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Study: Houston’s gourmet food trucks cooperate with each other

April 18, 2017

New research by management and organizational behavior experts at Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business finds that gourmet food trucks in Houston cooperate extensively and engage in friendly competition to promote the group members' excellence and uniqueness, according to Phys.org, a web-based science, research and technology news service. The study, published in Administrative Science Quarterly, focuses on 41 food trucks in Houston, the fourth-most populous city in the U.S.

Food trucks are the fastest-growing sector in the restaurant industry, generating approximately $850 million in revenue in 2015, according to the study. They have also become part of popular culture, making appearances on television shows such as "The Great Food Truck Race" and in movies such as "Chef."

Based on a qualitative analysis of prototypical members of Houston's gourmet food truck market, the researchers found that members cooperate to help each other meet the central tendencies of the group—properties such as tasty food and good ingredients, reliable business practices around cleanliness and legal matters, and mobility in terms of truck location and social media. The researchers said members support each other, for example, by fixing each other's trucks, running errands, donating supplies and volunteering on other trucks.