Modelling enablers of business continuity for casual dining restaurants in post-COVID-19 era: an ISM and MICMAC perspective

Abstract

Purpose

While the COVID-19 pandemic has given many firms the importance of business continuity, restaurants have yet to realize the essential enablers. In this regard, the study explored the potential enablers that can help firms attain business continuity in the post-COVID-19 era for casual dining restaurants.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used an extensive literature review and further supported 28 restaurant managers with an average experience of 8.5 years to identify the potential enablers for ensuring business continuity for casual dining restaurants. Subsequently, this study used the interpretive structural modelling coupled with Matrice d'Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée à un Classement (MICMAC) analysis to understand the context-specific inter-relationships as a hierarchical structural model.

Findings

Findings suggest that financial capability forms the key driver for other enablers in the hierarchy of business continuity for casual dining restaurants. Furthermore, manpower (local and outstation) are the second-level drivers of restaurant process control, digital presence, online reviews and feedback management, scalability, food quality, food delivery management, employee safety and hygiene. The third-level factors further help restaurants to achieve the dynamic capability required to provide customer value and ensure business continuity.

Originality/value

The study is the foremost to explore a business continuity framework in the new normal for casual dining restaurants in the country. Furthermore, several contextual inter-relationships exhibiting the hierarchy are also established for the business continuity of restaurants in the new normal.

Citation

Mandal, S., Dubey, R.K., Basu, B. and Raman, R. (2024), "Modelling enablers of business continuity for casual dining restaurants in post-COVID-19 era: an ISM and MICMAC perspective", International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJQSS-08-2023-0119