The role of business model innovation in the hospitality industry during the COVID-19 crisis

The hospitality industry worldwide is among the hardest-hit industries from the COVID-19 lockdowns. Initial theoretical and practical observations in the hospitality industry indicate that business model innovation (BMI) might be a solution to recover from and successfully cope with the COVID-19 crisis. Interestingly, some firms in the hospitality industry already started to successfully adapt their business models. This study explores the why and how of these successful recovery attempts through BMI by conducting a multiple case study of six hospitality firms in Austria. We rely on interview data from managers together with one of their main stammgasts for each case, which we triangulate with secondary data for the analysis. Findings show that BMI is applied during and after the crisis to create new revenue streams and secure a higher level of liquidity, with an important role of stammgasts.     

Rapid responding to the COVID-19 crisis: Assessing the resilience in the German restaurant and bar industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally impacted the restaurant and bar industry. Simultaneously, this industry is already undergoing structural change. Using the concept of organisational resilience, we analyse the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on owner’s assessment of resilience in the German restaurant and bar industry. Findings from an online survey with 623 owners and managers show that ex-ante business problems, and financing by loans or credit, reduce the likelihood of owners perceiving their business as resilient; while, delivery and takeaway service, ownership of property and higher age of owners, increase the likelihood of enterprise resilience. The paper contributes to understanding how restaurants and bars absorb and cope with the COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore, we make recommendation for future research on the recovery and adaptability of the business sector.     

An exploration of the substitutions of British pub consumers during the COVID-19 crisis

This research draws on substitution theory to understand how British pub consumers describe their substitutions in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. A two-stage research method design is adopted, with an exploratory netnography stage followed by 13 semi-structured interviews to gain a deeper insight. Five themes emerge that are either direct substitutions for the physical closing of the pub venues (online social drinking and pub-dating alternatives), or they were indirect effects of the substituting venues (in-the-home drinking, different drinks in the home and no work-related substitutions). The findings show that drinking in pubs is a functional as well as a symbolic act. Key stakeholders are recommended to remain in contact with customers through blended online and offline activities to help keep the pubs relevant to them. This will benefit the pub sector long after the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.     

COVID-19 and the future of work in the hospitality industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted the hospitality industry. This research combines different data to examine the US labor market trends during COVID-19. It is found that low-preparation jobs in leisure and hospitality are the hardest hit and slow to recover. The pandemic has highlighted growing issues in workplace safety, skill gaps, technology adoption, and work reorganization in the hospitality industry. This paper develops two propositions about preparing hospitality workers for the future of work and providing flexible work arrangements.     

Going beyond the curve: Strategic measures to recover hotel activity in times of COVID-19

Hospitality firms are facing unprecedented challenges on a global scale. The catastrophic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its multiple devastating global consequences have initiated a profoundly disruptive transformation in the hospitality sector, as firms attempt to adapt their activity to the current uncertain scenario. This study draws on the crisis management literature to identify the key drivers of hotel recovery in the event of a disaster or an external crisis, like current pandemic. A sample of 237 Spanish hotel managers evaluated and ranked the strategic measures. Based on this evidence, measures were statistically examined to identify which ranked as most significant in helping hospitality managers. The results yield valuable theoretical and practical insights to guide hospitality managers towards business adaptation and recovery by highlighting key strategic measures for implementation in the short term.     

COVID-19 impact on the hospitality industry: Exploratory study of financial-slack-driven risk preparedness

The hospitality industry is regarded as one of the most affected by the consequences of COVID-19 pandemic, and the undefined persistence of the pandemic duration raises anxiety about the ability to recover from this dramatic situation. In this regard, the purpose of this exploratory study is to shed light on the COVID-19 risk preparedness of hospitality businesses, as driven by the financial slack holdings and persistence. The empirical findings confirm that their financial-slack-driven risk preparedness should be judged as relatively low. A majority of the examined hospitality businesses demonstrated low or insufficient financial slack holdings and recently have consumed their financial slack resources. Thus, the abilities of hospitality businesses to sustain the liquidity tensions that emerged after the COVID-19 outbreak are questionable. Facing this evidence, we draw conclusions about the necessary design of system interventions that could prevent bankruptcy in the hospitality industry.     

Ability and willingness to work during COVID-19 pandemic:Perspectives of front-line hotel employees

This research note reports the results of a qualitative study exploring front-line hotel employees’ views about working during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to identify factors that may influence their ability and willingness to report to work. Findings from online focus-groups reveal that front-line hotel employees generally felt a sense of duty to work during the pandemic. However, there were also a number of perceived barriers to working that impacted on this sense of duty. These emerged as barriers to ability and barriers to willingness, but the distinction is not clear-cut. Instead, most barriers seem to form a continuum ranging from negotiable barriers to insuperable barriers. Following this coneptualisation, the key to reducing absenteeism during the pandemic is likely to take remedial action so that barriers to willingness do not become perceived as barriers to ability to work. Practical implications towards this direction are offered.     

The repercussions and challenges of COVID-19 in the hotel industry: Potential strategies from a case study of Indonesia

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the tourism and hospitality sector hard. Hotel managers face uncertainty in this environment in order to survive. This study explores the impact of COVID-19 on the hospitality industry, particularly hotels in Indonesia, one of the largest developing countries. It examines the challenges faced by hotel managers and the strategies used to survive. Through the lens of complexity theory, we discuss whether the strategies being deployed are beneficial, redundant, or detrimental for hospitality businesses. Based on semi-structured interviews with 13 hotel managers in Jakarta, Bandung, and Bali, the findings shed light on the various challenges to hotels. We also highlight which challenges could turn into opportunities. The findings show that the strategies that managers are deploying could be detrimental in the future. Potential future research directions are also discussed.     

Corporate social responsibility in times of need: Community support during the COVID-19 pandemics

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the hotel sector has engaged in various corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives to show solidarity with local communities. Our research examines the impact of such initiatives on tourists' intentions to spread positive word-of-mouth (WOM) and their intentions to visit when the current pandemic ends. Our experimental results suggest community support in the form of providing free accommodation to homeless people increases tourists' intentions to spread positive WOM, bringing reputational benefits. But such initiatives reduce tourists’ intentions to visit, presenting potential business risks. Our results further suggest that community support in the form of providing free accommodation to medical professionals has little impact, as it shows no significant difference to control (no CSR initiatives).     

How the COVID-19 pandemic affected hotel Employee stress: Employee perceptions of occupational stressors and their consequences

This study sought to examine the impacts of the global coronavirus pandemic on hotel employees’ perceptions of occupational stressors and their consequences. Paired t-tests and structural equation modeling were applied to examine the responses of 758 hotel employees in the United States. The findings showed that occupational stressors after the outbreak of the pandemic consisted of three domains: traditional hotel-work stressors, unstable and more demanding hotel-work-environment stressors, and unethical hotel-labor-practices-borne stressors. The impacts of these stressors differed from the hypothesis that traditional hotel-work stressors positively affect job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The findings showed that job satisfaction and organizational commitment significantly explained job performance, subjective well-being, and prosocial behavior, but they did not significantly influence turnover intention. Hotel employees’ pre-pandemic perceptions of occupational stressors and their consequences also differed significantly from their perceptions after the pandemic had broken out.     

Perceived hygiene attributes in the hotel industry: customer retention amid the COVID-19 crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a crisis in the hotel industry worldwide, but few studies have suggested methods to retain customers. This study proposes hygiene management as a means to minimize the indirect damage from COVID-19 to the hotel industry. It identifies perceived hygiene attributes and explores their influence on hotel image, word of mouth, and revisit intentions. This study identifies and validates three types of perceived hygiene attributes through qualitative and quantitative methods. It uses structural equation modeling to validate hypotheses and concludes that there are significant relationships of influence between the proposed variables. This study provides important and meaningful insights into hotel image and customer behavior through perceived hygiene attributes.     

Comparative study of deep learning models for analyzing online restaurant reviews in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic

Online reviews remain important during the COVID-19 pandemic as they help customers make safe dining decisions. To help restaurants better understand customers’ needs and sustain their business under current circumstance, this study extracts restaurant features that are cared for by customers in current circumstance. This study also introduces deep learning methods to examine customers’ opinions about restaurant features and to detect reviews with mismatched ratings. By analyzing 112,412 restaurant reviews posted during January-June 2020 on Yelp.com, four frequently mentioned restaurant features (e.g., service, food, place, and experience) along with their associated sentiment scores were identified. Findings also show that deep learning algorithms (i.e., Bidirectional LSTM and Simple Embedding + Average Pooling) outperform traditional machine learning algorithms in sentiment classification and review rating prediction. This study strengthens the extant literature by empirically analyzing restaurant reviews posted during the COVID-19 pandemic and discovering suitable deep learning algorithms for different text mining tasks.     

Managing relationships in the Tourism Supply Chain to overcome epidemic outbreaks: The case of COVID-19 and the hospitality industry in Spain

The rapid spatial diffusion of the COVID-19 epidemic outbreak has resulted in the total economic disruption of the Tourism Supply Chain (TSC) causing a significant reduction in revenue and creating liquidity issues for all operators. Firms in TSC are linked to each other in complex patterns, leading one risk to another. The purpose of this article is to understand the role of relationship management between hotel chains and their key TSC agents in order to overcome economic disruptions caused by epidemic outbreaks. Among the main contributions of this article are the identification of governments, tour operators, and competitors as the key relationships to be managed by hospitality firms. In addition, key areas for coordination with these actors are explored. Finally, the objectives of relationship management according to the partner are also addressed.     

The effects of crowdedness and safety measures on restaurant patronage choices and perceptions in the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper investigates the effects of crowdedness and in-restaurant safety measures on consumers’ restaurant patronage choices (eat-in vs. order takeaway vs. not patronize) and their perceptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. In an online experiment with 593 US consumers and 591 Australian consumers, we assess the effects of three levels of crowdedness (low vs. medium vs. high crowdedness) and four types of in-restaurant safety measures (none vs. partition vs. increasing distances between tables vs. not using in-between tables) by showing participants an image of the restaurant setting. Results show that US consumers are more sensitive to crowdedness, whereas Australian consumers are more sensitive to different types of safety measures, which greatly influence their patronage choices. In general, safety measures featuring social distancing are preferred over partitions, and there is no preferential difference between the measure of increasing distances between tables and the measure of not using in-between tables.     

Stakeholders of the world,unite!: Hospitality in the time of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic created a global, complex crisis, without a clear end in sight, presenting an existential threat to many hospitality businesses. Drawing on stakeholder theory, we develop a framework for recovery strategy development for COVID-19, which engages salient stakeholders in the process of recognizing challenges, rationalizing changes needed and refashioning ways of working. The framework is used to analyze the process of development of a recovery strategy for a boutique hotel in England, UK, via a case study methodology. The analysis brings to the fore the interdependencies between the hotel owners and its employees, customers, governments, suppliers and communities, at local, national and international levels. Moreover, the analysis shows how collaborating with these stakeholders leads to the identification of revenue streams for the hotel, operational modifications and even the development of new commercial partnerships.     

Strategic responses of the hotel sector to COVID-19: Toward a refined pandemic crisis management framework

The Covid-19 pandemic has long-lasting impacts that require the hotel sector to revise, innovate and transform their businesses. However, the literature related to this area remains vastly under-developed. Based on 219 articles collected from global news media and an integrated crisis management framework, this research note map out "strategic responses" from the hotel sector and suggest implications for hotels to address the evolving pandemic situation. Three modifications were proposed to refine and further develop a pandemic crisis management framework.     

The gloom of the COVID-19 shock in the hospitality industry: A study of consumer risk perception and adaptive belief in the dark cloud of a pandemic

As the new coronavirus (COVID-19) spreads globally, the hospitality industry is at the heart of implementing social distancing, a measure demonstrated to be effective in flattening the epidemic curve. Informed by the perceived risk theory, this research examines how the customer’s perception of the shock of the coronavirus pandemic impacts on their beliefs, and how their beliefs could influence their anticipated emotions (negative and positive) which could affect their future desire towards visiting restaurants. Structural equation modelling was used to understand the research constructs’ associations. This study provides two key suggestions: (i) that the hospitality industry is built on trust from their customers by supporting and resourcing consumers’ self-protection behaviour and adoptive belief, and (ii) that the economic influence and the continuous uncertainty and transformation of the restaurant business need the enhancement of localisation strategies, practices and performance.     

Effectuation and causation configurations for business model innovation: Addressing COVID-19 in the gastronomy industry

The gastronomy sector is among those that are hit particularly hard by a loss of customers and regulatory uncertainty of the COVID-19 crisis. When established ways of doing business become almost impossible, business model innovation (BMI) is a possible reaction to this high uncertainty level. Effectuation and causation are decision-making logics that may lead to BMI and help a firm navigate uncertainty. We investigate configurations of causation and effectuation components associated with a high BMI level during the first wave of COVID-19. We perform fuzzy-set-qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on a sample of 143 gastronomy entrepreneurs in Münster county, Germany. We identify two paths that lead to a high BMI level: “the planning soloist” and “the hedging networker.” We conclude that innovators among the gastronomy entrepreneurs use effectuation and causation components in complex configurations.     

Restaurants and COVID-19: What are consumers’ risk perceptions about restaurant food and its packaging during the pandemic?

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent U.S. in-restaurant dining restrictions deleteriously affected the restaurant industry. While dining restrictions were adopted to prevent human contact, evidence suggests that consumers may mistakenly perceive that restaurant "food" and its "packaging" are risky sources of COVID-19. To explore consumers' COVID-19 risk perceptions about food itself, restaurant food specifically, and restaurant food packaging, this study collected nationwide U.S. consumer survey data (n = 958) using an online consumer panel. Findings showed that: (1) consumers were less concerned about contracting COVID-19 from food in general than restaurant food and its packaging, with consumer restaurant concern highest for food served in restaurants, and lowest for hot/cooked restaurant food followed by restaurant food from carry-out; and (2) the risk perceptions of consumers varied with financial concern for food, gender, and being in a high-risk category of COVID-19. Implications for researchers, restauranteurs, government, and food safety professionals are discussed.     

Creating sustainable value in the hospitality industry: a (critical) multi-stakeholder study in the Dominican Republic

This paper identifies sustainable initiatives reported by “sustainability-champion” hotels in the Dominican Republic, while contrasting them against the views of key stakeholders. We adapt and apply Hart and Milstein's Sustainable Value Framework, and complement it with a Critical Management Studies approach. Our analysis relies on a mixed-methods approach (non-hierarchical k-means cluster analysis, as well as thematic and content analysis). Findings indicate that most hotels are engaging more actively in present-oriented strategies such as pollution prevention (especially, the international hotels) and in product/service stewardship. However, in the future-oriented strategies, hotels owned by local investors show higher commitment to both clean technology and innovation, and to the sustainability vision (as the firm's growth path). In addition, although the views of multiple stakeholders show a clear acknowledgment of the hospitality industry's sustainability efforts (particularly regarding education and environmental protection), they also offer differing views about the ultimate impact and value of those efforts for them and for the broader society. Our study offers a new theoretical lens to explore multi-stakeholder approaches and offers practical implications for the Dominican Republic's National Strategy for Development 2010–2030, as well as implications that may be of use for other tourism-dependent countries.