RESTAURANT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES IN A CRISIS

Abstract

A development strategies in crisis should include the implementation of a set of management measures aimed at minimizing losses from crisis phenomena, finding ways to survive and even strengthening the competitive position of the catering enterprise. Despite the analysis of recent scientific publications, the aspects of the strategic development of the restaurant business under the context of the COVID crisis are still little studied. The purpose of this study is to highlight the main characteristics of the COVID crisis with taking into account the various features of the crises’ classification, and to identify acceptable strategies for the development of catering enterprises in the face of new market challenges. To achieve this goal, general scientific and special research methods were used. It is determined that, depending on the scale of the COVID crisis, it should be attributed to global crises; by cause – to biological; and depending on the number of types of crisis phenomena generated by it and the provoked manifestation of types of risks (financial, technical, informational, collective, etc.) – to multi-risk crises. The global and multi-risk nature of the COVID crisis had a very negative impact on the development of the restaurant business both in Ukraine and in other countries. It is established that even in times of crisis there is no single development strategy for absolutely all catering companies. Its final choice depends on the strategic potential of the catering company and the opportunities to increase it in conditions of high risk and unpredictable market challenges. At the same time, the strategic choice depends on the strategic thinking of enterprise managers and their ability to make and implement effective management decisions in a crisis, to minimize losses from highly probable risk. Innovations in the development of the catering enterprises during the pandemic have been identified. The efficiency and effectiveness of the implementation of these innovations indicates the feasibility of their consideration in the strategies of restaurant development in a crisis. The COVID crisis has led to long-term negative consequences in the development of the restaurant business not only in Ukraine, but also in the global market of restaurant services. Managers of some catering companies in different parts of the world have even been forced to implement a liquidation strategy. However, there were many who chose to implement strategies of retention or even growth. In each case, this required the adoption and effective implementation of the managerial decisions related to either reducing costs and preventing losses due to various risks, or related to innovations aimed at confronting or even increasing the strength of the catering enterprise’ competitive position in a global, multi-risk crisis. It is established that the proactive behavior of restaurant business entrepreneurs at the beginning of the crisis brought better results for the development of catering enterprises. The results of this study can be further used by both scientists and practitioners who seek to improve the strategic management of catering enterprises of various types and classes by developing new and / or implementing existing (described in the article) innovations with taking into account the possible consequences of the crisis.