Product Development for the HAJ Restaurant Chain Based on Financial, Resilience, and Stakeholder Perspectives

Product development must react to and reflect shifting market demands, new technologies, and changes in the external business environments more broadly, and restaurants are no exception here. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many restaurants faced a lack of product development. Dining in restaurants virtually stopped overnight in cities and states as social distancing guidelines took effect. This case study uses a resilience-driven approach to product development that considers delivering customer value, risk management, resource leveraging, and an opportunity-driven paradigm. It applied the financial, resilience, and stakeholders’ perspectives common in the tourism industry and hospitality context as the management baseline and suggested tailoring management to the HAJ restaurant chain in product development. It further offers suggestions for frameworks and tools restaurants may pursue and discuss how resilience, financial, and stakeholder perspectives are complementary approaches to product development. However, students should pay enough attention to restaurant performance, particularly resilience, stakeholders’ perspectives, and financial indicators in product development, to understand the processes throughout the highly uncertain times of the pandemic. The case study business is the HAJ restaurant chain in Iran.