COVID-19 effects - uncertainty awareness and opportunity exploitation
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Journal Title
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Volume Title
School of Business |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2021
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management
Language
en
Pages
62+60
Series
Abstract
COVID-19 is one of the most influential circumstances worldwide since the beginning of 2020 and has brought turbulence for individuals and corporations. Its influence on the economy, especially on the restaurant service sector, is quite enormous, which has required businesses in this industry to change or even go bankrupt. This study targeted to determine how small and medium-sized restaurants in Finland responded to changes caused by the pandemic. Specifically, the thesis explored the changes in restaurants’ external environment and their impacts on the internal environment, and looked for the patterns of these businesses’ responses. To answer the question, a case study was conducted by adopting interviews as the main data source. The objects of these interviews were representatives from restaurants in Helsinki Area, Finland. They were all on the managing level of the business who could give more precise information about the business’s operation and strategy. The data were presented in a data structure with aggregate themes and were analyzed by an abductive method allowing the flexibility between data and literature. The study showed that the happening of COVID-19 created sudden uncertainty for these firms. The uncertainty made it difficult for them to control or predict what was about to come. To overcome the situation, these businesses entered the uncertainty awareness process, including reducing and acknowledging uncertainty. Besides, the results also indicated that changes in the level of competition, customer behaviors and government regulations in the external environment also caused business’s internal factors to change, such as operations, financial situations, information corridors, or decision- makers’ perceptions. Both these external and internal changes created the setting for the exploitation of opportunities, despite the shock and challenges at first. The study could be acted as a reference for restaurant businesses to consider how they could deal with external change – for which COVID-19 is a representative. Even though the external change can have adverse effects on the businesses, the restaurants should proactively take actions to overcome the uncertainty and pave a new path for short-term and long-term opportunities.Description
Thesis advisor
Kroeger, ArneKeywords
COVID-19, restaurants, uncertainty, opportunity, responses