Although the phenomenon of spatial agglomeration and its associated productivity premium applies to many industries, scholars have only recently considered agglomeration in the tourism industry. To ...avoid overestimation of the agglomeration effect and provide strong empirical evidence for policy formulation related to productivity improvement, we develop a theoretical framework to identify and decompose the contributions of spatial agglomeration to the productivity of hotel and catering enterprises. Using (Abel & Deitz, 2015) Chinese firm-level data for the hotel and catering industry from China's Second National Economic Census in 2008 and (Ahlfeldt & Pietrostefani, 2019) data from the 2007–2011 China Tax Census and 2009–2014 China Key Tax Source Survey, this study finds (Abel & Deitz, 2015) obvious agglomeration effects in the hotel and catering industry and that spatial agglomeration improves the average productivity of such enterprises in large cities; (Ahlfeldt & Pietrostefani, 2019) the competition is more fierce for hotels and catering enterprises in big cities, with high-productivity companies benefitting and low-productivity businesses suffering; (Andersson et al., 2007) low-productivity hotel and catering enterprises in big cities flee to smaller cities, that is, there is a clear sorting effect and (Au & Henderson, 2006) some high-productivity enterprises in big cities have migrated to small cities, indicating negative selection effects. The results of robustness tests validate these conclusions.
•This paper uses the hotel and catering industry (HCI) data from China for study.•The agglomeration effect attributes to HCI's productivity premium in big cities.•High-productivity companies benefit from the fierce competition in big cities.•Low-productivity enterprises in large cities choose to flee to small cities.•Some high-productivity enterprises in the big cities relocate to small cities.
We study a rich production-routing problem with time windows arising at a catering services company. The production part consists of assembling the meals to deliver. It considers release times to ...ensure freshness of the products to be delivered and is also restricted by due times incurred by the constructed routes. Production employee shifts together with a compatible production schedule must be determined. The routing part consists of building vehicle routes that can contain multiple trips and must satisfy customer time windows and vehicle capacity. Routing and production costs, including a guaranteed minimum paid time for the drivers and the production employees, are minimized under various constraints. To solve this complex problem, we propose an exact branch-price-and-cut algorithm. We introduce a new branching rule that imposes on one branch a lower bound on the production costs. Computational results obtained on instances derived from real-world data sets show the effectiveness of this branching rule. Overall, our algorithm is able to solve to optimality instances with up to 25 orders and four products in less than two hours of computational time. To tackle larger instances involving up to 50 orders, we turn the proposed algorithm into a heuristic by avoiding a complete enumeration of the search tree and develop two other matheuristics based on this branch-price-and-cut heuristic.
The online appendices are available at
https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2018.0854
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Abstract Background Typical adolescent diets do not meet current dietary recommendations. There is a need to address these dietary patterns to reduce the risk of obesity and other diet-related ...diseases. Schools provide an opportune setting to do so, as students consume a substantial proportion of their daily dietary intake whilst at school. There is a developing evidence base on the use of choice architecture (food choice cues) to promote healthy eating in school contexts. It is necessary to understand the acceptability and feasibility of implementing such interventions. We aimed to explore these factors from the perspectives of secondary school caterers. Methods We conducted qualitative interviews with caterers from secondary schools across the West Midlands, UK and national/regional catering representatives. A semi-structured topic guide and visual aid were used to guide interviews. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. Framework analysis was conducted in NVivo v12. Results Twelve participants took part. Seven themes were identified and grouped into three categories: Acceptability (Suitability; Salient cues; Student engagement), Barriers (Catering decision drivers; Limits of influence), and Enablers (Perceived role; Opportunities). Caterers considered healthy food cues to be suited to adolescents as they require minimal reflective motivation. Salient cues included enhancing the placement, presentation and portability of healthy items, improving the dining environment and focusing pricing/incentive strategies on increased quantity. Student engagement was considered important. Some catering decision drivers conflicted with healthy food cues, and many felt that their role in healthy eating was limited due to the overwhelming influence of external food environments, adolescent resistance, and features of the secondary school canteen setting e.g. short duration of lunchtime, lack of space. However, caterers appeared motivated to implement healthy food cues and identified key opportunities for implementation, including integration into whole-school approaches to healthy eating. Conclusions Interventions using healthy food cues appeared acceptable to secondary school caterers, key potential implementers of these strategies. Future interventions could incorporate strategies relating to placement, presentation and pricing to prompt healthy selections, and actions to engage the student body and improve the dining environment. Evaluations should consider potential impacts upon food purchasing, consumption and waste to address caterers’ concerns about these issues.
Abstract Background Adolescents with disability have lower vaccination rates than the general population, including HPV vaccination. Understanding the multi-level influences on vaccination in ...specialist schools is crucial to achieve optimal vaccination coverage and vaccination experiences for adolescents living with disability. Objective To identify and improve understanding of the facilitators and barriers of HPV vaccination among adolescents with intellectual disabilities or autism in Victorian specialist schools to inform strategies to increase vaccination acceptance and uptake. Methods Qualitative interviews with key stakeholders (adolescents with disabilities, parents, school and council immunisation staff) from six specialist schools in Victoria, Australia. Data were analysed thematically. Inductively derived themes were then deductively mapped across the UNICEF ‘Journey to Immunization’ model. Results 32 interviews were conducted with stakeholders (2 adolescents, 7 parents, 13 school staff, 10 council staff). Trust in vaccines was high, but knowledge of the HPV vaccine was limited. Barriers included lack of accessible information for parents, the consent process, behavioural challenges and vaccine-related anxiety among students. The immunisation program in special schools was perceived as convenient, however preparing students for vaccination day and catering to individual student needs were key. Participants expressed a need for more parent information about options and additional support for vaccination outside of the school program. Conclusions Our study identified a range of facilitators and barriers to the school immunisation program for students with disabilities in specialist schools. The next phase of this work will use co-design workshops to build on the suggestions for improvement and opportunities that could be leveraged to improve vaccination uptake.
Catering facilities have a significant impact on the environmental sustainability of any destination. While travelling, people waste more food, eat more and prefer environmentally less sustainable ...products. This unsustainable behaviour is spatially conditioned: tourists move almost exclusively within a small part of a destination (the so-called limited area) where only a limited number of catering facilities are located. These businesses are therefore the key drivers of the environmental sustainability. The main objectives of this paper are to investigate the size of the limited area, number of catering options spatially accessible to tourists and finally to assess the environmental vulnerability of 38 European destinations associated with the limited area tourists usually visit and with the number of catering facilities that are accessible for tourists. Based on the spatial analysis considering the location of catering facilities, geo-located photographs and Airbnb listings, the limited area was calculated, and four indicators were implemented to assess the environmental vulnerability. The results showed that tourists move in only 4.4 km2 (3.3% of a city administrative boundary). In this area, millions of tourists have access to 685 catering facilities. In terms of spatial conditionality of food consumption, Venice, Amsterdam, and Florence are among the most environmentally vulnerable destinations. Furthermore, Venice and Florence also lack the environmental potential as a strong majority of catering facilities is located within their limited areas. On the contrary, Geneva and Thessaloniki were assessed as the least environmentally vulnerable destinations in our sample. Paris is the destination with the highest environmental potential, as 84% of its catering businesses are located beyond the borders of the limited area.
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