Determining catering sector managers' perceived business continuity readiness and challenges

Business continuity is an approach that identifies, analyzes, and explains the potential unusual hazards for businesses, protects the interests of partners and stakeholders, and preserves brand value and reputation. As in all sectors, business continuity has emerged as a new concept that enables the transition from a reactive crisis management approach to a proactive approach in the catering sector. In addition, the catering industry applies the Food Safety Management System (GSYS), which is a proactive system approach. The thesis study aimed to determine the catering sector manager's perceived business continuity and business continuity challenges. For this purpose, a research model and related hypotheses were created. An adaptation study was conducted for the scale that is intended to be used, and questionnaires and focus group interviews were designed to test hypotheses and challenges. The scale adapted to Turkish was applied to 315 participants, and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed on the data obtained. As a result of factor analysis, a scale consisting of 16 questions was created. A "Business Continuity Perception" questionnaire adapted for the catering industry was applied, and hypotheses were tested by evaluating the data. As a result of the content analysis of the focus interview, the managers' perception of business continuity was gathered under four main themes, and the challenges in being ready for business continuity were gathered under eight main challenge themes. Overall, it has appeared that many factors will form the framework of the business continuity perceptions and challenges of catering managers, and it has demonstrated that there are formal, semantic, and technical dimensions.