Journal of Smart Tourism

Smart Tourism Research Center, Kyung Hee University (경희대학교 스마트관광연구소)
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Digital Transformation in the Restaurant Industry: Current Developments and Implications

  • Alt, Rainer (Information Systems Institute, Leipzig University)
  • Received : 2021.03.25
  • Accepted : 2021.05.08
  • Published : 2021.03.31
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Abstract

Restaurants are an important area of the hospitality industry. This industry sector has not only experienced severe consequences of the recent lockdowns, but it has also seen the rise of digital technologies. As known from other industries, the digital transformation impacts products, processes and business models alike. Starting from the classical distinction of a restaurant's front- and back-of-the-house processes, this paper presents an overview on current developments in the restaurant industry and based on an analysis of current digital services, it derives some implications for future directions. Among the observations are that restaurants need to cover more touch points, provide more individualized offerings and strive for more automation as well as integration of their systems.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

The author acknowledges the support of Chris Leiter in the preparation as well as the valuable feed-back of Katharina Blocher and three anonymous reviewers to a preliminary version of this article.

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