Restaurant Chains in China : The Dilemma of Standardisation versus Authenticity

This book explores the paradox of the hospitality industry: customers demand not only personal and innovative tourism products and services, but also cost-effective ones. Enterprises have the option to meet the former demand by offering authentic products and services while the latter could be achieved through standardization. Although it seems ideal to combine both concepts, they seemingly contradict each other leading to suppliers facing an authenticity-standardization paradox. The authors identify, analyze, and provide solutions for this authenticity-standardization paradox based on a series of case studies of restaurants in China. This book will be of interest to scholars, business owners, and consultants.