Eliminating Cross Cultural Variations in Consumer Perceptions of Cooked Beef Steaks

Tourism and the food service industries have become major interdependent industries in many countries. This paper focuses on the differing expectations and perceptions of domestic and international consumers within the food service industry and, in particularly, the extent of cooking (degree of doneness) of their beef steak meals. The results of a random survey of 1430 participants in Sydney, Australia and Tokyo, Japan showed how cross-cultural perceptions differ between consumers and accordingly provided a method to eliminate the variation in expectations. This concept could be universally applied to all beef steak food service outlets striving to improve their customer satisfaction.