Understanding food choice and its utilities, case study of Laurea UAS lunch buffet
Trinh, Minh (2017)
Laurea-ammattikorkeakoulu
2017
All rights reserved
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2017061713726
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2017061713726
Tiivistelmä
This thesis project is completed in association with the cafeteria at Laurea University of Applied Sciences. The research focuses on understanding the significance of food choice in a university environment, where students can enjoy a healthy and balanced meal. The purpose of this thesis project is to explore the decisive factors and influences that lead to the choice of the meal so the cafeteria service will have an opportunity to utilize the knowledge to enhance service quality in the competitive market.
The theoretical framework of the thesis provides an overview of a food choice process model, emotional responses to food choice, food neophobia, and adolescents, young adults and food choice. In order to gain a deeper comprehension of students’ eating and drinking behaviors from a psychological and physiological point of view, an online survey of cafeteria customers was employed as a research method. In-depth interviews were also used as a research method in the thesis.
In the research, the total number of participants was 107 from 20 countries. Among them, 19 students had never experienced the service while 88 students had. The group consisted mostly of young adults studying at the Laurea Leppavaara campus. The research started with the most preferred choices such as meat, home cook, home country food and others. Then, the reasons which the students rely on when making the decision whether to eat at Laurea lunch buffet were also asked. The psychological and physiological feelings of before and after having lunch, which can affect the final choices were also analyzed. The information on the menu and the service received positive evaluations from all participants. Based on the results of the analysis, many development ideas were suggested to improve the service and the quality of the food choice as well. The development ideas included adding international choices on the menu, providing more information and channel and payment method and considering additional features to the service.
The theoretical framework of the thesis provides an overview of a food choice process model, emotional responses to food choice, food neophobia, and adolescents, young adults and food choice. In order to gain a deeper comprehension of students’ eating and drinking behaviors from a psychological and physiological point of view, an online survey of cafeteria customers was employed as a research method. In-depth interviews were also used as a research method in the thesis.
In the research, the total number of participants was 107 from 20 countries. Among them, 19 students had never experienced the service while 88 students had. The group consisted mostly of young adults studying at the Laurea Leppavaara campus. The research started with the most preferred choices such as meat, home cook, home country food and others. Then, the reasons which the students rely on when making the decision whether to eat at Laurea lunch buffet were also asked. The psychological and physiological feelings of before and after having lunch, which can affect the final choices were also analyzed. The information on the menu and the service received positive evaluations from all participants. Based on the results of the analysis, many development ideas were suggested to improve the service and the quality of the food choice as well. The development ideas included adding international choices on the menu, providing more information and channel and payment method and considering additional features to the service.