Navigating the virtual restaurant frontier: motivations and challenges for restaurateurs in post-pandemic era

ABSTRACT

This study explores the motivations and challenges steering restaurateurs toward the operation of virtual restaurants in post-pandemic Malaysia. With a dual objective of furnishing actionable guidance for current and prospective virtual restaurant entrepreneurs and proposing recommendations for stakeholders like SME Trade Associations, financial institutions, and government agencies, the research extracts qualitative insights from semi-structured interviews with 31 restaurant operators. Distinct motivations, including financial considerations, capitalization on pandemic-induced market shifts, procedural simplification, reliance on supportive networks, and learning from past physical restaurant setbacks, are identified. Correspondingly, challenges such as high overhead costs, limited visibility, unpredictable circumstances, and operational inefficiencies are unveiled. The study harmonizes both motivations and challenges to offer a practical framework, facilitating the evaluation of virtual restaurant feasibility and sustainability. These findings hold significant implications for fostering the adoption of virtual restaurants in post-pandemic Malaysia, presenting a comprehensive guide for restaurateurs navigating the evolving landscape.

KEYWORDS:

• Virtual restaurants
• ghost kitchen
• post-pandemic
• entrepreneurship
• service innovation

Disclosure statement

The author of this article, “Motivations and Constraints of Operating Virtual Restaurants: A Post-Pandemic Exploration in Malaysia,” hereby declare that there are no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests associated with the research, authorship, or publication of this manuscript. The author have no affiliations, financial involvement, or relationships with organizations or entities that could potentially influence or bias the content of the research presented in this article.

This statement is provided in adherence to the policies and guidelines of the Journal of Foodservice Business, and the authors affirm that they have conducted their research and reported their findings in an objective and unbiased manner.