Abstract:
The world has faced some extraordinary health threats through COVID-19, which has
specifically impacted the global economy, global supply chains, and nations at large. COVID-19
has transformed the overall industrial paradigms; resultantly the entrepreneurs around the globe
have tried to utilize different factors as innovative tools so that they can retain as well as enhance
the organizational performance. Having a major blow to the global economy, concerns for
business performance during the pandemic have increased. Using quantitative analysis
technique, this study aims at studying the impact of entrepreneurial proactiveness (EP), creative
self-efficacy (CSE), explorative marketing capability (EMC) and, food service technology (FST)
on restaurant performance (RP) through the lens of service innovation (SI) within the context of
COVID-19. Data was collected from a total of 200 top and middle level employees of 30 fine
dining restaurants located in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad and analyzed through Amos by
conducting structural equation modeling. Findings show that SI fully mediates the relationship
between, EP and RP and partially mediates the relationship between FST and RP and EMC and
RP. Results for CSE were found to be insignificant. The findings of the study have industrial
implications especially for the restaurant industry which is more vulnerable during sudden
pandemics.
