The paper introduces tipping in a historical perspective, explaining and contrasting tipping habits in England and elsewhere. The case for tipping or service charges is presented. A review of the literature explores those factors that have been found to influence tipping behaviour. The methodology for a comparative introductory study of English and Italian hotel restaurant customers is explained, together with the results. Due to the limited sample sizes, care should be taken when interpreting the results, as differences identified between the English and Italian samples could be abated due to the regional differences within each country. With this qualification, the paper concludes that Italians rated influencing factors more highly than did the English and found attractiveness of server, speed of service and prompt bill delivery to be particularly important. By contrast, English customers generally rated qualities of the product to be more important than the characteristics of the server as influences on tip size.
AllenR. E. (Ed.) (1991) ‘Oxford English Dictionary’, 8th edn, Oxford University Press, Oxford. 1279.
2.
AlreckP. L.SettleR. B. (1985) ‘The Survey Research Handbook’, Richard D. Irwin Inc., Homewood, IL.
3.
Ben-ZionU.KarniE. (1976) ‘Tip Payments and Quality of Service’, working paper, No. 30-76, Foerder Institute of Economic Research, Tel-Aviv University, Israel, May.
4.
BerlinskiP. (1988a) ‘Tipping should go: Yes or no?’, Restaurant Business, 87, 8, 20 May, 16.
BrownN. E.RolleS. A. (1991) ‘Tips versus service charges: The Iowa scene’, Cornell H.R.A. Quarterly, 32, 1, May, 75–81.
7.
Caterer and Hotelkeeper (1995a) ‘Survey fuels service charge debate’, Caterer and Hotelkeeper, 16 March, 6.
8.
Caterer and Hotelkeeper (1995b) ‘Which? adds to service charge ban call’, Caterer and Hotelkeeper, 7 December, 7.
9.
Caterer and Hotelkeeper (1995c) ‘Take a tip from customers' views’, Caterer and Hotelkeeper, 16 March, 25.
10.
Caterer and Hotelkeeper (1995d) ‘Say goodbye to service charges?’, Caterer and Hotelkeeper, 7 December, 25.
11.
ChapmanK. (1986) ‘Nonsense of the service charge’, Caterer and Hotelkeeper, 1 May, 28.
12.
CrespiL. (1947) ‘The implications of tipping in America’, The Public Opinion Quarterly, 11, 424–435.
13.
CrossleyG. (1997) ‘Row over tips could tip off the tax man’. Caterer and Hotelkeeper, 2 August, 20.
14.
CrouchS. (1984) ‘Marketing Research for Managers’, William Heinemann, Oxford, 138.
15.
CrouchS.HousdenM. (1996) ‘Marketing Research for Managers’, 2nd edn, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford.
16.
CruscoA.WetzelC. (1984) ‘The Midas touch: The effects of interpersonal touch on restaurant tipping’, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 10, 4, December, 512–517.
17.
FitzsimmonsJ. A.MaurerG. B. (1991) ‘A walk through audit to improve restaurant performance’, Cornell H.R.A. Quarterly, 31, 4, February, 95–99.
18.
FreemanS.WalkerM.BordenR.LataneB. (1975) ‘Diffusion of responsibility and restaurant tipping: Cheaper by the bunch’, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 1, 584–587.
GarrityK.DegalmanD. (1990) ‘Effect of server introduction on restaurant tipping’, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 20, 2, 168–172.
21.
HagueP.JacksonP. (1990) ‘How to do marketing research’, Kogan Page, London.
22.
HagueP.JacksonP. (1995) ‘Do your own market research’, 2nd edn, Kogan Page, London, 65.
23.
HagneP.JacksonP. (1996) ‘A guide to planning methodology and evaluation’, Kogan Page, London.
24.
HardcastleS. (1996) ‘Tipping the balance’, Caterer and Hotelkeeper, 15 February, 46–49.
25.
HarrisM. (1995) ‘Waiters, customers and service: Some tips about tipping’, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 25, 8, 725–744.
26.
IsenA. M.LevinP. F. (1972) ‘Effect of feeling good on helping: Cookies and kindness’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 21, 384–388.
27.
LedgerJ. (1974) ‘Tipping: The customers' point of view’, Canadian Hotel and Restaurant, 52, May, 26–29.
28.
LynnM. (1988) ‘The effects of alcohol consumption on restaurant tipping’, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 14, 1, March, 87–91.
29.
LynnM.GrassmanA. (1990) ‘Restaurant tipping: An examination of three rational explanations’, Journal of Economic Psychology, 11, 169–181.
30.
LynnM.GravesJ. (1996) ‘Tipping: An incentive/reward for service?’, Hospitality Research Journal, 20, 1, 1–14.
31.
LynnM.LataneB. (1984) ‘The psychology of restaurant tipping’, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 14, 6, 549–561.
32.
LynnM.MynierK. (1993) ‘Effect of server posture on restaurant tipping’, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 23, 8, 678–685.
33.
LynnM.ZinkhanG. M.HarrisJ. (1993) ‘Consumer tipping: A cross-country study’, Journal of Consumer Research, 20, December, 478–488.
34.
LyonsV. (1994) ‘Tips sliding away’, Caterer and Hotelkeeper, 12 May, 32–34, 36.
35.
MaslowA. H. (1943) ‘A theory of human motivation’, Psychological Review, 50, 370–396.
36.
MayJ. (1980) ‘Looking for tips: An empirical perspective on restaurant tipping’, Cornell H.R.A. Quarterly, 20, 4, February, 6–13.
37.
McCartyJ. A.ShrumL. J.Conrad-KatzT. E.KanneZ. (1990) ‘Tipping as a consumer behaviour: A qualitative investigation’, Advances in Consumer Research, 17, 723–728.
38.
McClureD. (1988) ‘Waiting for tips’, Journal of Restaurant Business, 87, 16, November, 9.
39.
McDougallG. H. G.MunroH. (1987) ‘Scaling and attitude measurement in tourism and travel research’, in RitchieJ. R. B.GoeldnerC. R. (eds) ‘Travel Tourism and Hospitality Research’, John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY.
40.
MillsS.RiehleH. (1987) ‘What customers think about tips versus service charges’, Restaurants USA, 7, October, 20–22.
41.
NorusisM. (1993) ‘SPSS for Windows, Base Systems User Guide Release 6.0’, SPSS Inc., Chicago IL.
42.
O'ConnorC. (1971) ‘Wages and tips in restaurants and hotels’, Monthly Labour Review, July, 47–51.
43.
RindB.BordiaP. (1995) ‘Effect of server's “Thank you” and personalization on restaurant tipping’, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 25, 9, 745–751.
44.
SchmidgallR. S.TarrasJ. M. (1988) ‘Tips allocation: A hotel compliance study’, Cornell H.R.A. Quarterly, 30, 3, November, 58–61.
45.
SeligmanC.FineganJ. E.HazlewoodJ. D.WilkinsonM. (1985) ‘Manipulating attributions for profit: A field test of the effects of attributions on behaviour’, Social Cognition, 3, Fall, 313–321.
46.
ShamirB. (1983) ‘A note on tipping and employees perceptions and attitudes’, Journal of Occupational Psychology, 56, 255–259.
47.
ShamirB. (1984) ‘Between gratitude and gratuity: An analysis of tipping’, Annals of Tourism Research, 11, 1, 59–78.
48.
SharpM. (1992) ‘The tipping headache’, Hotel and Catering Business, July, 9, 41.
49.
ShrimptonD. (1997) ‘Row breaks over tips “share out”’, Caterer and Hotelkeeper, 7th August, 6.
50.
SnyderM. (1976) ‘The inverse relationship between restaurant party size and tip percentage: Diffusion of responsibility or equity?’, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2, 3, 308.
51.
StarN. (1988) ‘The International Guide to Tipping’, Berkeley Books, New York, NY.
52.
StephenR.ZweigenhaftR. L. (1986) ‘The effect on tipping of a waitress touching male and female customers’, Journal of Social Psychology, 126, 1, 141–142.
53.
TiddK. L.LockardJ. S. (1978) ‘Monetary significance of the affiliative smile: A case for reciprocal altruism’, Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 11, 6, 344–346.
54.
YenckelJ. T. (1996) ‘Do's and don'ts for tipping here and abroad’, The Washington Post, 6th October (Sunday), 22.
