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Building resilience for food service businesses in times of crisis: a Four-F action plan

Ananya Bhattacharya (Monash University, Melbourne, Australia)
Ambika Zutshi (Deakin University, Victoria, Australia)
Ali Bavik (The Macau Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao, China)

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

ISSN: 0959-6119

Article publication date: 16 August 2021

Issue publication date: 20 October 2021

1657

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to propose a “Four-F (finding facts, fostering alternates, fulfilling implementation and feasibility testing)” action plan to global food service businesses (FSB) such as restaurants (dine-in/take away) to build resilience during times of global crises. The 2019 Coronavirus disease and FSBs apply as working examples elaborating the proposed Four-F action plan with several managerial implications for the internal and external stakeholders of FSBs.

Design/methodology/approach

The method involves reviewing and coding 108 articles using the PRISMA approach, then applying findings to develop the Four-F action plan integrating multiple theoretical concepts (such as stakeholder, crisis management and dynamic capabilities).

Findings

There are two key findings. First, though all four crisis phases should be considered by decision-makers as part of their contingency planning process, the pre and post-crisis stages need higher attention. Second, the Four-F action plan provides specific recommendations to FSBs stakeholders (consumers, suppliers and government) for each crisis phase (pre-crisis, crisis emergence, crisis occurrence and post-crisis).

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that has incorporated multiple theoretical frameworks (stakeholder theory, crisis management and dynamic capabilities) within the FSBs context and provided the Four-F action plan for decision-makers to understand and manage crisis phases.

Keywords

Citation

Bhattacharya, A., Zutshi, A. and Bavik, A. (2021), "Building resilience for food service businesses in times of crisis: a Four-F action plan", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 33 No. 10, pp. 3400-3441. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-01-2021-0123

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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