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Planners of international conferences are advised to consider the conference-specific demands of the attendees when developing food service schemes. The main objective of this study is to identify the key food factors that influence on foodservice satisfaction at international conferences. This study uses menu selection, food content quality, conference-specific characteristics, and local food experience as the four constructs for the evaluation of international conference food quality. The sample data were collected via an online survey; 296 of which were valid. With the exception of conferencespecific characteristics, all food quality constructs demonstrated a significant positive impact on overall food service contentment.

Food safety issues have become increasingly important in the retail sector. This study focused on the perception of the safety of ready-to-eat (RTE) foods at hypermarkets. The objectives of the current study were to evaluate the perception of food safety-related attributes of RTE food and identify the key influencing factors to satisfaction at hypermarkets. A survey was conducted through a structured questionnaire that was administered at a hypermarket in Taipei, Taiwan. The hypermarket had a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points certification for RTE foods, while the target population was employees who had purchased RTE foods there. In total, 130 of the obtained questionnaires were valid. The statistical analysis encompassed descriptive statistics (means, percentages, and frequencies), exploratory factor analysis, and regression analysis. Four dimensions, i.e., facility, food, ambience/layout, and work staff, were identified to evaluate the food safety-related attributes of RTE foods at the hypermarket. A significant relationship between the food safety-related attributes and the overall customer satisfaction exists for ready-to-eat foods at hypermarkets. The facility, food, and work staff are all significantly impacting customer satisfaction. The results of this study promote a better understanding of consumer behavior toward food safety, thereby encouraging and supporting hypermarkets to design their layout and marketing strategies vis à vis RTE food.

Purpose This study aims to examine the behaviour of institutional and retail investors in response to news about industry leaders (peer firms) and to determine its impact on the stock prices of other firms (focal firms) within the same industry. Design/methodology/approach The study investigates the impact of peer news on investor behaviour of Chinese A-shares listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2010 to 2019. The media coverage of industry leaders is sourced from prominent Chinese online financial outlets and the Chinese Financial Press. Support vector machine is applied to identify the positive, neutral and negative news within the articles. The study uses event study and logistic regression to examine the effects of peer news on focal firms’ investor behaviour. Findings The results show that both good and bad news about leaders cause peers’ stock prices to increase initially, but then reverse within one quarter. Further analysis reveals that when leaders’ shares receive positive news coverage, institutional investors tend to exert excessive abnormal buying pressure on peers’ shares, resulting in overreactions. Conversely, retail investors do not actively trade on peers on leaders’ news day due to limited attention. In addition, the study shows that short-selling constraint inhibits bad news from reflecting in the stock prices. Originality/value The study highlights differences in investor behaviour. The finding that institutional investors tend to overreact more to peer firms’ news when focal firms are smaller and have a lower frequency of information disclosure supports the salient theory. This is consistent with the previous framework that suggests overreaction is more pronounced when it is difficult to combine external sources of information to evaluate the focal firms. In contrast, retail investors do not engage in active trading on peers on leaders’ news day due to the limited attention theory.