will involve children who will be taken to the certain cafeteria and given two menus; vertical and horizontal then required to make orders of food and beverage. Researchers will observe between horizontal and vertical menu which will be preferred by the majority. Therefore observation too shall be another method for this study; it was preferred because it gave first-hand information. Research design Before commencing the research, children will be needed to brainstorm on the causes of obesity. Finally, researchers will analyze the physical appearance of the cafeteria. The type of décor, interior painting, and arrangement of seats will be considered. As it was seen the physical outlook of a cafeteria might affect the number of customers in this case students, who eat there.

Individual attitudes of the children about specific food will also be tested among the students who will participate in this experiment. It will be important because some children prefer food A to B even when B has a lot of healthy nutrients. One will be allowed to pull out at will. Secondly, the respondents in this study will participate by informed consent. They will be given all the details about the study including the objectives and the intentions of caring out the study. Respondents will be left free to make their decision on whether to participate or otherwise. Limitations of the study Some of the limitations that were encountered in this research proposal include: Formulation of such broad research objectives that was difficult to attain.

The display of food on the menu was, therefore, was seen to influence the customer's choices of food. It provided necessary implications to waiters and hotel managers how to effectively display food in the menu to influence children’s choices to ensure they make proper choices to avert obesity. From the preliminary research and review of the literature, it is noted that diet choices are influenced by environmental factors. Also, availability, individual factors, and technical factors influence food choices. It means that social environment; what others say of specific food, physical environment; determine the natural ability to avail specific food, macro-environment; concerning the policy on specific food affects choices of food. Data collection methods also posed some challenges. Future knowhow of several data collection strategies shall resolve such stalemate as experienced in this research.

It is highly recommended that school café management try to play with children psychology by applying food nudges, positions of food in the menu to encourage children’s healthy eating and limit issues of obesity. Future research will need to investigate multilateral dietary components in the quest to get knowledge on obesity. Making sure that certain foods are available in the schools will be very crucial. Hill, J. O. , & Peters, J. C. Environmental contributions to the obesity epidemic. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 38(1), 56-73. Law, R. , Leung, D. , & Cheung, C. A systematic review, analysis, and evaluation of research articles in the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. , James, A. H. , Manco‐Johnson, M. J. , Montgomery, R. Environmental sustainability and behavioral science: Meta-analysis of proenvironmental behavior experiments.