Phenomenological model of culinary innovation, a systemic view

This phenomenological inquiry is a story of extraordinary chefs and their lived experience of culinary innovation. The main achievements are two models that were both achieved through a phenomenological approach and are systemic in nature. Thus, the first can be seen as a phenomenological model that describes culinary innovation as a systemic phenomenon and is believed to be of informative value for future management and education policies and practices. The second model, also phenomenological and systemic in character, describes culinary innovation on a more philosophical level and can inform future research aiming to investigate the extraordinary. The first phenomenological model of culinary innovation does not provide a generally applicable set of steps that can be used to create ideas and then turn them into innovations, but contributes to knowledge in the way that clearly indicates that the existence of such set of steps is a naïve belief that creates more harm than good. The model clearly shows beside the systemic dimension of culinary innovation that each chef must go through an intensive self-development in which he must invest incomparable amounts of energy, hard work and dedication to become an extraordinary creator. The research findings furthermore show that creativity is an interesting and important dimension of human life and holds emotional and satisfying rewards for the creator. Moreover, the outcome of creativity initiates the complexity and richness of the future. Thus, this study can be seen as one step towards a better understanding of the lived experiences of creativity and innovation. Beside the cultural and economic importance of haute cuisine and the lack of studies on creativity and innovation in hospitality literature, the current study also contributes to knowledge on extraordinary individuals. This contribution is manifested first in that the current thesis focuses on extraordinary creators and thus challenges the existing frameworks in the human sciences that have failed to account for these individuals. Second, the study also makes a methodological contribution, because extraordinary chefs are investigated by a researcher who is part of their life-world (i.e. having been a chef in haute cuisine), a constellation that is underdeveloped as a research framework in the human and social sciences. It will become evident that the lessons that can be learned from these extraordinary chefs are that the ideas of a small number of chefs are responsible for much of the developments in the domain and that a better understanding of these extraordinary chefs, and for that matter extraordinary creators in general, may help to uncover how a sense of responsibility can be better united with talent.This phenomenological inquiry is a story of extraordinary chefs and their lived experience of culinary innovation. The main achievements are two models that were both achieved through a phenomenological approach and are systemic in nature. Thus, the first can be seen as a phenomenological model that describes culinary innovation as a systemic phenomenon and is believed to be of informative value for future management and education policies and practices. The second model, also phenomenological and systemic in character, describes culinary innovation on a more philosophical level and can inform future research aiming to investigate the extraordinary. The first phenomenological model of culinary innovation does not provide a generally applicable set of steps that can be used to create ideas and then turn them into innovations, but contributes to knowledge in the way that clearly indicates that the existence of such set of steps is a naïve belief that creates more harm than good. The model clearly shows beside the systemic dimension of culinary innovation that each chef must go through an intensive self-development in which he must invest incomparable amounts of energy, hard work and dedication to become an extraordinary creator. The research findings furthermore show that creativity is an interesting and important dimension of human life and holds emotional and satisfying rewards for the creator. Moreover, the outcome of creativity initiates the complexity and richness of the future. Thus, this study can be seen as one step towards a better understanding of the lived experiences of creativity and innovation. Beside the cultural and economic importance of haute cuisine and the lack of studies on creativity and innovation in hospitality literature, the current study also contributes to knowledge on extraordinary individuals. This contribution is manifested first in that the current thesis focuses on extraordinary creators and thus challenges the existing frameworks in the human sciences that have failed to account for these individuals. Second, the study also makes a methodological contribution, because extraordinary chefs are investigated by a researcher who is part of their life-world (i.e. having been a chef in haute cuisine), a constellation that is underdeveloped as a research framework in the human and social sciences. It will become evident that the lessons that can be learned from these extraordinary chefs are that the ideas of a small number of chefs are responsible for much of the developments in the domain and that a better understanding of these extraordinary chefs, and for that matter extraordinary creators in general, may help to uncover how a sense of responsibility can be better united with talent

Exploring practices of managing creativity : a qualitative meta-analysis of narratives from haute cuisine

In this qualitative meta-analysis of literature-based narratives from the field of haute cuisine we look through an antenarrative lens at the dynamic interplay of embodied practices of chefs that can bring about new creations. Our analysis led us to depict ‘prototypical’ characters that chefs seem to adopt when organizing and leading for creativity in teams. We believe that these prototypes may serve as points for orientation in order to look for and analyse evoking stories of team creativity and can also be useful for practitioners who need to prepare the organizing and do the leading for creativity in teams

Practices of creative leadership : a qualitative meta-analysis in haute cuisine

Creative leadership has been studied in different collaborative contexts that can be summarized as facilitating employees' creativity, directing the realization of the creative vision of a leader and integrating different and diverse creative contributions. In this paper, we present the findings from a qualitative meta-analysis of literaturebased accounts of chefs' creative leadership practices from the context of haute cuisine. We bring together both the leader-chefs' and academic authors' understandings of practices available in scholarly papers to achieve a credible picture of creative leadership practices in haute cuisine. We present our findings as a meta-vignette introducing nine prototypical characters representing patterns of practices that leader-chefs perform as they are fostering creativity. We further demonstrate when and how leader-chefs employ practices that are more typical of facilitating and integrating contexts. The nine characters afford an immediate intuitive understanding of the creative leadership practices in haute cuisine, helping scholars to look for and analyse creative leadership and support creative leaders to understand better and be more mindful of their practices

Hotel revenue management: then, now and tomorrow

Contrary to the practical application of revenue management (RM), its theoretical definition has remained virtually unchanged. Today's data-driven approach to RM forms an integral part of management and clearly contributes to the financial performance of hotels. Its growing importance and the shifting balance between art and science in RM decision making is only partially supported by changes to its underlying process. Additional tasks place new demands on the required competences and fight for priority with the core responsibility of optimising (overall) revenue potential. This article provides a brief historic overview of hotel RM and outlines and discusses its current state as well as future challenges