Cross-cultural service design and management : a case study at GastroBar Saimaa

Abstract

Globalization has led to increasingly multicultural restaurants with diverse cuisines, customers, and workforces. This study examines how cross-cultural context affects both service design and multicultural management through the case of GastroBar Saimaa, a pop-up restaurant with a multicultural staff and customer. We find that an open, learning oriented management style can help to overcome international cultural differences and participant inexperience in the kitchen and dining room. We also find that cross cultural management is an important element of service design in multicultural settings. Poor training of the staff results in poor service. The study contributes to the practical training of students in a restaurant setting by developing some tools that help in the management of student led pop-up restaurants and to the restaurant industry by suggesting ideas for overcoming the challenges of running a successful business in a multicultural environment.