Knowledge-based model of competition in restaurant industry: a qualitative study about culinary competence, creativity, and innovation in five full-service restaurants in Jakarta

The purpose of the study is to have an in-depth description in the form of the analysis of culinary competence, creativity and innovation that develops knowledge-based model of competence in full-service restaurant business. Studies on restaurant generally focused on customers more particularly customer’s satisfaction and loyalty, and very few studies discussed internal competitive factors in restaurant business. The study aims at filling out the research gap, using knowledge-based approach that is through culinary competence, creativity and innovation. The main question is how to the restaurants develop competitive sense using thoe aspects of internal capabilities. The study is a qualitative study taking five full-service restaurants in Jakarta as case study. The data collection methods are observations and in-depth interviews with the restaurant owners, the managers or heads of restaurants, the chefs and kitchen staffs, the waiters and floor managers. The findings show that the implementation of culinary competence is carried out by the chefs designed by the restaurant owners, where the effectiveness really depends on how consistent the implementation of culinary competence is as well as how accurate the identification of customers’ segmentation is. In terms of creativity, it is found out that the simultaneous implementation of creativity between sustainable, incremental, break-through, and profitable creativities will support the success of the restaurants to win the competition. As an addition, in terms of innovation, the findings reveal that the restaurants create innovations in various aspects (product, process, function, operation, coordination) in order to attract more customers. In general, the findings of the study show should a restaurant implement culinary competition creativity and innovation by developing knowledge as source of competitive sense to win the competition in restaurant business.