Institute of Hospitality Management in Prague Bianca Nicole Necpal History and Analysis of Chinese Restaurants in a Selected region Bachelor´s thesis 2019 History and Analysis of Chinese Restaurants in a Selected region Bachelor´s thesis Bianca Nicole Necpal Institute of Hospitality Management in Prague Department of Hospitality Management Major field of study: Hospitality Management Dissertation advisor: Mgr. Šárka Masárová, Ph.D Date of submission: 13.06.2019 Date of defense: September 2019 Prague 2019 Oath I swear that the bachelor dissertation entitled History and Analysis of Chinese restaurants in a Selected Region was written by me independently, and that all literature and additional material used are cited in the bibliography and that this version is exactly the same as the work submitted electronically. In accordance with §47b law no. 111/1998 coll. on higher education institutions, I agree to my dissertation being published in its complete form in the publicly accessible electronic database of the Institute of Hospitality Management in Prague. Signature …………………………………… Bianca Nicole Necpal In…………….. on 13.06.2019 I would firstly like to thank my thesis advisor Mgr. Šárka Masárová, Ph.D for the valuable guidance, patience and immerse knowledge whenever it was needed. Moreover, I would like to express gratitude to the Institute of Hospitality Management in Prague for the education acquired during my three years of studies. Abstract NECPAL, Bianca. History and Analysis of Chinese Restaurants in a Selected Region. [Bachelor dissertation] Institute of Hospitality Management in Prague. Prague: 2019. 55 pages. This Bachelors thesis entitled History and analysis of Chinese Restaurants in Vienna gives an overview of the history of Chinese immigrants in Austria, Chinese restaurants in Vienna, the regional Chinese cuisines and dining etiquette in the Chinese culture. Furthermore, there will be an analysis of five Chinese restaurants in Vienna which will be conducted through the marketing research Mystery shopping. There will be a Mystery shopping manual made up with 7 categories that will observe: Website, Arrival and Greeting, Staff, Environment of the restaurant, Quality of services, Menu and quality of food and the overall impression which will help to evaluate the quality of services. This will help to achieve the main aim of this thesis, which is to find out if traditional Chinese restaurants are offering the same quality of services. Furthermore, to find out if the personal evaluation from the Mystery shopping is in accordance/discordance to the general opinion of guests’ reviews on Tripadvisor and Google. To help to achieve this aim two research questions were set, the first one if the quality of services in the five chosen restaurants are similar and the second research question if the personal evaluation conducted through the Mystery shopping manual is in accordance with the online reviews of each restaurant. Both of the research questions could be answered because the quality of services is on the same level but the newer the restaurants is the better the offered quality of services becomes. Furthermore, similarities between online reviews and the personal evaluation could be found in four out of five observed restaurants but the differences of the one who was not in accordance was not too different from the personal evaluation. Keywords: Analysis, Austria, Chinese restaurants, History, Mystery shopping, Vienna, Quality of services Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 1 1 THEORETICAL PART 3 1.1 IMMIGRATION IN AUSTRIA 3 1.1.1 CHINESE IMMIGRANTS IN AUSTRIA 4 1.1.2 FIELD OF ACTIVITIES OF CHINESE IMMIGRANTS IN AUSTRIA 4 1.1.3 CHINESE RESTAURANTS IN VIENNA 5 1.2 CHINESE CUISINE 8 1.2.1 DIVERSE REGIONAL CUISINES 9 1.2.2 TASTE AND AROMA OF CHINESE DISHES 9 1.2.3 REGIONAL CUISINES 10 1.3 DINING ETIQUETTE IN THE CHINESE CULTURE 13 1.3.1 TYPICAL DINING ETIQUETTE IN CHINESE RESTAURANTS 14 1.4 METHODOLOGY 15 1.4.1 MYSTERY SHOPPING 15 1.4.2 USED METHODOLOGY 16 2 PRACTICAL PART 17 2.1.1 PHASE I – PREPARATION AND DESCRIPTION OF THE CHOSEN RESTAURANTS 17 2.1.2 DESCRIPTION OF THE SELECTED RESTAURANTS 18 2.1.3 PHASE II - MYSTERY SHOPPING 24 2.1.4 PHASE IIA - MYSTERY SHOPPING IN THE CHOSEN RESTAURANTS 29 2.1.5 PHASE III - EVALUATION FROM THE MYSTERY VISITS 33 2.2 ONLINE REVIEW ANALYSIS 41 2.2.1 PROCESS OF ANALYZING TRIPADVISOR REVIEWS 42 2.2.2 SHU RESTAURANT 42 2.2.3 CHINAZENTRUM ZHONG XIN RESTAURANT 43 2.2.4 GOLDENER DRACHE 44 2.2.5 HAO NOODLE AND TEA 44 2.2.6 MAMA LIU AND SONS 45 3 RESULTS 46 3.1 RESULTS FROM THE ONLINE REVIEW ANALYSIS 47 4 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 49 4.1 RECOMMENDATIONS 49 4.2 CONCLUSION 52 LIST OF REFERENCES 54 APPENDIX 55 List of tables Table Page TABLE 1 NAMES OF THE FIVE CHOSEN RESTAURANTS .................................................................................... 18 TABLE 2 - MYSTERY SHOPPING RATINGS ......................................................................................................... 28 TABLE 3 - EVALUATION OF EACH CATEGORY IN EACH RESTAURANT .............................................................. 34 TABLE 4 – TRIPADVISOR REVIEWS FOR SHU RESTAURANT ............................................................................. 42 TABLE 5 – COMPARISON BETWEEN ONLINE REVIEWS AND MYSTERY SHOPPING .......................................... 43 TABLE 6 - TRIPADVISOR REVIEWS FOR CHINAZENTRUM ................................................................................. 43 TABLE 7 – COMPARISON OF ONLINE REVIEWS AND MYSTERY SHOPPING FOR CHINAZENTRUM .................. 43 TABLE 8 - TRIPADVISOR REVIEWS FOR GOLDENER DRACHE ........................................................................... 44 TABLE 9 – COMPARISON OF ONLINE REVIEWS AND MYSTERY SHOPPING FOR GOLDENER DRACHE ............. 44 TABLE 10 TRIPADVISOR REVIEWS FOR HAO NOODLE AND TEA ...................................................................... 45 TABLE 11 COMPARISON OF ONLINE REVIEW AND MYSTERY SHOPPING FOR HAO NOODLE AND TEA .......... 45 TABLE 12 – TRIPADVISOR REVIEWS FOR MAMA LIU AND SONS ..................................................................... 45 TABLE 13 – COMPARISON OF ONLINE REVIEWS AND MYSTERYSHOPPING FOR MAMA LIU AND SONS ......... 46 List of graphs Graph Page FIGURE 1 – TOTAL SCORE FOR WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA ......................................................................... 35 FIGURE 2 – TOTAL SCORE FOR ARRIVAL AND GREETINGS ............................................................................... 36 FIGURE 3 – TOTAL SCORE FOR STAFF .............................................................................................................. 37 FIGURE 4 – TOTAL SCORE FOR ENVIRONMENT OF RESTAURANT ................................................................... 38 FIGURE 5 – TOTAL SCORE FOR QUALITY OF SERVICES ..................................................................................... 39 FIGURE 6 – TOTAL SCORE FOR MENU AND QUALITY OF FOOD ....................................................................... 40 FIGURE 7 – TOTAL SCORE FOR OVERALL IMPRESSION .................................................................................... 41 FIGURE 8 – TOTAL SCORE OF ALL GROUPS ...................................................................................................... 46 FIGURE 9 - COMPARISON OF ONLINE REVIEWS AND MYSTERY SHOPPING IN % ............................................ 48 FIGURE 10- COMPARISON OF POINTS GIVEN IN TRIPADVISOR AND PERSONAL EVALUATION ....................... 48 Introduction As pasta to Italians, noodles and rice are an essential food to the Chinese but also to people all around the world who enjoy eating at Chinese restaurants. The popularity of Chinese restaurants is not something that has developed in the past few years. Chinese restaurants and the Chinese cuisine are really popular in nearly every corner in the world and also in Austria. The amount of Chinese restaurants in Vienna increases every year and nowadays you can find next to Kebab and Pizza vendors nearly on every second corner either a Chinese restaurant or a Chinese street vendor. But not all of them sell solely Chinese dishes. Most of the restaurants offer Asian cuisine, which includes not only Chinese cuisine but also Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese or dishes that have been modernized to Austro-Chinese food. Although these restaurants are presented as Chinese restaurants on Tripadvisor, Google and even on their websites, when looking deeply into their menu you can find mostly Asian dishes and not traditional Chinese dishes. Only a few restaurants specialize in solely Chinese cuisine and some of them specialize only on a specific Chinese region. This thesis deals with the analysis of the quality of services provided by typical Chinese restaurants in a selected region. The main aim of this thesis is to find out if traditional Chinese restaurants offer the same quality of services. The research aims as well to examine the accordance or discordance from online reviewing websites with the personal evaluation conducted through the Mystery shopping method. In the end, there will be a recommendation on how the restaurants can improve their services. There are two research questions: Research question no. 1: Is the quality of offered services in traditional Chinese restaurants on the same level? Research question no. 2: Is the personal evaluation through the Mystery shopping method in accordance to the opinion of guest’s reviews on Online reviewing sites? 1 The bachelor