Digital technologies to minimize the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in restaurant sector

Brochado, Diana; Silva, Cândida; Silva, Susana; Azevedo, Daniel

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/17991

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Abstract(s)

At the end of the first quarter of 2020, there were signs that the year would be with many difficult challenges. The emergence of a new pandemic, a coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), known as COVID-19, shivered the planet, in many ways, from personal to professional, economic and financial, affecting everything and everyone, causing a general quarantine around the world. The restaurant sector was no exception and following this unexpected situation, this study aims to understand how information and communication technology (ICT) is being used in the sector and how it can help to response to its current needs, without neglecting public health and avoiding insolvencies or dismissals, looking for digital solutions that can guarantee the efficiency of the sector, always respecting the costumer's experience. Therefore, a study is proposed to analyze how ICT can contribute to the recovery of the restaurant sector and how it can be incorporated, having as the main question ”How can technology be used to minimize the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the restaurant sector?”. A qualitative methodology was applied to the present study, having as sample several restaurants, in the north of Portugal of different types, to better understand how the introduction of technologies has been done, the impact of COVID-19 in ICT adoption and the actual needs on digitalization and technology, both in service and delivery and in internal and external communication. As preliminary results, we can identify some reluctance to introduce technologies and digitalization in the sector, with much to be explored in the sense of digitalization. We also verified that the biggest investments in this direction are on billing and on Enterprise Resource Planning systems. Furthermore, this study also presents some proposals for digital solutions that can assist this sector.